Author Spotlight – Jude Knight and “Farewell to Kindness”

I’ve got a great indie author to introduce to you today.  Please say hello to Jude Knight:

Jude Knight writes strong determined heroines, heroes who can appreciate a clever capable woman, villains you’ll love to loathe, and all with a leavening of humour.

You can follow her all over the Interwebs:

Follow Jude on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JudeKnightBooks

Friend Jude on Facebook: http://facebook.com/judeknightbooks

Subscribe to Jude’s blog: http://judeknightauthor.com

Subscribe to Jude’s newsletter: http://judeknightauthor.com/newsletter/

Follow Jude on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/judeknight

 

Her book is “Farewell to Kindness”

For three years, Rede has been searching for those who ordered the murders of his wife and children. Now close to end of his quest, he travels to his country estate to be close to the investigation.

He is fascinated by the lovely widow who lives in one of the cottages he owns. A widow who pays no rent. A widow, moreover, with a small daughter whose distinctive eyes mark her as as the child of his predecessor as Earl.

Six years ago, Anne blackmailed Rede’s predecessor at arrow-point for an income and a place to livein hiding from her guardian’s sinister plans for her and her sisters. He no longer has legal rights over her, but the youngest sister is still only 18. He cannot be allowed to find her.

Rede is everything she has learned not to trust: a man, a peer, a Redepenning. If he discovers who she is, she may lose everything.

To build a future together, Rede and Anne must be prepared to face their pasts.

You can buy it everywhere:

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/farewell-to-kindness

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/farewell-to-kindness/id974225678

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1121346576

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/522691

Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Farewell-Kindness-Golden-Redepennings-Book-ebook/dp/B00TXRW4KA/

 

I’ve also got a great interview with Jude:

Who is your favorite author?

I have different favourites for different reasons. Terry Pratchett, for his word play and his ability to use absurdity to cause me to think again about things I took for granted. Grace Burrowes, for her intricately interconnected fictional world, where the heroes and heroines of books appear as secondary or peripheral characters in others. Ursula Le Guin, for her rich relationships between characters, and for how characters in her books grow and change. There are so many others.

How do you describe your writing style? Use no more than two sentences.

I’ve never described my writing style. One of my reviewers said: “Her writing somehow manages to be both lush and controlled. She creates lovely, descriptive scenes that open up the place and time without overwhelming with historical detail, and the use of language is period-appropriate and provides an “old-fashioned” flavor that lingers.”

Why should we read your book?

Read Farewell to Kindness if you like stories with intricate plots, a surfeit of villains, lots of action, an interesting historical setting, appealing protagonists and secondary characters, and a happy ending. Candle’s Christmas Chair, my novella, is a simpler book, and a sweeter one.

Have any of your characters been modelled after yourself?

I suspect I put bits of myself into all my characters, even my villains. And bits of other people I know. In the end, though, the bits combine to form someone new.

If you could exchange lives with any of your characters for a day which character would you choose and why?

I’d rather not. I’m hard on my characters. But if I had to be one of them for a day, I’d choose Min Bradshaw in Candle’s Christmas Chair. She was frustrated at not getting credit for her work, but she had work that she loved. And she had a family who loved her.

What books have most influenced your life?

The Word for World is Forest, by Ursula Le Guin, opened my eyes to how a writer could protest a contemporary wrong by writing speculative fiction. Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas remains one of my favourite books of all time (yes, I know it is a radio script, but I still reread it at least once every year). His facility with language and his sense of humour blow me away every time I read it. Skallagrigg by William Horwood, which is a gruelling and difficult read but the best insight into closed in syndrome ever written. Again, it shows the power of fiction. Non-fiction can describe from the outside. Good fiction takes the experience inside, and makes you the person in the story. And the Slightly series by Mary Balogh because she was the first historical romance author I read after a drought of years, and the Slightly series was the one I started with. I then read everything she had published, scouring bookshops and the libraries. I moved on to other authors, and — after eighteen months of gorging on the genre — began Farewell to Kindness.

Beatles or Monkees? Why?

The Beatles, because they were original, and because they kept reinventing themselves. I remember another rock band being asked where they wanted to be in 10 years time. They said ‘looking back at the work we’re doing today, and being embarrassed by it.’ I like that. In 10 years, I want to have improved. I want to be doing something better than I’m doing now.

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