Win a $25 GC: Sky Garden by Jenny Scwartz

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Jenny Schwartz will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Thanks for visiting with us today, Jenny. Would you share a little bit about yourself with us today?

Hi, Judy. I’m so happy to be here. I’m popping in from Perth, Western Australia, where summer is being its usual scorching self. Would anyone like some sunshine? We’ve tons to spare *melts*

Do you have a favorite scene you would like to share with us?

I sure do! Sometimes it’s the so-called little things that really touch our hearts. Here is Nick, the hero of Sky Garden, wooing Lanie.

Nick knelt in front of it.

The scent of newly cut—or drilled—wood drifted to her. “What are you doing?”

“Can’t you guess?” He smiled up at her, eyes faintly narrowed as he looked into the evening sun. He fitted two nuts and bolts to a short plank of wood. Chain pooled near him, in his shadow.

“Not the foggiest.” She sat on the narrow bench inside the “gazebo”.

“I had a last minute inspiration for the garden. It won’t make it into the television program. I’m making it detachable.” Chain jangled as he swapped tools and continued working.

She watched his hands, tanned and strong, moving competently. It took a minute before she added up the clues: a wooden board, chain attached either end, and a last minute inspiration. “Nick, it’s a swing!”

His head tilted as he grinned at her. “You said a romantic garden would have a swing in it.”

Where did you come up with the idea for your latest release?

The idea for Sky Garden coalesced from so many things. I was fascinated by how stage psychics structure their performances, and so emerged the heroine, Lanie, an ex-medium. Then, I wondered about ghosts and what actually haunts us. All the time I knew I wanted to set the story in London and that there had to be a roof garden. Roof gardens are sexy! and so, I discovered via the hero, are the men who create them.

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently focused on establishing a paranormal romance series, The Collegium. Demon Hunter and Djinn Justice are out now, Dragon Knight will be out February 27, and Doctor Wolf in late April. After that, I’m free to write another thriller like Sky Garden. The tentative title for that project is “I Stole an Island” and it has such a cool plot. I mean, why and how would you steal an island?

Do you have any special routine that you follow when you are writing?

Does religiously checking Twitter count as a routine?

I try to write in 1,000 word blocks and aim for 3,000 words a day. That’s on a good day when the stars align. I’ve come to understand what people mean when they say that being an author is a marathon, not a sprint. I have to manage my energy—and the other commitments that I take on. So I have a routine, but it’s flexible.

The other part of my writing routine that I should mention is that it always starts with coffee!

Did you have to do a lot of research for this book or any other? If so do you have a fascinating fact that you have learned you would like to share with us?

I love research! In fact, I love it so much that I try to restrict it. Otherwise it’s a rabbit hole and I mightn’t emerge for days.

Researching Sky Garden meant polishing up my knowledge of the Edwardian era, London and British stately homes. What’s not to love about that? If you like dreaming about houses, the UK National Trust has an amazing website. You can even look at all sorts of places you can rent as holiday homes. Yes, please!

Who are some of your favorite authors?

Some of my favourite authors might be a little bit obscure. There’s my critique partner, Eliza Redgold, who writes emotional historical romances that are so real you’re transported. I also like Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals. If you haven’t found Emma Lathen’s old mysteries you’re really missing out on some gems. I think they’re only available secondhand, but they’re fabulous.

Is there a genre you haven't written that you would like to try?

I’d like to write a full-length space opera novel. The Witches of Karres by James H Schmitz is one of my favourite books. I’ve written in a few romantic subgenres — contemporary romance, paranormal romance, steampunk, and speculative science fiction. But I have so many other books to write first, that the space opera is, like space itself, a distant dream.

Thank you so much for this great interview.

On the rooftops of London, you can be anyone.

A year ago, Lanie Briers escaped a serial killer. She grew up in a theatre family and her act was mediumship, but not anymore. Life, now, is a hidden retreat above a quirky Bloomsbury museum, where she waits and watches.

Nick Tawes is an unexpected intrusion. He's a landscape architect filming a television series on roof gardens, and he intends to build one in Lanie's aerial territory. He has his own demons, old family troubles, that lure Lanie out of her refuge and into living again.

But as summer progresses and the sky garden grows, Lanie's enemy is closing in--because some secrets must go to the grave.

Enjoy an excerpt:

She hadn’t cared for vintage clothes before, but living in the time capsule of her flat, the temptation to go all-out was irresistible. So she’d started prowling the street markets for clothes, and especially accessories, from the 1950s, and snapped up sewing patterns from the era. Then she could make her own costumes. And they were costumes. A tiny part of her knew that she was employing a classic distraction ploy: dazzle people with a costume or some outrageous trick of appearance, and they tended not to notice anything else. Not the shape of your nose, the line of your jaw, the way you walked. There was nothing quite so anonymous as an eye-catching costume.

About the Author:

Bio: Jenny Schwartz is a hopeful romantic with a degree in Sociology and History — people watching and digging into the past. She lives in Western Australia and is working towards her dream of living by the sea. Jenny writes romantic suspense, as well as contemporary and paranormal romance.

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Buy the book at Amazon. Sky Garden will be $0.99 during this tour.

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