Holly Martin lives in a little white cottage by the sea and has been writing for 7 years. Today upon the release of her new book Summer At Rose Island, she tells us a little bit more about the woman behind the books.
Holly Martin
I love chocolate. I love it in any form, boxes of chocolates, chocolate biscuits, chocolate cake, dark, white or milk, I've tried all the different brands too. But I have to say nothing beats good old fashioned Cadbury's.
I've lived in lots of different places around the UK, I started life in Birmingham and then moved to Luton when I was 16. I lived near Liverpool for a few years while I was at university studying media and years later when I went back to university to train to be a teacher I lived in Twickenham. I've always wanted to live abroad but I think I'd miss my friends and family too much.
I used to play the saxophone. I had lessons a few years ago but it was so bad that my dog howled every time I'd get my saxophone out to practice. I realise that I must have quite small hands as when I was supposed to hold down the keys with my thumb and little finger I couldn't reach both at the same time. My teacher used to get quite frustrated but I'm not sure what she was expecting me to do, I couldn't make my hand any bigger.
I studied media studies at college and at university and I worked on a bbc crime reconstruction programme called Trail Of Guilt. My moment of fame came when I appeared in the programme three times, once in a photo that the murderer looks at, once in the background in the pub and my big moment, as a fifteen year old paper boy, padded out and giving it my best Liam Gallagher type swagger as I walked past the murderer in the early hours of the morning. It was great fun to work on the programme but sadly Steven Spielberg didn't see my performance and whisk me off to Hollywood.
My White Cliff Bay series is set on the borders of Devon and Cornwall and I did a lot of research by visiting lots of different beautiful seaside towns. I loved the area so much that I'm moving to Devon in a few weeks and I'm hoping they'll be lots of seaside inspiration for my future stories
I also write teenage fantasy fiction stories, which I love. My character Eve is just a normal 17 year old girl until she discovers she has all these super powers and is charged with saving the world. Its so much fun creating a world with superpowered beings and magical creatures and letting Eve's powers grow so each new book showcases a different power or skill. They're so fast paced and action packed and I love how different they are to my sweet romance books.
I used to scuba dive around the UK and have dived on lots of amazing shipwrecks over the years. The UK waters are littered with sunken boats, a lot of them are almost completely intact too, its amazing to see the rooms in the boats almost exactly as they were with fishes swimming through them.
I love making fairy cakes and its pretty much the only thing I can cook. I've tried to transfer those skills to making big birthday cakes and failed spectacularly
I love sparkles, sparkly clothes and shoes. I have a reputation with the rest of the Bookouture authors for being the sparkly queen. I think everyone needs a bit of sparkle in their life. My dream would be to see my book in the shops complete with a gorgeous sparkly cover.
I used to be in the air cadets and I learned how to shoot and fly a plane, I'm sure this will come in useful in future stories, maybe there will be a female spy in one of my stories although if she's anything like me, I imagine she won't be particularly skilled, more Mr Bean than James Bond.
