#Feature: Miss Moonshine’s Emporium of Happy Endings #authorsontheedge @HelenaFairfax

I’m really so excited about this book! Miss Moonshine’s Emporium of Happy Endings – an anthology by nine Northern romance authors – was published on 18th May, available in print and as an ebook, and it looks like one I’m really going to enjoy. And featuring it today is so much more of a pleasure because I’ve met so many of the authors, read, reviewed and enjoyed several of their books, and welcomed others as guests here on Being Anne. Doesn’t this look thoroughly lovely?

Sometimes what you need is right there waiting for you…

Miss Moonshine’s Wonderful Emporium has stood in the pretty Yorkshire town of Haven Bridge for as long as anyone can remember. With her ever-changing stock, Miss Moonshine has a rare gift for providing exactly what her customers need: a fire opal necklace that provides a glimpse of a different life; a novel whose phantom doodler casts a spell over the reader; a music box whose song links love affairs across the generations. One thing is for certain: after visiting Miss Moonshine’s quirky shop, life is never the same again…

Nine romantic novelists from Yorkshire and Lancashire, including best-selling and award-winning authors, have joined together to create this collection of uplifting stories guaranteed to warm your heart. This intriguing mix of historical and contemporary romances will make you laugh, cry, and believe in the happy-ever-after.

I’m delighted to welcome Helena Fairfax to Being Anne to tell us more…

Writing is a solitary occupation and there’s often nothing romantic about the reality of being a romance writer. Last week I was on a deadline for a book and I was getting up early to write every day in my pyjamas, my face pale, my hair scraped back with a hair bobble. I’m sure I’m not painting a good picture! When we do get out of the house, it’s wonderful to go somewhere for lunch like a civilised person and to be able to meet up with other writers and have a chat.

A while ago a few northern romance authors and I began to meet up regularly in Hebden Bridge, which is conveniently situated for us on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border. We’ve all become great friends – and because we meet on the border we decided to call ourselves Authors on the Edge.

Back row, left to right: Helen Pollard, Marie Laval, Mary Jayne Baker, Jacqui Cooper, Angela Wren.
Front row, left to right: Sophie Claire, Kate Field, Helena Fairfax, Melinda Hammond (writes for M&B as Sarah Mallory).

It was over lunch last year that we got talking about putting an anthology of our stories together. We all write different styles of romance, from Regency to romcom, and we were really excited about bringing all our writing together in one anthology.

It’s been inspiring to work on these stories with such a wonderfully creative group of writers. It also made a lovely change for us all to work on something as a group, rather than writing in isolation at home. Between us, we came up with the idea of setting all our stories in one place – Miss Moonshine’s Wonderful Emporium, which is a quirky old building in our fictional version of the beautiful mill town of Hebden Bridge.

Working on a character and setting with other authors involves a lot of co-ordination. It’s quite different to working on a novel alone. Although our stories are all very different, we needed to have the same reference points to make sure we all described things in the same way. For our fictional Emporium, we took some photos of a building we all liked in Hebden Bridge – an eighteenth century building that had once been a chapel, with an arch of roses at the entrance and a rowan tree by the door. The character of Miss Moonshine is absolutely central to the anthology, and so it was important we all described her in the same way. Author Marie Laval came up with the inspired idea of basing her on Vivienne Westwood. Here is someone we all admired – still amazing in her seventies, still passionate, a fabulous style, a true British eccentric, and also from the north.

After a while, our Miss Moonshine grew her own distinct personality and she, too, has proved to be larger than life. She’s inspired us with our own writing, and she’s become such a friend to all of us, we’ve even started to believe she’s a real character. We hope she works her magic on our readers, too!

Thank you so much for having us, Anne! x

Such a pleasure Helena – I’m so looking forward to reading this one! Let me just add some links to the other appearances on Being Anne of some of the Authors on the Edge…

Helen Pollard – Review of The Little French Guesthouse

Marie Laval – Review of Little Pink Taxi | author feature and interview for Dancing For The Devil | spotlight and extract from Sword Dance

Angela Wren – Guest post on a surprising place, featuring Messandrierre

Kate Field – Review of The Truth About You, Me and Us | guest post for The Magic of Ramblings

Helena Fairfax – Guest post and review of Felicity at the Cross Hotel