Ally – Page 31 – A. L. Lester

Publishing Delays

wood desk laptop office — Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com

As those of you who follow my newsletter know, the last couple of weeks have been a real nightmare here at Lester Towers.

Littlest had an accident at school and broke her nose, which has caused all the fuss you’d expect, plus worry that she’d have to have it re-broken and re-set to ensure it’s still possible to naso-gastric tube her in the future if necessary. This has, thankfully, turned out not to be the case, but it’s taken ages for ENT to decide. I’ve had a visit to hospital for a minor procedure which was more tedious than worrying, Talking Child has been stressed about school and her sister and me. And finally Mr AL has put his back out lifting Littlest, which has caused our whole family raft to list alarmingly to one side.

So, we’re struggling, basically. Writing itself and my somewhat intermittent early morning writing sprints with my Office Colleagues, Ofelia Grand, Nell Iris and J. M. Snyder have been what’s keeping me going.

The cherry on the top of the disaster-Bakewell tart however, has been that my dear friend and editor has been hospitalised with covid. She is home and recovering now, which is an enormous relief, but as everyone knows, it’s a long haul.

The result of all this non-writing stress is that we are pushing the release of The Fog of War back until 16th August. I’m very sorry about it, but there it is, people are more important than stories when it comes down to it. The Starling story (which still doesn’t have a name, this is clearly my brand) is puttering along but again it’s all a bit up in the air.

School breaks up for summer in the last week of July, so I have no idea what my writing schedule will be over the weeks after that–last year I did quite well getting up before everyone else and getting on with it. The plan is to release the Sylvia trilogy three months apart, and I’m still hoping that will work, although I’m starting to wonder whether I’ve over-faced myself. Time will tell!

Anyway, that’s it. We’re all okay, but it’s been a tough few weeks. I hope you’re all doing all right too in these uncertain times.

Find LGBTQ+ books for Pride

opened white book — Photo by fotografierende on Pexels.com

It seems to be The Week Of Promo ™ this week, so I thought I’d do a little blog post on all the different bundles, bookfairs and books giveaways I’m involved in.

They all end at the end of Pride Month, so you need to have a browse before 30th June 2021. There’s a good mix of giveaways, audiobooks, ebooks, sapphic and gay romance here, so hopefully you can find something you like!

Sale

JMS Books, 30% off all ebooks

Giveaway

Win an Ereader and 30+ LGBTQ+ Books from Booksweeps!

Gay Romance

Sapphic

June Lesbian Romance Book Sale

Free stuff!

Plus, remember this month’s Pride StoryBundle… pay what you like for sixteen intelligent, nuanced queer stories!

You can join my newsletter for a free story and for regular pointers towards new-to-you authors and releases.

Interview: Ana Ashley

I’m delighted to welcome Ana Ashley today to talk about her new release, How to Catch a Vet! Her story fits in very well with my ‘slightly crazed smallholding’ vibe… Welcome, Ana!

Hi everyone! I’m really pleased to be here today to talk about my new book, How to Catch a Vet. This is the sixth book in the Chester Falls series, which is a small-town romance with all the feels. Don’t take it from me, check out the reviews and you’ll want to move into Chester Falls in no time!

Now for the questions. What started you writing? How did you fall into this writing gig?

I’ve always had this hidden desire to be an author but it wasn’t something I thought about too much until I voiced it in a coaching session. Once those words were out I decided to see where it led me. Four years on and I’m now doing this gig full time.

Where do you write?

I have a makeshift office but it’s not where I tend to write. I prefer to move around. Sometimes I sit outside on the various seating areas we have around the house, or the pool, if it’s not too hot. I like the dining table too because it allows me to spread. My favorite place of all is coffee shops, but sadly it’s been over a year since I’ve been able to do that.

What do you like to read?

I read mostly gay romance. It’s partly research but mostly pleasure because I absolutely love the genre I write in. I also read some craft books about writing and publishing but I need to be in the right mood for those. I’m a romance girl all the way.

What are the three books you’d take to a desert island? Why would you choose them?

