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Fiona Lowe with the Boomerang Bride giveaway!

We have author Fiona Lowe with us today and she is talking of weddings and Boomerang Bride! 

So we started with the hard stuff first...
When  did you decide to become a writer?

It was a conscious decision when I was at home with  a baby, but ever since I can remember I’ve woven stories in my head and had “conversations” with imaginary people.  Before I had children , I always kept a detailed travel diary and at different times in my life I’ve written a journal, so writing a book in some ways was a natural next step.

What kind of books do you write?

Books with heart and humor J Whether I’m writing a single title book like Boomerang Bride (Carina Press) or a Harlequin medical romance like Career Girl in the Country, my books are set in small towns with big hearts, and my characters are people you might meet down the street. They’re struggling to work out who they are, where they fit in and how best to be happy. More often than not they get it totally wrong, but by the end of the book, they’re on the right track!

What is the biggest obstacle you overcame to get published?

Self doubt. There were times before I got published when I thought, “this is sooooo hard, I should just stop.”  But, I can be very determined with some things and I kept at it. I took classes, I honed my craft and I kept submitting. Eventually, I wrote a book that Harlequin Mills & Boon wanted to buy. That was 16 novels ago.  Self doubt still plagues me at times…usually when I have to start a new story and I think, “Can I really do this?”

What made you decide to write a bigger book?

I was feeling a bit stuck creatively and I wanted to try something new and different. I was sitting alone on a ski-lift, swinging in the breeze and an image of a bride holding a cake and staring into a vacant shop window popped into my head. That image wouldn’t leave me so I started asking it questions and slowly, the idea for Boomerang Bride came into being. I loved writing this book because as it was bigger, I could have a significant secondary story. Boomerang Bride is set in small town USA and it features a lost Australian bride, a hero who would rather be anywhere than Hobin, a family coping with illness, and a policeman who is tired of being, “Mr. Nice Guy.”

What’s BOOMERANG BRIDE about?

Matilda Geoffrey risked it all for love. She left Australia to be with Barry-the man who had swept her off her virtual feet. Now, wearing a wedding dress, she's alone on Main Street in small-town Wisconsin, and things aren't working out exactly as planned...
In town for his annual family visit, Marc Olsen had never seen a bride quite like Matilda-staring into a storefront window, holding a tottering wedding cake, and looking desperately in need of a groom. He may not have any warm feelings for his hometown, but meeting Matilda just as she discovers she's been scammed by her online "fiancé" stirs something in him.
Matilda is not the kind of woman Marc imagined himself with, and Marc is anything but the romantic hero that Matilda has always dreamed of. But as unlikely circumstances throw them together, can they let go of their misconceptions and risk their hearts for love?

Where can we buy your books? 

Boomerang Bride is a Carina Press release and you can purchase it direct from Carina or from Amazon, Nook and other online stores. My Harlequin medical romances are available from The Book Depository,  Mills & Boon UK & Australia, as well as at eharlequin.

What are a few facts about your life?

I’m an Australian, but I’ve lived around the world including Papua New Guinea, Canada and the USA. I have two red-headed sons; the 17-year -old is hugely into playing the piano and all things scientific, and the 13 year-old is into science, drama and visual arts. My commute to the office is up a spiral stair case and I can see the sea from up there, and hear the fog-warning hooter for the ships in winter. My husband has to commute a bit further for his job as a computer analyst.  We’re currently living in Australia, but we love to travel and we do whenever we can. We’re just back from a fabulous time swimming with whale sharks and are busy planning our next trip!


Fiona Lowe is an award-winning, multi-published author of romance fiction with Harlequin Mills & Boon and Carina PressWhether her books are set in outback Australia or the USA, they all feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love.  When she’s not writing stories, she’s a weekend wife, a mother of two boys and she’s trying really hard to instill in them heroic characteristics like cooking and ironing.  She’s an avid reader, a guardian of 80 rose bushes, attempts to stay fit and is often seen collapsed on the couch with a glass of wine.  A previous Romantic Book of the Year finalist, Fiona is currently writing her 18th novel and says, ‘it doesn’t get any easier.’  You can find her at her website, her blog, confused on Twitter and a bit more together on Facebook . She loves hearing from her readers.

