Tuesday, 24 February 2015

The Friendship Tree by Helen J Rolfe 
Release Date: 24th February 2015
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





 


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Friendship-Tree-Helen-J-Rolfe-ebook/dp/B00TKNTNFG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424345547&sr=8-1&keywords=the+friendship+tree http://www.amazon.com/Friendship-Tree-Helen-J-Rolfe-ebook/dp/B00TKNTNFG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1424345499&sr=1-1&keywords=the+friendship+tree 





 

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