Friday Reads – Escape to the Swiss Chalet by Carrie Walker

Welcome to another Friday Reads post. My featured book today is the hilarious debut Escape to the Swiss Chalet by Carrie Walker. Isn’t the cover gorgeous? Carrie has popped in to tell us about her book and give us some fabulous writing advice. So grab a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get chatting to Carrie. 😊

Blurb

When your life goes off-piste how do you climb back up the mountain?

Holly Roberts is well-known among family and friends for despising the cold, so no one is more surprised than her when she agrees to pack her bags and move to the Swiss Alps. But after getting her heart broken, spending the winter season working as a sous-chef for wealthy twins Genevieve and gorgeous Luca, is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Verbier is home to millionaires and Holly has never felt more out of place in the snow-capped wooden chalet. Thankfully new friends, chalet girl Liv and chef Xavier are there to guide her in this new world of après-ski and fondue, and to teach her how to get off chair lifts! And then there is Luca… rich, handsome, and generous but what is the catch?

She just wanted to escape her problems, but could she get her Happily Ever After, after all?
A sweet and funny romantic comedy for readers of Lindsey Kelk and Sophie Kinsella.

Buy links are here:

Amazon buy link is: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Escape-Swiss-Chalet-Carrie-Walker-ebook/dp/B0BM2714H7

Bookshop.org: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/escape-to-the-swiss-chalet-carrie-walker/7370393?ean=9781804547311

Welcome Carrie, your book looks a fabulous read. I know this is your debut – congratulations – so what advice would you give to other writers?

I feel in no way qualified to give advice to other writers, but with my very first book – Escape to the Swiss Chalet – out this week and having now submitted the first draft of my second book – Escape to the Tuscan Vineyard – there are definitely things I’ve learnt between the two that will help me with Book 3 and beyond. Maybe they can help you, too.

1. Fight against your negative voice. The first draft is supposed to be bad. Just get it down. I know everyone says this, but they say it because it’s true. This is awful, I can’t do it, I don’t know what I’m talking about, this is the worst thing I’ve ever written. That kind of thing, times a thousand, every single day. I’ve had to literally ignore one half of my brain to hit my deadlines. There’s no time for nay-sayers when you’re writing. Especially if that naysayer is yourself.
2. A book can’t be written in a week. I’ve spent my career working in advertising. In a fast-paced, turn it around in a month, a week, sometimes a couple of hours, kind of environment. Writing is the opposite. It is brick by brick. And if you don’t make a brick today, you’ll have to make two bricks tomorrow. If you stay consistent, a wonky wall will eventually present itself. If you sack it off for two weeks, it will become overwhelming.
3. Stay connected to the things that make you laugh and cry and scream. It’s important to keep the creative inputs coming thick and fast. I do that through the sacred sending and receiving of memes, reading, watching box sets, going to comedy gigs, listening in on people’s conversations – anything that gives me a different view of the world and freshens up my thoughts.
4. Write down your cumulative word count. A classic Slimming World trick but it’s so motivating once you get past week one. Nothing complicated – a pad and a pen. The date, how many words you’ve written today and how many words you’ve written in total.
5. When it comes to process, you do you. I do a lot of handwriting by day, voice-noting my scribbles to myself on the train home and tidying it up at night. I’ve discovered I’m at my most productive in front of my laptop between 8pm and midnight. My brain goes into a dream, and I somehow get the work done. Maybe it’s the mini deadline of bedtime that helps, but sitting at my computer in the morning, with the whole day ahead of me doesn’t work for my creative thinking. When I’m editing – it’s a whole different mindset. For that I need my fresh morning eyes, and a lot of coffee, and I’m up early and at my desk to make the most of each day.

This is great advice, Carrie. I can relate to every one of those points and would think most other authors would too. Thanks for dropping by to talk to us today. I hope your book sells shed loads.

Meet Carrie

Carrie Walker is a Brummie born romcom lover with a lifelong passion for travel. She has lived in a ski resort, by a beach, in the country and the city, and travelled solo through Asia, South America and Europe.

Her own love life was more com than rom until she met her husband, Rob, a few years ago and settled down with him and their dog Ziggy in a pub-filled village in Essex.

Longlisted for Helen Lederer’s Comedy Women in Print prize in 2021, writing has long been Carrie’s side hustle, penning columns and features for newspapers and magazines, while working in many other jobs. She has been the CEO of a global disability movement, a board director of a brand agency, the editor of a newspaper, a radio presenter, a football mascot, dressed up as a carrot for the BBC and now she is writing books. Escape to the Swiss Chalet is her debut novel.

Contact links

Website: carriewalker.co.uk

Instagram and Threads handle: @carriewalkerauthor

Twitter handle:@carriewauthor

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