Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour & Giveaway for Little Tea by Claire Fullerton, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Title: Little Tea
Author: Claire Fullerton
Publisher: Firefly Southern Fiction
Release Date: May 1, 2020
Genre: Southern Fiction
Southern Culture … Old Friendships … Family Tragedy
One phone call from Renny to come home and “see about” the capricious Ava and Celia Wakefield decides to overlook her distressful past in the name of friendship.
For three reflective days at Renny’s lake house in Heber Springs, Arkansas, the three childhood friends reunite and examine life, love, marriage, and the ties that bind, even though Celia’s personal story has yet to be healed. When the past arrives at the lake house door in the form of her old boyfriend, Celia must revisit the life she’d tried to outrun.
As her idyllic coming of age alongside her best friend, Little Tea, on her family’s ancestral grounds in bucolic Como, Mississippi unfolds, Celia realizes there is no better place to accept her own story than in this circle of friends who have remained beside her throughout the years. Theirs is a friendship that can talk any life sorrow into a comic tragedy, and now that the racial divide in the Deep South has evolved, Celia wonders if her friendship with Little Tea can triumph over history.
PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Claire Fullerton hails from Memphis, TN. and now lives in Malibu, CA. with her husband and 3 German shepherds. She is the author of Mourning Dove, a coming of age, Southern family saga set in 1970’s Memphis. Mourning Dove is a five-time award winner, including the Literary Classics Words on Wings for Book of the Year, and the Ippy Award silver medal in regional fiction ( Southeast.) Claire is also the author of Dancing to an Irish Reel, a Kindle Book Review and Readers’ Favorite award winner that is set on the west coast of Ireland, where she once lived. Claire’s first novel is a paranormal mystery set in two time periods titled, A Portal in Time, set in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. She is a contributor to the book, A Southern Season with her novella, Through an Autumn Window, set at a Memphis funeral ( because something always goes wrong at a Southern funeral.)
Little Tea is Claire’s 4th novel and is set in the Deep South. It is the story of the bonds of female friendship, healing the past, and outdated racial relations. Little Tea is the August selection of the Pulpwood Queens, a Faulkner Society finalist in the William Wisdom international competition, and on the long list of the Chanticleer Review’s Somerset award. She is represented by Julie Gwinn of the Seymour Literary Agency. https://www.clairefullerton.com
CONNECT WITH CLAIRE: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
How did your love of writing begin?
Writing became a part of my daily life by the journals I kept. My first novel idea came when I went through the journal I kept while living on the west coast of Ireland and knew I had a story worth telling. If a writer continues writing novels, it becomes a way of life.
Do you have a favorite place to write?
I have an appointed room with a cherrywood desk, a Microsoft keyboard, and a 27-inch computer monitor. It’s not really an office, it’s more a room I decorated with art and bookshelves and a daybed my cat likes to sleep on.
Where did your inspiration from this story come from?
From thinking about life-long female friendships that grow through the years—the kind formed at an early age where friends know each other’s history and are there for each other through life’s ups and downs. I’ve heard it said you don’t chose the family you’re born to, but you create one by choosing friends. I love the thought of friendships so firmly rooted they create their own way of relating through insider’s language and sense of humor, where need be said for there to be an entire conversation.
How long did it take from birth in your mind to handing in the final galleys?
About a year. I wrote Little Tea before my book, Mourning Dove, was published. For many months, I had both on my desk, so there were interruptions.
Was there a character that you resonated with the most?
I resonated with each character in Little Tea because I understood what in each backstory motivated them to act as they did. The idea of each character becoming who they are because of their history is what shaped Little Tea.
What do you hope readers will take away from this story?
I hope to give the reader an opportunity to examine their own friendships because in friendships there is much to celebrate. Friendships are anchoring and bring out the best in us. They also remind us who we essentially are.
What’s next for you?
I recently finished another novel, and I may try my hand at writing a screenplay for Little Tea because it is a very visual novel rich in setting and strong in character.
TOUR GIVEAWAY
(1) winner will receive an ebook copy of Little Tea and $5 Amazon gift card!
Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway will begin at midnight June 8, 2020 and last through 11:59 PM EST on June 15, 2020. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.
Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
*NOTE: This post contains affiliate links.
This book sounds like a really good read.
Sounds like a good book.
Thank you so much for sharing!!
-JustReadTours
I would love to read Little Tea! Thanks for the chance!
Good to learn about your book.
Little Tea sounds like a must read. Thank you for being part of the tour.