First time novelist, Lin Treadgold’s debut novel, GOODBYE, HENRIETTA STREET hits the book shelves on 1st July. Lin has an exciting launch tour booked in the Scilly Isles, but you can read a few of her thoughts about location and David Tennant here.
There’s also a chance to win a copy of Goodbye, Henrietta Street and an extract from the book to tempt you. Thanks for dropping in here, Lin. Although we’ve been in touch through the Romantic Novelists’ Association for some time, it was good to learn a little more about you.
Qu) Like many other great inventions, the e-reader has taken off. Do you read in both electronic and paper mediums? Which do you prefer?
I’m old fashioned I do like a book with a cover, but I also have a Kindle and when I go on holiday the Kindle goes with me. When I am at home, it’s cosy to curl up with a paperback. I think the Kindle helps you to read the book more consistently, because if the phone rings you are always on the right page with Kindle and I can adjust the font to suit my eyes. A very useful tool.
QU) Do you travel to find locations or do you use the ability to go anywhere in the imagination, to do just that?
After travelling abroad for the last 40 years or more I have visited more than thirty countries. Finding a location isn’t a problem for me. I spent many months travelling the world by sea in the 1970’s and now I live in Holland I travel through Europe. I tend to stick with the UK because most people know the places well. In a novella I have in mind, my main character takes a trip to Italy. My father was a prisoner of war in Northern Italy and he left me a pile of war letters from his time in Italian and German prison camps, so one of my novels will surely be inspired by what he wrote. I was an only child and had to make my own entertainment and I think that helps me make up locations too.
QU) What is the most important physical sense of your current heroine? (Taste, touch, sight,hearing or smell
I think with Pippa Lambton as the main character in my book Goodbye, Henrietta Street, she needs to be touched. She has gone through so much pain in the past and now she has the chance to move her life forward. She knows it will be a struggle but we find out 
through reading the book how she copes. So I would say touch is important to her, to feel wanted again. To hear the sounds of the sea and birds helps her to recover from her grief. With Sven around her, she will gain the confidence she needs through his touch.
QU) Who is your favourite fictional hero?
In my book I adore Sven Jorgensen he is every woman’s hero, but in other books/TV etc I would have to say this is a difficult question for me but if I was to be a bit cliché I would have to say David Tennant as Dr Who. I also like David in his Shakespearean roles, he is a magnificent actor and I especially enjoyed his part in Casanova. Dr Who is certainly my favourite fictional character, I like Matt Smith in this role too.
Will you share a short extract of your current book/story with Novels Now, please?
A short extract from Goodbye, Henrietta Street.
Story so far;-
Pippa is on the beach enjoying a quiet afternoon by herself, when Sven surprises her and wants to spend some time with her. From being the local ornithologist and tour guide, his mood changes, and his playfulness soon turns to a more serious tone. What’s really going on his mind?
Pippa didn’t need to think too much. It must have showed. How could she have a relationship or even have a quick fling with him before going home? She had thought the unthinkable. It was an absolute ‘no’, but going back to Rob? Sven was making it difficult. She gazed at the title of the book she had been reading; she could have secrets of her own and not a soul would know.
Alone, like this, she might be able to accomplish her search for happiness. If she allowed herself to be sucked into this illusion, did it matter? Rob would never know and probably wouldn’t care. She wasn’t sure anymore. Here, she could put her worries behind her, for a short while at least.
She slid her fingers across her lips, back and forth as she watched him washing his feet in the sea. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. With his blonde hair falling over his ears, he was difficult to resist.
On his return, he sat with his legs stretched out, hands patting the wet sand, and his back against the sun-warmed rock, a place he had sat before where thoughts often turned into reality. He saw how she had written her name in the sand and scrubbed out another name—he retraced her writing and with his index finger he wrote SVEN, after PIPPA &.
Pippa realised what he had done and what might be coming next; she had to be prepared, but now was not the right time—and would it ever be?
Goodbye, Henrietta Street will be released on 1st July 2013 with a launch party on the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall.
Links
Your chance to win a copy of Goodbye, Henrietta Street – offer closes 25 June 2013. First correct answer wins!
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