#AtoZChallenge - BLOGGERS WERE CHILDREN TOO! - F is for Francine (Romancing the Blog) Howarth

Hello! Happy Easter everyone!

Regular followers and visitors to this site will know I'm using BLOGGERS WERE CHILDREN TOO! for my theme this year. I hope you're enjoying reading about bloggers, some you know and some you may not yet know, as they respond to some prompts I sent out. I've been so grateful for their responses as it helped me to get to know them better, admire their stunning cuteness as babes, and delighted me with random facts.

Thank you Adult Bloggers for your heartfelt responses. Thank you readers for visiting my posts. I hope you'll leave a comment and if you'd like to follow the link to my respondents' blogs they'd be delighted to meet you.

Rock on A- Z Challenge. (Visit more posts here).


Yesterday was the delightful Sarah Pearson...

Today:

F is for Francine Howarth (Romancing the Blog)

Francine Howarth age 3 yrs

I WAS BORN IN:  the smallest city in England, UK. It’s a relatively famous Medieval/Georgian town, which oozes history and myth. So what’s its name? WELLS! The title speaks for itself, as in water abounds.

I used to regularly walk the cloisters

As a kid and adult I fed the swans!

Wells is famed for its Cathedral, Bishop’s Palace with moat, beautiful medieval and Georgian buildings, and swans trained to ring a bell when in need of food. Hence the pictures depict the cathedral, the palace moat, the swans and the town square.

The square, the archway, the cathedral and palace moat feature in my historical novel "Infamous Rival".

I GREW UP In Wells: loved the place, loved my home county of Somerset, in particular Exmoor and Lorna Doone country, but ended up living in many places thereafter: Oxford Cotswolds, Wiltshire, Isle of Wight and Jersey. 

MY FAVOURITE HOME WAS IN: I have two, really: where I was born, 

and a house in the Cotswolds. 

Like the queen, when nippy a headscarf beneath hard hat.

MY BEST CHILDHOOD MEMORY IS: an annual picnic, of which every member of the family (extended family) endeavoured to attend one way or another from wherever. But like all happy childhood things, older people pass on, others get married and move on, in the meantime one grows up and the opposite sex somehow takes precedence! ;)

MY WORST CHILDHOOD MEMORY IS: the death of my godfather (35yrs), whom I adored. I was nine. I never met my father because he was a Royal Marine and killed in action one month before I was born.

TODAY I LIVE IN: Pembrokeshire, Wales UK, with hubby No2: a man to die for! Pics of my garden...

PROUDEST WRITER MOMENT:  first publication back in 1994 with Masquerade New York.

RANDOM FACT ABOUT ME:  I once had shares in a publishing company, reviewed books for a famous magazine and owned an equestrian business. So why am I self-publishing historical romance novel/las? Simply because Amazon is leading the field in book outlet terms, and after a few tries at getting back into publishing which took all of two years and long delays re replies etc., and yes, only two rejections, (Mills&Boon & Choc-Lit). Did I care? Not in the least. But after a nine-month and six-month wait for reply I decided I couldn’t be arsed with subbing to publishers. That said I do have a contract with a US publisher and a book coming out in July 2012. Nevertheless, I shall be self-publishing a contemporary romantic suspense within the next week or two via Amazon, which is “part autobiographical in content” but written in fictional context. You can catch me @: http://francinehowarth.blogspot.com and there browse my list of historical romance novellas, and “Love Walked In”: my story!        

I hope you've enjoyed learning more about Francine. Tune in tomorrow for Melissa Ann Goodwin. And I'd appreciate a visit to RomanticFridayWriters (http://romanticfridaywriters.blogspot.com) to read some flash fiction if you have time.