Blue Wren Shallows with Dorothy Adamek q&a

I’m delighted to introduce y’all to Dorothy Adamek! She has answered a few q&a’s about her Blue Wren Shallows series for us and provided a two winner giveaway! The cover for book 2 has just been revealed and it’s a beauty!

 

 

q&a

What is your favorite activity or hobby not related to books?

D: Last year, my husband and I both turned 50. Neither of us had explored Europe at great length so instead of throwing a big 50^th Birthday Bash, we made the long trek from Australia to London for a few weeks. From there we followed a ‘Celebrated Authors of England’ trail by car into Bath, Stratford, York.

We took the train into Paris for the weekend, and then onto Prague. So exciting. This was all during the ‘Beast of the East’ freak unseasonal winter blast Europe experienced in Feb-March 2018 which not only dusted these cities in snow, but allowed me to make snowballs and walk through these famous cities all rugged up and giddy with bliss… right to my frozen bones!

B: That is some serious traveling! What a wonderful experience for you and your husband!

Do you have a favorite bookish habit? 

D: I like to wear fingerless gloves in the winter when I am writing. Some years ago my dear mum knitted a beautiful pair of cable stitch gloves for me from a pattern I’d found online. I didn’t realize it was such a hard pattern to follow but my mum was a super knitter and she not only made one pair, but several. I used to give one pair away on my Ink Dots blog once a year, but sadly my mum passed away last year and I only have my original, much-cherished gloves left.

Without even knowing it I often put my hand to my face while I’m thinking or reading over what I’ve just written, and the brush of those gloves on my skin is like a sweet kiss from her. I can be anywhere and she’s right there with me. I’m so grateful she persisted with that difficult pattern. And I love to wear those gloves when I’m crafting my own stories.

B: What a sweet reminder of your mama’s love!

Share your inspiration behind Carry Me Away.

D: Carry Me Away was inspired by the real-life sinking of a ship off the Australian coast in the late 1870s. Only two survived – a young midshipman, and the eldest daughter of a family immigrating from England. Their survival story gripped all of Melbourne, and they faced enormous pressure to marry when Victorian Era romantics begged them for a love match.

I had read that a near-death experience will often bond survivors with high emotions similar to those experienced when people fall in love. This appealed to me as a storyteller and I wanted to explore that with my own characters.

B: Oh, I am so intrigued!!!

What did you learn or discover about yourself while writing Carry Me Away?

D: I wrote and edited Carry Me Away during a dark season in my own life. My mother’s health was declining, and she died shortly after I completed an early draft of Carry Me Away.

Like my heroine, I had many losses to process and a new world to navigate. And like my heroine, it took many months and much courage to face the darkness and find my strength. My heroine’s story was always one of restoration. I didn’t expect that to be mine as well, but I’m grateful for the rough journey that saw me safely onto new shores.

B: I’m so sorry for your loss, Dorothy. Thank you for blessing readers with the fruits of that season.

What is your reading style? 

D: Paper books are always a favourite. Is there anything better than a hot bath and a good book?

But living in Australia means when I want a new release as soon as it’s live, I can download the e-book onto my iPad instead of waiting for a shipment of books to slowly cross the seas.

I don’t read on my phone, but I’m a huge fan of audiobooks and consume more books that way now. I’ve recently discovered lending apps which allow me to borrow e-books and audiobooks from my local library.

Often those collections hold ‘new-to-me’ books and I’m discovering new authors every day. Yay for books in all formats!

B: I completely agree! Be an equal opportunity reader!

What are you working on now?

D: I’m currently working on Carry Me Close, book 3 in my Blue Wren Shallows series.

B: Wonderful!

What’s your writing style? 

D: I’m a serious plotter. I will scribble in multiple notebooks until I have everyone’s backstory in great detail, and love to make up a binder of ‘all things planned’… often to discover my plans are flimsy post-it-notes that don’t stick as I thought they would.

For a plotter, I am amazed at how many nuggets I discover when I ‘think’ I’m writing to plan. But that’s the fun of storytelling for me. The layers that emerge during the writing process that deepen the story beyond where I imagined it would go.

B: You have to let those characters boss you around a little bit or so I hear!

Do you have any writing quirks? 

D: I adore writing with a fountain pen. Purple and green are my favourite inks but I have pink, blue and black inks as well. Maybe it’s because I write historical romance, but there’s something about dipping that nib into the inkpot and hearing the scratch of pen on paper that thrills me.

Add a candle and fireplace to the mix and I’ll never move. The visual of words forming and ink splattering or spilling, even the tiniest dot, is a reminder that even when I think I know what I’m doing, happy accidents always manage to sneak onto the page.

B: I’ve never attempted to write with a fountain pen. My thoughts usually don’t flow unless I have a keyboard handy… and even then it’s a trickle at best, lol!

 

 

giveaway

Thanks to the generosity of the author, two fortunate Faithfully Bookish reader friends will win a signed print copy of Carry Me Home.

US only | ends 9/27 | giveaway policy

enter giveaway here
https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js

Let me know if you’ll be adding the Blue Wren Shallows series by Dorothy Adamek to your tbr! It’s definitely on mine!