Author: hollymartinwriter

My story The Guestbook is out in one week.  I’m so excited to share this story with you.  It’s a gorgeous love story with a unique twist.

The Guestbook was the winning story in the Carina Valentine’s Competition at the Festival of Romance last year and now Carina are about to unleash it on the world and I can’t wait for you to read it.

Here’s what Carina said about it.:

The Guestbook absolutely blew us away from the very first page. We were truly wowed, not only by Holly’s innovative approach to story-telling, but also by how brilliantly she has executed it. Without doubt this is the most exciting romance we’ve read this year – fresh, warm, funny, totally unputdownable and with That Quality –  you know, you’ve found the one that makes you know you’ve read something truly special. 

If you can’t wait a week here is a sneaky peek behind the doors of Willow Cottage.

Welcome to Willow Cottage – throw open the shutters, let in the sea breeze and make yourself completely at home. Oh, and please do leave a comment in the Guestbook.

As landlady of Willow Cottage, the young widow Annie Butterworth is always on hand with tea, sympathy or strong Norfolk cider – whatever her colourful array of guests require.  A flick through the messages in the leather-bound cottage guestbook gives a tantalizing glimpse into the lives of everyone who passes through her doors.

This includes Annie herself – especially now celebrity crime writer Oliver Black, is back in town. He might grace the covers of gossip magazines with a different glamorous supermodel draped on his arm every week, but to Annie, he’s always just been Olly, the man who Annie shared her first kiss with.

Through the pages of the Guestbook Annie and Olly, along with all the guests that arrive at the seaside retreat, struggle with love, loss, mystery, joy, happiness, guilt…and the odd spot of naked rambling!

Forget sending postcards saying ‘wish you were here’ – one visit to Willow Cottage and you’ll wish you could stay forever.

You can pre-order The Guestbook here http://amzn.to/1etluti

 

My debut novel, The Sentinel, was published today.  Thank you all to everyone who tweeted, retweeted, wrote blog posts, wrote about me on facebook, sent me encouraging messages and bought my book, I love you all.

http://amzn.to/1giKNVp

 

Launch day! Sunlounger is released today, 44 stories from around the world from brilliant authors like Belinda Jones, Miranda Dickinson, Rosie Blake, Laurey Buckland, Nicola Moriarty and many, many more. I had the pleasure of meeting a few of these lovelies at the launch party in London after they had spent the day handing out postcards to everyone they met.

You can buy Sunlounger here  http://amzn.to/16rnX7O

I met with the wonderful Belinda Jones to collect my prize, a pink suitcase filled with travel goodies.  We spent a lovely afternoon at Luton Hoo, eating yummy cakes and chatting to Bev Creagh from my local paper.  I have to say Belinda is one of the loveliest people that I’ve ever met.

I won!! (runs around screaming and shouting)

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to have won the Belinda Jones short story competition.  I’ve been writing for four years now and although I’ve received many positive comments about my work, nothing has ever happened in terms of being published.  It’s always been a case of ‘so close yet still so far away.’ When I entered this competition I never imagined for one moment that the judges would like my little story, so thank you so much. Massive congratulations to Kiri Mills, Kate Guest and Pernille Hughes who are also having their brilliant stories published too.  I can’t wait to read your work, especially Kiri’s story which was chosen as Reader’s Choice.  This fantastic anthology will be out on July 1st.

Check out my author page on the Sunlounger website. http://www.va-va-vacation.com/holly-martin

“Lynda, I need you to take a photo of me in the sunshine,” I say as I run in from spending the day as an Ancient Greek.  I’m buzzing that I’ve been shortlisted for Belinda Jones Short Story competition and that Belinda has asked for a photo of me somewhere warm and sunny.

Lynda is used to these requests, she’s our Girl Friday, primarily for the chopping of card, leather and wool to our exact specifications, but most weeks she gets odd requests like;  ‘Lynda, I need a new Florence Nightingale costume,’ ‘Lynda, can you colour in these parrots,’ ‘Lynda, can you paint a bunch of grapes.’

She puts down her scissors and peers at me over her glasses. “And you don’t have any holiday photos of you somewhere warm and sunny that you can use?”

“No.”

“So that holiday in Iceland last year isn’t looking like such a good idea now, is it?”

“No, exactly.  I have lots of photos of me in woolly hats by frozen lakes and exploding geysers, but I look like Benny from Crossroads.”

“Where did you go the year before.”

“Wales.”

“Right.”

I fluff out my hair in the hope that it now looks vaguely decent.

“The year before?” The look in her eyes is one of hope and desperation as if I can suddenly conjure a warm and sunny holiday from my back pocket.  I barely have the heart to tell her the truth.

“The Lake District.”

“I thought you went to Rome?”

“I did but I went alone so I have lots of photos of fountains and churches and nuns eating ice cream but none of me.”

She stands up.  “So what’s the plan?”

“The rain has stopped, the sun has come out, at least for a few seconds and we’re going to go out into the car park and pretend it’s the South of France.”

She nods at me as if this is the most reasonable answer in the world.  “And you’re going to go out dressed like that.”

I look down at my clothes.  My paint stained t-shirt is hardly the good impression I was looking for.  “Fair point.  I’ll use my gold scarf, drape it over me like an artfully arranged sarong.”

I yank my arm out of my t-shirt and poke it through the head hole so my t-shirt is now an off the shoulder number and the sleeve is now dangling uselessly under my armpit.  I tie the gold scarf round me, hoping it looks like a dress/sarong.

“Here,” says Lynda, handing me a plastic champagne glass filled with out of date orange juice.

“Excellent, nice touch.  Come on, let’s do this before anyone sees me.”

I run out into the car park and arrange myself against a gate with the sun kissed trees and fields behind me.

“How do I work this thing.” Lynda is holding my phone like a bomb about to explode.  I quickly show her which buttons to press.

“Quick people are coming, they’ll see me and I’m half naked.”

“Honey it’s five o-clock, everyone is going home, we’re standing in the car park.  People are bound to see you.”

“Just take the photo.”

“I can’t see you through the viewfinder, the sun’s too bright.”

“Just point it in my general direction and press the button.”

I hear the phone click.

“People are staring.”

“Well you are half naked.”

“Take a few more.”

The phone clicks again.  But this time it’s someone else’s phone taking the shots. Please don’t let me end up on someone’s Facebook page.

“Oh God, the sheep are coming.  Quick take a few more.”

After a few more clicks and with quite the crowd gathered now, we leg it back inside.

Lynda settles herself behind her scissors once more as I scroll through the photos she has taken.  “Are they ok?  I couldn’t see what I was doing.”

“Evidently, I have three shots of my forehead, two of my breasts and one of the sheep.  Oh this one’s ok.  Well sort of.”

She looks at it and resumes her cutting.  “I’d crop out the big splat of sheep poo though if I was you.”

I look again and sigh. “Yes, I’ll do that Lynda.”

I’ve been shortlisted for the Belinda Jones short Story Competition.  I’m so excited and if I win my short story, One Hundred Proposals, will be published alongside some of my favourite authors.  The big announcement will be on June 1st so fingers crossed.