A few months ago I was approached by American author Gemma Juliana regarding an exciting project. Gemma was putting together an international group of authors, whose first release would be an anthology of European-set short stories. I’ve worked with Gemma on a couple of anthologies before – the most recent was the Christmas anthology Exquisite Christmas, which was released last year. Gemma is wonderful to work with, the quality of the stories and the editing is very high, and so I didn’t hesitate to say yes – I’d be delighted and proud to be a part of her group!

Several weeks later, and our group is now well underway. Our first anthology will be called Letterbox Love Stories, and we are planning to release in June. All the stories are set in Europe, and the premise of each story is that the heroine receives a letter that changes her life.

I loved the idea behind this whole project. I set my mind to work, mulling over and discarding several ideas until I hit on the one that excited me the most. My story is set in Paris, and will feature a French gourmet chef called Edmond, an English fashion journalist called Alice, and a reality dating show called Come Date Me in Paris. There will be lots of delicious recipes, French cheese, olives, saucissons, chocolate, romance, and a guaranteed happy ending.

I’ve already had the pleasure of reading a couple of the other stories, and they were great reads with an unusual setting and brilliant characters. I can’t wait for release of the whole anthology this summer.

There are nine of us in the anthology: Cara Marsi, Denyse Bridger, Gemma Juliana, Helena Fairfax (me), Jenny Twist, Lindsay Townsend, Lynn Crain, Marie Laval, and Rose Anderson

You can follow our progress here:

On our Facebook page

On Pinterest, where we list our inspirations

And on our new website, where we will shortly be posting about our photos, excerpts, inspiration behind our stories, etc.

This has been a lovely group to work with. I hope you’ll be able to join us on our journey to release, and I’m very much looking forward to reading all my fellow authors’ stories!