Spotlight on Ella Carey, The House by the Lake & #Giveaway

Our Spotlight on Author this week is on Ella Carey and her latest release, The House by the Lake. She also has a Kindle copy giveaway for one commenter! 

Ella Carey on the web:

Facebook    Twitter    Author Page    Website

Tell us about yourself...

I love all things creative, music, art, writing, the theatre and films. At the moment, my time is completely filled with writing, and my teenage children, not to mention my two Italian Greyhound dogs!

What inspired you to be a writer?

Everything inspired me to become a writer- I have the most overactive imagination you can conjure up! But seriously, I think it was the books that I read as a child that led me to writing, and then being immersed in the world of writer’s festivals. I was lucky enough to attend the Adelaide writer’s festival- that is where I grew up, and one year, I just thought, this is the world for me.

How did you choose your genre?

I think I write the sorts of books that I like to read. I have always enjoyed romantic novels, the classics as well as modern books. But I also love history, and I guess I was intrigued by the construct of the mystery novel. I seem to be blending all three at the moment, but we’ll see where it goes in the future! 

What made you tell this story and why did you write this book?

Seeing a photograph of an old palace on a very dear friend’s wall made me tell this story. Once I had seen it, I was intrigued. My friend told me that the palace once belonged to her family, but they had to flee in 1946, at the time of the Soviet invasion- leaving their entire former life behind in the old East Germany. And then, I visited Berlin. I was fascinated by its history, by what the people had been through. And I wanted to write more about my character in Paris Time Capsule- Isabelle, so those three things inspired me to write The House by the Lake.

How did you come up with the title?

I liked the sound of it. The real palace has this beautiful big lake in the grounds, just as my fictional palace does in the book. We brainstormed titles, and this was simple, and beautiful, just how I wanted it to be.

What is your favourite scene?

 I confess I’m a bit of a romantic- I like the scene where Anna and Will go for a picnic on the island in the middle of the lake.

Tell us a little about your book?

In 2010, Anna Young is an organised, independent young woman who runs a successful deli in San Francisco. But when her beloved grandfather, Max, tells her, that he is part of a German aristocratic family, Anna is stunned. What’s more, he implies that he knows something about the famous abandoned apartment (inspired by another true story) that was discovered in Paris in 2010 and he asks Anna to go back to Germany, to his family’s grand old palace to retrieve something he left there…in 1940 no less. Once Anna is in Germany, she becomes completely embroiled in her grandfather’s past, and the novel slips back to the 1930s, to Paris, and to Berlin...

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Buy Links:

Amazon Kindle

Amazon Paperback

Audio CD

Amazon UK 

Book Depository

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