Q&A with Australian Romance Author Juliet Madison + Giveaway

Today, I have had the lovely Juliet Madison drop by to chat about her new book release with Escape Publishing, The January Wish.Hi Juliet, welcome to the Australian Bookshelf! How would you describe The January Wish in five words?Thanks for having me here today! Five words to describe my new release The January Wish: Australian, emotional, coastal, secretive, heartwarming.Why did you choose to set The January Wish in a coastal town on the South Coast?I had the idea of writing a loosely linked series of books, each with one of the calendar months in the title, and considering that could potentially mean 12 books I knew they would need to be stand alone stories each with different main characters, so I decided to link the books by the setting. And as I had just moved to a small seaside town on the south coast of NSW, I thought what better place to set it than my new hometown (though I created a fictional name)! I love the small community atmosphere and the holiday-like setting and knew it would provide many possibilities for story ideas.You describe yourself as an author of humorous and heart-warming fiction. What do you enjoy most about writing this style of fiction?I enjoy writing and reading books that leave me with a smile on my face. Writing these types of stories means I get to go on a fulfilling emotional journey along with my characters, and if I’m going to spend a lot of time on a story I want to make sure it’s going to be fun and positive and not depressing. That’s not to say I don’t put serious or sad subject matter in my books - I do - but as part of the overall conflict and challenges that make a character grow and lead them to a happy outcome.Some of your stories have a magical and comedic flair to them. Do you have any magical stories from your own life you'd like to share? That’s right, some of my stories (except my Tarrin’s Bay series) are what I call romagic comedy, because they have a dash of something magical. In my own life, I’ve had many magical moments in the sense of ‘special’ moments and memories, such as seeing my son for the first time, getting my degree, seeing my first book cover, getting my first publishing contract...etc. As for ‘real’ magic, hmm... I have certainly had several moments of unexplained serendipity, synchronicity, and those things that seem more than just coincidence. For example, the night before I got my first offer of publication I dreamt that I got an offer of publication from that very publisher! I also had a dream once where someone told me to ‘Buy the angel cards’, whatever that meant. The next day, I was shopping with my mother and she picked up something and commented on how nice they were. Yep, they were a pack of affirmation ‘angel cards’. And yes, I bought them. I could go on but that will do for now! JAnd just for fun, when writing do you prefer…Coffee, tea or hot chocolate? I don’t eat or drink anything while I’m actually writing, but I do love a soy hot chocolate so I’ll go with that!Plotting, pantsing or both?Plotting. I much prefer writing over revising, and I find that plotting as much as possible first off reduces my need for revising afterwards!Quiet solitude or background noise? Ideally, quiet solitude, but I’m often writing to a background cacophony of traffic, my son’s Xbox games and sound effects, cat meows, and birds!A warm, sunny day or a rainy day? Although I love a nice sunny day, there is something inspiring and magical about writing on a rainy day, as though it’s raining down inspiration into my mind and helping the words flow.Typing or pen and notepad? When I plot out a book I often start with pen and notepad and scribble things all over the place, then I make sense of it later and type it up. When doing actual writing though, typing is faster. I mostly write on a portable word processor called an Alphasmart NEO because it is light, has a battery life of months to years, isn’t hot like a laptop, and has no internet or distractions. All it has is a small screen of four lines of text and a keyboard. Then I connect it to my computer via USB when I’m done. I find I write much faster using my NEO. JThanks for the interview!Thank you for stopping by Juliet!Now, Juliet has a fantastic competition running in conjunction with her new release. The details are below:WIN! Enter via Rafflecopter below to win a $25 Amazon gift voucher and a coastal photographic print (pictured below) of the setting of the Tarrin’s Bay series. Competition is open worldwide and the winner will be drawn at the beginning of February.

Enter Giveaway HERE

Buy THE JANUARY WISH from all good ebook retailers:Amazon - Amazon UK - Amazon Aus - iTunes/iBookstore - Kobo - B&N/Nook - GooglePlay - BigW ebooks - Booktopia - JB HiFi - ebooks.com - All Romance ebooksVisit Juliet online at her website, blog, facebook, Goodreads, and twitter. The January WishWhen Dr Sylvia Greene makes an impromptu wish at the Tarrin’s Bay Wishing Festival, it's the most out of character action she can think of. Hers is not a life of wishes. Hers is a controlled life of order, plans and preparation…of science and research and diagnosis and treatment. But her past has been weighing on her mind, and decisions made long ago have far-reaching consequences. A week later, the daughter she secretly gave up for adoption at sixteen arrives in Sylvia's small coastal town with secrets that can't be shared. Between feelings of guilt, gossip, and a growing attraction to an emotionally unavailable colleague, Sylvia's well-ordered life is soon thrown into chaos. She is no longer alone, and for the first time she feels as if her world is open to possibilities. They say be careful what you wish for, but, for Sylvia, the unexpected consequences may be just what the doctor ordered.