Interview With Holly Martin
Holly is the brilliant author of The Sentinel and The Guestbook and I was so lucky to have the chance to chat to her! Here's what we spoke about...
1. Not only have you written a YA fantasy novel (to be turned into a series) you’ve also written a ‘chick-lit’ book. Can you tell us a little bit about both?
The Sentinel, my YA fantasy, is about a teenage girl who finds out she is charged with saving the world and the powerful beings who are sent to protect her and destroy her. It’s a fast paced adventure with cool stunts and super powered beings but it’s also a story of friendship, loyalty and love.
The Guestbook is a romantic comedy story told through the messages left in a guestbook of a holiday cottage in Norfolk. Annie Butterworth own Willow Cottage and lives next door, it is her story that slowly unravels with her interactions with her guests, but we also get a snapshot of the guests’ lives too.
2. Why did you decide to write two very different books spanning two very different genres? Which one did you enjoy writing more?
All my books are chick-lit books with romance and humour at their core and I love that genre, I love the rose tinted worlds in chicklit, where everything has a happy ending. But The Sentinel was just something I had to write, it was an idea that I’d been thinking about for ages and it was so much fun to write. I wanted Eve to have as many different powers as possible and it was a lot of fun to write about her experiences with these powers
3. In The Sentinel, we are immersed into a world of guardians who are set out to protect Eve. Where did this idea come from?
I watched The Truman Show years ago and I love that this whole world has been created for Truman. Everybody in his life is an actor, pretending to be his friend, his wife, his boss, his next door neighbour and Truman has no clue, until the cracks in his life start to show. I absolutely loved that idea and wanted to create something similar for Eve, that her life was a lie built to protect her. Her teachers, parents, neighbours, doctors, friends were all super strength beings sent to protect her. The secret was so tightly woven that even Eve didn’t know about it.
4. The Guestbook is all about a holiday cottage and the widowed Annie Butterworth who owns it. Did you base the character of Annie on anyone you know?
No, I didn’t. But I did include a few of my friends and family as guests in the cottage, my mum, dad and my old dog Jack make a fleeting appearance, my friends Jac and Mark Rumsey are portrayed very accurately in my opinion, though I think Mark would probably disagree. My friend Verity Forbes and her now husband Arron Davenport are also in it.
Although Verity’s character is nothing like the real Verity. In the book Verity is a medium who prances naked on the village green and communicates with the dead. Verity in real life is much more normal but I had a lot of fun making her as crazy as possible and my friend loves her namesake.
5. What would be your number one tip for aspiring authors?
Just don’t give up. If you get feedback on your work try to act on it. Approach agents carefully, choosing the right one for you, don’t just blanket bomb everyone. Keep writing, write down small scenes, conversations, any ideas that come to your head, one day you might use them.
6. If you could have dinner with three fictional characters, who would you choose and why?
Great question, I think Hermione as I have so many questions about the magic world and I think, if I gave her some truth serum she would be able to answer them all. Jacques from Winter Wonderland because he’s big, strong, sweet and lovely and he likes dogs, and The BFG because I think he would be a hoot to have for dinner.
7. Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on at the moment?
I’ve just finished working on my Sunlounger 2 story set in San Francisco and involves one of those intense, ‘love at first sight’ meetings. My next romance book One Hundred Proposals will hopefully be out in the summer and my second book in The Sentinel Series will hopefully be out in April. I’m also working on another chicklit book tentatively titled Kidnap my Wife. I know it sounds weird but it’s very funny and lovely romance.
Quick-fire: (apologies, not as quick fire as you might like)
What is your…
favourite colour? Blue, no red, purple, no red, green is really cool too.
favourite song? Arghh sooo many. It changes weekly. I do like my cheese. ‘There she goes’ by The La’s and the song I want to dance to on my wedding day, ‘I’ll Be’ by Reba Mcintyre
favourite book? What are you doing to me with these questions? *Holds hand over eyes and picks one… Twilight, no Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I love Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
favourite word? Wordlenip. It was a made up word me and my brother created as kids. We would use it in every context and swap regular words in a sentence for worldenip, we used it as a swear word and there was even a worldlenip song.
favourite food? Chocolate. Is that a food? My mum’s chicken pie.
favourite season? By now I’m realising how indecisive I am. I love winter, with its snowy, frosty mornings and cosy nights in but I love the summer when the daylight seems to last forever, barbeques with your friends, trips to the beach and going barefoot without your toes snapping off. I love spring too, the promise of new life, the daffodils and the lambs and baby animals in the fields
favourite TV show? The Big Bang Theory, there one question I answered without hesitation. The humour in this is just brilliant. I could every episode a hundred times over and still laugh.
favourite author? Noooo. Belinda Jones, Jill Mansell, Sophie Kinsella, Nora Roberts, Sarah Morgan, Tilly Tennant, Stephanie Meyer. Oh there’s so many.
favourite animal? Dog, the bigger the better.
favourite day of the week? Toughy, Friday because it the start of the weekend, but Saturday because I get a lie in.
Thank you Laura for this fab interview, I’ve learned a lot about myself through it, mostly how indecisive I am, or maybe you could say I’m easily pleased.
