Helen Buckley – Strictly On Ice
2 April 2021
A very warm welcome to the blog to Helen Buckley who has come to talk to us about her new release, Strictly on Ice. Helen, could you tell us about it?
Thanks for having me! Strictly on Ice is a thrilling contemporary romance about sporting stars and second chances. A former Olympic skating champion takes part in a new TV show to earn some cash, but she gets more than she bargained for when she’s partnered with a love-rat rugby player, and finds that her ex-boyfriend is on the judging panel!
I’m a big fan of Dancing on Ice, and I am absolutely enthralled by the beauty, artistry and physical prowess of figure skating. I love to watch pairs skating and I’ve often wondered what their professional and personal relationships are like off the ice. It seemed like the perfect thing to explore in a modern romance.
What kind of research did you do before beginning the book?
Writing the book was the perfect excuse to watch hours of figure skating videos and clips of Dancing on Ice on YouTube! I also spoke to figure skaters, read memoirs, and googled incessantly, trying to make the book reflect at least some of the realities of the sport.
When did you realise you wanted to be an author?
When I was younger I thought being an author would be the best job in the world. I didn’t actually start writing novels until I was 33, when I needed a distraction from infertility and depression. Writing helped me cope with the emotional and physical challenges of IVF, and I realised that writing was what I wanted to do, not just as a therapy, but as a career.
What book do you wish you had written?
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. It’s so beautifully written, a masterpiece.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Gather your courage, don’t get disheartened, and don’t give up. There will be set backs. You will receive rejections, or perhaps your books won’t sell as much as you would hope. There will be bad reviews and days when you can’t write a single word. Keep going! The world needs storytellers, and that includes you.
Can you tell us what you are working on now?
I’ve completed a series of four romance novels for ChocLit, and hopefully those will be coming out over the next year or two. I’m currently writing a new book drawing on my personal experiences of infertility. It’s a different kind of book for me to write as it’s not a romance. It’ll be interesting to see how it works out!
Thank you so much for popping in to talk to us today!
About the Author:
Helen Buckley lives in Bedfordshire with her husband and two sons. After working in the charity sector in the UK and abroad, she turned her hand to writing and her first novel, Star in the Shadows, was published in 2019.
Where to buy a copy:
Where to keep up with Helen:
Helen Buckley (@HelenCBuckley) / Twitter
(4) Helen Buckley author | Facebook
Helen Buckley (@helencatherinebuckley) • Instagram photos and videos
Helen was talking to Ruby Moone
Ruby Moone lives in the wilds of Lancashire with her husband and writes historical and contemporary romance. At school, her teachers said that she lived with her head in the clouds and if she didn’t stop daydreaming she would never get anywhere. She never did stop daydreaming, and after years of happily living in the clouds, decided to write the stories down.
