Novelicious - The Female Fiction and Chick Lit Blog

Novelicious Chats To...Victoria Fox

INTERVIEWED BY CESCA MARTIN

The lovely Victoria Fox, author of the sizzling bonkbuster Hollywood Sinners, is here to get us in the festive mood. 

 I hear on the grapevine that you are being Miss Christmas this week, what is going on? 

Indeed I am! Christmas is my favourite time of year – I love the cold nights, the warm fires, the smell of satsumas (and the built-in excuse for lots of parties) – so when my publishers suggested writing a seasonal short story I jumped at the chance. Tinseltown is available on the Kindle now and the best bit is that it’s ABSOLUTELY FREE! This festive frolic follows gorgeous Brit actor Dom Judd, who’ll do anything to get out of wearing a mortifying Santa suit at the Hollywood Christmas Parade; waitress Clare who’s just been dumped and is dreading facing the big day with a broken heart – until she agrees to a gig that will change everything; and Laney Allen, fresh from winning America’s number one talent show and who is concealing a shocking secret that only Santa Claus can cure . . . It was a challenge sewing Santa and his reindeer into the glitzy bonkbuster world (is it possible to make a chortling sherry-quaffing bloke who climbs down chimneys sexy? It’s creepy when you think about it) but it was also masses of fun. I hope you enjoy it – and a happy Christmas to everyone.

What was your favourite Christmas memory when growing up? 

I was six, and I’d seen her in the John Lewis toy department a couple of months before . . . a polar bear, snow-white, in a red sleigh, and almost as big as me. I’d wanted her so much (don’t know why she was a girl: she just was), with her squidgy belly and cuddly fur, but Mum steered me away with the customary, ‘You’ve got too many soft toys already.’ But I never forgot the polar bear. Then, after lunch on Christmas Day, as full of anticipation as I was on lunch and the net of chocolate coins I’d snarfed out the foot of my stocking as soon as I’d woken up, my dad left the room. Moments later, the doorbell rang. The world outside was quiet and cold; we’d heard no crunch of gravel or no footsteps approaching. It was suggested I went to answer it, and, when I did, who should be sitting on the doorstep but my beloved polar bear, as lovely as I remembered her. I embraced her like we were long-lost friends. She’d come all the way from her sleigh in John Lewis and found a home with me. I didn’t let her go all afternoon. That was the best Christmas. 

Have you got any traditions that must be rigorously observed?

 Christmas is all about tradition: you’ve got to do it in the way you always have – because what other way is there? Each year we’ll get out the same decorations (cue tatty crafts I made with Mum when I was nine), have the same argument about the tree (my guilt over an angel whose face I chewed so she has to go on the top – not a popular choice) and everyone will get annoyed by rudimentary (by which I mean crap) carol-playing on the piano. There’s comfort in tradition, warmth in familiarity, but for me it’s something more. I’ll probably be getting that poor angel out in twenty years’ time and having an identical debate with my children, in the same way my dad sets the lunch table a particular way because that was how Christmas was when he was young. It’s all about memories re-conjured and passed down, so Christmas becomes this magic amalgamation of Decembers past and future.

Novelicious Chats To...Daniela Sacerdoti

Daniela, thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions for the Novelicious readers.

1. Can you tell us a little about your average writing day?

I have two young children and I’m a stay-at home mum. My eldest is in school but my youngest is in nursery two hours a day only, so I don’t have much time to write during the day. I do most of my writing before they wake up, setting my alarm between four or five, depending on how tired I am! Also I write at the weekend, when my lovely husband looks after the children. I couldn’t do it without him.

2. When you are writing, do you use any celebrities or people you know as inspiration?

People I know, definitely. I’m a good listener and I tend to be very empathic, so I gather stories everywhere I turn, from friends, acquaintances and a few strangers as well!

3. What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?

It must be The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy, because it’s beautifully written, with a kind eye to people’s weaknesses and mistakes. Also it shows how far we’ve come in terms of the choices women can make nowadays and the amount of freedom we have in shaping our lives the way we want, compared to our grandmothers.

