Author Spotlight: Fiona Marsden Has a New Release and a Giveaway!

And we have a winner!  Congratulations, Barbara Bates! You are Fiona’s winner of a $5 gift card! Fiona will be in touch wit you! Thanks to everyone who stopped by to meet Fi and to comment!

I’m happy to welcome fellow Tule Publishing author, Fiona Marsden to the Spotlight today. Fiona  started as an avid reader. She was late in finding romance novels, but once found, they became an addiction. Considering she wrote poetry and stories from a young age, it was only logical that the next step would be to write her own romances. Her favorite genres are contemporary and historical. She recently started writing rural romance reflecting her long years of country living in regional Australia.

Fiona is a hybrid author with several independently published works and contracts with Escape Publishing and Tule Publishing.

N: Welcome to the blog, Fiona! I’m so delighted to have you visiting today. So, what inspired you to start writing?

A: Thanks Nan, It’s great to be here. I’ve always been a reader and a writer. I had a poem published in The Sunday Mail Children’s pages when I was seven years old. I wrote what would be considered fanfiction in my teens but it wasn’t until 2010 that I sat down and finished a book.

N: Your first contemporary romance with Tule Publishing released today—that’s so exciting! What is the most surprising thing you discovered about yourself while writing Hard Road Home?

A: That I’m a team player. Working with Dakota Harrison to build this town with characters and places common to our stories was so much fun.

N: Talk to us about writing a series with another author—Dakota Harrison. What was that like? Were there bumps along the way?

A: Dakota is amazing to work with. Her books tend to be a little warmer than mine (a lot) and mine tend to be more descriptive and community building, but it seems to work really well for us.

N: Hard Road Home is part of your new series with Dakota Harrison, With Love, From Kurrajong Crossing. How many books in the series, and will we meet any other of the series characters in this book?

A: So far we have eight books under contract (three are mine, Dakota had a two-book head start) and we both have ideas for many more. I’m one of these authors that if I create a secondary character I’m likely to want to give them a story. Book six coming out later in the year features a friend of Bonnie, the female protagonist and I’m writing Xander’s brother’s story. His romance is with a character who appears in Dakota’s Feels Like Home and my book, Hard Road Home.

N: Give us three words to describe your character Bonnie—love that name, by the way. Three words to describe your hero Xander?

A: Bonnie: Practical, quiet achiever, independent.

Xander: Smiles, charisma, introverted

N: Was there research involved in making your hero a country singing star?

A: I may have had to watch a lot of Youtube videos of Keith Urban and other country singers. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it.

N: What do you like to do when you are not writing?

A: Read

N: What did you want to be when you grew up?

A: Astronaut; Musician; Artist; Actor; World traveler; Luckily I actually have some talent writing so I can be all those things vicariously.

N: Favorite book when you were a kid?

A: That’s a tough question. My first favorite book was a poem call “The Owl and the Pussycat.” Strangely enough it was a romance.

N: And here is my signature question that everyone loves: If you could choose three people, living or dead, to invite to a dinner party, who would they be and why?

A: Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers. I would anticipate a discussion on good and evil so for leaven in the loaf, perhaps J.R.R. Tolkien. (That’s my idea of a joke.)

Fiona is giving away a $5 gift card to one lucky commenter, so be sure to comment below with who your favorite country singer is. We’ll draw a winner on Saturday, July 23!

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Hard Road Home

This time, he’ll need to play for keeps—or not at all.

Xander Mac, now an internationally acclaimed country singer, has finally come home to Kurrajong Crossing. It’s been four years since his casual, no-strings-attached relationship with Bonnie Callaghan imploded under the pressures of distance and secrets held back. Xander’s return for a charity concert during the town’s winter festival is his opportunity to reconnect with Bonnie. Only this time, he might have to put his heart on the line.

Bonnie left Kurrajong Crossing hoping distance would give her heart a chance to heal, but she owes Xander’s grandparents, so when they need her help she answers the call. The return of Xander brings back hurt, long-buried feelings, but Xander has always said he only wants fun from a relationship and that’s not something Bonnie can guarantee.

Their attraction is still hot and their connection is deep. But to make it work, they’ll both need to be all in or say goodbye forever.

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