Welcome, it’s time for another Friday Reads post and this week my featured book is the gorgeous romance novel A French Country Escape by Jennifer Bohnet. Jennifer is going to tell us a little about the book, and her writing life. So grab yourself a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get chatting to Jennifer. 😊
Blurb
A fresh start in the beautiful Brittany countryside is what dreams are made of. . .Buying and relocating to the Château du Cheval in rural France has fulfilled one of Peter and Ingrid Chevalier’s lifelong ambitions. Despite never being able to trace a missing link in Peter’s French ancestry he feels he has finally come home. With money getting tight they decide to sell two rundown cottages on the estate, bringing brother and sister Freddie and Sasha to the château and into their lives. As the four of them settle into life in the French countryside, their new lives throw up several surprises, and all they can do is cross their fingers and hope everything will turn out well in the end.
A French Country Escape will be out on 16th of September. You can get preorder a copy here: https://amzn.to/3zNANTY
Welcome to my blog, Jennifer. Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Yes but life has a habit of taking you down unexpected roads so it was a long time before I could actually call myself a writer. For years I fitted writing around family life and proper jobs. I did sell the occasional feature to magazines, newspapers even had my own weekly column in our local Devonshire newspaper and was published a couple of times in two or three of the nationals. It wasn’t until we came to France that I had time to concentrate on my writing and I started to write short stories and serials and then novels.
Do you have a special place for writing?
I have my office set up in a small room at the top of our quirky cottage that can also double as a spare bedroom when family visit. My iMac sits on a large ex office desk under the two windows and there are a couple of bookshelves. My view when I’m sitting is of the tops of trees and the sky so not too distracting, I have to stand up to get a proper view of the garden.
Your office sounds lovely, Jennifer. Are you a pantster or a plotter?
I’m an out and out pantster – with just a tiny nudge to plotting! Everyone has to find the method of writing that works for them and mine seems to be simply to decide on the setting and start writing myself into the story. The tiny bit of plotting I do is when I’ve got about halfway into the story (which will have been edited and re-written several times by that stage) I start to put one, maybe two, bullet points at the chapter headings about what I want this scene to do or say.
Is your writing ever inspired by your family or real life incidents?
People often ask where do you get your ideas? As I write mainly contemporary stories my ideas do come from my day to day life – either the one I live now or have done in recent years. We lived down on the French Riviera for over ten years and lots of my twenty books are set down there. Now we are up in Brittany that setting has started to feature in my books too. As for using real life incidents maybe the odd one suitably disguised slips in!
What are you writing at the moment?
I am writing my twenty-first book (can hardly believe I’ve written that many!) which is my summer book for 2025 and is set down on the French Riviera (again!). It involves an inheritance and family secrets and. – that’s all I can tell you at the moment as I’m still in the pantsting stage!
Congratulations on your 21st book being published, Jennifer. I hope you’re going to celebrate, maybe with some French chanmpagne!
Meet Jennifer
Author bio
I currently live in Brittany but I have three places I often refer to as home: Devon, Brittany and the South of France. Having lived in all of them I know certain areas like Dartmouth, Finistere, Cannes and Antibes well and they are the places where I like to set my stories. My novels usually span the generations with characters ranging in age and having to cope with unexpected problems in their lives – but there is always a hopeful ending, even if there are tears before.
Contact Links
http://www.jenniferbohnet.com/index.html
https://twitter.com/@jenniewriter
Amazon http://amzn.to/299rvVv
FaceBook https://bit.ly/3qglPh4
https://mailchi.mp/boldwoodbooks/jenniferbohnetnewsletter
https://www.instagram.com/jenniewriter/
Thanks so much for dropping by to talk to us today, Jennifer. I hope your new book soars! xx
Karen King 