4. What is your writing process? Do you plan first of dive in? How many drafts do you do?

Watch Over Me was brewed over a long period of time. A nugget of it started when my first son was born...I was so overwhelmed by the whole experience of motherhood, both the joy and the terror of it, and my love for him was so intense, that I didn’t know what to do with it. I bought a laptop and started writing, but I was teaching at the time and it took two years before I sat down to it again. Then I just dived in, and it happened. It was published nearly the way it was written, one draft only. I had it in me for so long that when it came out, it was ready.

5.  What was journey to being a published author?

I genuinely never thought of the possibility of getting published until Watch Over Me was finished. I’ve always dreamt of publishing a book, but I didn’t really think I could make it. I think my father’s death had a lot to do with my sudden bust of determination: he was a man with so much talent, and still so insecure and frustrated. I inherited this chronic insecurity from him, but all of a sudden I decided I wanted things to change, I wanted to believe in myself, or at least act like I did. So I sent Watch Over Me around to a few agents and publishers; I got a few rejections, seven or eight I think, until the lovely Rachel Reid read it, and decided to give me a chance. A few months later I was shortlisted for the Kelpie’s prize from Floris Books, with my children’s book The Really Weird Removal Company (out next Autumn). With two books accepted for publication, it dawned on me that maybe, actually, I could do it...and it all started from there. I was then contracted for the Sarah Midnight trilogy. I also found a lovely agent, Lindsey Fraser at Fraser Ross, which made me so happy. It’s brilliant to feel that people believe in you.

 

My Writing Room - Shari Low

BY DEBS CARR

My Writing Room is a fabulous fortnightly event, in which some of our favourite authors show us where the writerly magic happens, and tell us a little about their writing life.

My Writing Room by Shari Low

My writing space is actually the corner of the family room in our house. In the pic, it looks like a haven of tranquillity, but the opposite is true. At any time there’s usually one son sitting behind me saving the universe on his X-box, another playing Summertime on the saxophone for the 4653 time and the dog is battering my leg with a squeaky rubber hamburger in the hope that I’ll throw it for her. It’s probably a good thing that chaos and noise makes me focus better.

Guest Post - A Different Kind of Hero by Carole Matthews

I’ve never written arrogant, smouldering male romantic heroes.  The men in my novels have always been ordinary, attainable men. They’re kind, flawed, trying to do their best. Sometimes they’ve been high-flying corporate men. Sometimes they’ve had no job at all. But they’ve always been the sort of men that most of us would come into contact with on a daily basis.

So it was a big departure for me in my latest - and nineteenth - novel Wrapped up in You to have a hero who is a fully-fledged Maasai warrior! When my heroine, Janie, goes in search of adventure on an African safari, she doesn’t expect to fall in love. Similarly, when I set out to write the character of Dominic, I had no idea that I would fall in love with him too.

I wanted to explore the fact that it’s so much easier these days to find love outside of our own small circles. It used to be the case that you’d meet someone at school, at work, in your own town, date and get married. But that’s not how it works now. Due to the internet, it’s now possible to forge relationships with people from all over the world.

My Writing Room - Christina Courtenay

BY DEBS CARR

I usually sit and write in what is jokingly called my “office” – it’s really just a cluttered corner in a small alcove off our bedroom, but I love it anyway.  I have a small desk and lots of shelves, which is all I need.  I could write anywhere really, but I prefer to sit there because I have a proper keyboard hooked up to my laptop.  I find laptop keyboards really hard to type on, although I do sometimes sit on my bed or on the sofa to write as well.

I have two laptops, not because I think I’ll write more books that way, but I like to keep my writing on one that’s not connected to the internet.  I figured if I only have that one on, I wouldn’t be tempted to check e-mails, Twitter or Facebook quite so often, although having an iPhone sort of ruined that plan.  On the wall, I have a notice board, where I keep my extensive collection of images of possible heroes.  They’re just for inspiration of course, not indiscriminate ogling :)

My book shelves contain all sorts of research books, plus other bits and pieces that might come in useful one day.  Also my collection of favourite DVD’s and umpteen files of genealogy stuff.  And at the top there are some stuffed toys that have sentimental value in one way or another, including my first ever teddy bear who was once possibly a polar bear, but is now more or less without fur and definitely not white!

