New England Rocks is a Young Adult contemporary romance, featuring an English heroine, Rain, who is expelled from her boarding school and sent to a US high school as punishment. She wants to dislike everything about it, but then she meets Jesse, the hottest guy she’s ever seen. There’s just one small problem, he already has a girlfriend. But does it matter? New England sucks anyway, and Rain doesn’t plan on sticking around … or does she?
New England Rocks
What was the appeal of the setting of New England in this book?
My brother used to live there and I absolutely love that part of the US. I also went to an American high school myself for three years, so I knew how different it would feel to an English girl, and the resulting culture clash appealed to me as an author. I had great fun writing about the differences between the UK and the US.
You are well travelled so how much has this impacted your writing?
It has influenced my writing a lot as I often write about characters who are trying to fit in somewhere new. I’ve always felt slightly different myself, wherever I’ve lived, but at the same time I also feel at home in lots of places, if that makes sense? You just have to learn to accept everyone as they are, which is something my characters find out.
Where is your favourite place to travel to?
Apart from Sweden (where I grew up), it would have to be Japan. I lived there for a while and it’s such a unique country where the contrast between modern and traditional is really noticeable, but they’ve managed to blend the two really well without losing any aspect of either. I love everything about Japan – the culture, food, people and sights – and never tire of visiting.
You are Chairman of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, so what does this role entail?
I chair the committee meetings, do the welcome speeches at events and generally make sure everything is running smoothly within the organisation. I guess you could say that ‘the buck stops with me’. I love organising things so this isn’t a hardship for me, but it can be a bit nerve-racking in case I forget something! (I make lots of lists to hopefully prevent that happening)
You have won several awards for your work, so how does this make you feel?
As a writer, you often feel you exist in a vacuum. You write your books and then they are released into the world and that’s it, apart from reviews. To be told that you’ve won an award for your work makes you realise that someone really is reading and enjoying what you’ve written and that’s an absolutely wonderful feeling!
Who do you most like to read?
My favourite authors are Georgette Heyer, Barbara Erskine and Susanna Kearsley, but I also like YA authors Melissa Marr and Sarah Dessen, and thriller writer Steve Berry.
What is your writing environment like?
I can write anywhere, but I do my best writing at my desk in a little alcove off my bedroom which I call my “office”. I’m always surrounded by sleeping dogs (I have three) and I try to tell my family not to interrupt me, although that doesn’t always work :-) But if I’m really into a story, then I forget everything around me so it doesn’t matter what’s going on.
What is next for you?
I have a new novel coming out in February 2014, a time slip (or dual time) story for adults called The Secret Kiss of Darkness. Set in Devon, the life of the heroine in the present is turned upside down when she almost bankrupts herself to buy a portrait of a mysterious eighteenth century man at an auction. Forbidden love, smugglers and romance!
Christina’s first novel Trade Winds was shortlisted for the The Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Award for Best Historical Fiction. Her second novel, The Scarlet Kimono, won the the Big Red Reads’ Best Historical Fiction Award. In 2012, Highland Storms won the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel of the Year. And The Silent Touch of Shadows, Christina’s fourth novel, won the award for Best Historical Read at the Festival of Romance.