There’s a stretch of the New South Wales (Australia) coastline, about 250 km
south of Sydney, that is special to me. Not just because it’s a beautiful place
with glorious beaches, expanses of natural bushland and quaint small towns, but
also because it’s the inspiration for my fictional town of Dolphin Bay and its
surrounds.
Ulladulla Harbour on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia |
I just returned from a short visit to the area, and realised I hadn’t
actually been there since my first Dolphin Bay book The Summer They Never Forgot was published. It felt kind of surreal
to see again areas which had been my inspiration, that I had then twisted and
turned and embellished to become fictional places for my stories. The settings
in my head had become more real that the places that inspired them!
The beach at Mollymook, again on the New South Wales South Coast |
While my new story opens in Dolphin Bay, by Chapter Five it has moved to
Greece, when Dell accepts a job with her former adversary, the hotelier Alex
Mikhalis. Again I was heavily inspired by real-life locations for this story, in
particular the beautiful islands of the Ionian Sea in northern Greece.
The beautiful islands of the Ionian sea in Greece: wonderful inspiration! |
I
visited there for the first time in 2015, loved it, and immediately knew I
wanted to set a book there. I actually wrote the final chapters of the book while on vacation (writers never really rest!) in Greece last year.
Inspiration for settings for Conveniently Wed to the Greek |
A marriage
for the sake of her baby...
When luxury
hotelier Alex Mikhalis encounters the blogger who once nearly destroyed his
reputation, he wants to get even. Only Adele Hudson isn’t exactly as he
remembers. She’s pregnant and alone, and he can’t stop his protective instincts
kicking in!
After a
difficult breakup, Adele is very wary of all relationships. She has no choice
but to accept the Greek tycoon’s offer of a job, despite their complicated
past. But his next suggestion is much more intimate: becoming his convenient
wife!
Conveniently Wed to the Greek will be published
by Harlequin Romance in May 2017.
Like Dolphin Bay, my Greek island setting takes me again to the sea, a
place I like to visit in real life as well as in fiction. Do you have a
favorite place, country, town for a novel? Or one you don’t care for so much? I’d love to
hear your thoughts. Leave a comment for a chance to win a paperback copy of Conveniently Wed to the Greek.
Kandy Shepherd is a multi-published,
award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on
a small farm in the Blue
Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of
four-legged friends.
Visit Kandy at her website
7 comments:
Vancouver, B.c. is a favorite
alysap at yahoo dot com
Those are beautiful settings you have chosen. Truthfully, I don't have a favorite place for a setting in stories, I am along for the ride and the author "paints it" beautifully for me.
little lamb lst at yahoo dot com
Vancouver is a place I'd like to visit some day, jcp.
Lil, I'm with you. I feel like an author can take me to a place I've never been but I can experience it.
Fabulous covers, Kandy.
Thank you Liz, I'm very pleased with them!
I'm happy to travel the globe with my reading.
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