On the other walls are drawings made by my daughters and a poster of a sumo wrestler – the inspiration for my hero in The Scarlet Kimono.  It may all look very messy (and let’s not even mention the floor, which hasn’t been seen for months I’m afraid), but I know where everything is and it works for me!  The fact that there is no window is actually a bonus as well, because it means I don’t get distracted by the view or what’s going on outside.  Now if someone could just get rid of the guy with the leaf blower who seems to have taken up permanent residence in our street, it would all be just perfect …

The winner of the copy of Highland Storms is...Aileen Russell. Please can you email your address to me (Debs Carr) and I'll forward it to Choc Lit Publishers so they can send your prize on to you.

Guest Post - A Different Kind of Hero by Carole Matthews

I’ve never written arrogant, smouldering male romantic heroes.  The men in my novels have always been ordinary, attainable men. They’re kind, flawed, trying to do their best. Sometimes they’ve been high-flying corporate men. Sometimes they’ve had no job at all. But they’ve always been the sort of men that most of us would come into contact with on a daily basis.

So it was a big departure for me in my latest - and nineteenth - novel Wrapped up in You to have a hero who is a fully-fledged Maasai warrior! When my heroine, Janie, goes in search of adventure on an African safari, she doesn’t expect to fall in love. Similarly, when I set out to write the character of Dominic, I had no idea that I would fall in love with him too.

I wanted to explore the fact that it’s so much easier these days to find love outside of our own small circles. It used to be the case that you’d meet someone at school, at work, in your own town, date and get married. But that’s not how it works now. Due to the internet, it’s now possible to forge relationships with people from all over the world.

But, as Janie finds out, falling in love with someone from another culture and on another continent can also be fraught with difficulties. Dominic doesn’t look the same as the usual romantic hero - he’s exceptionally tall, has a shaven head and wears traditional costume.  I also wanted to have some fun comparing a village in the Maasai Mara to a typically English village, so brought Dominic back to England.

This is a man who doesn’t conform to the norms of our society and, as well as making Janie fall head over heels in love, he sets the hearts of the good ladies of the The Nashley Church Flower Committee fluttering too with his easy charm.

He’s and incredibly strong, emotionally and physically, due to his Maasai culture. Theirs is a life of hardship and privation. Ladies, this man can wrestle lions with his bare hands! But he realises that he’s a man caught between two worlds and strives to blend the two without losing his identity.  The more I wrote about Dominic, the more I fell in love with him too.  He has a beautiful sense of fun and a fundamental commitment to his community.

At first, I thought that Dominic and Janie’s relationship might not survive, that the odds would be too great for them, but I just knew that Dominic would do all that he could to keep them together.

He might not wear a suit or work in high finance but, in some ways he’s the ultimate alpha male. Already my readers are asking me where they can find their very own Dominic. I hope when you read the book that you’ll fall in love with him too. I think he’s my most perfect romantic hero so far!

Thank you, Carole.

Wrapped Up In You is out 27th October.

You can find out more about Carole at her website, find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter: @carolematthews

Novelicious Chats To...Jane Fallon

INTERVIEW BY AMANDA KEATS

Have you always enjoyed writing?

 Yes. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing stories. English was definitely my best (and favourite) subject at school. I still have some of the diaries I had to write in class from when I was about six, and I can see I had a very vivid imagination then. Either that or I was just a compulsive liar. But writing something and then showing it to someone else is a whole different thing. It took me years to get confident enough to do that.

 

What was your journey into getting published like?

I was incredibly lucky that it was a comparatively easy one. After I had begun writing Getting Rid of Matthew I sent the idea and the first three chapters to Jonny Gellar at Curtis Brown and he took me on. I knew that having a good agent was essential to give me a fighting chance of finding a publisher. Most publishers won’t read submissions unless they’re sent in by an agent. Jonny advised me to write the first 30,000 words and then he would start to send it out (the book was about 110,000 words in the end) so I did. Miraculously Penguin picked it up at that point which really gave me the massive boost I needed to keep going and finish.

