Hello everyone and welcome back! I have a very special guest for you today – you may or may not remember that I read and reviewed Evonne Wareham’s previous novel, Never Coming Home, last year and absolutely loved it. Evonne’s new book, Out of Sight Out of Mind, was published last week – on March 7th – and she’s here with a special interview today. So without further ado, please welcome Evonne herself!

Everyone has secrets. Some are stranger than others.

Madison Albi is a scientist with a very special talent – for reading minds. When she stumbles across a homeless man with whom she feels an inexplicable connection, she can’t resist the dangerous impulse to use her skills to help him.

J is a non-person – a vagrant who can’t even remember his own name. He’s got no hope, until he meets Madison. Is she the one woman who can restore his past? Madison agrees to help J recover his memory, but as she delves deeper into his mind, it soon becomes clear that some secrets are better off staying hidden.

Is J really the man Madison believes him to be?

Thanks to Vicky of Books, Biscuits and Tea for inviting me here today. I’ve asked Jay, the hero of my new paranormal romantic thriller, Out of Sight Out of Mind, to join us, for a short interview about his part in the story. I know Jay finds it difficult to talk about himself, although in this case I hope that he can be persuaded to open up just a little. I should explain – Jay is currently suffering from amnesia and doesn’t remember anything that happened in his life before about three months ago. I’ve got together with Dr Madison Albi, the research scientist who is helping him in his attempts to recover his past, and we’ve managed to convince him that answering a few questions might help to jog his memory, or maybe someone else’s.

Before we begin, I’d better give you a quick description of what Jay looks like. A little over six foot tall, broad shoulders, probably early to mid thirties, dark blue eyes, dark hair sprinkled with a few traces of silver, flopping forward onto his face. I am sure he’d laugh if he heard me say this, but there is no doubt that he is a very attractive man. Madison is always completely professional in everything she does, but I suspect that privately she might agree with me. Even so, I know she would take great care about letting her feelings interfere in any way with her work. She has a reputation as a very dedicated scientist, who is meticulous in her research. I think we’re ready to begin. Briefed by Madison, I’m going to start with something general.

“Welcome, Jay. To start us off, can you tell me about the things you do remember?”
“It’s not much.” He’s frowning. “All I can recall is what has happened in the last three months.”
“You don’t remember your name, or where you live? Your job?” I can feel a shiver running down my spine at the thought. “That’s frightening. But you still know basic things, like how to read and write. Do you think you were in some sort of accident?”
“I really don’t know – but there’s no evidence of anything like that.” He sighs, and I can feel my own breath catch. “It’s just, well, it’s like there is a wall, inside my head, cutting off everything from my past.”
His face is so desolate there’s a lump gathering in my throat. “I can see that it’s hard for you to talk about …” Oh no – wrong thing to say – Madison did warn me about displaying anything that looks remotely like pity. Jay’s still fiercely independent, even if he doesn’t know who he is.
Better move on to something more positive. “You do recall something though – your name?” Ah, that’s better, he’s settled back in his chair.

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Please welcome author Victoria Connelly, who’s here to talk about the inspiration behind her new romantic comedy collection, It’s Magic.

I never meant to write novels featuring magic. My first attempt at a novel was a historical (which I now call my hysterical novel). I then wrote several rather ordinary romantic comedies which were universally rejected by agents and publishers all over the world. And then I got married and my husband was sent to a war zone just six weeks after our wedding…

I panicked and truly believed I was going to become a widow and, in the split second that the thought crossed my mind, the writer in me kicked in and I thought, wouldn’t that be a great idea for a book? So, once my husband was safely home, I started writing a book about a young widow who has her own group of tiny guardian angels to take care of her. It was called Flights of Angels (a collective noun stolen from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Well, if you’re going to steal, steal from the best, I say!) It was to become the first novel I would have published but there was one drawback – only Germany ever published it and, despite it even being made into a film, the UK have never published it.

Two more magical romantic comedies followed in Germany. Unmasking Elena Montella about a woman who is given a magical Venetian mask which helps her choose which of her three (yes – three!) fiancés is the right one for her. And Three Graces about a young woman who marries a duke and goes to live in his ancestral home only to find it’s haunted by a rather opinionated eighteenth-century ghost.

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