So here I am, on my big book blog tour throughout Great Britain and beyond … and all from my desk in my PJs! Thanks to @rararesources I am on tour just a day after my shoulder operation. Truth be known, I didn’t start promotion until yesterday, Day 3, as I was hardly compos mentis for the first 48 hours after my op and am typing with one hand!

I thought I’d share with you my first guest post published on Sunday, Day 2, on the lovely blog The Magic of Worlds with many thanks to this book blogger and all the others who are taking part in my 42 stop tour  https://themagicofworlds.wordpress.com

SCROLL DOWN TO JANUARY 27th!!

Can you feel it – the heat, the sounds, sights, smells of tropical Ghana? Here’s the guest post …

Today I’m celebrating the publication of my three Drumbeats novels in one Omnibus/box set edition for kindle books by my lovely publisher, Endeavour Media. It’s great to see the whole Drumbeats Trilogy all together in one – and at a bargain price too (currently £5.99 for the three books together)! It’s a saga of love, betrayal and second chances, and most particularly it’s about one woman’s (Jess) strength and spirit rising above adversity. You can find it at: http://mybook.to/DrumbeatsOmnibus

I’ve been working on the three books for about four years, with a couple of other books published in between! Finally, the long-awaited third and last novel of the trilogy was published this summer, called Finding Jess, http://mybook.to/FindingJess, and it’s set in Ghana (West Africa) and starts with: “Outside, the sun is beating down pitilessly, that sweet-sour stink of rotten meat and putrefying vegetables in the open drains at the side of the road. Yes, she knows that intense heat, that smell, the sound of the kpanlogo djembe and the donde, those kente-clad mammies, from all those years before …”

Jess is haunted by her experiences in Ghana when she was an 18 year old on a gap year, the basis of the first of the trilogy, Drumbeats, http://myBook.to/Drumbeatstrilogy where she is fascinated as a girl in 1965, by the whole idea of Africa: she looks around her in wonderment: “The streets were incredibly noisy, smelly, and bustling with people calling out to each other across the streets, jostling Jess. Swarms of little boys were again surrounding her, pushing at her for attention. The hot thick air stank of rotting vegetables, spices, melting tarmac. Jess pressed herself against the safety of the wall as plump women swathed in bright Ghanaian cloth swept haughtily past her. Their babies swaddled on their backs blinked passively at her with glassy eyes and long black eyelashes. Shallow platters piled high with tomatoes and mangoes were balanced on turban-bound heads, as the women made their way gracefully up and down the dusty streets, taking no notice of the foul open drains and the begging children around their feet.”

Ever since I spent time working in Ghana, I’ve been driven by the desire to write about this fascinating country. It’s a country of contrasts: poverty but richness of generosity, the arid landscape of the sub-Saharan north but the lushness of the rainforests and coastline. Then there’s the climate: intense heat of the dry season and the welcome deluges of the rainy season.

As a writer, I like to create stories set in a particular time and location, as those are the books I love to read myself, such as Dinah Jefferies’s far eastern novels and Kate Mosse’s Languedoc series. Wonderfully evocative! So, Drumbeats #1 starts in a specific time (1965) and place, the intriguing African country of Ghana.

I try to use all the senses to make the reader feel as though they are actually there, to make it as vivid as possible. I was therefore thrilled to have reviews that said: “beautifully written, conjuring up the colour and culture of the country”, and “feel the searing heat of Ghana burning off the pages.” How lovely! Then I had: “It’s a brilliantly crafted book where sights, sounds and even smells of the Ghanaian way of life are conjured up quite vividly… details … woven so well into the fabric of the story it becomes an essential part of the read” and even “Julia Ibbotson’s descriptions of Ghana instantly transport the reader there… It is very clear that the author has spent some time in Ghana as her knowledge of the country and its political strife is extensive. I love the symbolism of the drums throughout the book, making it so atmospheric.”

Many thanks to those readers, whoever they are! If my readers can feel the location too, I’ve done my job OK. I do hope you think so too.