What advice would you give an aspiring author?

Write all the time. You only find your own style by writing regularly. Most of what you write you’ll think is rubbish but it doesn’t matter. Eventually you’ll find what’s unique about the way you write. And don’t give up. Thankfully writing isn’t a job that has an upper age limit. No one is going to turn down your first book because you’re over 40.

Where did the idea for The Ugly Sister come from?

I had been wanting to write a book about sisters, because I think family relationships can be incredibly complex and affect people in a way no other kind of relationships do. I started thinking about how, if there were only two of you, it was inevitable that you would feel you were in direct competition with your sibling all the time. If someone called your sister the clever one that must mean you were the most stupid. And then I thought it might be fun to take that to an extreme and write a story where one sister has been singled out as extraordinary all her life and how that would affect the other.

Novelicious has drinks with Jane Fallon to celebrate the launch of her new book The Ugly Sister

INTERVIEW BY AMANDA KEATS

Amanda: It’s always exciting times when Kirsty sends over invites to events and asks if you can go. Being the only Novelicious Londoner I tend to get dibs and it’s one of the greatest perks I could ask for. But this time, things were slightly different. We’ve been invited to drinks for a book launch ladies – Kirsty told us – oh and it’s for Jane Fallon… at the Ivy.

Hold up – the Ivy? To celebrate the launch of a book by the author who got me into chick-lit/women’s fiction with her brilliantly fun tale Foursome?! Oh and it doesn’t stop there folks… it’s just for bloggers.

You can imagine how long I spend deliberating whether or not I could attend.

Fab author – check.

Fab bloggers – check.

Free drinks at the Ivy – yeah you get my point.

Kira: Getting off the Tube at Leicester Square with it tipping down with rain, I stood there for a moment wondering where the hell I was meant to go. Being an out of towner I had absolutely no idea where The Ivy was so I went about asking every Londoner possible, then finding out I managed to ask people that weren’t even from the city, don’t ask me how I managed that but I did!

Amanda: It was lovely getting to meet two more Novelicious ladies on the night – the lovely Kira who made it in all the way from Reading and Anna (who had her Chick Lit Blog hat on for the night) who’d come in from Portsmouth.

So Anna and I made our way up the magical lift with an outward-opening door, trying to “blend in” and were greeted at the top by the lovely Helen from Penguin who took us through to meet the team. As introductions carried on, we reached the “Oh and this is Jane” moment.

Er hi? Yes, you’ve guessed it folks – we were the first to arrive!

Of course after my initial shell-shock at meeting the woman who started me in my Novelicious path to women’s literature, I realised of course that she is just like anybody else. She is a lovely, friendly person – who just happens to write books. We also discovered that this was going to be the only launch – so to speak – as Jane is not a big fan of big speeches. I suggested she write a speech and make somebody else read it. She started to think of her ideal A-lister…

Brilliant.

Kira: Upon finding The Ivy tucked down a side street, I politely asked the doorman if this was where the launch party for Jane Fallon was. He nodded and directed me to the most opulent lift I think I’ve ever seen, it was so fancy I didn’t even know which way the lift door opened, which was highly embarrassing for me. It’s not often small town Brummie girls get to visit The Ivy, so I was trying to be as classy as possible and look like I belonged there!

Once inside I met a few of the girls from Penguin and some lovely blogger people. It was so nice to meet people who I had so much in common with that I think I could have gladly stayed there all night chatting. Upon meeting Jane Fallon I found her to be lovely, down to earth and very easy to chat to. The party in itself felt very quaint and as there were a select few groups of people, it was easier to chat and get to know each other.

 

Amanda: I also got to chat to the lovely PR ladies at Penguin some more and learned that my review for one of their books had been discussed in their weekly meeting *blush*.

I love writing - whether it be stories, reviews, discussion topics or just general scribbles. But get me in a room with other bloggers, writers and avid readers and I am at my happiest. Everybody is the same. Everybody there loves books – simple. And getting to talk about them with others is almost as much fun as reading them.