And she says...
I love weddings and it’s the  stories about what happened on the day that make me smile. My BIL was a shocking tease so on the  day of my wedding, when he told me on the phone that the fly on my husband’s suit was broken, I didn’t believe him. Turns out it was true and he went to the ceremony via the suit hire company, Lucky we got married in the morning and they were still open!! 

To win a copy of Boomerang Bride, a signed postcard and a boomerang magnet, please tell me a funny wedding story…it might be yours or from a wedding you attended or perhaps it’s a family story handed down over the generations. I’d love to hear it!

41 comments:

  1. Fiona, it makes me feel better knowing that even talented, successful authors like you start a new story thinking, “Can I really do this?” Congratulations on your latest release!

    And thank you for inspiring me to remember an amusing incident from my wedding day. Marcelo and I were married outdoors in early spring. The woman performing the ceremony was wearing high-heeled shoes, and in order to prevent herself from wobbling as she stood on some uneven turf, she picked up first one foot then the other and jabbed her spiked footwear into the earth.

    I already was a nervous bride, what with my intimidating mother-in-law present, and whenever I'm nervous, I want to giggle. Oh how I prayed Marcelo wouldn't catch my eyes at that moment, or I would have forever ruined any hope of a positive relationship with Marcelo's mom. Luckily I kept a straight face and everyone thought my face was flushed with the love I was feeling. Well, it was that too!

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  2. LOL! Michelle! I know what you mean when you say if your hubby would have caught your eye at THAT moment! No way you would've controlled yourself from giggling out loud!

    I laughed all the way through your post! How hard you must have worked to keep a straight face! Well it was the love turning your face pink as well!

    I can see, we're going to have a ball sharing all those moments! Looking forward to everyone's wedding moments!

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  3. Michelle, that is a fabulous story and one well-worth remebering. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Two months ago I was at a family wedding out on the beach. Aside from the usual gaggle of open-mouthed onlookers, we had Uncle Frank in a kilt and a bagpipe, another ucle disappearing at odd times to find beer, a butter angel that slowly melted during the reception, and a wedding band group from hell. They wore Mucha Lucha masks and jumped around stage like crazed, rabid bats. I dont know where the bride had found them, and I dont know why she chose them, only that I was horribly afraid of them.

    And oh no, Michelle! I have to admit, Id be in helpless giggles too.

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  5. Your writing space sounds so lovely. Sets me to dreaming...

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  6. True story. The first night we were married, we stayed at a hotel near the airport so we could catch our 6AM flight to leave for our honeymoon. I was so excited! When the alarm went off, I jumped up to turn it off but got tangled in my new husband and the sheets. I hit the floor and the worst rug burn on both knees, I'm talking bleeding like a stuck pig rug burn.

    We got to the honeymoon destination and the bellhop who carried our bags to the room asked if I was okay, did I fall on the hotel grounds, etc. New hubby says "No, she tried to run back up the aisle so I tackled her."

    The poor bellhop stood there with his mouth open. I said "No! I fell out of bed."

    Bellhop replied. "Did he tackle you then, too?"

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  7. A butter angel, Marlena? I love the idea of uncle Frank with his bagpipes. Sounds like an electic wedding!

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  8. Regina, thank you so much! Happy dreaming:-)

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  9. Inez! LOL, I just splurted coffee over the keyboard. I love your husband's sense of humor!
    We too stayed the night at the airport motel on the night of our wedding before an early flight. It had one of those beds that vibrated so we put in the coins and it made the most horrendous noise for about ten minutes and the bed didn't move at all! We couldn't make it stop.

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  10. Two memorable moments of the humorous kind from our wedding.
    The driver of the hire car decided he would help the bridesmaids at the door of the church to lay our my beautiful long train (a la Princess Diana but several years before her wedding!) All was wonderfully arranged as I set off down the aisle except for the size 11 hoof planted firmly on my embroidered veil over the train. Visualise a bride whose legs and torso were nervously heading down the aisle while her head and shoulders leaned back and back until the kind man released he was holding my head back!
    On the morning of our honeymoon, I was standing at the first floor balcony shaking confetti out of my coat when giggles from below alerted me to the fact that a couple below were eating their breakfast, which was now dotted with little multicoloured pieces of paper. A very embarrassed newly married nineteen year old scurried inside!

