New Romantics Press is thrilled to invite FABULOUS debut author Janet Brigden into to our den to learn more about her novel AS WEEKEND GO. Fabulous cover, Jan.

cover designed by  Berni Stevens

Jan has been a great supporter of the NRP over the years and it’s great to have the opportunity to Pay It Forward and help her celebrate in style. Here we are at Waterstones, London last year with Jan and other members of the Romantic Novelists’ Society.

So tell us all about AS WEEKEND GO, Jan, you have the floor. 

It was on Valentine’s Day 2015 that I found out As Weekends Go had been shortlisted in the Choc Lit  and  Whole Story Audiobooks Search for a Star Competition. One month later, I discovered I’d won! I can’t tell you how elated I felt upon signing my Choc Lit contract.

Aspiring authors will want to know how you did it, Jan. Any tips ? 

May All Your Dreams Come True

The idea for the novel stemmed from a creative writing course assignment I completed a few years back via The Writers Bureau.  I had to create a tense scenario involving two characters only. I chose a  husband and his wife’s best friend. He’d  secretly invited her to his house on the pretence of discussing his wife’s surprise 30^th birthday party. Instead, he confronted her about some gossip he’d heard regarding a recent weekend trip the two women had taken together. Which  afterwards begged the question in my mind: ‘Well, what did happen during that weekend?’  And so the story slowly evolved…

I didn’t have any buddies or contacts in the literary world, at the time, so made the effort to attend lots of author talks and events, subsequently connecting with writers and readers on Facebook and Twitter. I then became a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s fantastic New Writers’ Scheme, receiving two fabulous critiques for the early drafts of  As Weekends Go from my assigned reader, which gave me the confidence that I could actually write and that my book had much promise. Music to a budding author’s ears, for sure!

I went on to form an online writing/blogging group with seven very special ladies, who became The Romaniacs.    Two of our biggest highlights to date include releasing a charity anthology last year, entitled Romaniac Shorts: Fashionably Brief’ and more recently, proudly receiving the RNA industry Media Award. RNA Industry Media Star Awards We even got a mention in The Bookseller.

And now, as the year draws to a close, I’ve had the biggest thrill of all in proudly seeing Choc Lit  publish As Weekends Go. I hope you enjoy it, here’s the blurb.

What if your entire life changed in the space of a weekend?

When Rebecca’s friend Abi convinces her to get away from it all at the fabulous Hawksley Manor hotel in York, it seems too good to be true. Pampering and relaxation is just what Rebecca needs to distract herself from the creeping suspicion that her husband, Greg, is hiding something from her. She never imagined that by the end of the weekend she would have dined with celebrities or danced the night away in exclusive clubs. Nor could she have predicted she would meet famous footballer, Alex Heath, or that he would be the one to show her that she deserved so much more …

But no matter how amazing a weekend is, it’s always back to reality come Monday morning – isn’t it?

As Weekends Go –  available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

You’ll find Jan at these places – Facebook, Twitter  and @theromaniacs

I hope you enjoy it. Love Jan.

We know we will Jan, thanks for appearing on the NRP blog – happy sales and happy Christmas. Now get on and write the next one, that’s what we do. LOL.