Massive thanks to Penguin for sorting it out and getting us lowly bloggers out from behind our laptops for a night and actually meeting each other face to face. It was a delight!

 

Kira: On the whole my experience of The Ivy and of Jane herself was very memorable and one in which I’ll be regaling to anyone who will listen (the postman, bin man, customers at work-nobody is safe!)

Many thanks to Jane Fallon and the Penguin team for such a fantastic night.

Novelicious Chats To...Polly Courtney Part 1

INTERVIEW BY AMANDA KEATS

When I first met Polly Courtney, we were together on a local radio talking about chick lit and women's fiction and how great we thought it was. We spent an hour, along with author Michele Gorman, justifying the genre to the sceptics out there as a great form of escapism, a comforting and fun read about everyday women with everyday issues.

So I was more than a little confused when I read articles surrounding the recent launch of Polly’s new book “It’s a Man’s World” saying that Polly was anti-chick-lit. Her three-book deal has now come to an end with her publishers HarperCollins, supposedly because they kept putting chick-lit style covers on her books. But surely that is a valid complaint and does not equate to her being anti-women's fiction? After all, you wouldn't put a Jilly Cooper style cover on the front of a Stephen King book would you?

Here, Polly fills me in on what she REALLY thinks of chick-lit and what actually went on with her publishers...

Why did you sign with Avon if you knew they specialised in chick-lit?

Firstly, I'd say that if I had my time again, with the experience I've had, I would absolutely not sign with Avon/HarperCollins. The reason I did was that – and it might seem like a cliché – it seems like the pinnacle of achievement to sign with a big traditional publisher. So when the deal was there on the table, it seemed like madness not to. The option was there to say “Are they absolutely right for my writing?” but I didn't really have the balls to because I was a self-published author and saw what you read about big-book deals and thought “That's what I want”. Also, I thought that they would tailor what they did for my book. They knew what I'd done in the past, the two books that were out already. I thought, they put out a lot of sub-genres within chick-lit so surely they could accommodate me. They wouldn't take me on if they weren't going to represent it. That was my error, because it turned out that the editor I had hadn't read any of my previous books.

When the deal was there on the table, it seemed like madness not to.

So how did the deal come about?

The deal was pretty much on the table, but conditional on myself and my agent thrashing out a vague storyline for my first book with them. We'd be sitting over coffee and they'd be coming out with “How about you write about magical, mythical things?” and at this point I just thought OK you're there and I'm way over here. So I'd come up with more “realistic” ideas that normally had an underdog, social issue or real stuff and they were coming up with fantastical, not real, ideas.

But you still went ahead with it...?

When I look back, we were such polar opposites and it's amazing that we could ever find a compromise and get something we were both happy with but we did in order to get that deal. The first one I did with them ended up being called “The Day I Die” [rolls eyes] which I was not completely happy with. They wanted an unreal element – girl loses her memory and has to start again – which was the bit I really didn't like. I always like to write about something that could happen to the woman next door and how many women do you know that live next door who have lost their memory and blanked out?

If you take that as a given at the start of the book, then you can get through it. Some readers have said they didn't like the silliness of the memory loss and others were saying “It's your best book” so they obviously like the escapism of it. For me, it wasn't a Polly Courtney book because of that premise.

So how did you feel going into book two?

The experience of the first book and the whole process, right from shoe-horning the content through to packaging that didn't represent what was inside, led me to my second book - with a thinly veiled transplanting into the music industry. It was about a young “artist” signing to a “big label” and experiencing the over-commercialism of the industry.

I hadn't realised that!

Neither did my publisher! I mean there were quotes like “You do represent it well, you have done your research! I can't believe how badly young artists are treated.” During the editing process, a little note in the margins, from the same editor who showed me my covers, had written “Is it really realistic that Zoe [the main character in the book] wouldn't have any say in what her album looks like?”

I wouldn't like to make a laughing stock of the individuals involved, they're just doing their jobs, but the big publishers obviously think they are exempt from any criticism and they are completely different to the music industry who over-commercialise their artists.

A lot of people have said that if you weren't happy with the covers and titles of your books, you should have done something about it. How do you defend that?

