You see I didn’t set out to write a book about love. I set out to write a book about a place I adore. Secrets We Keep turned into so much more. It’s one of those books that I wrote without realising it was moving along on a path of its own choosing. It rather flowed out of me!
Maybe it was the place or perhaps it was the characters. Iris and Kate are two women you have to like; you have to root for, because they are just like us. They are looking to make the best lives they can from what they’ve been given in life. They’ve made mistakes, they have regrets, but they are moving forward and they still have the capacity to dream – even if it deserted them for a while.
When I began to write Secrets We Keep, I had just sent off my first book, My Husbands’ Wives to the agent. I knew that the notion of sitting and staring into space was not an option for me, hanging about isn’t my style. I would go bananas fretting about what was happening to my first book if I didn’t immerse myself in something new. The idea for Secrets We Keep had been bubbling in my brain, one of those that float around while you’re up to your eyes in something else. It had enticed me from the side-lines for a while and suddenly, there seemed to be no good reason not to write it anymore!
I had seen it as a bit of an epic voyage. It was going to be a book that brought you on a journey with Iris and chronicled how she resolved the mistakes of her youth. It was going to be a charting of lifetimes or perhaps a coming together.
It has become a bit of both and a whole lot more.
However, it was at the end of the writing process, that strange time when you’re on the last fifteen percent that I realised it was becoming something else entirely. It felt like the parcel wrapping was coming together and only gradually letting me in on the secret. Four lives were falling into place and as each character reached their destination; it seemed they had been on a path I had not realised.
It was a little like life. Isn’t it often the case? The best things in life fall into our laps unexpectedly. But then, with the wisdom of hindsight, you realise that perhaps they were meant for you. Some people are just meant for each other.
This is a love story – maybe not the one you expect, but then love comes in all shapes, sizes and guises. We would be very foolish not to grab it when it arrives, even if it comes when and where you least expect it. Perhaps it’s true that even the Secrets We Keep can’t keep us apart if we are meant for each other #MFEO
Thank you so much Faith for sharing the writing journey for Secrets We Keep with us.
Two distant relatives, drawn together in companionship are forced to confront their pasts and learn that some people are good at keeping secrets and some secrets are never meant to be kept..
A bittersweet story of love, loss and life. Perfect for the fans of Patricia Scanlan and Adele Parks.
The beautiful old Bath House in Ballytokeep has lain empty and abandoned for decades. For devoted pensioners Archie and Iris, it holds too many conflicting memories of their adolescent dalliances and tragic consequences – sometimes it’s better to leave the past where it belongs.
For highflying, top London divorce lawyer Kate Hunt, it’s a fresh start – maybe even her future. On a winter visit to see her estranged Aunt Iris she falls in love with the Bath House. Inspired, she moves to Ballytokeep leaving her past heartache 600 miles away – but can you ever escape your past or your destiny?
About Faith Hogan
She was a winner in the 2014 Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair – an international competition for emerging writers.
Her debut novel, ‘My Husband’s Wives,’ is a contemporary women’s fiction novel set in Dublin. It was published by Aria, (Head of Zeus) in 2016. ‘Secrets We Keep,’ is her second novel out on Feb 1st 2017..
Faith Hogan Contact:
Twitter (her favourite) https://twitter.com/GerHogan
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faithhoganauthor/
Web Page. http://faithhogan.com/
You can check out the books on:
Amazon.co.uk http://amzn.to/2h7Adn6
Amazon.com Amazon.com
Faith Hogan
Kobo Kobo Secrets We Keep Google Play http://bit.ly/2gS3iVH
iBooks - http://apple.co/2hBcaQR
Please take a look at all the other fabulous blogs on the tour for Secrets We Keep
No comments:
Post a Comment