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  11. I apparently don't get out much or have a really rotten memory! I have no funny wedding or honeymoon stories to tell, but I have thoroughly enjoyed those left here - especially Inez's story.

    I love spiral staircases. One day I'm going to have one put in the corner of a room as a conversation piece (live in a single story home).

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  13. Great blog, Fiona! Lucky me has been with you through a great part of your journey and continue to do so. I love the way you write and the process that you go through to write your wonderful masterpieces.

    My wedding story was that the wedding party was seated in the waiting room, relaxing before entering the reception. I think my new hubby and I were chatting and in walked the owner of the reception house - a family friend of my new hubby's and new friend of my own father. He was looking decidedly pale. I got quite worried and was thinking something awful had happened. He knelt down in front of us, took my hand and then lowered his eyes. I was getting quite nervous. He then said, "I don't know how to tell you this, but the top layer of your cake fell and it's being fixed by a friend of yours." I was so relieved that no one had died that I said, "It's OK. It's only a cake." I think he was used to dealing with Bridezillas and was astounded at my reaction.

    Thanks for having my lovely friend, Fiona on as your special guest, Nas (also a lovely friend). No need to enter me into the draw. I already have the book :) And it's WONDERFUL!!! Buy it now, everyone!

    Hugs

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  14. Forgot to say no need to enter me in the draw either, I already have the book, Fiona!

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  15. Anne, love the confetti story and thanks for sharing. Confetti got my new husband and I upgraded on a plane and a free bus fare to the aiport! Everyone it seems loves a newly married couple:-)

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  16. Karen, LOL on a staircase going nowhere. I bet you would get a lot of people sitting on the steps! I keep fit running up and down mine.

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  17. Annie, thanks for buying BB and I hope you enjoy it.

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  18. Serena, you lived up to your name on your wedding day! Thanks for all your help and friendship over the years,

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  19. I wish I had a picture of the butter angel to show you. It was this little cherub/angel thing with black olives for eyes that you were supposed to cut off pieces to spread on your rolls. Needless to say, no one ate any butter that night and the butter angel just sat there and looked sad.

    And oh no to everyone's wedding stories! The confetti made me snort giggle. And the rug burn. I know someone who would totally say that.

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  20. I'm giggling all through this comments! Fiona should visit us often, don't you all think so?

    Thank you all my lovely friends for sharing your precious memories!

    Looking forward to hearing more of these stories.

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  21. It's not particularly funny but it's sweet to me. On the morning of our wedding, my hubby had a yoyo - given to him by a kind family member - while he was waiting, hoping for me to turn up. In all the photos outside the church, he's playing with the yoyo :)

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  22. Hi Fiona and Nas! What a great interview and an awesome/hilarious way to wake up :). I laughed out loud over Inez's rug burn...and the breakfast confetti and vibrating bed...lots of great stories LOL!

    I had plenty of not-so-funny things happen at my wedding, but I guess in retrospect it was a little funny that my mom lost her purse at the reception and our room key was in it. Our wedding ended very late and it was about 3am before all the guests and photographer were gone. That was when we realized we couldn't get into our room...and it took awhile for us to find someone to let us in. I think the guy wanted ID at first. Really? Uh...wedding suite...and an exhausted lady in a big wedding dress...not enough LOL? Anyway, not as funny as the other stories but it's all I've got.

    Your book sounds wonderful, Fiona! Love the online scam angle :)

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  23. Butter angel!

    I love the title 'Boomerang Bride'. It sounds like a fantastic read!

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  24. I don't have a funny wedding story, although my husband and I got married on the golf course where we met. Does that count? ;-)

    I'm looking forward to BOOMERANG BRIDE!

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  25. What a great thread! All the wedding stories made me smile -- even the ones labeled by the writers as "not really funny."

