#GuestPost All the Fun of the Fair by Lynda Page #BlogTour @Canelo_co

I’m welcoming author Lynda Page to the blog today with a great guest post as part of the blog tour for her new book, All the Fun of the Fair. Firstly here’s the gorgeous cover and synopsis.

The unmissable new saga from bestselling author Lynda Page
It’s the 1950s and Grundy’s Travelling Fair arrives in town with a bang.
When night falls, the local town is drawn to the Fair. But when the fairgoers head home, the Grundys are left behind. Hours are long and the work back-breaking. But family and friends hold things together.
Gemma married into the lifestyle, her reliable husband Solomon making the work worthwhile. Solly’s Dad Samson is still the boss, but his other son, known as Sonny, is getting a reputation…
Times are changing. Can the family – and the fair – survive?
A saga with a twist, join the Grundy family in a gritty but heartwarming novel of love, friendship and secrets. Perfect for fans of Kitty Neale, Lyn Andrews and Rosie Goodwin.

All the Fun of the Fair is published by Canelo and available to purchase now from the following retailers – Amazon UK | Amazon US

GUEST POST

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been suffering the most terrible trauma. My agents who have updated their website and PR company that are handling the publicity for my latest book want an recent photograph of me. Well I know what you’re all saying. What’s the matter with that. Just put a bit of slap on, smile and have it taken. But to me this isn’t just any old photograph, this one is supposed to help towards encouraging an army of new readers to buy my books. My current photo had been taken about 12 years ago, before Mother Nature decided to really turn her attentions to me and have some fun. I still had brown hair then… alright, admitted with the aid of a hairdresser as I was in my 50’s at the time… but my lines were more laughter ones then than the deep gorges they are now. So my dilemma has been that when people’s eyes settled on my new photograph showing a winkled, white haired woman, especially those of the younger generation, will they think that she is far too old to be writing riveting, page turning stories, who’s subject matters covered topics as broad and wide ranging as incest and murder, love and hate, that would keep people of all ages reading from beginning to end and enjoy so much they’d want to read all the other’s she had written? I worried it wouldn’t. Then it struck me that wasn’t that me undermining all those people who would be looking at my photograph? That they were intelligent enough not to be seeing an old, white hair lady, but a woman who had lived a life. That every wrinkle on her face, white hair on her head, age related ache and pain that she suffers, had been earned through her experiences as she herself had travelled from childhood to maturity, being a daughter, sister, friend, wife, mother, aunty, grandmother, work colleague, neighbour, cook, cleaner and bottle washer and all else she had been along the way. A writer’s job is to make up readable stories told through an array of memorable characters set in plausible backgrounds but to make that all realistic and feasible not all of it can be learned through research but drawn from experience. When a character of mine is suffering grief then my face will tell you that I too have suffered such so can plausibly write about it, the same as when they are experiencing love or joy. So when you look at my new photograph I hope you will see not an old lady but a woman who has lived a full and eventful life and uses all that she has gone through to make the characters she writes about authentic.

AUTHOR BIO

Bestselling author Lynda Page has written over thirty books, and is a well-loved and critically acclaimed saga author. Born and raised in Leicester, where many of her novels take place, she began her prolific writing career in her forty-five minute lunch breaks. Best known for her Jolly’s Holiday Camp series, Lynda is writing a new series exploring life at a travelling fair in the 1950s for Canelo, with the first book, All the Fun of the Fair, out in February 2018.