Author in the Headlights - Liz Fenwick

Today I'm delighted to be welcoming my lovely friend, Liz Fenwick, to my blog.

Growing up in Boston, Liz discovered early that her best friends could be books.  While waiting on a place for Harvard, she moved to London to see if life looked different from the other side of the Atlantic.  It did, and she soon feel in love with an Englishman.  

Now, happily married with three children, she spends as much time as possible at her home in Cornwall.

Who has influenced your life the most? My mother - she is amazing. She is wife, mother and had her career, but reinvented it to work around family. She has stuck to her principles and her faith as well as working tirelessly to help people – particularly teenagers through her teaching.

Which is your favourite book? Not fair ... hate this question …goes off in a sulk … seriously it’s soooooooooo hard to choose. So I’ll say in childhood it was Tom Sawyer, teenage years Regency Buck and now… can’t choose!

What would you save in a fire? The back-up drive with all the family photos on it …           

Which film have you seen several times? So many, especially if you count the ones with the kids like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings (I didn’t complain). I go through phases where I want to watch one film again and again …recently it’s been The Tourist. It’s not that it’s my favourite, but there is something about it that appeals – could be Venice, but I’ve seen it at least 20 times in the past year.

What in your life do you regret doing? If you had asked me this question a few years ago there would be many things – things I couldn’t let go of and would continually berate myself about or relive in dreams. But now there is nothing and I seem to have acquired the maturity to let go or to embrace all these things in my past … they make me me – warts and all.

What ambition do you have? To make it onto the best seller list …

What is your favourite colour? Blue - in all its shades but especially indigo.

If you were an animal, what would you be? A cat … sleeping most of the day and being adored sounds good to me …

What temptation do you wish you could resist? I wish I could say chocolate, but I’ve had to learn to resist because of pre-diabetes. So the only things left are books, shoes and sunglasses … I won’t confess to how many books I own/buy, shoes I own/bye or sun glasses I have. And thinking about it I can never resist a good wine either … I guess I’m just open to temptation.

What, in others, makes you angry? Their belief that I really am interested in their politics … or politics at all

What wisdom would you share with a child? It gets better and it’s never too late to follow your dreams.

What is your philosophy of life? I try and treat others as I would like to be treated. This has led to a fair bit of pain along the way as many don’t live by by the same principle. I think the most important thing I continually remind myself is that I may well be able to judge an act, ie murder, but never the person for I haven’t walked in their shoes (Maybe this is why I like being a writer because I can be in their shoes – not about murder, but because I can see into my characters’ minds).

What is your favourite song? You Want To Make A Memory by Bon Jovi … and the video is magic.

Which four people, dead or alive, would you like to invite to dinner and why? I’d like to invite both my grandmothers as I never had the chance to meet them. Both had to be brave and strong women as they left Ireland in their teens and built new lives for themselves in the States. Jon Bon Jovi, well, because I have a big crush. Finally Christ as I have lots of questions …

What has made you happiest? My husband and my children and those times when we are together as a family … also those times when my kids succeed at something they have worked hard for.

What would you want if you could choose anything? See ambition … No, seriously, I don’t really want anything besides, well, a Mac Air …

Who is the most fascinating person you’ve met? There are too many to say … I love people and everyone has a story to tell. But if pushed, I'd have to say our neighbour on Cape Cod was the most amazing woman, Jeanette Brown … Now if you are talking celebrities … the biggest was Bob Hope and he was charming.

Where is your favourite place in the world? My home in Cornwall … swiftly followed by the Maldives …

Who is your real life hero? My husband ... soppy, I know, but he still makes my heart beat faster - and he makes me laugh.

Five things you might not know about Liz Fenwick:

She is shy.

She used to have a very good brain but by the time she had read Green Eggs and Ham a hundred times it disappeared.

She hates anchovies.

She hates flying and has been known to quietly pray through whole flights.

She was an extra in the film One Crazy Summer starring Demi Moore.

Thank you, Liz, for taking time to answer my questions, and for giving me an excuse to have your lovely cover on my blog!

Liz's début novel, The Cornish House, was published by Orion in May.  It's available in hardback, trade paperback and to download now.  The paperback will be coming out in Spring 2013.

To find out more about Liz, go to her website, where you'll find links to other interviews, by clicking HERE.  You can follow Liz on Twitter @liz_fenwick and you can also visit her Facebook page.

And to take a look at The Cornish House visit Amazon by clicking HERE.