Writer's moments

Celebrating Seasoned Romance: Peter Perrin

What a treat to welcome Peter Perrin today–honestly, it’s so cool to have a guy writing romance, particularly seasoned romance!

Peter writes sweet, seasoned romances involving larger-than-life mature characters who will make you rethink your views on older people in a positive way. His characters are mature in age but not necessarily in their behavior. They may not be in the first flush of youth but that doesn’t stop some of them from acting like hormonal teenagers.

Peter was born in Romford, in the county of Essex, near London, England. For nearly twenty years he has lived with his wife of almost forty years in a quiet suburb of Swindon, in the county of Wiltshire, in England. He is a father and grandfather. He is a former member of The Royal Air Force who has served in the UK, and in Madagascar, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia. He was also stationed for two years in Aden—which nowadays is part of Yemen.

After almost fifteen-years’ service in The Royal Air Force Peter worked in Engineering, Quality Control, and Procurement Management, not to mention myriad smaller jobs in between those careers.

Now retired Peter’s interests are Writing, Carp Fishing, and (despite being in his early seventies) PC and PlayStation games.

His favorite quote is “Youth passes, but with luck, immaturity can last a lifetime.”

NAN: Tell us what you are currently working on or promoting.

My debut novel, Grace’s Turmoil, was only published in December 2017 so I am still actively promoting that. However, Grace’s Turmoil is only Book 1 in a planned series called Not Too Old for Love, and I have made a start in pulling ideas and information together for Book 2 in the series.

NAN: What genre(s) do you write in?

PETER: I write sweet contemporary romances. But, more than that they are about mature characters, so they fall into an evolving sub-genre—Seasoned Romance.

NAN: What sets you apart from other authors in your genre?

PETER: Well I would guess that is that I am probably one of the few men openly writing romance, using their own name or a male nom de plume. That and the fact that I am not only writing about mature characters but specifically those who are aged at least sixty.

NAN: Do you have an agent and/or publisher, or are you self-published?

PETER: I don’t have an agent as I didn’t go the traditional Agent/Print Publisher route. But, I do have a publisher—Devine Destinies. As Grace’s Turmoil is my first book I wanted to use a publisher so that I would have the satisfaction of knowing a professional team had found my work to be of a sufficient standard for them to take a chance on.

NAN: Is there a theme/message underlying your book(s) that you hope comes across?

PETER: There is indeed a theme/message that totally underlines the book and that will be maintained throughout subsequent books in the series. The theme is that many older people want and have romance, relationships, and sex in their lives. That, having experienced marriage and divorce or bereavement, mature people with emotional baggage can and do find love again. Or even that someone who has been single for their whole life can find love in their twilight years.

NAN: What obstacles, if any, have you encountered in being a writer?

PETER: There were a few obstacles when I started writing Grace’s Turmoil. One of those no longer exists but the others if anything are worse. The one that no longer exists is the problem of having no previous experience of any serious writing, let alone a novel. And, while that is no longer strictly true I still have a lot to learn.

The man problem is my memory, which has never been good, and which has worsened as I’ve got into my seventies. So, I constantly have to reread and recheck things that in an ideal world I would be able to instantly recall.

NAN: What do you like best/least about writing?

PETER: I love seeing ideas that come primarily from my own brain, my imagination, and my life experiences turn into a book that hopefully people will read and enjoy.  The greatest thrill has been when I have written something and on reading it over thought ‘That wasn’t supposed to be like that’ or ‘He/she wasn’t supposed to say/do that.’ In other words to have a character or characters effectively write or do what they wanted rather than what I had planned or expected.

NAN: When did you first consider yourself a writer?

PETER: That would have to be when I got the email from Devine Destinies offering me a contract to publish Grace’s Turmoil.

NAN: Would you rather read a book that is poorly written but has an excellent story, or read one with weak content, but is well written?

PETER: That’s a hard question as I would rather not read either, but I guess it would have to be the first option.  Content and a good story are crucial, and I would probably be able to read it and enjoy it even if the writing was poor. But, if I started to read a book and found the content was weak there would be no point in continuing with it. Arguably such a book couldn’t be classed as well written other than technically.

NAN: What is the hardest thing about writing a series?

PETER: I haven’t really discovered that yet as I am only just starting to scope out book 2 of the Not Too Old for Love series. But, my gut feeling is that it will be writing books that each stand alone yet are clearly part of a series and link at least some of the characters from one book to another. It will be even harder for me as all my main characters live at The Grange Retirement Village. So, from book 2 onward, I will have to find a way to let new readers know about The Grange (a 17th Century English Manor House) and the relationships between the characters that were in book 1 and are now in book 2. And, I’ll have to do that without repeating the descriptions etc. from book 1 or using great info dumps.

Find Peter all over social media and on his website:

Website: https://peterperrin.blog

Blog:  https://peterperrin.blog

Twitter: https://twitter.com/peterperrin44

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PeterPerrin44/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/peterperrin/

Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/PeterPerrin

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B078J3NVHW

Grace’s Turmoil

Divorced and emotionally damaged, artist Grace Stollery wants nothing more than to spend her semi-retirement painting and let time heal her emotional scars.

But when dashing widower Alfred Nobel moves into her retirement village he turns her life upside down and her heart inside out by awakening feelings she wants to keep dormant.

Alfred quickly sets out to woo Grace and slowly she warms to him. But the village’s resident femme fatale wants him for herself. Will she succeed in driving a wedge between Alfred and Grace?

Buy Links

https://goo.gl/XWjrCB                   Amazon USA

https://goo.gl/D8uEPD                  Amazon UK

https://goo.gl/uk7Hvr                    Amazon Canada

https://goo.gl/abTdXL                   Amazon France

https://goo.gl/DFZfW8                  Amazon Germany

https://goo.gl/g8KcDB                  Amazon Italy

https://goo.gl/ZeW72Q                 Amazon Spain

https://goo.gl/WqZ2Dz                 Amazon Japan

https://goo.gl/FN2cuC                  Devine Destinies

https://goo.gl/nD7gF9                  Barnes and Noble

https://goo.gl/T621s9                   Kobo

 

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