Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour & Giveaway for Little Tea by Claire Fullerton, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
Title: Little TeaAuthor: Claire Fullerton
Publisher: Firefly Southern Fiction
Release Date: May 1, 2020
Genre: Southern Fiction
Southern Culture … Old Friendships … Family Tragedy
One phone call from Renny to come home and “see about” the capricious Ava and Celia Wakefield decides to overlook her distressful past in the name of friendship.
For three reflective days at Renny’s lake house in Heber Springs, Arkansas, the three childhood friends reunite and examine life, love, marriage, and the ties that bind, even though Celia’s personal story has yet to be healed. When the past arrives at the lake house door in the form of her old boyfriend, Celia must revisit the life she’d tried to outrun.
As her idyllic coming of age alongside her best friend, Little Tea, on her family’s ancestral grounds in bucolic Como, Mississippi unfolds, Celia realizes there is no better place to accept her own story than in this circle of friends who have remained beside her throughout the years. Theirs is a friendship that can talk any life sorrow into a comic tragedy, and now that the racial divide in the Deep South has evolved, Celia wonders if her friendship with Little Tea can triumph over history.
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Claire Fullerton hails from Memphis, TN. and now lives in Malibu, CA. with her husband and 3 German shepherds. She is the author of Mourning Dove, a coming of age, Southern family saga set in 1970's Memphis. Mourning Dove is a five-time award winner, including the Literary Classics Words on Wings for Book of the Year, and the Ippy Award silver medal in regional fiction ( Southeast.) Claire is also the author of Dancing to an Irish Reel, a Kindle Book Review and Readers' Favorite award winner that is set on the west coast of Ireland, where she once lived. Claire's first novel is a paranormal mystery set in two time periods titled, A Portal in Time, set in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. She is a contributor to the book, A Southern Season with her novella, Through an Autumn Window, set at a Memphis funeral ( because something always goes wrong at a Southern funeral.)
Little Tea is Claire's 4th novel and is set in the Deep South. It is the story of the bonds of female friendship, healing the past, and outdated racial relations. Little Tea is the August selection of the Pulpwood Queens, a Faulkner Society finalist in the William Wisdom international competition, and on the long list of the Chanticleer Review's Somerset award. She is represented by Julie Gwinn of the Seymour Literary Agency. https://www.clairefullerton.com
CONNECT WITH CLAIRE: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
What a fun question! I’ll put this in an order
that lets you know how one thing led to another, because they did!
I have a background in music radio. I worked over a nine-year career in Memphis radio as a DJ at different formats, but the most significant for me was WEGR Rock-103 on the infamous Beale Street. I was offered a great job to move to Los Angeles and represent bands looking for a record deal. I had success with a band from Louisiana that hit the big time. From Los Angeles, I moved to the west coast of Ireland and stayed more than a year. I lived in rural Connemara and worked at The Galway Music Center in Galway City. When I returned to America, I wrote my first novel, Dancing to an Irish Reel that I pretty much crafted from the journals I kept while living in Ireland. Here’s where the interesting part comes in: between the Los Angeles music business and my move to Ireland, I worked at Pacific Ocean Coast Sound in Santa Monica, California. This was a post-production facility whose clients were the movie studios, so I met practically every popular actor imaginable. It was an incredible year, and what happened while I was in Ireland was that I received a letter from P.O.P’s managing director offering me the job of Director of Client services. I accepted the job, returned to the United States and am now married to the man who wrote me that letter. Beyond all this, I am a teacher of ballet and Pilates mat. I have a background in ballet and teach ballet barre combined with the kind of floor work the NY City Ballet practices.
When did you know that you wanted to pursue writing? Was it always something in the back of your mind?
The back of my mind is the perfect way to frame this question! Yes, I have always kept a journal, and I believe when one does this with commitment and discipline, and if one reads voraciously with a respect for language and craft, one turns oneself into a writer.
What advice or encouragement would you offer to aspiring writers?
Take your inspiration to write seriously. Consider it a calling. Study, read, write, commit to it and it will grow. There’s no way around it; if you incorporate writing into your life, you’ll get better at it. Write your stories with a devil-may-care attitude!
Can you tell us a little bit about Little Tea? I always love to hear the story behind the story, what inspired you to write Little Tea?
I am so aware of the power of long, female friendships. I’ve always wanted to depict the secret language women use when they know each other’s histories and there is a type of unconditional acceptance and loyalty that evolves. It’s almost tribal, even though friends can take different paths in life. That bond is a gift. It’s familial, anchoring, sustaining. And insiders sense of humor evolves—the kind that is tied to some funny episode that only friends know. This is what gave me the idea to go into writing Little Tea. I began with three childhood friends, now in their late 40’s, who convene for a long weekend at Greer’s Ferry Lake ( gorgeous) in Heber Springs Arkansas because one of them wants to leave her marriage. It gave me the chance to go into the backstory of the friends as well as their combined history, and, as we all know, most people’s backstory is complicated.
What do you hope readers will take away from the book?
The idea of the richness of long-lasting friendships. The great story everyone has right there in the middle of their own relationships. We all sense this. My job as a writer was to tell a good story and have the reader say, “Me too!”
