Tuesday 24 February 2015
Release Date: 24th February 2015
Publisher: Cooked Cat Publishing
Publisher: Cooked Cat Publishing
Genres: Contemporary Fiction
The
Friendship Tree
Is running away ever the answer?
Tamara Harding left the UK to join family in
Australia, but more importantly, to put ten thousand miles between her and her
ex, Bradley Cox. She is soon drawn in to the small community of Brewer Creek
where she becomes the coordinator for an old fashioned Friendship Tree – a
chart telling people who they can call on in times of trouble.
As she vows to start over, she meets Jake Manning –
and life gets more complicated than she could ever have imagined. Jake is the
direct competitor for the family business, and a man with a dark secret, and
Tamara struggles to fight her attraction to him as she deals with secrets of
her own and an ex who refuses to give up.
When danger descends on Brewer Creek in the form of
Jake’s own past, Tamara soon realises the Friendship Tree does a lot more than
organise fundraising events and working bees; it has the power to unite an
entire town. But will Tamara see past the complications and allow herself a
happy ending with Jake?
Or will she run away again?
On Writing
The Friendship Tree
The Friendship Tree was my second attempt at writing
a novel – discounting the few attempts I had in my teens of course!
I love the idea of small communities coming together
and that was the initial thought behind The Friendship Tree. I also knew that I
wanted to build into the story, themes of family, friendship, love and everyday
life.
I came up with the name for my fictitious town, Brewer
Creek, which I chose to set in the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia.
The next step was to devise a unique way for people to gel together in times of
need, and so the idea for a friendship tree was born.
I had a lot of fun dreaming up the characters for
The Friendship Tree – Tamara, Jake, April, Danielle … Mr Wilson and Bobby. I’ll
miss them now that the book is finished, but you never know, I may revisit
Brewer Creek in another book one day. What an exciting prospect!
About the
Author
Just like so many writers, my love of reading came
first. Even as a child my mum was always nagging me to turn the light off and
go to sleep. ‘I want to finish the chapter,’ I’d answer, ‘Five more minutes,’
I’d promise.
My desire to write came much later. I ended up
studying Strategic Systems Management at Bournemouth University and after that,
successfully started a career in the world of I.T. as a computer programmer.
The love of reading continued, as did my fascination
with other worlds. That fascination lead me to embark on an adventure to
Australia so in the year 2000 I quit my job, bought a one-way ticket to the
land down under, found an I.T. job there and settled happily.
The writing bug caught up with me three years after
that move and I studied journalism, left the I.T. world and started a new
career as a freelance journalist.
After I’d married and had children and at last had
time to read a book again, the fiction bug bit properly. I started writing
fiction in 2010 and haven’t stopped since. My first novel was a learning
experience and is in the bottom drawer never to be seen again, but The
Friendship Tree was my 2nd attempt, and after a lot of work with the initial
draft and many, many edits following critiques, it was finally good enough to
be taken on by Crooked Cat Publishing. I have another two novels, almost ready
to go now, and am planning the next.
In 2014 the need to be closer to family became so
great that I relocated from Australia back to the UK, where I have settled in
the beautiful city of Bath, with my husband and my children.
You can find out more about me at:
Website: www.helenjrolfe.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/helenjrolfe
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hjrolfe
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/helenjrolfe
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