"The idea for the book all started over a couple of glasses of wine (or three!). Carole and I had become firm friends after initially meeting over Facebook. My status picture was a snap of Barbara Cartland and Carole thought I would be a romance writer - but it was just my wacky sense of humour. She fell in love with my handbags and, over the months, we kept in touch through the internet. Then Carole asked me to create a limited edition handbag for The Chocolate Lovers’ Club. When we got chatting about life in general, Carole picked up on the fact that I’d had quite a lot colourful experiences as I’d tried to get my business off the ground and she felt that it would be a great story for one of her novels. Sometimes, life really is a lot stranger and more crazy than fiction!
Carole then approached me about the idea of featuring my story in a book and I was blown away. Life was - and still is - a crazy rollercoaster of juggling motherhood, the busy Helen Rochfort company, family, friendships and handbags. I am still pinching myself now that a novel has been written by Carole, one of my favourite romantic comedy authors, reflecting our experiences big and small, good and bad. It’s really weird seeing it on the page, but I’m also really pleased with it.
As the novel developed, we met up at a local Pizzeria in Hitchin - where I live - to chat through everything that I had experienced. We talked about when I’d first started out as a Fashion and Textile student right up to current experiences and stories. It was quite an emotional and therapeutic process for me. The last ten years have been incredibly tough - we’ve had a lot of ups and downs along the way and the book is a fantastic mirror of our experiences but on a much shorter timescale. It’s great that something so wonderful and positive has come out of it. Thank you, Summer Daydreams!"
You can buy Summer Daydreams as a paperback or an eBook now.
Great post. Imagine inspiring a story. Must be very strange to see 'your' book out there.
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