It sounds like a fantastic story, and I cannot wait to read it myself. I have found that writers are so often some of the best readers too. If we were to take a look at your own TBR, what might we find there?
Great question! I am all over Sue Monk Kidd’s The Book of Longings. It’s incredible. I am also a fan of the Irish author, Billy O’Callaghan. Look into him because he floors me. I keep Pat Conroy close by and I’m a fan of Ron Rash.
Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions. Before we go, can you give us an idea on what we can look forward to next? Any other projects you are currently working on that you can share?
First of all, let me say you’ve asked the greatest questions! Thank you. I’ll answer the last one by telling you I recently finished a novel that was a departure for me. It’s there, but I will probably have to re-work it, which, so far, I’ve never done. I’ve typically written a book, turned it over to my editor, and that’s been that! I’ll see what to do about the book I finished. But one thing that occurs to me and others about Little Tea is that it’s so visual and the characters are so specific that somebody should turn it into a screen play. Maybe I’ll try my hand.
I have a background in music radio. I worked over a nine-year career in Memphis radio as a DJ at different formats, but the most significant for me was WEGR Rock-103 on the infamous Beale Street. I was offered a great job to move to Los Angeles and represent bands looking for a record deal. I had success with a band from Louisiana that hit the big time. From Los Angeles, I moved to the west coast of Ireland and stayed more than a year. I lived in rural Connemara and worked at The Galway Music Center in Galway City. When I returned to America, I wrote my first novel, Dancing to an Irish Reel that I pretty much crafted from the journals I kept while living in Ireland. Here’s where the interesting part comes in: between the Los Angeles music business and my move to Ireland, I worked at Pacific Ocean Coast Sound in Santa Monica, California. This was a post-production facility whose clients were the movie studios, so I met practically every popular actor imaginable. It was an incredible year, and what happened while I was in Ireland was that I received a letter from P.O.P’s managing director offering me the job of Director of Client services. I accepted the job, returned to the United States and am now married to the man who wrote me that letter. Beyond all this, I am a teacher of ballet and Pilates mat. I have a background in ballet and teach ballet barre combined with the kind of floor work the NY City Ballet practices.
When did you know that you wanted to pursue writing? Was it always something in the back of your mind?
The back of my mind is the perfect way to frame this question! Yes, I have always kept a journal, and I believe when one does this with commitment and discipline, and if one reads voraciously with a respect for language and craft, one turns oneself into a writer.
What advice or encouragement would you offer to aspiring writers?
Take your inspiration to write seriously. Consider it a calling. Study, read, write, commit to it and it will grow. There’s no way around it; if you incorporate writing into your life, you’ll get better at it. Write your stories with a devil-may-care attitude!
Can you tell us a little bit about Little Tea? I always love to hear the story behind the story, what inspired you to write Little Tea?
I am so aware of the power of long, female friendships. I’ve always wanted to depict the secret language women use when they know each other’s histories and there is a type of unconditional acceptance and loyalty that evolves. It’s almost tribal, even though friends can take different paths in life. That bond is a gift. It’s familial, anchoring, sustaining. And insiders sense of humor evolves—the kind that is tied to some funny episode that only friends know. This is what gave me the idea to go into writing Little Tea. I began with three childhood friends, now in their late 40’s, who convene for a long weekend at Greer’s Ferry Lake ( gorgeous) in Heber Springs Arkansas because one of them wants to leave her marriage. It gave me the chance to go into the backstory of the friends as well as their combined history, and, as we all know, most people’s backstory is complicated.
What do you hope readers will take away from the book?
The idea of the richness of long-lasting friendships. The great story everyone has right there in the middle of their own relationships. We all sense this. My job as a writer was to tell a good story and have the reader say, “Me too!”
It sounds like a fantastic story, and I cannot wait to read it myself. I have found that writers are so often some of the best readers too. If we were to take a look at your own TBR, what might we find there?
Great question! I am all over Sue Monk Kidd’s The Book of Longings. It’s incredible. I am also a fan of the Irish author, Billy O’Callaghan. Look into him because he floors me. I keep Pat Conroy close by and I’m a fan of Ron Rash.
Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions. Before we go, can you give us an idea on what we can look forward to next? Any other projects you are currently working on that you can share?
First of all, let me say you’ve asked the greatest questions! Thank you. I’ll answer the last one by telling you I recently finished a novel that was a departure for me. It’s there, but I will probably have to re-work it, which, so far, I’ve never done. I’ve typically written a book, turned it over to my editor, and that’s been that! I’ll see what to do about the book I finished. But one thing that occurs to me and others about Little Tea is that it’s so visual and the characters are so specific that somebody should turn it into a screen play. Maybe I’ll try my hand.
(1) winner will receive an ebook copy of Little Tea and $5 Amazon gift card!
Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway will begin at midnight June 8, 2020 and last through 11:59 PM EST on June 15, 2020. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.
Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
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Thank you for taking the time to publish this information very useful!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing!!!
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Enjoyed reading the author interview! Thank you for hosting.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the opportunity to win! And thank you for sharing
ReplyDeleteThis book looks very interesting. Thanks for sharing!
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