I am super pleased to be welcoming the author of Twenty Six Years Living a Lie, Gina Cheyne, to the blog today. Gina is going to be answering some questions about her book.
First, a little about the book...
The Blurb
In 1997, high in the alpine resort of Tignes, Cecily celebrates her third wedding anniversary with a night of passion. But in the morning her happiness turns to misery and shock when she find her husband Nick dead in the bed beside her, the victim of a sudden heart attack.
Six weeks later, Cecily learns she is pregnant.Twenty-six years later, her son Charlie takes a DNA test alongside his uncle Adam, Nick’s identical twin. The results shatter everything he thought he knew: Charlie is not related to Adam. If Nick wasn’t his father, then who was?Cecily insists she was faithful, and the timing points only to that single night in Tignes. Desperate for answers, she turns to the SeeMs Detective Agency. Could someone have entered her room that night without her knowing? And if so—who? And why?As the detectives dig deeper, they uncover a web of conflicting memories, buried secrets, and dangerous lies. Slowly they discover other people are in danger and if they don’t find out very soon what really happened in that wonderful night in Tignes two, or maybe more, lives will be lost.
Welcome to the blog Gina. It's lovely to have you here.
Thank you for much for giving me a chance to appear on your blog. I enjoyed answering the questions and I hope you enjoy reading them.
Q What is your favourite part of writing a book?
A Developing the idea into a novel. With this one, Twenty-Six Year Living a Lie, I had the idea and it developed speedily and was extremely enjoyable to write. I was awake in our completely dark room in Tignes with the balcony door open and the wind blowing the curtain and I thought, someone could climb into my bed, we could have a night of passion, and I would never know it was not my husband. And the book was born.
Q Are some books harder to write than others?
A Yes, most definitely so. With some, like this one, I had an inspiration and I had to stop everything I was doing write it down. The book was finished in 3 months, which is fast for me. However, there are some other books where I think the idea is good, but when I sit down to write inspiration deserts me, the idea turns turgid and I limp slowly along. Occasionally, I get a second wind, if that is the right description, and suddenly I re-find excitement and can write fluidly again. This happened with Murder in the Cards, my second book. But sometimes, for example the book I am currently writing about countryside crime, inspiration has been replaced by hard graft and I seem to be progressing very slowly.
Q Why do you write books?
A This is a question asked me very often by my more financially orientated friends. Why do you write books when writing makes so little (if any) money. But, at least for me, writing is not about making money it is for enjoyment and the thrill of being able to express what you think about various events or happenings in words. Of course I love it when readers buy my books and it would be fantastic to make a living from writing, but I have always had another job which gives an income and allows me to write freely.
Q Would you consider writing in a different genre in the future?
A Yes, I am already thinking about a historic novel which may or may not have a who dunnit in it. My idea is about someone from the Victorian era who arrives in the twenty first century and how she processes the shock of such a different world. A sort of time travel experience with hopefully lots of humour involved. However, I do often have lots of ideas about books I would like to write which do not come to fruition, so let’s hope this one soars above the crowd.
Q Which of the characters in Twenty-Six Years Living a Lie stand out as fun?
A One of the Beta readers highlighted Boy, Cecily’s brother, as being a particularly charming character. His lazy young boyish attitudes contrast well with his sister’s more anxious and needy personality and his wife’s down-to-earth hard working character. He and his wife have had four children despite having almost no money between them. However, he says, it will all be OK in the end, just wait and see, while she says, don’t worry my little charmer, you look after the baby but I’ll get a job!
Q Do you write for yourself or for the reader?
A There was a time when I would have said for myself, but as I write more books, read the reviews, and think about the comments of readers, I have changed. All my stories and their inspiration are written from my experience and knowledge, so in that way I am writing for myself, but I have also become much more aware of how a reader digests information.
I write in an English, rather than a USA style. English writing tends to be slower and more thoughtful whereas US writing has more excitement and punch. Oddly, most of my readers are from the USA. I don’t know if this is just because the population is larger or because a lot of American readers like the British writing style or because they are more curious and experimental. Whatever! I have become aware that I probably need to make my writing more exciting and less thought based, so in that way I am changing, if not what I write, but at least the style to adapt to the reader.
Thank you so much for being on Left on the Shelf today Gina. It has been a delight to have you.
Book Details
ISBN: 978 1915138255
Publisher: Fly Fizzi Ltd
Formats: e-book, hardback and paperback (currently available on Kindle Unlimited)
No. of Pages: 284 (paperback)
Series: Book 7 of the SeeMS Detective series
Purchase Links
About the Author
This is Gina Cheyne’s seventh novel in the SeeMs Detective series (the agency that looks behind what seems to be true). Gina’s family are keen and dedicated skiers and this book was inspired by a holiday in Tignes in France.
Gina has worked as a physiotherapist, a pilot, freelance writer and a dog breeder.
As a child, Gina's parents hated travelling and never went further than Jersey. As a result she became travel-addicted and spent the year after university bumming around SE Asia, China and Australia, where she worked in a racing stables in Pinjarra, South of Perth. After getting stuck in black sand in the Ute one time too many (and getting a tractor and trailer caught in a tree) she was relegated to horse-riding work only. After her horse bolted down the sand, straining a fetlock and falling in the sea, she was further relegated to swimming the horses only in the pool. It was with some relief the race horse stables posted her off to Thailand... after all what could go wrong there?
In the north of Thailand, she took a boat into the Golden Triangle and got shot at by bandits. Her group escaped into the undergrowth and hid in a hill tribe whisky still where they shared the 'bathroom' with a group of pigs. Getting a lift on a motorbike they hurried back to Chiang Rai, where life seemed calmer.
After nearly being drowned in a fiesta in Ko Pha Ngan, and cursed by a witch in Malaysia, she decided to go to Singapore and then to China where she only had to battle with the language and regulations.
Since marrying life has been calmer. She became a writer because her first love was always telling a good yarn!
You can also find Gina at:
(media courtesy of Rachel's Random Resources)
(all opinions are my own)
No comments:
Post a Comment