I was shouting all I could. I was involved in some really antagonistic conversations about it saying that it wasn't right for these readers. With the first two books especially, I did target market research showing a book cover and asking “What do you think it's about?” and “Would you pick it up?”. I fed the results back to the publishers and they basically said “Thanks very much for going to all the trouble of doing that – we're going to completely ignore you.” So yes, I do have input - in that I can say what I like - but they have no obligation to listen. Contractually, they had to show me the cover and that was all they had to do.

So yes, I do have input - in that I can say what I like 

- but they have no obligation to listen.

I always asked very early on what the deal was with the cover and they would always say the designer was coming up with lots of ideas and they'd show me some of them – as though they were still at the ideas stage. Then, when it came to me, it was always “Here it is”.

I do feel for the designer though because in the last week I've had lots of people saying it's a real problem because often the designer feels quashed as well. They're not always given a brief exactly – more a “You must do it like that” instruction. You can see it in my last book – it was basically a clone of a film poster – which apparently they used as “inspiration”. I one hundred per cent DO NOT blame the designer. I blame the brief they're given. It's like a game of Chinese whispers as it passes from department to department and by the time it gets to the end it has nothing to do with what's inside the book.

What about the titles?

The titles are more of a grey area. Contractually I think I should have had more say but it wasn't clear and in reality, it's the same as the cover. They suggest ideas and then run with it. What I discovered was that it's bad to make the working title the title you want - they see it as the working title and think “OK now let's come up with the real one”. If you called it “Book 3” though then you might actually get the chance to pitch them an idea. For my style of writing, when I was self-publishing, I always preferred clever, punchy two-word titles. For this last one, I thought “Harmless Banter” suited. It's that phrase that gets used over and over again about whether a slap on the arse or a sexist comment is just harmless banter in the office – or is it something more? That was the big question for the book. That was the working title but as you know, it got “It's a Man's World”.

You seemed happy enough to add quotes from reviews, labelling it chick-lit and singing the book's praises, to the website and general publicity. Why was that?

It's horrible when you've had that battle internally to fight for your cover and your title – and lost. The publisher says it's going out with this title – what do you do? You're in the middle of a three-book deal and you know you have to carry on working with them. Do you stand up at a book-signing and say “Hi, this is my book and I wish it wasn't called this or looked like this.” You're not going to do it. You have to promote it.

Many articles have said you “ceremoniously dumped” your publisher but it did seem that you were still grateful to those who helped you and worked with you on the book.

To read Polly's answer to this question and more, please come back for the second part of Amanda's interview this afternoon at 3.30pm.

Photos by Rachel Ellis

Novelicious Chats to... Dorothy Koomson

INTERVIEW BY DEBS CARR

Dorothy Koomson is one of our favourite authors and she's kindly answered a few questions I put to her.

1. The Woman He Loved Before is your seventh novel, can you tell us something about your road to publication?

I’ve been published for eight years now, so it feels a long time ago! I’ve been making up stories since I was about 13. I loved drama and fiction, so read and watched a lot of television from around then. (I’m tempted to dig out my old notebooks and give those early stories a read again soon.) When I got older, I thought more about trying to get my stories published. I sent out a couple out to agents and I’m really grateful that they didn’t get taken up because my writing has moved on so much from then, I’d probably cringe at the thought of some of them being ‘out there’.

 In 2002, I was working on the book that would become The Chocolate Run when I went to visit a friend in Leeds. Whilst I was there, I had the idea for The Cupid Effect. When I returned to London I sat down and wrote it. Because I could see the story so clearly in my mind, it was pretty easy to write. Originally I sent out the first three chapters to quite a few agents who all basically told me to go away. So I finished the book - I could do so without being too disheartened because I believed in the story. (That’s one of my biggest tips to unpublished authors – write a story you love and believe in because it’ll keep you going.) When I finished, I sent it out to agents again and got the same response: ‘Go Away!’

 So I sent it to a publisher. It landed on their slush pile and I heard from them three months later. I’d been considering giving up the whole writing thing by that point but my friend Janet (who is very much like Jess in The Cupid Effect) reminded me that I couldn’t actually do that. I write because I love it.

