Guest Author: Avril Tremayne

July 28, 2018

My guest today is a fellow Australian author who writes ravishingly romantic reads published by Harlequin, HQ Digital and Penguin Random House and who has received a RITA Award nomination for Best Long Contemporary Romance for her sexy romantic comedy, The Dating Game.

I met Avril recently at an ARRA High Tea event in Sydney and was amazed at all the careers she's had on her way to becoming a romance writer. She's worked in nursing, teaching, public relations, shoe-selling and has studied singing, acting, pottery, oil painting, millinery, German and Arabic (among other things). With such a depth of experience in her personal life it's no wonder she's able to create such deeply emotional, yet sassy and fast-paced contemporary romances.

Avril says, "I write sexy, funny, modern romances, featuring strong, successful heroines who refuse to swoon, and heroes with enough alpha in them to make swooning a clear and present danger. My hallmark is fast-paced, witty banter, which can tend toward the screwball, delivered with a strong emotional punch". It's my pleasure to welcome Avril, whose stories have kept me turning pages well past my bed-time, and to have her answer my quick author quizzing!

Firstly, Avril, would you please tell us about your latest release and whether it posed any particular challenges to write.

My upcoming book is for Harlequin's hot new DARE line. It's called Getting Lucky and is my first friend-to-lovers story. It's the first in a three-book series set around a reunion theme. Each book focuses on one couple from a group of friends who met during their university days in Washington DC ten years ago, and are meeting up again as life throws a few romantic curve balls. I'll go on record to say this is the hardest book I've ever written! One thing I don't think many people understand is just how difficult it is to write category romance. It is a huge challenge to take two complex characters and tell a compelling story around them while keeping them resolutely front and centre of the action, all in 50,000 words. You have to make every single word count and there is just no room for even one stray word. It was doubly difficult for me with this first book because the last two books I'd written were 95,000 words, and the one prior to that was 75,000 words, and those higher word counts give you more room for maneuvering the story so I was having to re-learn how to write, in a way.

Having said that, I love the resultant intensity of a shorter book, As a reader, it's great to be dragged into the action fast and kept there without mercy.

Sounds like a fabulous challenge. What is next for you as an author?

I've just submitted the final story in my DARE triology, which will be out late January, and I'm going back to a single title romantic comedy I popped on the backburner when I stared writing Getting Lucky. This book is very, very funny and also quite a hottie. A super quirky heroine and an uptight hero, a marriage of convenience, mistaken identity - very screwball. I have two more books in my head for once that's finished, both single titles, one of which is a male/male romance, and then we'll see.

You've travelled extensively in your career in aviation, and in a posting to the Middle East. In all your travels, which place rates as your favourite?

This will be no surprise as it's so many people's favourite: Italy! Sights, history, food, wine, people, fashion - I love everything about it. And I also happen to be a dual Australian/Italian citizen. It's my dream to live there half of every year and I'm working on my husband to make that a reality.

I also have a huge soft spot for the United Kingdom, and consider London the most exciting city in the English-speaking world. Oh dear lots and lots of fabulous places are now springing to mind. I adore travel, all of it, everywhere!

Still with all those exciting places at the forefront of your thoughts, which place is now the top of your travel wish list?

It's Spain! I can't believe I haven't been there. I don't know a single person who's been there who hasn't adored it. I'm planning a trip there with my mother and my sister, and may allow my husband to tag along if he's very lucky.

Thank you so much for joining me today, Avril and good luck with all your future writing - and that dream of living half the year in Italy!

You can find out more about Avril at her website: http://www.avriltremayne.com/

I hope you'll join me for more fabulous authors on the Quick Quizzing Blogspot in August! Come and check back in on Wednesday August 1st to see who's next for the quick quiz. Until then, Happy Reading!

Alyssa J. Montgomery

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About the Blogger:

Alyssa J. Montgomery is an Australian contemporary romance author who is published by Escape Publishing (Harlequin Enterprises, Australia). She also

writes medieval romance as Alyssa James,