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Alli Sinclair on her 3-book deal, writing, and the allure of the tango…
I’m so excited to welcome my wonderful friend and writing critique partner, Alli Sinclair to the blog today! Alli and I have known each other just over two years now, and barely a day has gone by when we haven’t communicated via facebook message, email, text, or phone! I had the pleasure of reading her book, LUNA TANGO, in manuscript stage, and can’t wait to read the finished product when it releases in print and ebook on 1st August 2014! It’s a rich, absorbing tale of dance, romance, mystery, and family ties. I know readers are going to love it. 🙂
I decided to ask Alli a few questions in honour of her first book deal. Here we go…
1. Congratulations on your three book deal with Harlequin Australia! How did you feel when you received your offer of publication?
Stunned is the first word that came to mind. Hubby saw my face as my amazing agent delivered the news on the telephone and he said he’d wished he’d videotaped it because my expression was priceless. Needless to say there was a lot of happy dancing and squeals of delight from the entire family!
2. Tell us about your book series and can you give us a blurb for your August release, LUNA TANGO?
Luna Tango is the first in the Dance Card series that explores dances and music that capture hearts both on and off the dance floor—Buenos Aires and the tango, Granada and the flamenco, and Paris and the Russian Ballet. With stories about love, loss, passion, and betrayal, the Dance Card Series takes readers on a journey full of colour, glitz, and dreams.
In Luna Tango, journalist Dani McKenna delves into the world of tango to expose the decades of lies and deception that threaten three generations of her family. She’s desperate to understand the reason her mother abandoned her twenty years ago to become a world-class tango dancer, why her grandma lives in fear of all things tango, and how the brutal murder of a tango music legend in 1950s Buenos Aires now affects her family.
Dani meets the enigmatic Carlos Escudero, a revered tango dancer and man of intense passion, who helps her unravel tango’s sordid history. Despite Dani’s lack of rhythm, they create their own dance of the souls until the differences in their cultures causes a deep rift. As she seeks to reconnect with Carlos and rebuild her family, tango – the dance of passion – becomes a complicated dance of betrayal.
3. What made you want to write a dance series?
That’s an excellent question and does it sound lame to say I’m not really sure? I grew up with dance and was surrounded by it when I lived in South America so it felt like a natural progression to write about something I love.
4. If you could tango with anyone in the world, who would it be? (I think I know the answer to this!)
You really need to ask this question? Who else but the man who inspired the character of Carlos in Luna Tango – Gilles Marini!
5. Your book has a present day timeline intertwined with a historical timeline. Did you face any challenges writing a dual timeline book?Â
It can be a challenge tying up loose ends from the historical timeline into the present-day, but my eagle-eyed critique partners, agent, and editors make sure none get missed! I truly believe it takes a village to write a book!
6. What would you say to aspiring authors who are struggling to get published and feel like giving up?
Try it. Give up for a week, or a month – set a time limit – and see how you feel. If you’re itching to get back to the desk then you’re a writer through and through. This is a tough business and we spend hours, months, years honing our skills and receiving rejection after rejection so the only thing that keeps us going is our love for telling stories and the  hope that one day we can share that passion. If you know you are born to do this then giving up will be the hardest thing you could ever do and that will be the perfect sign for you to continue with your dream. I am all about people pursuing their goals and reaching for the stars!
7. What is your favourite dance movie?
Ohhh…. that’s like asking me to pick a favourite child! No fair! Anything with Gene Kelly (I’m a sucker for Hollywood musicals), Dirty Dancing (that one’s for you, Juliet!), Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge, and… and… there’s too many to mention!
8. What are you most looking forward to about being a debut novelist?
Apart from holding my book baby in my hands? Sharing my characters with the world and giving readers a chance to go on a journey to an exotic destination and experience what it’s like to fall in love with tango.
9. You have a love of history and culture, what is your favourite place in the world, and if you could spend a year living in any time period which would you choose?
Another “pick your favourite child” question! But I have to say Buenos Aires, Argentina is my number one place in the world and has been since I first travelled there in 1995. And as for time period, 1920s Buenos Aires because that is when tango came back from Europe as a “civilised” dance, rather than frowned upon by Argentines like it was many years prior. That must have been an amazing time to see the elite Argentines finally embracing a dance that was once considered “uncouth”.
10. What do you hope readers will get out of reading LUNA TANGO?
An experience that triggers many emotions and inspires the reader to get on the next plane to Argentina or book into a tango class!
