Today I am delighted to welcome Emma Calin who describes herself as a woman eternally pedaling between Peckham and Pigalle, in search of passion and enduring romance!
Born in London in 1962, she now lives part of the year in the UK and spends the rest in France. She has been writing since childhood and has won numerous local, national and international prizes for poetry and short stories.
Emma enjoys writing love stories firmly rooted in social realism (as do I!). She blogs about the contrasts in life on both sides of the English Channel, which she likes to explore on her tandem whenever weather and fitness coincide. Like me, she is a Lifestyle Contributor on Loveahappyending Lifestyle.
She explains:
'I have never been able to write about
anything completely imaginary. I admire writers who can create worlds, magic or
supernatural beings. I think I would have been very much at home with the books
of the 1950s/60's such as “Room At The Top” by John Braine and “Saturday Night
And Sunday Morning” by Alan Sillitoe.
These were “angry young men” writers. Both pop legend Morrissey and group the
“Arctic Monkeys” acknowledge the influence of Sillitoe. Another
influence was “Last Exit To Brooklyn” by Hubert Selby jnr. All of these books
are social realist accounts of life either at the margins of society or among
the proud working class. Social and class structures have changed since then.
In the UK, there is no longer a stable blue collar class. Globalisation has
swept away the certainties of that period. However, this was my childhood.
In writing the five units of my newly launched Love in A Hopeless Place Collection I
have tried to catch the spirit of people who work manually in low paid jobs. I
have followed a completely haphazard career path among such situations in order
to write about them. The colour and resilience of these characters has always
overawed me. My stories are a very humble tribute to some genuine true life
heroes. The title does indeed come from the Rihanna track because it plays on a
car radio in one of the novelettes in the collection. It also reflects the
sentiment of the series. I have commented before that the only hopeless place
for love is in a cold heart. There are few of those in this collection.
Each of the five titles in the collection
is available as a stand-alone e-book for Kindle, iPad, Android, Mac, PC
etc. on Amazon Worldwide:
Or you can save money and buy the complete 'boxed set' Love in a Hopeless Place Collection
I would like to thank Miriam for having me on her blog as part of my 'Blowing My Own Trombone Book Launch Blog Tour'. If you would like to find out more about the books in my collection, see some excerpts and even hear me play the trombone.... (yes really!)'
Thanks Emma!
Emma tells me that during July and August, ANGELA, the short story from the
collection is FREE – so you can even try one before you buy! Emma will also be
having a Summer Sale – ALL books in her portfolio for 99c/76p/89€ until the 1st August. Such a bargain!
If you'd like to know more about Emma and her books, she will be guesting at the following blogs during
July:
17 July Anneli Purchase
20 July Sheryl Browne
21 July Nicky Wells
22 July Melanie Robertson-King
25 July Bonnie Trachtenberg
26 July Patricia
Sands
27 July Stephanie Keys
28 July Linn Halton
Emma
Calin Links:
