AWW Feature & Giveaway: Sunni Overend and March

Welcome Sunni Overend.

Earlier this week I reviewed Sunni Overend‘s “enjoyable, funny and stylish” self published debut novel, March.

Sunni Overend grew up in Victorian wine country, studied design at RMIT University and opened her own designer clothing store. While running her store, Sunni gave in to her love for stories, nurtured by her mother – children’s author Jenni Overend, and her first novel, March, came to life.

She currently lives in Melbourne with her architect husband, where she writes, grows flowers on her balcony and pretends she’s too busy and important to browse recipes, dog breeds, cashmere and country houses online.

Today, Sunni is happy to share with you a little more about herself and March and offer you the chance to win one of two print editions. Read on…

My debut novel, March, is fast-paced, light-hearted and takes the reader behind the scenes of the fashion world and into the realities of life as a young creative. The story touches upon love, friendships, the varying measures of success, roles of men, and how self-belief can finally lead to self-made.

Marilyn Monroe once said, “Dreaming about being an actress is more exciting than being one.” That explains how I arrived at writing March. Nothing can be as varied and hopeful as in the imagined world. I like the ease that writing offers in creating a dreamscape – from the detail in the wedding dress that the protagonist, Apple March, designs for her sister, to her relationships and the nuances in the novel’s architecture.

I’ve always found it hard to juggle the many parts of myself – by the time I was 25 I had a design degree, a diploma in yoga teaching and had been running my own fashion store. My mother, Jenni Overend, was an author of award-winning children’s books, but until my mid-twenties I’d pursued purely visual creativity, never considering a career in writing. I was reading a great piece of fiction when it occurred to me that writing might be the ideal way to combine my many fascinations. I wrote one manuscript – which ended up being a practice run – and enjoyed the process so much that March came next.

I write about creative processes and people, and I think creative types are prone to darkness and intensity. I have that side to me so I like to keep it light – focusing on things that uplift. My mother passed away from breast cancer in July 2011 at the age of 55. Experiencing that deep loss and seeing a life cut short propels a person to enjoy their existence more.

I hope readers can look to March for an escape into a lush world full of all the good things, and I’m excited to share more of these themes in my coming books.

ENTER to WIN

1 of 2 print editions of

March by Sunni Overend

to giveaway.

Open to residents of  AU, GB, CA, and US.

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then

ENTER HERE

Closes July 28th 2013. Drawn via random.org

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