Five Wakes And A Wedding
Undertaker Nina Sherwood is full of good advice. For example,
never wear lip gloss when you’re scattering ashes.
Nina is your average 30-year-old with a steady job, a nice home – and dead bodies in her basement. As an undertaker, she often prefers the company of the dead to the living – they’re obliging, good listeners and take secrets to the grave.
Nina is on a one-woman mission to persuade her peers that passing on is just
another part of life. But the residents of Primrose Hill are adamant that a
funeral parlour is the last thing they need… and they will stop at nothing to
close down her dearly beloved shop.
When Nina’s ‘big break’ funeral turns out to be a prank, it seems like it’s the
final nail in the coffin for her new business. That is, until a (tall, dark
and) mysterious investor shows up out of the blue, and she decides to take a
leap of faith.
Because, after all, it’s her funeral…
The perfect antidote to
all those books about weddings,
this book will make you laugh until you cry, perfect for fans of Zara
Stoneley’s Bridesmaids, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Good Place.
Purchase Links
Author Q&A
How do you select the names of
your characters?
I’m a
big football fan, and my team is Tottenham Hotspur. So when it came to Five Wakes and a Wedding, I decided to indulge my passion. Undertaker Nina Sherwood, the story’s beleaguered
heroine, is (in my mind!) a distant relative of former Spurs manager Tim
Sherwood, who always talked a good game, but wasn’t especially successful when
it came to actually winning matches. And
my favourite character (I confess, I do have one for this book) is called Dele
Dier, in tribute to a bromance between two key Spurs players Dele Alli and Eric
Dier. I had to be careful not to let my
Dele Dier steal the show . . . he’s a famous – some would say notorious –
artist, whose final installation makes headlines all around the globe.
What creature do you consider
your "spirit animal" to be?
It’s got
to be a dog! Why? Let’s put it this way . . . all four of the
books I’ve written to date include a dog as a major character. In Five
Wakes and a Wedding, he’s called Chopper.
I didn’t consciously plan him, but he appears in the story in Chapter
Eight, causing chaos in the kitchen:
He’s eating breakfast. Actually, he appears to be on his third
breakfast. The creature is almost the size of a Shetland
pony. It looks as if it’s been dreamed
up by Disney, but is acting out
a script from Tarantino.
As the
story develops, Chopper plays a major role . . . in fact, he saves the life of
two characters!
What fictional character would
you want to be friends with in real life?
When I
first started writing fiction, a more experienced author told me, ‘It’s
essential to make friends with your own characters. Get to know them little by little. Just as you would in real life.’
Excellent
advice. Although my relationship with
Barclay, one of the major characters in my new book Five Wakes and a Wedding, got off to a rocky start. I just couldn’t figure him out! Sometimes he was charming. But on other occasions, he seemed like a
spoiled brat.
Take the
time he asked Nina – the funeral director who’s the star of the book – if she’s
ever had sex in the back of a hearse . . . I mean who DOES that?!? Like Nina, I started to go off Barclay big
time, after that.
I even
thought about writing him out of the story (and my own life) altogether. Then next thing I knew, Barclay’s
being kind, caring and even vulnerable.
He also rescues Nina from a sticky situation when the authorities try to
kill off her business start-up because the local community doesn’t want a store
that deals with death on their doorstep.
Did I
mention that he’s also drop dead gorgeous?
And charismatic. Not to mention in
charge of a mega construction project that involves lining the walls of a basement
with gold. Real gold. And when Barclay’s not working, he’s out
pursuing dangerous sports . . . including one in particular that could easily
lead to his own funeral.
I mean,
who wouldn’t want to be friends with Barclay?
Even if you do find yourself silently asking the question, ‘Is this guy
just a bit too good to be true?’ Then
again, we all of us have flaws.
Fact is,
life with Barclay is never going to be dull.
I really enjoy hanging out with him.
And if you download the book and spend a few hours in his company,
you’ll see exactly what I mean!
Author Bio
– As a former journalist, broadcaster and advertising copywriter,
Karen Ross has followed a fairly traditional path into writing fiction. Five Wakes and a Wedding is her fourth book,
and like its predecessors, the novel has two common threads: the setting is London’s Primrose Hill – Karen’s
own neighbourhood – and one of the characters is a dog . . . this time he’s
called Chopper and he’s almost the same size as a Shetland Pony
Karen has been self-employed for many years,
and continues to work as a marketing consultant, in the absence of an offer to
manage Tottenham Hotspur. By way of
credentials, her other ‘job’ is trading profitably on the world’s first
football stockmarket, a platform called Football Index, where you buy and sell
players with real money.
Social
Media Links – @ComedyKaren
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please try not to spam posts with the same comments over and over again. Authors like seeing thoughtful comments about their books, not the same old, "I like the cover" or "sounds good" comments. While that is nice, putting some real thought and effort in is appreciated. Thank you.