The day my life changed, I remember laying in bed, thinking: ‘I need a sign or something that tells me I shouldn’t give up trying to get published’. A few minutes later, the postman rang my buzzer and had a letter offering me a two-book deal! My life as a published author began at that moment.

2. When you begin a new novel do you start with the plot or with the characters?

I love writing about people so when I write a book I often start with the basic premise of the relationships and characters in the book and the detail of the plot grows from there.

For example, with The Woman He Loved Before, I originally wanted to write about a woman who feels second-best in her marriage and how a traumatic experience forces her to re-evaluate her whole life and her relationsip. As I planned out the novel, the idea of telling the first wife’s tale grew. This also involved unravelling what was going on in the first wife’s life that influenced her husband so deeply that he found it hard to get over her. When I hit upon the first wife’s big secret, I knew I’d found one of the core elements of the book. I find, when I’m writing, as soon as I find one of the core elements, the story pretty much reveals itself to me.

3. How long does it take you to write a book and can you tell us about your typical writing day?

It takes between nine months and a year to get all the text down on the page for a book, but longer in terms of researching, coming up with the idea, sitting with it, exploring it and then finally writing it. I do a lot of pre-story work in terms of mulling over the story to see if it’ll work as a novel. A lot of stories are a great idea and plot, but can’t be sustained as a novel – yet. I sometimes revisit themes and ideas to see if they’re ready to become novels if that makes sense?

I don’t have a typical writing day. I know some authors are very regimented and good about doing a set number of words and/or hours a day. I’m more disciplined in that I will sit down and write but not in any set way.

If I’m not actively writing a book, I’m usually reading and researching and working through the story. I manage my time like this: I wake up, mentally go over my ‘to do’ list at the top of which is usually ‘write next book’ and by the time I go to bed I find I’ve generally done the things that people have nagged me for the most. In between that I squeeze in research or writing scenes that have popped into my head. The nearer I get to deadline, the more writing I try to squeeze into the day, which usually spills over into night. When deadline looms I will cancel virtually everything and concentrate – night and day – on finishing, then editing and rewriting the book.

It’s not very organised in the traditional sense, but it works for me.  And that’s important for anyone who wants to become a writer, to find a system that works for them.

 

My Writing Room – Dorothy Koomson

POSTED BY DEBS CARR

We asked Dorothy Koomson to tell us a bit about her writing space and she very kindly agreed to do so.

Crikey! I feel a complete fraud doing this piece because I don’t have – and never really have had - a writing room. Or even a specific place I write. Apart from my bed. I write a lot in bed.

I didn’t stop working full-time as a journalist/Deputy Editor until after my fourth book, Marshmallows For Breakfast, was published, so I had to squeeze in writing whenever and wherever I could. That meant getting on the train, elbowing people aside to commandeer a corner seat to write on my 20-minute journey into London or even sitting in during my lunch-break wherever I was freelancing writing in my notebook.

I’m lucky in that I don’t need a special place to write. Ideally I’d be able to sit down, but if not, writing long-hand - as I often do – means I can still write if I’m standing up. If I’m in my bedroom or the kitchen or the living room, I’ll very often have the television on because I’m a complete television addict. (I was going to say I was committed to research, but that wouldn’t be the entire story.)

Write To Be Published by Nicola Morgan

For those of you who follow Nicola Morgan - the Crabbit Old Bat - and her blog, Help! I Need A Publisher, you'll already know about the recent release of her Write To Be Published book.  For any aspiring authors who don't and want someone to help you whip your manuscript into shape to help you make a publisher say "Yes", then this is a book worth buying.

Needless to say I've bought my copy and my poor, worn out postman delivered it yesterday. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I have skimmed through the sections and was thrilled to note it covers everything from top tips for your synopsis, to deciphering rejections.

Nicola is the author of around ninety books, including category bestsellers and award-winners, and has also been Chair of the Society of Authors in Scotlant, so she know what she's talking about. You can find out more about Nicola at her website and her Help! I Need A Publisher blog.

