Bestselling Scottish author Janice Horton launches her latest book ‘Reaching for the Stars’ to Amazon Kindle this week in the wake of her ‘Wish I Was Here’ themed online launch party, when many Bloggers and Tweeters posted a photo or picture of their own perfect escape, in keeping with the theme of Janice’s novel about a celebrity chef who disappears to avoid media frenzy.
Reaching for the Stars is published in e-format to Amazon for Kindle.
Janice, tell us what inspired Reaching for the Stars and what the novel is about?
Hi Melanie – thank you for having me here today – ‘Reaching for the Stars’ was inspired by my own fascination for celebrity chefs. I find the passion displayed by the rock stars of the culinary world to be very appealing indeed and with their sharp knives and skilled moves, I see them as culinary pirates, adventurers of the chrome surfaces, who battle through flames and the intense heat of the kitchen. That kind of dedication to duty is very powerful and so I wanted to create a hero-chef for my novel who was an amalgamation of all the chefs I find attractive. In the writing however, and as the story develops, it becomes apparent that great success can only ultimately bring about the realisation these gastronomic gods are, after all, also just human beings.
Reaching for the Stars is a romantic novel about a disillusioned Scottish celebrity chef called Finn McDuff, whose third wife leaves him just as he wins his third star. The irony of this is lost on no one, except one particular newspaper journalist called Raine Sanderson, who falls in love with the chef’s worn out gorgeousness when she interviews him at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh.
But soon after she writes up her story in The Thistle to expose the man, the myth and the legend behind the chef’s star-studded façade, he decides he’s had enough of all the food campaigns, the TV cookery shows, the constant frenzy surrounding his private life and gives back his accolades, closes his restaurant, and disappears.
With the enfant-terrible of the kitchen missing, two rival newspapers, The Thistle and The City News, having lost their media meal ticket, compete against each other to whip up further public curiosity in the missing chef.
What follows is a media manhunt, a press feeding frenzy, a phone hacking scandal followed by speculation and supposition. Love him or hate him, everyone is out looking for Chef McDuff. Who will find him first? Will it be Raine, or her nemesis at The City News, Ross Campbell?
Buy ‘Reaching for the Stars’ now at the special launch price of just 95p from amazon.co.uk and for $1.30 US from amazon.com
Links:
Janice Blogs at: http://janicehortonwriter.blogspot.com/
Janice is a www.loveahappyending.com author
Follow her on Twitter @JaniceHorton
Facebook Author Page: Janice Horton
About the author:
Janice lives in Scotland and writes romantic novels with humour which are, for the most part, inspired by the beauty of the heather-filled glens around her country cottage. When Janice is not writing novels, she write lifestyle articles and has had work published in national and international magazines and regional newspapers. She is the bestselling author of humorous romance ‘Bagpipes & Bullshot’.
Thank you Melanie for hosting me today – I’m really excited to be here talking about yummy chefs and my inspirations for Reaching for the Stars!
Janice xx
Loved this interview, Melanie and Janice. It makes me want to get into the novel even more quickly! Great plot line, Janice.
I think Finn McDuff is going to rival some of the big names …. so Jamie and Rick move over….. laugh! So glad to see you hit the stratosphere on launch day Janice and lovely to be visiting Celtic Connexions!
Good morning ladies! Looks the the time zone difference caught me a bit behind you.
Thanks for your wonderful comments. I’m sure we’ll have great fun here today at Celtic Connexions.
I’m thrilled to be hosting you, Janice!
Great interview, lovely author, and perfect host. Hope the book does well.
I read Bagpipes and Bullshot, so just had to get Reaching for the Stars. Best of luck, Janice. I’m gong to enjoy this one! 🙂 xx
Excellent post – Janice, your new book sounds a blast and I’m really looking forward to reading it – Christmas Day may well find me hidden in a wee nook somewhere at the end of the day with a glass of something warming, a mince pie (even though I’ve sworn I won’t be able to eat again till Hogmanay…) and the trusty Kindle on my lap with your book on it. Sounds like a plan!
Gilly, I like your idea! Squirrel yourself away from the madness and confusion on Christmas Day and curl up with a book and a glass of something.
I’ve downloaded Janice’s book, now I need to find time to read it!