#GuestPost + #Giveaway from Bella Cassidy #author of Shoot the Moon @BellaMoonShoot @rararesources

I’m delighted to welcome Bella Cassidy with a guest post for my slot on the blog tour organised by Rachel’s Random Resources. I read Shoot the Moon earlier this year, my review can be found here.

I am sometimes asked if any of my characters are based on real people. Oh yes, I say cheerily, every single one. Before reflecting that writers who don’t include elements of people they know in their work must have far better imaginations than me.

I find people absolutely fascinating; and will ask a hundred questions of anyone. And I’m delighted that, having reinvented myself as a journalist in my fifties, I’ve finally found an excuse for being so nosey. 

I love people’s ability to surprise. Everyone’s hidden layers. I recently interviewed a milliner, whose previous job was buying and weighing cattle. When I wrote a blog about my Dorset village, www.19silverlinings.wordpress.com, it emerged there was a Polish engineer working in a shed in his garden, manufacturing parts that were transported to the moon. And then there was the perfectly coiffured mum at the school gates, who turned out to be a trainee cage-fighter. People are just so darned fascinating.

Writing is a way of showing my love for the people I’ve been lucky enough to know. One of my best friends died without having a personal funeral, so including her in my novel, The Fire Tree, was my form of eulogy; where I tried to recreate the feisty, funny, intelligent and compassionate woman she was. 

In Shoot the Moon, Tassie (my protagonist) visits Shropshire when her dad falls ill. Alfred, her father, is a combination of both my own father and those of my friends. The ‘hello my lovely,’ is what my dad always says when he greets me. The idea of a gentle, contented farmer is taken from stories a friend used to tell about her dad, while the idea of a lonely father, equally gentle but having to seek solace outside of his marriage came from another. Over the years my friends and I have shared so many stories: of family, lovers, adventures… And luckily none seem to mind when fragments end up in my novels. Although I know they’re reading one of my books when I get a text saying something like ‘Simon the Fireman!!’ – as I did just the other day.

In Shoot The Moon I located parts of the story in Shropshire, where I’ve spent many wonderful weekends. Aged twenty, I met a nurse working in India who originated from there, and we’ve remained firm friends ever since. Sadly there wasn’t the space in this novel for her father; although there are plenty of stories I could use. Not least the wonderful fact that for the last three decades he’s written a letter every Friday and sent it to his four children.

Most of the family live near each other in a small village, and he’ll often pop into my friend’s kitchen to chat; on one occasion after having snuck upstairs to leave a dead mole in a grandchild’s bed. An act I still recall with amusement – not least for the fact that her son didn’t seem in the slightest bit surprised, nor bothered, when he found it at bedtime. 

My friend’s brother appears in the novel as Tassie’s brother, Tom: a character formed long ago through stories she recounted about her younger sibling as we travelled on buses through Kerala. And then there’s the novel’s Shropshire hill – with its bench and an oak tree where spirits rest. A hill no doubt inspired by the one owned by this family. Every time I visit, the first thing we do is tramp up to the top of it then sit and catch our breath, surveying the patchwork of greens spreading out for miles below. Creating a sense of tranquillity I hope I’ve replicated.

People also ask if I first visit the places I write about; but often I like to do the opposite. For instance, I’d never been to Skye or Aberfeldy when I wrote about them. And the excitement of visiting afterwards – to see how accurately I’d pictured them – was such a treat. However, if I do know and really love a place then it’s equally pleasurable to write about it. For doing so recreates its joys. 

Ask me what someone looks like and I’m terrible. I once reported a weekend intruder at work, saying he was blond, short and stocky. Turned out he was tall, dark – and the company accountant. But ask me about a story someone once told me, or a place I love, and I’ll rarely have forgotten it. And those are the memories that inspire me to write.

Tassie Morris is everyone’s favourite wedding photographer, famous for her photos of offbeat ceremonies and alternative brides. Yet commitment is proving impossible for Tassie herself, who cannot forget her first love.

When she’s sent to photograph a ceremony on Schiehallion – the Fairy Hill of the Scottish Caledonians – she meets Dan, who might be the one to make her forget her past. That is, until a family crisis begins a chain of events that threaten to destroy not only Tassie’s love life, but her entire career.

Set in a colourful world of extraordinary weddings, Shoot the Moon explores the complexities of different kinds of love: romantic love, mother love, friendship. And, ultimately, the importance of loving yourself.

Purchase Links ~ Amazon UK | Amazon US

Bella Cassidy grew up in the West Country – reading contemporary romances, romances, historical novels, literary fiction… just about anything she could lay her hands on. After a few years in London, working as a waitress and in PR and advertising, she went to Sussex to read English – despite admitting in her pre-interview that this rather sociable period in her life had seen her read only one book in six months: a Jilly Cooper. 

She’s had an eclectic range of jobs: including in the world of finance; social housing fundraising; a stint at the Body Shop – working as Anita Roddick’s assistant; as a secondary school teacher, then teaching babies to swim: all over the world.

She’s done a lot of research for writing a wedding romance, having had two herself. For her first she was eight months pregnant – a whale in bright orange – and was married in a barn with wood fires burning. The second saw her in elegant Edwardian silk, crystals and lace, teamed with yellow wellies and a cardigan. Both were great fun; but it was lovely having her daughter alongside, rather than inside her at the second one.

Social Media Links –  Facebook | Instagram | Twitter 

Giveaway to Win a paperback copy of Shoot the Moon and Moon and Stars bath salts (Open to UK only)

To enter please click the Rafflecopter link.

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.