Bestselling Author, Kelly Hunter, talks about -

The makeover bug.

Not people. Places. Have you ever walked into and old country pub or cafe and fallen in love with the bones of the place, but been dismayed by how musty, dusty and faded it was? I have.

Not that I have the deep pockets or the necessary experience to actually buy one of these places and restore it to glory, mind, but by the time I’ve had my counter-lunch I’ve given it quite the imaginary makeover.

Come time to write, it’s very tempting to then use that setting that captured the imagination and dwell on it in loving detail.

In my self-pubbed Christmas novella, Wish, heroine Billie Temple heads to a small Aussie country town to run the local pub.

Billie turned to new employer. ‘You need to hire more cleaning staff.’ That was assuming he hired any cleaning staff at all.

‘What for?’ said Roly and the wonder of it all was that he was serious.

‘This verandah needs scrubbing, for starters. Not to mention the chairs, the tables, and the sidewalk.’

‘It’s cleaner inside.’

One hoped. ‘You’re not going to argue with me about cleaning this place, are you? You said you wanted more customers.’

‘Yes, but—

‘You also said you’d give me free rein to run things my way.’

‘You said that?’ Arthur’s tone was incredulous.

‘Yeah,’ said Roly glumly. ‘Don’t know what I was thinking.’
In Red-Hot Renegade (Her Singapore Fling in NA), martial arts hero Jake Bennett owns a dojo in Singapore. It gets torched eventually, but dojo ownership was fun for a while.


‘I’m quite liking dojo living,’ she (Jianne) said. ‘It’s very streamlined. What is that smell?’

‘Sweat,’ said Jake.

Speaking of Brothers Bennett, the last two stories in that series are being packaged together and re-released in the UK in January with the title

Single Girl Abroad.

I think it’s quite the makeover.

Author copies are still a few weeks away, but if you’re happy to wait, there’s a copy of Single Girl Abroad up for grabs – just leave a comment. The question: Do you have a favourite old house/haunt/building that you would love to get your hands on and re-do?
ps. No bathroom renovations allowed ;)




And thank you LoveCats for being such lovely hosts.

Kelly


Here's a link to Kelly's website -www.kellyhunter.net