I’m beyond thrilled to have multi-talented Australian author Rebecca Raisin with me at the blog today. She’s agreed to answer a few questions and talk about her wonderful new book in the Carina UK Gingerbread series, Chocolate Dreams at the Gingerbread Cafe.
Take it away, Rebecca!
1. You’re Australian. What’s it like to live in the Land Down Under?
I live in Perth on the Western side of Oz, and it has been HOT! But it’s finally starting to cool after the seemingly longest summer EVER. I can’t help but speak in capitals when I think of sunshine. Australia is a beautiful country, and we are lucky in Perth that nothing is too far away, we have wineries bounding our suburb, and art galleries, and breweries, and beaches are thirty minutes away. It’s a relaxed and easy place to live!
2. You’re a mom. Is it difficult to juggle writing with parenting? What’s your writing routine?
I don’t find it too hard to juggle. I guess because I do have a semi-routine that I kind of stick to. (I am the most disorganised person, so people who know me would laugh at me having a routine!) Once the boys are at school I write every day for four-ish hours. I’m best first thing in the morning, and if my house doesn’t look as though it’s been burgled I’ll write all day, but usually my twin tornadoes have blown through, so the usual mom stuff comes into play after 1pm. It’s at that point you’ll find me running around the house trying to make it look unlike a disaster zone. But there are just some days where I am too caught up in writing that we have toast for dinner, and I blame other people for the mess. Or I just say I’m on strike.
3. How did you become a writer? Was it something you always wanted to do?
I’ve always loved reading, and a writer I know suggested I take a creative writing class. The boys were only babies, so I went to Tafe one night a week and was immediately hooked! I started with short stories and entered them into competitions, and those stories were chosen to be published. So I think that lucky first break really inspired me to keep going.
4. Your new book, Chocolate Dreams at the Gingerbread Cafe, is a sequel to Christmas at the Gingerbread Cafe. Tell us a bit about it.
This is the second book in the Gingerbread series and is set over Easter. The town of Ashford are coming together to host a chocolate festival to help boost sales for their shops. It’s a heartwarming novella about love, friendship and, of course, food!
Here’s the blurb:
Chocolate…the most irresistible temptation?
The Gingerbread Café is all abuzz! This Easter, Lily and the rest of the town of Ashford, Connecticut are planning a truly decadent Chocolate Festival. Cooking up a storm, CeeCee and Lily are not just baking a batch of their sinfully delicious chocolate-dipped gingerbread men, but an excess of chocolate truffles, squidgy, cinnamony hot cross buns and melt in your mouth chocolate eggs. The Gingerbread Café staff have definitely enjoyed the tasting process!
Add in Damon’s cute-as-a-button seven year old daughter, Charlie, up for a visit and Lily’s perfect Easter may just be around the corner. Until her ex-husband Joel turns up demanding twenty thousand dollars… Suddenly the future of the Gingerbread Café is not so clear…and Lily finds herself eating far more of The Gingerbread Café’s treats than her skinny jeans allow…
Can Lily concoct a brilliant plan to save her beloved café, convince Damon she has no feelings for Joel and still throw a Chocolate Festival the town will be talking about for years? There’s only one way to find out…
Welcome back to the warmth, cupcakes and hot chocolate of The Gingerbread Café – your home away from home.
5. Wow, Christmas Dreams sounds fabulous! And I love the cover! What inspired your first book? Can we look forward to a third?
I wrote the first book after seeing a submission call for Christmas stories. It was late, almost midnight, and as I turned off the bedside lamp I ‘heard’ CeeCee’s voice. The opening scene of the book played out in my mind so I quickly switched the light back on and wrote myself a bunch of notes. Of course I couldn’t sleep then because the scene kept on playing, so it was with lots of coffee the next morning I stared to write Christmas at the Gingerbread Café!
6. Everyone loves CeeCee! Is she back in the new book? Who or what inspired her character?
She’s in the next book! I’ve always loved Southern characters, and their gorgeous accent. CeeCee was the first character I thought of when I had the idea. She’s so much fun to write, and so sassy and sweet! She’s the kind of person you want as a friend, and is great at doling out advice.
7. Do you have any fabulous recipes to share with us?
I’m going to share this BBC recipe for making your own Easter eggs! I have just ordered a bunch of moulds and am planning on making my own eggs this year. After researching techniques for the novella, I kind of got hooked on the idea! They make it look so easy! I’ll report back how my first attempts go, but in the meantime here is a recipe! I’d love to know if you do try to make them!
Thank you for hosting me, Katie! And happy Easter!
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Rebecca Raisin, Author
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