USA Today bestselling co-authors, Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb’s novels have all been published to critical acclaim. Last Christmas in Paris won the 2018 Women’s Fiction Writers Association Star Award, and Meet Me in Monaco was shortlisted for the 2020 Romantic Novelists’ Association Historical Novel award, as well as the 2020 Digital Book World Fiction award. Their latest work, Three Words for Goodbye, will be published this coming Tuesday! It’s gained some serious notice already, sweeping the “Best of” lists at: BUZZFEED, “17 Historical Fiction Books You’ll Want To Get Your Hands On This Summer,” FROLIC, “The 25 Best Books of Summer 2021,” BIBLIO LIFESTYLE, “Most Anticipated Summer 2021 Historical Fiction Books,” PAPERBACK PARIS, “Rediscover, Reimagine, Reinvent: 29 New Historical Fiction Books to Shelve in Summer 2021,” and SHE READS, Most Anticipated Historical Fiction Books of 2021.
We’re thrilled that Heather is with us today to tell us more about this latest historical offering!
Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?
HW: Three Words for Goodbye is a coming-of-age novel in which estranged sisters, Clara and Madeleine Sommers, travel across pre-WW2 Europe to fulfill their dying grandmother’s last wish, and complete a journey started forty years earlier, inspired by famed reporter, Nellie Bly.
Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
HW: No spoilers, but we are excited to have set the basis for this novel around an event many readers might not know about, when journalist, Nellie Bly, set off around the world in 1889 in an attempt to beat the fictional record of eighty days set by Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s novel, Around The World in Eighty Days. Of course, she did it in seventy-two days. What a woman! We loved the travel aspect of this novel (especially as we write it while we couldn’t travel at all). There’s something so intriguing about the glitz and glamor of the Golden Age of travel and it was great fun to send our sisters on such iconic forms of transport as the Queen Mary and the Orient Express.
“Utterly delightful and the perfect escape. I loved being swept away to 1930s Paris, Venice, and Vienna alongside Maddie and Clara who, despite their differences, have come together to fulfill their dying grandmother’s final wish…A heartwarming and wonderful story about the power of forgiveness and the unbreakable bond of sisters.” – Natasha Lester, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Secret
Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
HW: Clara and Maddie ultimately have to overcome their differences in order to make the trip to Europe together on behalf of their beloved grandmother, but they also have to overcome their own doubts and fears in order to discover what it is they truly want in their lives. Setting a novel in the late 1930s, when the political situation in Europe was deeply unsettled and the world was on the brink of another war, also brings its own challenges to our sisters. It was an intriguing era to write in, as we know what’s coming, but our characters don’t.
Q4: What unique challenges did this book pose for you, if any?
HW: Is this where we talk about a global pandemic, lockdown and homeschooling while trying to co-write a novel? Those are some pretty unique circumstances, right? Writing routines went out the window, so this was very much a case of writing when we could, being ultra-flexible and understanding of the pressure-valve we were both trying to work within. But, ultimately, working on this book together was a much-needed outlet. We laughed together as much as we complained to each other!
Q5: What has been the most rewarding aspect of having written this book?
HW: Writing books together has been such an unexpected joy. To have done it for a third time gives us an immense sense of achievement, and we are so excited to see the book finally reach readers’ hands.
Congratulations, Heather and Hazel! Readers, you can find THREE WORDS FOR GOODBYE just about anywhere that books are sold, and learn more about this novel and others on Heather’s website. Happy Reading!
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Writer Unboxed began as a collaboration between Therese Walsh and Kathleen Bolton in 2006. Since then the site has grown to include ~50 regular contributors--including bestselling authors and industry leaders--and frequent guests. In 2014, the first Writer Unboxed UnConference (part UNtraditional conference, part intensive craft event, part networking affair) was held in Salem, MA. Learn more about our 2019 event, ESCAPE TO WuNDERLAND, on Eventbrite. In 2016, the Writer Unboxed team published a book with Writer's Digest. AUTHOR IN PROGRESS: A No-Holds-Barred Guide to What It Really Takes to Get Published has been well-received by readers who seek help in overcoming the hurdles faced at every step of the novel-writing process--from setting goals, researching, and drafting to giving and receiving critiques, polishing prose, and seeking publication. James Scott Bell has said of the guide, "Nourishment for the writer's soul and motivation for the writer's heart." You can follow Writer Unboxed on Twitter, and join our thriving Facebook community.