Oh my goodness, what a question to ask a reader! I really don’t know. I always think that even my favorite books, if read over and over, would become old news if I couldn’t access other books. I love to reread books and I always find new things I hadn’t noticed before, but I normally have a break between rereads. Can this island have power so I can take three ereaders full of books?

Writing is an intrinsically solo occupation. Do you belong to any groups or associations, either online or in the ‘real’ world? How does that work for you?

My writing goes through stages. Sometimes I need total silence, and other times I need someone around to talk things through. I have a close author friend and we usually skype and write together. We have the option to talk or just be silent but we’re there for each other regardless. I’m in quite a few author groups and have had the pleasure to meet some of my author friends personally at conferences. I love making that personal connection with people.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I love baking so when I’m not writing I’m usually thinking of something to bake. We also have a really big garden so I’m learning how to grow things and look after the various fruit trees that came with the house when we bought it. I find it’s good exercise and it helps clear my mind and thinking about my writing, or if I’m stuck in a particular plot point.

Tell me a little bit about your most recent release. What gave you the idea for it? How long did it take to write? What did you enjoy about writing it? What did you hate?

How to Catch a Vet is partly the plot bunny from a reader. She messaged me after How to Catch a Boss released last Christmas saying that Santi, the brother of one of the MCs needed a dedicated and off-the-charts sweet vet that would help him with the great dane he adopted.

In total the book took me 2 weeks to write but many more weeks of research and gathering information. Santi, one of the main characters has an eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which is the reason he had to leave the military. At the same time his Dog, Duchess Olive McPickles, also ends up needing a procedure which is quite common with great danes. These two things alone made it the most challenging book I’ve written research-wise. It was also super fun because alongside this we have a menagerie of animals that steal the show at every chance they have.

After five novels and two shorter stories, writing in this world is like coming home and I always love to include recurring characters. It’s something my readers love as well since they get to see their favorite characters come back. There’s also plenty of shenanigans, so there’s that, too.

How to Catch a Vet

The first thing I learned at Vet school was to always expect the unexpected.
Well, I sure never saw Santiago Torres or his adorable Great Dane coming.

Santi is everything I’m not. Tall, confident, overbearing, and if I’m to believe his advances, he’s also very experienced in…well, you know what.

I always play safe, but it’s time to ditch the v-card. We couldn’t be more different, but that doesn’t matter because this is just a one time thing.

I’m not going to want more, right?
I’m not going to fall for him, right?

How to Catch a Vet is the sixth book in the Chester Falls series and features an opposites attract story between a virgin and a player, a Great Dane with a tendency to rescue- read kidnap- other people’s pets, and a small town like no other.

Buy How to Catch a Vet!

Find Ana!

Website : Email : Goodreads : Bookbub : Facebook : Facebook Group : Instagram : Tiktok

Admitting I'd been bullied at school was one thing. Admitting I was still a virgin at almost thirty was another altogether.
Despite the hotter-than-the-earth's core kiss, Santi didn't want to start anything. He was dealing with his stuff, and I understood that.
We could still be friends, couldn't we? I could make sure my grownign feelings for him didn't get any bigger, couldn't I?
Ana Ashley, How to Catch a Vet. Out now!

The Day of the Triffids and nightmares

I don’t watch scary films and I don’t read horror…and this is probably why!

When I was about fourteen – in my second or third year at Senior School – we had an English teacher who seemed set on giving us all nightmares. He was thought of as a nice bloke. He played saxophone for Screaming Lord Sutch and his band when Such toured the West Country and he took various groups of kids camping on Dartmoor and Exmoor.

However, he must have had a really sadistic side. He showed us various TV Series as ‘treats’ in one particular lesson slot every week and they were invariably really traumatic. He showed us the 1982 Q. E. D. Documentary A Guide to Armageddon about the consequences of the detonation of a small nuclear warhead over St Paul’s Cathedral; and the TV adaptation of Z for Zachariah, which is a fantastic book, but watching it in the context of the tail end of the Cold War and preceded by watching the St Paul’s Nuke thing was terrifying.

