One Moment by Becky Hunter BLOG TOUR #OneMoment @bookish_becky @CorvusBooks @RandomTTours #AuthorGuestPost

 

One moment in time can change everything...

The day Scarlett dies should have been one of the most important of her life. It doesn't feel fair that she'll never have the chance to fulfil her dreams. And now, she's still ... here - wherever here is - watching the ripple effect of her death on the lives of those she loved the most.

Evie cannot contemplate her life without Scarlett, and she certainly cannot forgive Nate, the man she blames for her best friend's death. But Nate keeps popping up when she least expects him to, catapulting Evie's life in directions she'd never let herself imagine possible. Ways, perhaps, even those closest to her had long since given up on.

If you could go back, knowing everything that happens after, everything that happens because of that one moment in time, would you change the course of history or would you do it all again?

One Moment by Becky Hunter was published in hardback on 2 March 2023 by Corvus. I adored this amazing debut from an astonishing new voice in fiction. My review will be published in S Magazine very soon.

As part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour I am delighted to welcome the author here today, with a fabulous guest post. 

Guest Post from Becky Hunter

Why ONE MOMENT is such a ‘moment’ for me…

I have been trying to write for over ten years, dreaming of having my name on the front of a book. In actual fact, I first tried to write a book when I was eleven, on the very first computer in our house – big and clunky and with the dial up tone we all grew to love. It was called THE GHOST, and was, unsurprisingly about a ghost – and the girl who fell in love with him (and a necklace that was a beautiful, perfect triangle, as far as I can recall). I remember writing it as a short story, and reading the story to my dad’s girlfriend at the time, who asked if it was just the beginning of a book… I vividly recall sitting at the computer and forcing my older sister, Jenny, who is nearly 10 years older than me and was much better at typing than me, to type out the story as I dictated (something my niece, Jenny’s daughter, now does to me – it all comes full circle…). We were supposed to be going somewhere and were being told to hurry up, but I was refusing to leave until we got to a certain point in the story. I don’t know how or why, but at this point I managed to do something on the computer – and I deleted The. Entire. Thing. Jenny was so cross – this had been hours of work – and I was distraught. My future bestselling novel was GONE! She managed to see the funny side and we kept going and tried to remember the story. I have no idea where THE GHOST is now, lost somewhere on a very old computer, but it definitely kindled a love of writing.

Aside from the brilliance of THE GHOST, I first seriously tried to write a book when I was twenty-one, still at university. All good writers love to read, and I was no different, and I wrote the sort of thing I was reading at the time – a YA novel with a love triangle… I was convinced it was brilliant and would be a future bestseller. Needless to say, I was wrong, but I’m so glad I had this weird conviction at the time, because it made me see it through to the end – something I certainly wouldn’t have had the courage to do if I’d known just how hard writing a book and getting it published was. I wrote two more full novels before getting an agent, and had to learn a lot. I spent hours online, looking up writing techniques, and signed up for a creative writing course, paying on my credit card and convinced that it was an ‘investment.’. When I did get an agent, I was convinced that was it – my big break. I’d also started working in publishing by this point as a publicity assistant at Transworld, but I was still very much still naïve when it came to just how difficult and competitive this industry can be. 

Despite getting an agent, that book did not sell to publishers. I was distraught. I then tried to ‘panic write’ a novel, seeing what was doing well in the market and trying to write something that fit. It didn’t work – the book was really not very good. I had a few conversations with lovely agents along the way, who I was lucky enough to meet through my job, who gave me lots of advice and told me to keep going. In the meantime, I got a bit distracted by my job – I love working in book PR, but it can be a bit all-encompassing at times, with lots of out of hours work, and a lot of time spent reading for work (a great thing – but time consuming). In 2019, I took a career break and moved to Mozambique to volunteer with horses. It was fantastic. In 2020, I was looking after six horses on an island of the coast of Mozambique, when the pandemic hit – and I got stuck there. I say ‘stuck’ but it was really the best thing that could have happened. Everyone was isolating, I just happened to be doing so on a tropical island in the Indian ocean… It was at this point that I started taking my writing more seriously. I wrote another book – it didn’t actually go on to get published (still!), but it was definitely the best thing I’d written. With that book I got my now agent, and from that came One Moment. 

ONE MOMENT is the book that finally made it – the one that has my name on it and is published, in hardback, no less – the actual dream! It was the story that felt most natural to write, and I suppose that is why it made it. I’ve always loved a touch of the speculative in fiction, but I never thought I could pull it off – and I suppose it took until now for me to be brave enough to try. I’ve also always loved love stories – but again, for some reason I just hadn’t thought to write one before, and it was only in trying it that I realised I could. I also do think those years of ‘near misses’ were all practice – hopefully my writing improved as a result, and hopefully it will continue to get better!

It's taken me a while to get to this point, but the hard work has been worth it – and I hope it means that I won’t give up, should I hit more obstacles along the writing journey! It’s such a thrill to be here, featured as a blog post, which is something I have wanted for many of my authors in the past. So, thank you for having me, and if you do read ONE MOMENT then I hope you enjoy it! 

Praise for One Moment 

A thought-provoking and moving novel about loss, love, and the unique and life-affirming power of friendship. Poignant yet unwaveringly hopeful, One Moment is a fresh look at how grief can not only break us, but put us back together again. An unmissable debut. ― Holly Miller

'Completely involving. An emotional read about love and trust, with an OMG ending -- Jill Mansell

A joy from start to finish -- Sheila O'Flanagan. No. 1 bestselling author

An exquisitely written novel about grief, hope and the power of love. I loved every word. -- Cathy Bramley, Sunday Times bestselling author

Beautiful, hopeful, deeply emotional, incredibly wise and wonderfully romantic. One of those books I feel stronger for reading -- Cressida McLaughlin

Fantastic. Incredibly moving and very thoughtfully written -- Harriet Tyce

I adored this emotional debut from Becky Hunter. It's such a gorgeous tale of love and friendship, beautifully written and with characters you really believe in. ― Georgina Moore, author of The Garnett Girls

This stunning debut explores grief, love and friendship in a beautiful and original way - a powerful read full of both moving and joyful moments ― My Weekly

Sharp, funny, tear-jerking, so assured and well observed. What a debut! -- ELizabeth Buchan

A warm and thoughtful novel that skewers friendship, loss and negotiating grief in a touching and relatable way. I was completely caught up in Evie and Scarlet's stories. -- Fanny Blake

A poignant, uplifting and life-affirming tale of friendship, love, grief and learning to let go. It'll have you welling up one moment and smiling the next. And by the end, your heart will feel a little fuller. ― CultureFly

A hugely accomplished debut about dying, grief and loss, but also learning to live again. It's about love in all its forms, and, despite its subject matter, it manages to be uplifting and life-affirming. It's a story that will stay with me for a long time. -- Claire Frost

So moving and uplifting - I have no doubt that readers will fall in love -- Emylia Hall

An engaging story about love, true friendship and sacrifice ― Candis

Becky grew up in Berkshire, UK, and has loved reading since before she can remember. After
studying social sciences at Cambridge university, this love of reading led her to a career in publishing, where she worked as a book publicist in London for several years before taking a career break and moving to Mozambique to volunteer with horses. It was here that she decided to give writing a proper go, though it was still a few years, a few more destinations, and a couple more jobs before she had the idea that would become ONE MOMENT, her debut novel.

She currently splits her time between London, Bristol and Falmouth, and works as a freelance book publicist and editor, alongside her own writing.

Find Becky on Twitter (@Bookish_Becky) or Instagram (beckyhunterbooks) - she'd love to hear from you!