Forfeit – Natalie K. Martin

I am BEYOND excited. Finally, Ms Caroline Batten is publishing her ace book, #Forfeit on 31st July 2014. I’ve been reading drafts of this for some time and she’s super talented, so I’m chuffed to have her on the blog for a quick Q & A. Without any further ado, I give you:

Give us a quick introduction to your lead characters?

Daisy’s 25 years-old and into dance music, up-cycling old leather jackets handbags into couture handbags and increasing her high heel collection. She’s teaching overconfident posh kids at a private school in the Lakes. It’s hardly her dream job, but she’s got bugger all option after Finn, her actor husband, threw her out.

Xander is our eye candy. He’s a trained chef, but is currently working as a glorified holiday rep.

Visual representation of the characters?

Daisy’s 5’2” with white blonde curly hair and isn’t what she would call, conventionally pretty. Oh, she has a tiny diamond nose-piercing. In the movie, I’d love Juno Temple to play her.

Xander’s 22, 6’1”, dark blond hair with brown eyes. He’s a total piece of ass and a veritable Knight-In-Shining-Cricket-Pads. 🙂 6-pack abs, fabulous smile… the stereotypical hero. Max Irons could so play him.

What gets them out of bed in the mornings?

Daisy has to get up to walk her dog, Birkin (named after her dream handbag) and if it’s not a school day, then she’ll be sanding skirting boards in the house she’s renovating.

Xander gets out of bed because Daisy’s not in it.

What do we need to know about them?

At a party, they and three friends, play Forfeit, the ultimate game of dares. Daisy’s dare is to kiss Xander and the simple kiss ignites their relationship. But £25,000 is up for grabs and the game’s called Forfeit for good reason.

What do the both of they keep in their pockets/purses?

Her: Phone, lip balm, ball for Birkin, purse with £20 in it on a good day, cigarettes, I ♥ Ibiza lighter. And her Forfeit dare card.

Him: Phone, wallet (which has a dried daisy stashed inside – a memento from the day they met). And his Forfeit dare card.

What’s your favourite line from the book?

‘I want my own restaurant and I want… you.’ He glanced back at her, shaking his head. ‘Seriously, I don’t know what you’ve done, but it’s killing me. The other week I actually stood in Boots smelling shampoos, trying to find the one you use. It’s coconut and lime, right?’

What can we expect from the sequel/your next book?

When Patrick’s photographed in flagrante with a local beauty queen, his father delivers an ultimatum: one more newspaper scandal and Patrick will be disowned – no house and no job at the family veterinary practice. Desperate not to lose his easy life in the country, Patrick needs to avoid trouble – and girls like ex-ballerina, Libby. She’s cast a Wicca spell to summon a new love: good-looking, honest, non-brown eyes, English, likes animals… in a nutshell, Patrick. But fighting Libby’s love spell will be the least of Patrick’s problems when an old lady dies from a ketamine overdose. The drug was stolen from his surgery and she’s the third woman to die in as many months. Tongues will wag.

Distraction is set in the same village as #Forfeit, so fans can expect familiar faces to pop up. It’s due for publication in February 2015.

Eek. I’m a huge fan of this #Forfeit (and Distraction – I’m a lucky girl having read it already 🙂 ) You can download #forfeit from 31st July, and you can also get in touch with Caroline on the following links. Go spread the world!

www.carolinebatten.co.uk

Twitter: @daisy_fitz

http://www.wattpad.com/user/DaisyFitz

Last week, I bought two lots of tickets – something that always makes me happy. In two weeks, I’ll be heading to the Lake District to see my friend and fellow writer, Caroline Batten. Last time I went was in 2011, and it was fab. This time, she’s threatened to make we walk up Old Coniston Man. I’m up for the challenge. It should be nice – not only to catch up, but to talk geeky book stuff. Her book, #forfeit will be out soon and I can’t wait to start shouting about it. We can have a pre-launch party in the countryside 🙂

I also booked a flight to Madrid for August where I’ll spend a couple of days before heading west to a centre to do my first ever Vipassana meditation. Gulp.

It’s funny, when I was in India, I met so many people who had done it. They all positively raved about it, but I’d scrunched my nose up and said ‘no, thank you very much.‘ I’d tried meditating at home before and it just didn’t work. I never managed to stop thinking and, if anything, I felt more stressed afterwards than before. And not being able to speak for 10 days? Get real.

And then, I went to Thailand. I started doing the Thai massage course, and after practicing on a fellow resident at my guesthouse, I felt…weird. Stoned – like I’d smoked the biggest joint ever. My limbs were floppy, and my head was….blissed out. It dawned on me that, while I was giving the massage, I hadn’t thought about much beyond the massage, passing energy from myself to them and focussing on what I was doing. That’s when it clicked for me. I wanted to be able to get that focus and feel that way without having to massage someone to do it. There was a girl on our course who taught yoga and was very much into meditation, and she taught me a few basics. Like understanding that meditation isn’t necessarily about emptying your mind, because your mind can’t really do that, but that it’s about quietening it down and being able to focus. With that explained, I got it. Using a technique she told me about, I started meditating and I’ve done it every day since. I looked online, read about Vipassana and some blogs of people who’d done it, and booked myself a place.

I would never, ever, have imagined that my next trip abroad would be to go and sit in a centre with no communication with anyone else at all for 10 days, while spending a good 12 hours of each and every day in meditation. Never. But, again, it’s all to do with travel. I’ve had my horizons broadened, and in this regard, it has to be for the better. I’m hoping it will teach me how to react to things in a different way and how to really, really focus. Every writer has procrastination as their bed-fellow.

I just want it to be a more casual relationship.

Tag: Forfeit

#forfeit by Caroline Batten – Guest Post

Next stop…Madrid (via Cumbria)