Thank you so much Holly for taking part! It was so lovely to get to know more about you!
You can find Holly on Twitter!
1. Not only have you written a YA fantasy novel (to be turned into a series) you’ve also written a ‘chick-lit’ book. Can you tell us a little bit about both?
The Sentinel, my YA fantasy, is about a teenage girl who finds out she is charged with saving the world and the powerful beings who are sent to protect her and destroy her. It’s a fast paced adventure with cool stunts and super powered beings but it’s also a story of friendship, loyalty and love.
The Guestbook is a romantic comedy story told through the messages left in a guestbook of a holiday cottage in Norfolk. Annie Butterworth own Willow Cottage and lives next door, it is her story that slowly unravels with her interactions with her guests, but we also get a snapshot of the guests’ lives too.
2. Why did you decide to write two very different books spanning two very different genres? Which one did you enjoy writing more?
All my books are chick-lit books with romance and humour at their core and I love that genre, I love the rose tinted worlds in chicklit, where everything has a happy ending. But The Sentinel was just something I had to write, it was an idea that I’d been thinking about for ages and it was so much fun to write. I wanted Eve to have as many different powers as possible and it was a lot of fun to write about her experiences with these powers
3. In The Sentinel, we are immersed into a world of guardians who are set out to protect Eve. Where did this idea come from?
I watched The Truman Show years ago and I love that this whole world has been created for Truman. Everybody in his life is an actor, pretending to be his friend, his wife, his boss, his next door neighbour and Truman has no clue, until the cracks in his life start to show. I absolutely loved that idea and wanted to create something similar for Eve, that her life was a lie built to protect her. Her teachers, parents, neighbours, doctors, friends were all super strength beings sent to protect her. The secret was so tightly woven that even Eve didn’t know about it.
4. The Guestbook is all about a holiday cottage and the widowed Annie Butterworth who owns it. Did you base the character of Annie on anyone you know?
No, I didn’t. But I did include a few of my friends and family as guests in the cottage, my mum, dad and my old dog Jack make a fleeting appearance, my friends Jac and Mark Rumsey are portrayed very accurately in my opinion, though I think Mark would probably disagree. My friend Verity Forbes and her now husband Arron Davenport are also in it.
Although Verity’s character is nothing like the real Verity. In the book Verity is a medium who prances naked on the village green and communicates with the dead. Verity in real life is much more normal but I had a lot of fun making her as crazy as possible and my friend loves her namesake.
5. What would be your number one tip for aspiring authors?
Just don’t give up. If you get feedback on your work try to act on it. Approach agents carefully, choosing the right one for you, don’t just blanket bomb everyone. Keep writing, write down small scenes, conversations, any ideas that come to your head, one day you might use them.
6. If you could have dinner with three fictional characters, who would you choose and why?
Great question, I think Hermione as I have so many questions about the magic world and I think, if I gave her some truth serum she would be able to answer them all. Jacques from Winter Wonderland because he’s big, strong, sweet and lovely and he likes dogs, and The BFG because I think he would be a hoot to have for dinner.
7. Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on at the moment?
I’ve just finished working on my Sunlounger 2 story set in San Francisco and involves one of those intense, ‘love at first sight’ meetings. My next romance book One Hundred Proposals will hopefully be out in the summer and my second book in The Sentinel Series will hopefully be out in April. I’m also working on another chicklit book tentatively titled Kidnap my Wife. I know it sounds weird but it’s very funny and lovely romance.
Quick-fire: (apologies, not as quick fire as you might like)
What is your…
favourite colour? Blue, no red, purple, no red, green is really cool too.
favourite song? Arghh sooo many. It changes weekly. I do like my cheese. ‘There she goes’ by The La’s and the song I want to dance to on my wedding day, ‘I’ll Be’ by Reba Mcintyre
favourite book? What are you doing to me with these questions? *Holds hand over eyes and picks one… Twilight, no Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I love Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
favourite word? Wordlenip. It was a made up word me and my brother created as kids. We would use it in every context and swap regular words in a sentence for worldenip, we used it as a swear word and there was even a worldlenip song.
favourite food? Chocolate. Is that a food? My mum’s chicken pie.
favourite season? By now I’m realising how indecisive I am. I love winter, with its snowy, frosty mornings and cosy nights in but I love the summer when the daylight seems to last forever, barbeques with your friends, trips to the beach and going barefoot without your toes snapping off. I love spring too, the promise of new life, the daffodils and the lambs and baby animals in the fields
favourite TV show? The Big Bang Theory, there one question I answered without hesitation. The humour in this is just brilliant. I could every episode a hundred times over and still laugh.
favourite author? Noooo. Belinda Jones, Jill Mansell, Sophie Kinsella, Nora Roberts, Sarah Morgan, Tilly Tennant, Stephanie Meyer. Oh there’s so many.
favourite animal? Dog, the bigger the better.
favourite day of the week? Toughy, Friday because it the start of the weekend, but Saturday because I get a lie in.
Thank you Laura for this fab interview, I’ve learned a lot about myself through it, mostly how indecisive I am, or maybe you could say I’m easily pleased.
Thank you so much Holly for taking part! It was so lovely to get to know more about you!
You can find Holly on Twitter!