Author Spotlight no.372 – Caroline A Connell

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the three hundred and seventy-second, is of debut novelist Caroline A Connell. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at author-spotlights.

Writer, blogger, mom, wife and adventurer on life’s creative high seas. Self-confessed book-junkie, literary festival devotee and peruser of indie bookstores. Caroline A Connell is a former finance guru who has escaped death-by-bullet point to live her dream to write novels and publish them.

A lover of the written word, as a child Connell read her way through the local public library. In high school, she would irritate her Eng Lit teacher by reading ahead but still keep tabs on where the teacher was up to. {Does anyone remember those tedious lessons where the teacher just sat at the front and read? For an hour at a time? Talk about killing off a love of literature}.

Caroline - coverAfter college, a life in finance and the law tempered her need to write but it remained an itch that could never be fully scratched. “The Secret Alchemist” is her first published novel and 2014 promises several more.

Connell lives on the gentle, green slopes of the Pennine Hills in the UK with her family and pet dog, and can be discovered at her website and across social media.

*

And now from the author herself:

“I’m from Lancashire County in the UK – it’s a rural farming county, all green fields and rolling hills that run down to the shores of the Irish Sea, but right on the doorstep of the cosmopolitan cities of Manchester and Liverpool. I grew up on the southern shores of Lancaster Bay, with fabulous views to the magnificent Cumbrian Mountains, so I’ve a love open seascapes and vistas of mountain ranges disappearing into the hazy distance.

CarolineI’ve always written: at school for the school magazine and since then I’ve been thinking up stories and jotting them down as a hobby. At school it was my daydream to be an author, but a school careers counsellor persuaded me to go into the law and that was that for a while. Having said that, it was a wise suggestion on his part – I could subvert my desire to write into drafting legal documentation, which worked, for a while at least. I decided upon it as a career back in April last year.

My debut novel is called The Secret Alchemist. I’d had the idea of an international thriller set in the banking / finance world for some time, but it wasn’t until I chanced upon a copy of a report written by a think-tank into the state of Boardroom pay that I found the hook. It’s set in the world of tax avoidance and the aftermath of the Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 as these are really contemporary issues – people are still asking why the Financial Crisis happened and what businesses and the politicians are doing to stop it happening again. Having said that, I wanted it to have a romantic streak a mile wide so I’d call it a contemporary romantic adventure story with a dose of futuristic fun! People read for all sorts of reasons: escapism; enjoyment; worlds and places they’d like to visit; characters they’d like to get to know, or be. I hope that my readers find that it scratches their reading itch, at least for a while!

2014 promises so much. I have the mother of all WIPs: am working on a children’s series, as well as urging another through illustration. There’s also the successor to The Secret Alchemist, a four-book sci-fi series, and a standalone piece of literary fiction… It reminds me of a recent interview with the fabulous, prize-winning author, Hilary Mantel, who said that her problem wasn’t the lack of ideas, but rather finding the time to turn them all into reality. I know how she feels!

My blog is on my website, where I share news, views and thoughts on writing. You can buy signed copies of my books there and it’s mobile optimised, too. If you love social media, an eBook of The Secret Alchemist is part of a fabulous kindle rafflecopter giveaway over on Facebook (a kindle pre-loaded with lots of ebooks is the prize) that runs through to the end of June – check out the fabulous BOOKRHYTHM page for more information. Whilst you’re there, please stop by my author page and website to let me know what you think of this.

Thanks, Morgen, for the chance to be here: this is the best job I could ever have and I love meeting new people!

**

Caroline - blogYou’re very welcome, Caroline. It’s been great to meet you.

You can find more about Caroline and her writing via…

Her debut novel, The Secret Alchemist, can be discovered on Amazon at:

And at Barnes and Noble at:

***

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app via Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com **

Morgen Bailey Cover montage 2You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel The Serial Dater’s Shopping List, various short story collections and writer’s block workbooks) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post a spotlight or interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.

I welcome items for critique directly (see Editing & Critique) or for posting on the online writing groups.

2 thoughts on “Author Spotlight no.372 – Caroline A Connell”

  1. Pagadan says:
    Reply

    The Secret Alchemist sounds intriguing, and I enjoyed Caroline A Connell’s author spotlight–and her phrase: death-by-bullet point. I
    like the premise; I enjoyed a mystery series set in the banking world, but I can’t remember the author. It was two writers using one pseudonym…

    Like

  2. Pingback: Author Spotlight: Caroline A Connell (link) | Joy V. Smith

We'd love you to leave a comment, thank you!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.