The story that really, really freaked me out, though, was Day Of The Triffids by John Wyndham. I don’t think that we even read the book in class. He just showed us the TV Series. There was a BBC serialisation done in 1981 that had large fibre-glass and latex ‘Triffids’ that were operated by a chap crouched down inside, with a radio-operated clacker-thing to make the rattling noise.

I know this NOW, because Wikipedia. However, then, it was terrifying.

The thing that made it double, triple, a million times more scary was that I lived on a horticultural nursery. Where we grew flowers. Big flowers, small flowers, short flowers, tall flowers. I’d get home from school as it was getting dark and my parents would be somewhere out on the seven acre plot. And I’d run, run, run around the house and down the path along the back of the greenhouses to find them in the flower-packing shed, all the time waiting to hear that rattle. We used to grow huge swathes of Chrysanthemum blooms – globe-shaped single blooms about four or six inches across – and the white ones would look ghostly in the dusk. As you walked, or ran, down the Back Path to the flower packing shed, they spread out in great luminous swathes in the half-light and I was convinced they were watching me.

I’d arrange my music lesson every week in the same slot so that I had an excuse to miss watching the serialisation. When he realised what I was doing, the teacher reported me to my Housemistress and they stopped me and forced me to sit through each episode. I would sit there with my eyes shut for the whole forty minutes, trying not to hear what was going on; and if he noticed, he would try and get the rest of the class to tease me.

Cover of the 1981 Penguin edition of Day of the Triffids

To try to help me not be so scared, my Pa, who was a bit of a old-school Wyndham fan I think, bought me a copy of the book. I can remember him watching the series on the BBC every week as it was time for us to go to bed and he wouldn’t let me sit with him, so he must have known it would affect me. I was a voracious bookworm even then, but I couldn’t even bring myself to even touch the covers of the paperback he bought. That episode of Friends where Rachel puts Little Women in the freezer for Joey? That was me. I couldn’t even have it in the living room. In the end, Pa put it on the table by his side of the bed. When he died, twenty five years later, it was still there. Nothing has ever, ever scared me like that, since.

Strangely, I grew in to be a huge science-fiction fan. Some Wyndham I love. The Chrysalids is one of my all time favourite books. Give me some nice post-apocalyptic drama and I’m happy – especially if there is romantic tension thrown in there. No walking plants or clacking noises, even now though, please.

Taking Stock: Deleted Scene

Here’s a deleted scene I found from Taking Stock. It’s Patsy Walker, who runs the Post Office, talking to HER friend Sally, who’s Laurie’s housekeeper. It’s whilst he’s in hospital recovering from his stroke. I took it out because it didn’t move the story along at all.

Book cover of Taking Stock — Taking Stock

“He’s going to be a handful,” Patsy Walker said to her friend Sally Beelock as she filled the tea-pot. “You’ll have trouble with him.”

Sally pulled a face. “You don’t need to tell me that,” she said. “He’s already talking about coming home and the stupid idiot can’t even stand up without help yet.”

“He’s improving though, yes?” Patsy asked.

“Yes, definitely. And it’s only been a week. They say that he needs to keep trying to move everything, his arm, his fingers, his leg, and the more he does that the more it’ll help.” She sighed. “They don’t know if it’ll all come back properly, but they say there’s a good chance.”

Patsy passed her a mug of tea and sat down opposite her at the kitchen table where she could see in to the shop. There weren’t any customers at the moment, but the early autumn day was warm and she had the outside door propped open as usual, which meant the bell wouldn’t ring if anyone came in.

“How are you managing?” she asked Sally. “It must have been a shock. He’s only what, thirty?”

“Thirty-three,” Sally said absently. “Yes. I thought it was curtains for him to be honest, Pat. Jimmy came down to get me at Carsters once the ambulance had gone. He didn’t tell me much, just said I should get into the hospital. Apparently he was unconscious, pretty much.”

Patsy patted her hand. “Well, he’s going to be fine, love. You’ll see. Look at Roger Chedzoy. He had a stroke four years ago and you’d never really know to look at him now.”

“He’s sixty-three though,” Sally said. “I mean, there’s never a good age, is there? But Laurie’s so young.”

Patsy nodded. “And that means he’s got more fight in him and he’ll get over it quickly. You’ll see.”