Annie Darling

[amazon_link id=”0008173141″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]Annie Darling lives in London in a tiny flat, which is bursting at the seams with teetering piles of books. Her two greatest passions in life are romance novels and Mr Mackenzie, her British Shorthair cat. ‘True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop’ is the second book in her ‘Lonely Hearts Bookshop’ series.

1. To readers of the blog who may not be familiar with you or your writing, can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into writing.
   Hello! I’m Annie. Long time reader, fairly new writer of lighthearted romantic comedy. I live in London and I like bookshops, cats, long walks… (This is starting to sound like a dating profile!)

   I’ve always loved love stories, always wanted to write one, had so many false starts but then I ended up writing first draft of ‘The Little Bookshop Of Lonely Hearts’ in a frenzied six weeks and everything fell into place.

2. Can you tell us about your new book ‘True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop’.
   It can be read as a standalone but it’s the second book in my ‘Lonely Hearts Bookshop’ series, set in a Bloomsbury bookshop, Happy Ever After, “a one stop shop for all your romantic fiction needs.” It’s the story of Verity Love, Happy Ever After’s manager, vicar’s daughter, middle one of five sisters, Pride & Prejudice obsessive and introvert. She absolutely does not want a relationship and neither does posh architect, Johnny. But to get their meddling, matchmaking friends to leave them alone, they join forces to do the summer season of weddings, birthdays and barbecues. But things don’t go quite according to plan.
3. If you were to start your own book club, what authors would you ask to join?
   Jane Austen (of course,) Jackie Collins, Jilly Cooper and JK Rowling. All the J’s and some very lively discussion!
4. What’s your favourite part of the writing process?
   At the very beginning, when I have my idea and outline and I’m raring to go and anything seems possible and I’m going to write the best book ever. Alas, disillusionment soon sets in.
5. Who’s your favourite literary hero or heroine?
   Nick and Nora Charles from Dashiell Hamnett’s ‘Thin Man’ series. #relationshipgoals
6. From books to films, what’s been your favourite adaptation?
   The BBC production of ‘Pride & Prejudice’ with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. I will accept no substitutes.
7. If you were starting your writing journey again, would you do anything differently?
   I wish I’d had the courage and the self-belief to take the plunge and start writing much earlier.
8. If you were stranded on a desert island, which three books would you bring with you to pass the time?
   Oh gosh! Difficult one. Maybe ‘The Collected Mapp’ & Lucia novels by EF Benson – I’m sure you can get them in one volume so it’s not cheating. ‘Lace’ by Shirley Conran and ‘The Mitford Letters’.
9. What area do you suggest a budding writer should concentrate on to further their abilities?
   Read! Read! Read! You can’t be a writer without being a reader first.
10. When sitting down to write, what is the one item you need beside you?
    A great big pot of tea.
11. And finally Annie do you have any projects or releases on the horizon which you would like to share with the readers of the website?
    I’m hard at work on the third book in the series, Nina’s story, ‘On The Shelf At The Lonely Hearts Bookshop’, out next spring.

    Thank you for having me your blog. xxx

Follow on Twitter Annie Darling for updates.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”0008173141″ target=”_blank” ]True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop from Amazon [/amazon_link] and is available to buy from good bookshops.