October 3, 2016
It’s been a fantastic weekend. I celebrated the 10th anniversary of my debut novel’s publication with a tea party at The Old Slaughterhouse cafe and arts centre in Stratford on Avon on Saturday. Family, friends and fellow authors joined me for a delicious high tea and afterwards at the pub.
Then on Sunday evening, Avon Books unveiled the cover of the third book in the Penwith series – Confetti at the Cornish Cafe. It’s probably my favourite cover *ever* – so pretty and the warm sunset colours leapt out at me when I first saw it. The book is out in June 2017 and I’m about half way through the first draft. 🙂
Before then, I’m doing a Twitter Q&A tomorrow (Tuesday) at 1pm so please ask me anything and I’ll try to reply within 140 characters.
And there’s still time to enter my Facebook contest to win an exclusive signed book package.
See you soon,
Phillipa x
Posted by Phillipa @ 7:09 am |
September 29, 2016
October 6th will be the 10th anniversary of me becoming a published author. It’s been a decade with many highs and some lows. Awards, a movie, book launches, best-sellers – and let’s be honest about a writer’s life: rejections, not-so-best-sellers, the odd unpleasant review or comment. There have been a few times that I’ve regretted ever starting the process and occasionally I told myself I was going to stop writing novels and get a proper job.
And yet… even when I tried to stop, I couldn’t because I loved creating my characters and worlds so much. Now, I’m delighted to say I’m a full-time author and having the best writing year of my life. I’ve finally accepted there will be cycles of success and that I can’t stop writing now: it has me in its grip. I am an author.
I’ve made peace with my writing self and I’m very lucky to be enjoying my work more than ever. 🙂
I would never have got here without the support of my family, author friends, my agent and lately, my editorial team at Avon Maze. Most importantly, I’d definitely not have carried on without the fantastic feedback from book bloggers and readers – you!
If you ever think that authors don’t treasure an email, tweet or Facebook message – it’s not true. Your note to them might be the thing that stops them from giving up that day, or for good. So send it, tweet it, post it – now!
COMPETITION TIME
To celebrate the past ten years, I’m running a competition on my Facebook page HERE. You could win a signed copy of Decent Exposure and a proof copy of Christmas at the Cornish Cafe.
Thank you,
Phillipa
Posted by Phillipa @ 5:02 am |
September 6, 2016
Bye, bye, summer… Christmas is on its way. 🙂
Actually, it is very much still summer here in Staffordshire. It’s so warm and sunny outside that I am taking these babies into the garden to work on: the lush page proofs of Christmas at the Cornish Cafe, Book 2 in the Penwith series. It’s out this autumn – not very long now! There have already been a huge amount of preorders for the book, which is so amazing – thank you. xx
I’ve just got back from a week in Cornwall and if you’d like to see some of the photos of places that inspired the Cornish Cafe series, head to my Facebook page here.
You can find out all the latest news there and by following me on Twitter @phillipaashley although I’ll continue to update this blog with any ‘big’ news.
One thing I missed telling you is that the series is now available on Amazon US and Canada.
I’ve had a fabulous summer, book wise, and am so thrilled that Summer at the Cornish Cafe was such a huge hit. It’s been fantastic to get so many messages and reviews. I hope you’ll enjoy Christmas Cafe just as much. Meanwhile, once I’ve sent back the proof read pages to my publisher, I need to get stuck into the third Penwith novel, Confetti at the Cornish Cafe.
Take care, enjoy what’s left of the summer – at least we have Poldark to enjoy now the darker nights are here. And on that note, I’ll leave you with a few photos of the preview night I went to at the BFI last month. I was lucky enough to get tickets to see the awesome first episode and only a few rows back from the cast. Happy days. 🙂
Phillipa x
Posted by Phillipa @ 5:02 am |
July 6, 2016
We all need a treat – and some of us need it more than most right now so check out this competition on my Facebook page HERE. You could win a lovely cherry ripe scarf, Cornish Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate, a pretty Ocean heart hanger and a Kindle voucher for Summer at the Cornish Cafe. Contest is open worldwide but if it’s an overseas winner, I’ll have to substitue the chocolate for something else. 🙂
Back very soon with some exciting news about two of my backlist books.
Enjoy your summer,
Phillipa xx
PS an ENORMOUS thank you to everyone – and there are tens of thousands of you so far – who have bought Summer at the Cornish Cafe. It was an Amazon Top 20 best seller, number #17, in fact which is just mindblowing. It has over 100 Five star reviews too. You’ve also been downloading Christmas at the Cornish Cafe in your thousands so thanks for that. I promise I’ll update the blog soon as I have all kinds of news coming up but you can get the lastest much faster via Twitter @PhillipaAshley
Posted by Phillipa @ 12:16 pm |
May 11, 2016
Morning,
Summer has finally arrived in the UK (and packed its bags again but hey, it’ll be back sometime.)
To celebrate, Avon UK Books are offering a chance to win this gorgeous Summer at the Cornish Cafe goodie pack AND a free ebook copy.
All you have to do is post a picture of your favourite place to read on their Facebook page HERE.
I’d like to thank all my readers for buying the book – which is still only 99p on Amazon. It hit #37 in the Overall Amazon Top 100 chart over the weekend, beyond my wildest dreams and the reviews have been so lovely.
Here’s just one from Em via Shaz’s Book Blog:
Y’ou won’t be disappointed. I don’t mean to wish the beautiful summer months away but Christmas can’t come quick enough for part two.’
And this amazing quote from best selling Irish author, Claudia Carroll:
‘An utterly glorious, escapist read from one of the freshest voices to emerge in women’s fiction.’
I hope summer comes back quickly to your part of the world,
Phillipa x
Posted by Phillipa @ 3:53 am |