Nicola is on Twitter @nicolamorgan and facebook

Novelicious Chats to... Jo Rees

INTERVIEW BY CESCA MARTIN

 

Jo Rees is a fabulous novelist who started out as simple Josie Lloyd writing chick lit ('It Could Be You').  The book perhaps known by many of us is the hugely successful 'Come Together' (an international bestseller and an absolute must-read for chick lit fans).  Jo and her husband Emlyn have written seven books together in total.  More recently Jo has branched off on her own again.  Her latest book is published by Corgi and is entitled 'Forbidden Pleasures'.
You can follow her exploits on her blog at: www.mumwritesbooks.com

Your latest book 'Forbidden Pleasures looks like a very glamorous read.  Could you briefly outline the plot? 

 

 

 

 It's all about the glamorous and addictive world of international gambling, following the characters to Las Vegas, Shanghai, San Francisco and London.  I have two heroines - Savannah Hudson - a beautiful self-absorbed It Girl who gets everything she wants apart from the approval of her ruthless father, Michael.  Then there's the highly driven, work-a-holic ex-cop Lois Chan, who has recently been promoted to run the gambling business of Michale's greatest rival.  When shady billionaire Chinese industrialist and world class gambler, Jai Shijai, sets the two women on a collision course as rivals, the stakes get higher and higher and both of them have to learn what's really important  before the gambling world consumes them forever.

What are you currently working on?

I am working on a new book for Macmillan called 'Torn'.  And this time, once again I'm changing my name and going out as Joanna Rees.  It'll be out next summer.  This is a much more dramatic read.  Like Platinum and Forbidden Pleasures in its international feel, it's a tangled tale of two sisters separated at birth.  I'm loving writing it.

Your latest books are glitzy reads.  Do you get to research in far-flung places?  Ponce about the house in diamonds?

Ha!  If only.  I'm usually sloping around in jeans and old t-shirt or tracky bottoms. I tend to use places that I've either been to, or know someone who has.  I do do a bit of research online, but it's all smoke and mirrors and putting some authentic details in the right places.  The stories are fast paced, so there's no room for vast amount of research details to go in anyway.  For me, the important thing is getting the emotional journey of the characters right.  That's why people want to read to the end.

My Writing Room - Kate Lord Brown

 Taking inspiration from The Guardian's 'Writers' Rooms', Sky Arts' 'The Write Place' and Book Chick City's excellent 'Where Stories Are Made'; My Writing Room is a fabulous fortnightly event, in which some of our favourite authors show us where the writerly magic happens, and tell us a little about their writing life.

My Writing Room by Kate Lord Brown 

I’ve never had a ‘room of one’s own’ and have carved out space to write in corridors, basement games rooms, and now the living room of our staff flat on a compound in the Middle East. I think Stephen King’s advice is good – put your desk in the corner of the room and just get on with it. It’s one of the great things about writing, how mobile you can be. Wherever you park your notebook or your computer, that’s your home. King reckons art should be the support system for life, and not the other way around – and I agree with him. I like being in the middle of things, and even when the children are at school there’s usually been a cat on the desk or a dog at my feet when I’m working.

Working from home, there are always plenty of distractions and boondoggling is a real temptation, (amazing how attractive the thought of doing the laundry/cleaning the oven/making one more cup of coffee becomes when you are struggling). Most of the time I write at this small desk – but if the children are home and the computer is tied up with Moshi Monsters or Club Penguin, I work in bed on a laptop, or in a café. I think juggling writing and family life, your work becomes ‘bombproof’ and you learn to tune out distractions and noise. There isn’t the luxury of needing complete silence to work!

Maybe one day there will be a room, or shed of my own (I look longingly at adverts for summerhouses and garden offices …). I remember my grandfather’s shed – it was known as his ‘kutch’ and the only people allowed in there were me and my brother. It was an amazing place, full of antiques and his photography equipment, his escape from family life. My grandmother never went in there until the day he died. I love the idea of putting down roots, and having a dedicated workspace is growing more attractive. Perhaps for now I should just start looking at Bedouin tents …

Blogs: What Kate Did Next

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Web www.katelordbrown.com

Twitter @katelordbrown