Good Afternoon Everyone and a warm welcome to you. Thank you for stopping by last week for my author’s news. I really appreciate all of your support. Today author MA Binfield is here to chat about her new book. Stay tuned for my review – coming soon.
Blog for Lynn Lawler – MA Binfield
Thanks for the opportunity to introduce myself. As a newbie author, I’m not on anyone’s radar so it’s nice to be able to say hello!
I’m Michelle, I live in the UK and my first book was published in December. It’s called One Small Step and I guess it’d best be described as a friends to lovers, slow-burn romance. It tells the story of a love that develops between two co-workers (Iris and Cam) who also play on the same footie team. It’s set in a wintry London and I enjoyed the chance to introduce some of my favourite London sights and neighbourhoods to readers and to explore the central place that cosy British pubs have had in my dating history and in the developing relationship between Cam and Iris.
Iris is tall, dark and handsome. She’s British and has been hurt in love, as a result, she is a little diffident and slow to trust. She is instantly attracted to Cam (new to her workplace and her soccer team) but won’t do a thing about it as Cam is engaged to be married and Iris hates cheating. Obviously. Cam takes longer to realise her attraction for Iris. She is outgoing, beautiful and American. She’s good for Iris and Iris is good for her as she is lonely in London. Without knowing it’s what she is doing, Cam burrows under Iris’s defences and the women fall in love. But neither of them is really available and neither of them wants an affair. Their desire for each other and their growing feelings get harder and harder to manage and avoid. I think it’s slow and angsty and kind of sexy and the relationship between them feels real to me. I was rooting so hard to find a way for them to come together and I hope you will too.
It’s my first book though. My first! Though I’m chuffed to be able to say that Bold Strokes Books have enough faith in me to have offered me a contract for two more during 2020 and that makes writing and publishing One Small Step feel less like a fluke and more like the start of something. It hasn’t done much to reduce the feelings of imposter syndrome I have when in conversation with more experienced authors, like many of those who have blogged here before me, but it definitely makes me feel like writing is something I should be doing right now.
December was a month of firsts for me … I didn’t just publish my first novel, I signed a copy for the first time, I did my first author interview, I got offended by my first not-so-great review. But I also got my first bit of fan mail and I realised that it’s OK to ask people I don’t know to consider reading and reviewing the book I spent so long writing … they can always say no! And this week I’m planning to do my first reading and post it on my Facebook page. I just need a volunteer to read Cam’s part as my American accent is in for repair … J
Like a lot of writers, it took me a while to get here. I don’t have the excuse of twenty years in a coma or time taken out to raise a family but, for the past couple of decades, I’ve been really bad at finishing things I’ve started. It’s partly because the jobs I’ve been doing have been really full-on and partly, I suspect a confidence thing. In the end, I made myself take three months off work and told myself I’d finish one of the manuscripts sat in the metaphorical drawer that was my laptop … and One Small Step came to life. After submitting it, and before knowing if it was even going to be accepted, I decided to leave my job altogether and make 2019 a real year of change for me. I’m writing every day – taking my writing seriously for the first time – and I decided to take on other work only when I needed money. It’s been absolutely life-changing.
I read a lot of WLW romance (and a lot of other contemporary fiction by women writers) and not once, before sending my own book off to be published, did I think about the number of hours of drafting, research, editing and rewriting that went into every one of those books. But I definitely understand it now and my admiration for those who write and publish novels (in whatever way) has gone up inestimably. And editors are definitely the unsung heroes. Mine was a boss.
The funniest part of writing as a Brit for a largely American audience about two characters who are from either side of the Atlantic is that I learned just how weird the English language is. Did you know, for example, that Brits say “towards” and Americans “toward”? No idea why. How about the fact that Brits have a lounge in their house in which they sit and watch TV but Americans’ only experience of lounges is when they go to the airport? And Americans don’t have a fortnight – just a plain old two week period. Weird, huh? In the book, Iris introduces Cam to the culinary delight (and king of pub snacks) that the English know and love as pork scratchings, and I’ll give half a dozen packets to the reader who can properly explain to me why Americans decided to drop the letter ‘u’ from all those colourful, humorous, favourite words of mine.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed spending a bit of time with me. Check out One Small Step (https://www.boldstrokesbooks.com/books/one-small-step-by-ma-binfield-3134-b) if you want something sweet, slow-burn and angsty. If you want me for anything, come find me on Twitter @mabinfield or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ma.binfield. I hope 2020 is a great year for us all.
MA Binfield
I want to thank MA for visiting us today. Be sure to check out her book on Amazon.
Until Next Time,
Lynn
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Lynn Lawler's Creative Artists' Blog 