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  26. What a lovely post, Fiona, and some awesome wedding stories! Inez, your story made me laugh. That's exactly something my DH would say ... and Karen C, a staircase to nowhere, classic. I think everyone should have one of those, LOL. If nothing else, it symbolizes the climb. Great blog, Nas. Thanks for sharing, Fiona :D
    PS: I love the cover of Boomerang Bride. You can feel the love.

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  27. Fab post, Fiona! Loving the story behind the story!

    Nas, thanks for bringing us another author into spotlight!

    Hmm... funny wedding moments.. Off hand the only thing I recall is, the way we were nodding our heads during the reception, where soooo many new people were introduced to us, ie family friends and distant relatives that after a while we lost track of names / people!

    Anyone says something, me and DH were too tired to respond..and we nodded our heads, for two days AFTER the reception..until one of my small cousin sisters asked : Why are you nodding like a doll ;) LOL and we realized what we were doing!

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  28. My wedding day was a complete disaster but I like to look back at it and say we had all our bad luck out of the way before we embarked on fifteen years of happy marriage :)

    The first crisis happened when i came to put on my dress an hour before the ceremony. A friend had altered it for me and I hadn't bothered to try it on again. Big mistake! The zip wouldn't go up! The wedding car arrived early and my frantic father jumped into it with my wedding dress and drove to the shopping centre looking for someone to fix it. To this day I don't know what people thought when he hared around the shops in his suit with a wedding dress over his arm.

    With no luck there, I ended up wearing the dress with the zip open at the back (as it turned out, people thought I was just being very daring!)

    I ended up an hour late for the ceremony and my poor hubby was green with nerves at that point and had to be taken out of the church.

    We got through the ceremony but the photographer and the videoer argued over setting up and when we got to our reception venue, it was a building site. They hadn't finished building it yet.

    Our honeymoon flight had been brought forward too and it meant we had to miss our evening reception and left the guests partying on their own!

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  29. Nas and Fiona. I love to hear about people who have the determination of spirit and never give up. Fiona, you make it sound so casual and yet you stuck with it until you got your first book published. The spirit of a survivor.

    Boomerang Bride review is inviting. I like the cover photo. Thanks for sharing your story.
    Manzanita@Wannabuyaduck

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  30. Rach! I love that story. All grooms should have a yo yo for stress relief!
    Rula, the funny part of that is the ID bit...like you especially dressed up as an exhausted bride to use the suite? (!!)
    Liz, I think it's lovely that you got married on the golf course where you met. I am assuming you didn't have to dodge any wayward balls!
    Thanks for all the lovely comments about Boomerang Bride. It's a story close to my heart:-)

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  31. Jo, I love the image of the nodding heads!
    Karina!! What a litany of disasters but I am so glad to hear the marriage has been great.
    Manzanita, thanks for your encouraging words.

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  32. Another great interview. I do love books with heart and humour. And, oddly enough, it's good to know self-doubt still plagues established authors.

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  33. Hi Fiona and Nas - I don't have any funny wedding stories, but I love the sound of Boomerang Bride. Self-doubts are horrid creatures. I try to shoot them on sight!

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  34. oooo swimming with whale sharks!! How fun! Nice to learn more about you and your stories, Fiona!

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  35. The premise of Boomerang Bride made me smile.

    Writing is hard. Glad you didn't give up!

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  36. Thanks ladies. Great post.Great title, Boomerang Bride.

    Denise

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  37. Lynda and Shelly, I don't think we'd be human if we didn't have doubts occassionally. Mine are always highest at the start of a new book...like right now!

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  38. PK, swimming with the whale sharks was one of the most amazing things I've done, considering I wasn't all that keen to do it.

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  39. Theresa, I'm glad I made you smile...that's the point of Boomerang Bride- about 4 hours of a happy time reading.

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  40. L'Aussie, it's not often I get to keep a title, but Boomerang Bride was one of the two :-)

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  41. Congratulations to Marlena, you've been picked by Fiona as her winner!

    Thank you to all my lovely friends for coming along and sharing their stories, it was lovely!

    And thanks to Australian Author Fiona Lowe, for taking the time out from her very busy schedule and being with us!

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