11. How can readers connect with you or keep updated on your upcoming release?
- website/blog: www.allisinclair.com
- publisher: Harlequin MIRA (Australia)
- twitter: @allisinclair
- facebook: www.facebook.com/AlliSinclairAuthor
- Add LUNA TANGO to Goodreads HERE!
12. And lastly, would you like to share your book trailer with us?
Of course! A very talented friend, Sean McGee composed the music and some incredibly clever photographers contributed to the trailer. View the trailer HERE.
Thanks Alli! I can’t wait to see the cover for LUNA TANGO when it’s available, and can’t wait for August! 🙂
*Photo credit of tango: Carlos Luque, wikimedia commons
Book News: My 5th Book To Be Published!
I’m excited to announce that I’ve signed a contract for my novel FEBRUARY OR FOREVER, and it will be released by Escape Publishing on 1st February (how appropriate) in 2014!
You may know that I have another novel releasing on 1st January, called The January Wish, and February or Forever will follow on from that as part of a linked series of books set in the same small town of Tarrin’s Bay. Both are stand-alone stories, you can read them both in any order you choose (I wrote February or Forever without any spoilers for The January Wish), but some characters do reappear. I hope you will fall in love with the beautiful small Australian coastal town I’ve created that is based on the town I live in on the south coast of NSW, and of course, the characters!
I absolutely loved writing February or Forever, and it was the fastest book I’ve ever written (I’ll do another blog post at a later stage about how I wrote 84k in 27 days!). Hmm, it may even be my favourite. But that could have something to do with the awesome character of Drew Williams. 😉
February or Forever is a small town coastal romance with a women’s fiction bent. There are some rural elements also. Here’s the blurb:
What if your favourite celebrity fell in love with YOU?
Yoga teacher and single mother, Chrissie Burns has a plan: Move into the rundown beach house left to her by her deceased aunt, renovate it, sell it, and move on. As the scene of a terrible accident years ago, the sooner Chrissie can get rid of the house the better. But what she didn’t plan for during her time in Tarrin’s Bay was to be given the role of private yoga instructor to Drew Williams, Australia’s top singer/songwriter who is staying at the Serendipity Retreat during February for some R&R. Nor did she plan for her favourite celebrity crush to fall head over heels for her. As Chrissie deals with haunting memories, an intoxicating yet forbidden attraction to Drew, and the need to create a better life for her son, she’s put in the most challenging position she’s ever faced.
Did you get the pun in the last line? ‘position’ … ‘yoga’ … hehe. Puns play a bit of a role in the book too 😉
I can’t wait to hear what readers think of my Tarrin’s Bay series, and I’m so glad the first two books are releasing back-to-back at the start of 2014. So I better get a move on and write the ‘March’ book, eh?
Stay tuned for more details about the series (book cover for The January Wish should be ready by around mid-November), and subscribe to the blog if you don’t want to miss anything. For now, here’s a link to my Pinterest board with some pictorial inspiration for FEBRUARY OR FOREVER…
AND… stay tuned also for some more good news I’ll be announcing very soon!! 😉
Exciting News! My first publishing contract :)
I’ve been patiently waiting for the moment I’d be able to write those words, and now it is here! I’m excited to announce that my debut novel, FAST FORWARD, will be published by Escape Publishing – the digital-first imprint of Harlequin Australia!!
I’m thrilled to have the backing of such a wonderful publishing company with years and years of experience in the industry, and I can’t wait to get my first story out into the world (actually, part of me is a little scared, but mostly excited!). FAST FORWARD is the third full length manuscript I’ve completed in the three years since I took up writing seriously, and I had an absolute ball writing it. It’s a romantic comedy with a twist… what sort of twist? Well there may be a little bit of time travel in it. It’s nowhere near sci-fi by any means, it is at its heart a humorous, heartwarming, and romantic story about being true to yourself and following your passions. In the case of the main character, Kelli, she needs a little kick in the pants in the form of a day trip to the future so she can discover what’s really important to her. Here’s a short blurb…
Aspiring supermodel Kelli Crawford seems destined to marry her hotshot boyfriend, but on her 25th birthday she wakes in the future as a fifty-year-old suburban housewife married to the now middle-aged high school nerd.
Trapped in the opposite life of the one she wanted, Kelli is forced to re-evaluate her life and discover what is really important to her. Will she overcome the hilarious and heartbreaking challenges presented to her and get back to the body of her younger self? Or will she be stuck in the nightmare of hot flushes, demanding children, raunchy advances from her husband, and hideous support underwear forever?Â
I’ll share more details and my Call Story in a couple of days time, but for now, I think a yippee is in order:
Yippee!!!!!!!! 🙂
JULIET MADISON 