AVRIL TREMAYNE TELLS GREAT STORIES...ON THE PAGE AND IN PERSON!

Avril Tremayne was born in Australia, with an Italian/Irish pedigree.She's been an avid reader all her life, but took the scenic route to becoming a writer, via shoe-selling, nursing, teaching and—most recently—a highly successful career in corporate affairs and public relations

. 

Along the way, Avril studied acting, singing, pottery, oil painting, millinery, German and Arabic - with very mixed results.She's a mad keen traveler with more favorite destinations than should be allowed, but currently resides in her hometown of Sydney, where her husband and daughter try to keep her out of trouble - not always successfully.When she's not writing or reading, Avril can generally be found eating - although she does not cook - drinking wine, and obsessing about shoes!

Jan Schliesman: Welcome, Avril!  Tell me, how often to you get lost in a story?

Avril Tremayne: All the time. I am a voracious reader - and as an opportunistic insomniac, I read a lot! I'm an upstairs, downstairs, mezzanine kind of girl, who starts to panic without a massive to-be-read pile on each level. At the moment, I’m reading The Heat Of The Night by Amy Andrews downstairs (ebook), Hustle by Claire Chilton on the mezzanine (ebook), and Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts upstairs (print, for the bath).

Jan: We met through Harlequin’s So You Think You Can Write contest last fall. Was this the first contest you entered?  Did you worry about posting your story for EVERYONE to read? 

Avril: I entered a few contests quite some years ago, and was lucky enough to be a finalist in some of those. But nothing on the scale of SYTYCW, where so many people were looking at my work. I was a little bit terrified of sharing so publicly, to be honest - but in the end I found it to be one of the most valuable aspects of the competition. And good practice for being published, of course!

Jan:  You hail from Australia and have led an adventurous life, sometimes rubbing shoulders with a few celebrities.  Care to drop a name or two?

Avril: Oh, I've had tons of celebrity sightings over the years, which I won’t drone on about except to say that Hugh Jackman and George Clooney were close enough to touch at two separate events I was at - not joking! But I do have two favorite examples that were a little more substantial. The first:  I toured the world as part of the PR/marketing team managing John Travolta's Spirit of Friendship tour back in the day. For those who don't know, as well as being a phenomenally 

talented pilot and an ambassador for the airline I was working for at the time. Talk about a career highlight! And the second example: I once sat next to Jim Caviezel on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney. We even had a little conversation during the meal service, without me knowing who he was – only that he was the best looking man I had ever seen in my life! It wasn’t until we disembarked and I saw one of the airport staff holding up a sign with his name on it that it all clicked.

Jan: After visiting San Antonio for the Romance Writers of America Conference, did any one thing strike you as being different from the sister conference held in Australia?

Avril: It's a matter of scale. The American conference is huge; the Australian one is more intimate by comparison. But what they have in common is wonderful people sharing amazing knowledge. Imagine being able to attend sessions taught by a veteran cop (San Antonio) and an Egyptologist (Sydney). There’s always something fascinating on offer. If you’re interested in romance writing, I say no matter where you are, get to the closest conference you can. You will never meet a more welcoming, generous, inspiring group of people.

Jan: What’s a normal day like for you?  Is your family good about helping out when you’re under deadline?

Avril: I have a tiny but gorgeous little writing ‘nook’ at my house, and I’m in it writing/editing for between four and ten hours every day. Confession – those hours include more than the occasional foray into the world of social media. I go for a run in the afternoon if I can't find a believable excuse to dodge it. And I always stop for a G&T or a Campari at about 6pm. I'm both delighted and ashamed to admit that I am generally excused from housework and cooking duties at Casa Tremayne because I suck at that stuff! 

Jan:  Did you buy yourself something special when you sold your first book?

Avril:  My first ‘writing’ present to myself was a pair of custom-printed Converse All Star hot pink sneakers with my name emblazoned on the side, which I bought in Los Angeles on my way to the Romance Writers of America conference. I just love them.

Jan: Tell me about your August release, Here Comes the Bridesmaid.
Avril: Sunshine Smart has only got two months to organize her friend’s wedding. 
She has to include the grouchy, surly best man Leo Quartermaine—a top chef and her complete opposite!

Said best man is extremely handsome and sexy—and knows it!  
He has no interest in decor, flowers, clothes or shoes…but has an uninformed opinion on all four!

And just a few days in she's already slept with him. Rookie mistake…

Read more: http://www.avriltremayne.com/#!here-comes-the-bridesmaid/cod1

Jan:  How many times were you a bridesmaid? Worst dress you had to wear?

Avril: I’ve been a flower girl once, a bridesmaid at least twice, and I was also a near-bridesmaid on one occasion when the bride and groom didn't make it to the altar and a day of excessive booze-fuelled wedding cake consumption ensued. The worst outfit was one I designed myself. It was a faux-Victorian era dress in red, with a fake fluff/fur pillbox hat and matching muff. Actually, the dress itself wasn’t so bad, but a muff in Sydney? I was probably in full-on costume drama mode when I thought that up, daydreaming of my own distant future wedding, which I imagined as a medieval fantasy, with me in royal purple, ten bridesmaids in white velvet, and a destrier to trot me up the aisle!

Jan:  Did you have a big or small wedding?  Did anything go wrong on your wedding day?

Avril: I had a smallish (70 people) and very stylish wedding, at a private home overlooking Sydney Harbour. It started with a cocktail party, and then at a certain point, I made a grand entrance. I walked up the ‘aisle’, which was actually a steep path that none of the guests could see, to the wonderful song 'This Guy's In Love With You' by Herb Alpert – and I now cry every time I hear that song. Nothing actually went wrong but I did two things by the seat of my pants that easily could have.

The first was my bouquet. I opted to wander up the road to a nearby florist on the day of my wedding to choose something from whatever flowers they had available. I ended up with native Australian flowers - the main ones were plain, pretty, velvety flannel flowers, which are greenish-white in color - and just wrapped the stems in a leftover piece of fabric from my wedding dress, which was a beautiful peacock blue/green Thai shot silk. As people left the reception, rather than the traditional bouquet toss, I handed a sprig from my unconventional bouquet to each and every woman.

The second thing was my arrival. Because nobody would see me arrive, courtesy of that long walk up the steep hill, I decided not to waste money on a fancy hire car and instead called a taxi when I was ready. There were a few tense moments with my brother Pete, who was escorting me, as the taxi took its time arriving!

Jan's GOTTA ASK: My hubby works for Haagen-Dazs so I always have to ask…what’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

Avril's GOTTA ANSWER: Well, it's a two way tie. In ice cream - rocky road! In gelato - lychee and coconut. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH AVRIL FOR SPENDING TIME WITH US!  And watch for her two new Harlequin releases in October:

Avril will be giving away a signed hardcover copy of Here Comes The Bridesmaid and will ship it ANYWHERE in the world so scroll to the bottom and answer this question (and be sure to include your email.) 

What was the best or worst bridesmaid dress you ever wore?

Contact: avril_tremayne@hotmail.com

Website: http://www.avriltremayne.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/avril.tremayne

Twitter: @AvrilTremayne

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/AvrilTremayne