Sunday Surprise Interview with Pauline Holyoak

My Sunday Surprise is a guest post from Award -Winning, Canadian Author, Pauline Holyoak. I only recently met Pauline through Facebook and it's lovely to get to know her - and her work - a bit better.   

Pauline is the proud winner of a Readers Favourite Silver Award in 2011 for Fiction/Paranormal. 

Pauline has recently had - Ultimate Sacrifice - published, the third book in her paranormal Merryweather Lodge trilogy. 

      

This “Spine-Chilling” trilogy has been inspired by her own experiences at a remote little cottage near Stonehenge.

“This author paints each page with fantasy, colorful characters, and haunting events that would light up a movie screen.”

book 1

Pauline - I grew up in Southeast England, in a coal mining village lovingly nicknamed, “The place that time forgot.” Go to my website, click on ‘Articles’ and find out why.  I immigrated to Canada when I was 21 in search of adventure and a new life.  I currently live in Alberta with my sports crazy husband, adorable sheltie dog and cantankerous ginger cat. I am the proud mother of two grown children and one adorable grandchild.

This is what inspired me to write this Merryweather Lodge trilogy?”   

book 2

Every summer, when I was a child, we would visit my aunt and uncle at their quaint and mysterious little cottage on Salisbury Plain. It was called Scotland Lodge and was situated not far from the historical Stonehenge. My uncle worked as a farm hand for the local squire. My aunt tended the manor house. 

It was there as I roamed free, deep within the English countryside, that I experienced joy, enchantment and some very strange and frightening occurrences. It was like a fairytale kingdom with a sinister twist. The memories of my summers at Scotland Lodge stayed with me, as a sort of nagging unsolved mystery all my life.

A few years ago I revisited my childhood wonderland and was led to concocting this story and writing these books. It is from my mystifying holidays, at that remote little cottage, that this trilogy has emerged.

book 3

Ultimate Sacrifice:

 Four years has passed since that dreadful event in the cellar. Belinda gave birth to a baby girl, nine months after Emily witnessed the creature raping Jonathan. The child appeared to be normal but looks can be deceiving. Was Emily’s attempt to bury the pentagram and trap the evil entity successful? For four years, there had been no paranormal activity at the cottage or reports of suicides or murders in the area. Merryweather Lodge was the fairytale kingdom Emily always dreamt it would be. Or so it seemed. In just one week Emily was going to marry the man of her dreams, her literal soul mate. Will her unearthly adversary allow the wedding to take place? Come to the West Country in England and experience the final act at Merryweather Lodge.

Excerpt from Ultimate Sacrifice – “I glanced at Jonathan to see his reaction. His cleft chin was raised and his lips wore a soft smile. He looked content, happy and oblivious to it all.  I tried to speak to him but my mouth would not move. I was frozen in another dimension, devoid of my reality, as if someone had cast a malicious spell on me.  The unsightly woman’s cracked lips formed a stiff smile; her strange eyes glared into mine. I recognized those eyes, but from where? Something was moving toward me from behind. I could feel it. My skin began to crawl. I was consumed with utter panic and the need to escape. I tried to tear my arm away from Jonathan’s and run, but I could not move. I was shrouded in a dark magnetic force that kept me glued to the ground.”

Pauline has some very useful tips now for...

The pros and cons of writing a trilogy.

Writing a trilogy or series is not an easy task. You have to keep your story line alive, long enough, to warrant three or more full length novels, and make sure that your characters do not perish from exhaustion, before they arrive at their destination. Each book must stand alone for readers who haven’t followed the previous books yet and you can’t bore those who have, with repetitive details of earlier events. You have to make your first book so compelling, that your readers will be anxious for the next one, and get the second one finished, published and out there, while the first one is still fresh in their minds….Writing a trilogy or series does have it’s advantages though. One already knows the characters, has done the research, established tone, point of view and motivation. ‘And’ if your first book is successful it’s almost a guarantee that your publisher will accept the next one.

Merryweather Lodge – A quaint little cottage, steeped in history, shrouded in secrets, its aura a paradoxical essence of heaven and hell. Come with me to the West Country in England and experience my protagonist’s strange and eerie journey there. 

Thank you for inviting me to your blog, Nancy. I had a blast!

My books are available in print or eBook format at http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com  or  www.amazon.com and Amazon UK

Please come visit me at http://www.paulineholoak.com   read about my fascinating life and view my videos

Thank you for visiting today, Pauline, and my very best wishes to you for a successful launch of Ultimate Sacrifice. 

Slainthe!