Meet my Guest: Dorothy Ewels

Today my guest is another Cape Town debut novelist, Dorothy Ewels.

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.

I am an indie author releasing my debut novel on 22 Feb. I have a permafree shorty-short story available but this is my first full-length novel.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?

Love At Last was inspired by my work as a criminal court transcriptionist. One case, in particular, sparked off the idea for the first three chapters. The book doesn't follow the case at all but that case got the thought process going and, as they say, the rest is history.

Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre?

LOL! I didn't choose it, it chose me. When I first started writing again five years ago, I had intentions of writing erotic romance. My writing took on a life of its own and suddenly I found myself writing romantic suspense with steamy scenes instead.

What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning this book?

I have a close personal friend who was a SAPS detective for 15 years and I picked his brain relentlessly for about a year in order to get my facts straight regarding anything to do with police procedures in the book.

How do you select the names of your characters?

I have an evergrowing list of names for women, men, gender neutral and surnames so when I'm looking for character names I browse the list and see what grabs my attention. Although, sometimes a character's name will pop into my head randomly.

How do you like to collect and organise your ideas?

I am a planner so I make notes in a notebook and then I plot and outline on my whiteboard so I can remove, rearrange and add as I go.

How long did it take you to write this book?

The first draft took me about four months to write but I put it away for free months before I started the editing phase.

What's next for you as a writer?

I am currently working on my second book, which I will be releasing in July 2019.

Author Bio 

A proud member of the Romance Writer’s Organization of South Africa (ROSA), Dorothy Ewels developed a love of reading from early on. Her passion for the written word has spanned across decades until she finally put pen to paper and began her path as an indie author where reading and writing remain her first love. Married, with one son and three fur babies, she lives in Cape Town, and while she loves travelling, she cannot see herself living anywhere else. When she’s not weaving stories in her writing cave, she spends her time with family, friends, as well as enjoying crafting.

You can follow Dorothy by clicking on the following links:

http://www.dorothyewels.co.za

https://amazon.com/author/dorothyewels

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18573939.Dorothy_Ewels

https://www.facebook.com/dorothyewels

https://www.twitter.com/DorothyEwels

https://amzn.to/2V0neXG

#romance #RomanceWriter #Romantic #RomanticSuspense, #indieauthors #mustread #kindle 
#BookMarketing #dorothyewels #ROSA #romancesetinSouthAfrica #SouthAfricanromance #inspiration #amwriting #guestblog #blog #francinebeaton

Food, Romance and Valentine's Day

“When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore.”

Jack Brooks (songwriter) 'That's Amore'

February. Valentine’s Day. The first thing everyone to mind may be hearts, roses and chocolate. I dare say that it does not matter what you plan for Valentine’s Day, or even any other romantic date, it always involves food. It’s probably because it is two of life’s universal pleasures and most people appreciate to have both or, more likely, crave.

Many women have grown up with the age-old English proverb, “A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”  That may be true, but I’m convinced many women would agree with me that there is nothing sexier than a man that cook’s for you. Barefoot in the kitchen - bare-chested too if he’s daring enough, but that’s just my personal opinion.

There are obviously those would recoil horrified if you mention going out for Valentine’s meal or going the whole hock with flowers, chocolates and candle-lit dinner. Others love the idea because that is part of the entire Valentine’s experience. It’s not to say that if you do plan your Valentine’s date to perfection, it should feel staged. It’s crucial that you should consider your partner’s tastes and preferences. What one may think is romantic, does not work for the other one.

To tell you the truth, some people would happily take the one evening of magic and romance if that’s all they are going to get, or they are going to be the one that has to clean up the kitchen mess afterwards if their partner does decide to cook for them. After all, not everyone in the kitchen should get free reign in the kitchen. Some, like me, should leave it to the experts.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Finding inspiration in strange places

Many writers are asked the question: where do you get your inspiration from?

The answer may be different for everyone. I've answered the question about the inspiration behind Eye on the Ball so many times in blog posts and author interviews. I think a better question would be to ask where did I get the idea for the series Playing for Glory from? The answer to that is totally different.

The first seed for writing romance novels about rugby might have been planted years ago while I listened to radio broadcasts with my father and the rest of the family. It might have been spending Saturdays driving from one game to the other watching my three brothers until we ended up at Loftus for the big game of the day, Northern Transvaal against whatever other team. It might have been planted on a cold and miserable November day in Edinburgh, cheering on the Springboks played against Scotland at Murrayfield. Or getting up early and staying up late to watch the World Cup, fighting with my team and for them.

No, that is also not the answer. Those were just hours and hours of research.

I believe that the first seed was planted while sipping champagne on the Fourth of July in 2016, on a boat cruise down the Hudson, watching the fireworks. A chance meeting with a young rugby player from Jersey who was my fellow passenger on the cruise, might have been the instigator. I don’t know his name but when he learned I’m South Africa, he mentioned the Springboks and that set us off talking about rugby. I discovered that night that rugby had become a global game.

I still did not know then that I was going to write about it, or that there was a romance novel somewhere buried in me. That only came on the flight from New York to OR Tambo when I could not sleep. After a couple of days overcoming the jetlag, I seemed to unpack the muse with the rest of my luggage. For six months I wrote almost non-stop until I felt brave enough to show my work to a writing coach. I still needed to do a few re-writes before I submitted Eye on the Ball and the series, Playing for Glory to publishers. But now, only eighteen months later, Eye on the Ball was released on 19 March 2018.

It just proves that you need to keep your eyes open. Be receptive. You may never know where you'll get your inspiration from.