Blogtour feature: Garlic and Gauloises by Hemmie Martin (@HemmieMM) + signed PB #giveaway

Alice Calwin finds herself without purpose in life after the death of her mother, whom she’d been caring for following a stroke. Theo Edwards, a literary journalist, has a sour outlook on life, bolstered by his ongoing divorce, and is feeling the pressure to revitalise his column in the newspaper. They encounter one another at a writers’ retreat in France, but Alice’s shameful past and Theo’s deceptive reasons for being there end up affecting them both in very different ways. When someone finally acknowledges their mistakes, is it ever too late to make amends?

I so wish I could have found the time to read this one! I’m really delighted today to be featuring author Hemmie Martin on the first day of her blog tour for Garlic and Gauloises – you’ll find the other stops in the banner on the right. It was released by Winter Goose Publishing in December 2015, and is available in paperback and for kindle.

With thanks to the author, and tour organiser Faye Rogers PR, I’m offering the chance to win a signed paperback copy – but first I’d like to welcome Hemmie to Being Anne, with her top five facts about her book’s protagonists…

Alice’s life is small, sad, and lonely, but she has dreams that she attempts to pursue, mainly the dream to become a published author. She writes romantic novels as love eludes her in real life, so she lives it vicariously through her characters in the book.

Theo is an angry, bitter, and cynical man. He has no compassion for others, has no emotional literacy, and is emotionally stunted. He no longer believes in love. (He was a dream character to write!)

Zoe is emotionally immature and trades on her looks, believing image is more important than character and personality. She believes she has more depth than she actually has.

Clive is sexually confident; a peacocking character that endears or aggravates those around him. He loves being the centre of attention, and tends to exclude people from the central sphere, so as not to be out-shone. He is emotionally cut-off from those around him.

Maggie and Marcus (the British couple who own the chateaux in France), are out of their depth as they are over-confident about their abilities. They are unfulfilled as their dream of an idyllic life in France is not working out.

Thanks for that Hemmie – looks like a really good read. Fancy winning that signed paperback copy (UK only)? Here’s the rafflecopter for entry:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(The winner will be announced on Twitter, on the Being Anne Facebook page, and contacted by email, and a reply will be needed within three days. If not, the prize will be forfeited and a new winner will be drawn. )

Author Information

Hemmie Martin spent most of her professional life as a Community Nurse for people with learning disabilities, a Family Planning Nurse, and a Forensic Mental Health Nurse working with young offenders. She spent six years living in the south of France. She now writes full time.

Hemmie created the DI Wednesday series, featuring DI Eva Wednesday and DS Jacob Lennox, set in and around Cambridge, with fictional villages. There are four books in the series so far. Hemmie has also written a psychological thriller, Attic of the Mind, and two contemporary women’s fiction, The Divine Pumpkin and Garlic & Gauloises. Mental health often features in her novels due to her background of forensic mental health nursing. Hemmie is a member of The Crime Writer’s Association.

Find out more about Hemmie and her books through her excellent website and her Facebook author page: you can also follow her on Twitter.