A warm welcome today to Florence Keeling to talk to us about her latest release, A Little in Love. Florence, can you tell us more about it?

A Little in Love is a feel good, romantic comedy set in the little village of Weddington which following the filming of a Hollywood Blockbuster is becoming THE place to get married. We follow the story of Rose Pedal as she starts her new business, Pedals and Prosecco and meets James Blume, handsome city florist on the way.

The story takes place over a summer of wedding fayres as Rose and James fall in love, but when a rival business, Cycles and Champagne steals Rose’s place, everything seems to fall apart and she needs her friends to help build her back up.

Can being just ‘a little in love’ help Rose and James find their own happy-ending?

What was the inspiration behind your book? What prompted you to tell this story?

The story came from the idea of the prosecco serving cart that Rose uses in the book. I haven’t got a clue where the idea for that first came from but it led to wanting to write a series of feel good books about weddings, because who doesn’t love a good wedding. I hoping that there will be four in total, all featuring The Weddington Gang.

How did you decide on the names for your characters and the setting for your book?

I really wanted Rose to have a pretty name and mixing it with Pedal made it a play on words especially when we mix our love interest James Blume who is a florist. The names really suited the vision of the characters I had in my head.

How long did the book take to write? How much re-writing do you normally do?

In July 2020, A Little In Love stood at around 10k words after partial submissions to the RNA 1-2-1s and #OneDay2020 for Simon and Schuster. By the end of August it was complete and the first week of September I signed my contract with Simon and Schuster under their Digital Originals. This may sound rather quick to some so just to balance it out it has taken me a year to write the second one.

Who were your favourite childhood authors?

My favourite childhood authors were Jill Murphy and Enid Blyton. I adored The Worst Witch and longed to attend Cackle’s Academy. Along with Hogwarts, these were the inspiration for my children’s chapter books, Brittle’s Academy for The Magically Unstable. I loved The Famous Five, their adventures were captivating.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

It may sound cliché, but my advice is just to keep going and build a support network. Twitter and Facebook groups are a great place for like minded people. I get so much support from the RNA groups and also a fabulous FB group called Chick Lit and Prosecco.

Can you tell us what you are working on now?

If you were to look in my laptop and phone at the amount of WIPs I have, I think you’d be amazed. But I am currently reworking book two in the Weddington series where we find out more about Lucy Greenfield and her horse and carriage business. I’m then looking to continue a stand alone before returning to Weddington for book three. And maybe some short stories and children’s books inbetween.

About the Author

Florence Keeling LOVES weddings. She married the man she met when she was four months old, and 21 years of married bliss later, they are still VERY much in love. Her love of stories started with Mr Men and Topsy and Tim, she longed to attend Cackle’s Academy and spend days sharing adventures with the Famous Five. As a grown up, she wrangles two grown up kids, two mad huskies and two day jobs. A Little In Love is her third work of fiction.

Twitter   @KeelingFlorence and @LilyMaeWalters1  for children’s books

Purchase Links:

Amazon – http://spr.ly/6017HlFpb

Apple – https://books.apple.com/gb/book/a-little-in-love/id1556074813

Kobo – https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-little-in-love-5

Books and the City – http://booksandthecity.co.uk/little-love/