Hettie Ashwin
Details
Author name: Hettie Ashwin
Book title: Living it up in France
Genre: Humorous memoir
Launch date: 1.7.20
Website: Hettie Ashwin
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Summary
With a Bucket list, a motorbike and a map, two Aussie Adventurers live it up in France.
Between renovating their house in a Breton village, they travel on Roman Roads, see Gothic Cathedrals, drink delicious coffee and discover a love of France with le joie de vivre.
We just won’t mention the speeding ticket … or getting lost … or being mistaken for a crocodile hunter. Well, not right away anyway.
Theme
Living it up in France is the second book in the Ashwin’s French adventures. We have bought the house, we have paid our taxes, now it’s time to see some of France on our motorbike. If you like travel, adventure and having fun, then this sequel to Boat to Baguette ( how hard can it be to buy a house in France), will whet your appetite.
Let's talk about it
Tell us something about yourself that not many people know.
My husband and I lived on a boat in Far North Queensland for 16 years.
Why did you choose these themes in your book and were you aware of them from the outset?
A humorous memoir is always going to be fun … because it is happening to someone else.
How difficult was it for you to write this book? Did you face any obstacles?
writing the book was a hoot. I relived all the moments of our four years in France, and the friends we made along the way.
Do you always write in this genre or do you like to break out of the box?
I write in multiple genres. I have memoirs, humorous novels, two short story books, speculative fiction, a thriller and I have book 1 of a trilogy -speculative fiction that is more sci-fi than spec fiction. I like to write what I like to read, and that is just about everything, although humour is a strong favourite.
What are your writing habits or idiosyncrasies?
My habits are regular. I plot a book over three months and then write about a 1000 words a night until it is done. Writing comedy I need to plot to get the jokes, the characters just right, and nothing is left to chance. Sometimes I get stuck in and blitz a book, as with Living it up in France which was written in 28 days, but that is the exception to the rule. 1000 words takes me two hours and so I have enough time to do my social media, surf the net, knit, make hot chocolate or read. Comedy is around 65-70,000 words, so that is around 2.5 – 3 months.
What’s next for your writing?
My next book will be back to situation comedy, which I love writing. This will be my 19th book and my 11th comedy. It is set in 1959, which is new for me, but I’m loving the constraints of no mobile phones, no internet, and those wonderful fashions of the late 50s and early 60s in England. I’m also going to finish my 5 book novella series. 3 down, 2 to go. They are literary, so harder to write for me, and challenging subjects, but I’m enjoying the smaller ‘novella’ experience. It’s quite hard to write everything in 20,000 words!
Author Bio
Hettie Ashwin has a healthy ego, a fertile imagination, which, combined with a robust work ethic makes her a well rounded individual. As the proud possessor of an enlarged funny bone, she says it has a marked influence on her writing style and her life in general.
Hettie has been widely published in magazines, on the radio and on-line. Her writing includes humorous column style articles, short stories and novels. She also has had some of her short stories included in anthologies in UK, USA and Australia. Hettie has won several writing competitions for novels, short stories and flash fiction. She has 18 books to her credit.
Humour is her genre, but there is more than one string to her bow.
