July 26, 2020

Coffee Break with Heidi Swain

It’s so exciting to have this chance to talk to one of my favourite authors today, I have so many questions I could ask Heidi & could talk to her all day!

Heidi Swain Author Bio

Although passionate about writing from an early age, Heidi Swain gained a degree in Literature, flirted briefly with a newspaper career, married and had two children before she plucked up the courage to join a creative writing class and take her literary ambitions seriously.

A lover of vintage paraphernalia and the odd bottle of fizz, she now writes feel good fiction with heart for Simon and Schuster.

Her debut novel, The Chery Tree Café was published in July 2015 and since then she has had a further nine books published, becoming a Sunday Times Bestseller in 2017. She is currently looking forward to the release of her 2020 Christmas title, The Winter Garden.

Heidi is represented by Amanda Preston and lives in Norfolk with her family and a mischievous cat called Storm.

So thank you so much Heidi for coming by today!

Thank you so much for inviting me along! It’s a pleasure to be here.

I love the story behind your writing journey, can you tell us about your publishing journey & what was it that made you follow your writing ambitions?

I’d wanted to be an author for as long as I can remember, but I never had the confidence to really do anything about it. I was always reading, always adding to my notebook collection and always dreaming about seeing my books on the supermarket shelves, but never actually doing anything to make it happen.

However, a milestone birthday changed all that and I realised that if I didn’t stop dreaming and take some kind of action, then it was never going to happen. Once I’d made that decision, I began to fill up those notebooks, take creative writing classes and eventually joined the Romantic Novelists Association New Writers Scheme.

The Cherry Tree Café was the book I submitted for critique and then, after making a few changes, I sent it off to the Books and The City #oneday in 2014. By November I had been offered a two book, digital first deal and The Cherry Tree Café was published in July 2015.

I haven’t looked back since! I’ve now written 12 books – the 11^th coming in October and the 12^th in production – and I’m published in e-book, paperback and audio formats as well as in Italy and Germany. Becoming a Sunday Times Bestseller was an absolute highlight and I still love going to see the books on the supermarket shelves.

It just goes to prove that if you have a dream, and you go all out to reach it, you’ll get there!

Definitely, I love that! What/Who would you say has influenced you the most as a writer?

In terms of what has influenced me, I guess that would be the genre I love to write. I read a lot of commercial fiction or feel good fiction. My whole life is caught up with other authors stories as well as my own. I love a happy ending!

Without a doubt, Milly Johnson (or Dame Milly as I prefer to call her), has had a huge influence on me. We share the same publisher and she has been so supportive, encouraging and on hand with advice right from the start of my career. She was actually at the very event where I was taken to one side and offered that first deal! She’s so generous with her time and I try to be too. I love interacting with my readers and my Swainette crew.

I love Wynbridge! What was the inspiration behind this series of books, did you always know it was going to be series? They also work very well as a standalone, was that harder for you when writing these? Do you have a favorite character from this series?

When I dreamt up the little Fenland town of Wynbridge and wrote The Cherry Tree Café, I never gave any thought to creating a series. My sole focus was on writing the best book I could in a place that wasn’t all that dissimilar from the town I grew up with. It soon became obvious that readers loved it too and that opened up the exciting opportunity of writing a whole series.

As all of the books feature a different main character, that has made writing them relatively easy. It’s always a pleasure to discover what everyone who has featured before is up to, so really it isn’t difficult at all, more like a regular catch up with old friends! The same can now be said for the Nightingale Square series and I hope Wynmouth will grow in the future too!

This is such a difficult question! I love so many of the characters in all of my books, however a stand out Wynbridge character would have to be Jemma, who owns The Cherry Tree Café and is always baking up a storm.

She’s a strong woman with an amazing talent. She has so many goals and such incredible vision as well as the ambition and determination to see it all through. She shows us that women can achieve anything and I hope she’s a great role model.

That's exactly how I feel when I return to Wynbridge or Nightingale like catching up with friends! Jemma is definitely inspirational. Which moments would you say are highlights for you in your writing career?

Another tricky question! There have been so, so many. Hearing the words ‘we’d like to offer you a two-book deal’ was a dream come true as was seeing a paperback with my name on the cover sitting alongside other big brand authors on the supermarket shelves. My readers naming themselves the Swainettes, meeting Jilly Cooper, being shortlisted for awards… all standout moments but, the pinnacle was making it on to the Sunday Times Bestseller list.

Sleigh Rides and Silver Bells peaked at number 5 on the list. Number 5! And it was the best Christmas present ever! I’m hoping I’ll make it again but in the meantime I’m more than happy to hang on to the moment when I was sitting in my little Fiat in a Norwich park and ride car park and my editor called to tell me the news. I was on cloud nine for weeks!

So many lovely moments Heidi, Sleigh Rides and Silver Bells is one of my favourites! (Although it would be very hard to pick just one!) The Secret Seaside Escape is your newest novel, it is on my Kindle ready to read! What can I expect in this novel?

Well, there’s a brand-new setting for a start! I absolutely loved creating the tiny Norfolk coastal village of Wynmouth. It’s an unashamed amalgamation of all the seaside places I love in my home county.

There’s also Tess of course. The poor woman has had so much stress and upheaval in her life. She’s on the edge and decides to go back to the one place where she thinks she’ll find herself again. She used to holiday in Wynmouth with her parents and she’s pinning all her hopes on her happy memories and more time there being able to fix her.

I’m not going to give away more than that, but as you can imagine, things don’t turn out quite as Tess expects!

Do you have a favourite place to write?

I have a tiny desk set up in my bedroom. It’s literally just big enough for my laptop and some stationery and it’s where I do practically all of my writing now. That said, it wouldn’t really matter where I write, favourite or otherwise – as long as it’s quiet – because once I enter my fictional world my surroundings drift away.

What advice would you give to your younger writer self?

That’s a great question! I think I’d tell myself to take my literary ambitions seriously far sooner. But then again, I’m a great believer in things happening when they’re meant to, so maybe not…

To be braver would be something I would say. For a long time, I let fear of all sorts of things hold me back and if I could tell my younger self anything it would be to shove that fear out the door and get on with things! Both in writing and life.

I love that so much! What exciting things are happening for you coming up?

Next on the writing agenda is publication of The Winter Garden and I’m so excited about it! The book is the third set in Nightingale Square but it’s the first time I will have taken my readers there in the run up to Christmas.

It’s out on October 1^st and I absolutely loved writing it. The main characters – Freya and Finn – go on quite a journey and I can’t wait to see them out in the world.

I am looking forward to returning to Nightingale at Christmas and to meet Freya and Finn! The cover is just beautiful! Share a photo of one of your favourite things!