Another month, and another authors’ Round Robin. This month our topic is a little different…but we think it’s one you’ll enjoy!
This month, we’ve each decided to interview an author from our own part of the world. So without further ado…
Good to meet you…author Sharon Booth!
If you’re a fan of heartwarming romantic fiction, and especially if you live in Yorkshire, you may not need an intro to the lovely Sharon Booth. We live at separate ends of the county (Sharon in the east, me in the west), so it was brilliant to meet up with Sharon recently in North Yorks, in the city of York, and I’m really ‘chuffed’ to be able to get to know Sharon better today.
Welcome to our Round Robin, Sharon!
Thanks so much for inviting me on to your blog, Helena! It’s a pleasure to be here.
Where do you live, Sharon? (Let’s pretend I don’t know)
I live in the city of Kingston-Upon-Hull, or Hull as it’s more commonly known. Or, let’s be honest, ‘Ull to us locals! Hull is a fabulous city with a proud seafaring history. Geographically it sits on the banks of the Humber, within the East Riding of Yorkshire.
I’m embarrassed to say…after all these years living in Yorkshire…that I’ve never been to Hull! I’d love to visit the aquarium, and I plan to take a (very) long overdue trip east next summer.
Where is your favourite place in the world?
Oh, that’s tough! We’ve visited so many beautiful places. Yorkshire, with the Dales, Wolds, moorland and coastline. Devon. Cornwall. The Scottish Borders. Northumberland. Somerset. The Cotswolds, Pembrokeshire, the Norfolk Broads… You know, thinking about all those holidays, I have to say that my favourite place in the world is wherever my husband is, even if that’s just at home. Maybe especially if that’s just at home. Sorry if that’s a nauseating answer but it’s true!
You’ve mentioned some of my favourite places in your list. And I so agree about the pleasure of time at home.
Being a writer is a great job. What’s the worst job you ever had?
Working in a fish and chip shop. It was horrible! I was the world’s worst ‘wrapper-upper’, and I invariably managed to break the fish in half, which infuriated the boss. My mum used to work in a chippy when I was a child, and she made it look effortless. I was useless and left very quickly. I think I jumped before I was pushed!
It does seem a thankless job, and the smell must linger. We love our fish and chips, though. Respect to all chippy workers everywhere!
If you could meet anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be? And what would you say to them?
I would love to meet some of the ancestors I’ve been researching for years and ask them about their lives. Like the one whose birth certificate has a line where a father’s name should be, and who was registered in his mother’s maiden name even though she’d got married eight months before the birth. It makes no sense. And my mum’s family from Roscommon and Dad’s family from County Sligo, who came to Hull during the Irish famine, because I’d love to hear of their experiences and what it was like to be immigrants here in the nineteenth century. And the fisherman from what was then Prussia, who settled here and married my great-great-great grandmother, because if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here now. So much I’d love to know!
My family came over from Ireland, too. So many stories to tell. It’s great you’re keeping their memories alive.
What’s your happiest childhood memory?
So many! One of the most exciting things (for children at any rate) were the endless foggy mornings when we had to walk to school in ‘crocodiles’ because we couldn’t see a thing in front of us. The fog was so bad and so regular back then that the school issued luminous orange armbands to be sewn onto our coat sleeves. I’d wake up every morning to the sound of the Humber foghorn issuing its mournful warnings. Oh, I loved it! Our classroom was a prefab with a huge boiler in the centre of the room and a fireguard all the way around it, and on wet and snowy days we children used to drape our socks on it to dry. Can you believe that? School assemblies and plays and carol services. And Christmas mornings. And books. So many books! I could write a whole book just recounting my happy childhood memories.
You’ve painted such a vivid picture, and reminded me of those harsh winters I spent walking to my primary school in York. Not so much fog, but lots of snow and frost. I hope you do write that book some day. It would bring back happy memories for many.
If you had to marry a character from film, television or books, who would it be?
Do you know what? I’d marry Endeavour Morse. Only because whenever I watch Endeavour my heart breaks for this character who I know will grow old alone, and I know he just needs someone to love him. Every time I watch it (I do a lot of rewatches of my favourite series!) I get so upset, knowing his fate is sealed and he’ll never find that happiness. So (if I could be a lot younger than I am now) I’d step into the 1960s, and if I couldn’t get him to finally tell Joan he loves her then I’d marry him myself so I could stop worrying about him!
I absolutely love this idea, Sharon. If only Morse weren’t under copyright. There’s definitely a time-travel book you could write in there!
What’s the most important lesson life has taught you?
Stop getting too emotional over fictional characters! No, only joking. Probably that everything will pass, and what might sometimes feel like the end of the world will one day be a distant memory, and that it led you to wherever you were supposed to be all along. Nothing really matters as much as you think it does.
And finally, please tell us about your latest release, and where we can find it.
My latest release is called Christmas Spirits at Honeywell House, which is the third book in my Ghosts of Rowan Vale series with Boldwood Books.
It’s a gorgeously romantic and festive story set in the Cotswolds, featuring a married couple with three young children who are going through a very difficult time as the big day approaches, what with money troubles and hormones and squabbling sons. Meanwhile, two of the village’s resident ghosts are going through their own upheavals, and a surprising rebellion is in the offing!
Then a special Dickensian weekend event brings matters to a head, forcing them all to face up to some harsh truths.
There’s snow, steam trains, a Christmas market, and secrets and surprises galore!
Here’s the buy link for Christmas Spirits at Honeywell House. The book’s available on all platforms and in all formats: paperback, eBook, hardback, large print, digital and physical audio.
Thanks so much for joining us on our Round Robin today, Sharon, and for your brilliant answers. It’s been so nice getting to know you!
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I hope you’ve enjoyed Sharon’s interview as much as I did. Please do check out her latest release. Like all Sharon’s novels, it’s a wonderful read, and this one is perfect for the holidays :)
And if you’d like to see who are other authors are interviewing across the world, please click on the links below…
Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3Bg
Sally Odgers https://behindsallysbooksmark2.blogspot.com/
Anne Stenhouse https://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Helena Fairfax 
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