Welcome Ros! It's great to have you visit my blog and the chance to find out more about you and your work. Wishing you all the best with your latest release, FLOWERS OF FLANDERS! Let's get started with my questions...
What was your first job? Did you like or dislike it? Why?
My first proper job was teaching. I wanted to do this since I was about six years old. I must have had a teacher I liked at that age, or something, and wanted to emulate them. I always enjoyed the work and the company of children and staff. Towards the end, when I was a head teacher it became too bureaucratic and so I don’t miss it.
Do you have a pet peeve? If so, what is it?
I dislike insincerity. It’s not helpful, honest or loyal and I value loyalty and trust, probably, above everything.
Would you describe your style as shabby chic, timeless elegance, eclectic, country or------?
I’m probably eclectic. I’d like to think timeless elegance but in reality my lifestyle lends itself more to tomboy-shabby. We’ve just come back to the UK from living in France but not in the chic part.
Tell me about your book, Flowers of Flanders, and where you got you inspiration for it.
The image on the front cover is that of my granny. It’s not her story but she was definitely the inspiration for the main character. She was like Little Grey Rabbit of Alison Uttley fame from my childhood. She did everything for everyone and always put herself last. She tried to see the good in people and thought their actions were a reflection of their experiences so if they did something upsetting she tried to understand why.
At the same time my husband has been researching family history; particularly my grandad’s WW1 experiences. Again the main character is definitely not him but the investigations turned up some amazing stories of other soldiers.
Who is your role model? Why?
I think I may have answered that question already, reading my last answer.
How much of your book is realistic?
Whilst the story and the characters are wholly from my imagination, I have done a vast amount of research into the period and so I would like to say the setting is very realistic and the events, highly plausible.
What are you ambitions for your writing career?
. My first book, ‘Sense and French Ability’ was published by Endeavour Press but indie published ‘Flowers…’ I’m in the middle of writing a sequel to ‘Flowers of Flanders’. It’s set largely in Vichy France and features the daughter of one of the characters in the first book. A third is planned and will be a dual timeline story telling of the youngest sisters in the first book and her experiences of the Cold War and a young girl she meets when she is an old lady. It is set in the 1960s.
I should LOVE to have an agent because it would help guide me in who best to submit my work.
Share one fact about yourself that would surprise people.
Crikey, that’s hard.
My mother was a published author many, many times over with Robert Hale, and Mills and Boon. She, too, was a member of the RNA but I only just discovered that. I should like to think she would be proud of my achievement to date but she died many years ago.
Blurb
for ‘Flowers of Flanders’
Rose
rivals her beautiful, mercurial sister for Michael’s love. Thom loves Rose. She
considers settling for second best but then war breaks out and Michael is as
eager as the others to go.
The
world in turmoil changes everyone’s perceptions but which sister does Michael
need to survive? Does he need grace and serenity to rediscover his own or is it
frivolity and seduction he craves when he has been through the darkest of
places.
This
is something a little bit different but still an Edwardian romance with all the
right ingredients.
About the author
Having worked as a head teacher, Ros has been
used to writing policy documents, essays and stories to which young children
enjoyed listening. Now she has taken up the much greater challenge of writing
fiction for adults. She writes both historical sagas and contemporary romance;
perfect for lying by a warm summer pool or curling up with on a cosy sofa.
Her stories are thoroughly and accurately
researched. This is her third book.
Ros is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and The Historical Novelists’ Society.
She has lived in France for ten years but has recently moved back to the UK with her husband and dogs. Ros has two daughters and four grand-daughters, with whom she shares many heart-warming times.
Ros is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and The Historical Novelists’ Society.
She has lived in France for ten years but has recently moved back to the UK with her husband and dogs. Ros has two daughters and four grand-daughters, with whom she shares many heart-warming times.
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