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My Writing Room - Louise Candlish

We recently reviewed Louise's new book THE DAY YOU SAVED MY LIFE and chatted to her in our interview. Today she shows us her writing room!

Over to Louise...

My Writing Room by Louise Candlish

I’ve seen friends exchange gasps at the sight of my writing room, rather as they do when I pull my purse out of my bag and money, receipts, jottings of phone numbers and even edible matter spray all over the place. I’m very disorderly and this is just the way it is. I don’t think I can change my ways now.

    My desk was recently seized from my nine-year-old daughter’s bedroom. She was supposed to be doing her homework on it but was discovered to be displaying her Moshling collection on it instead. So I ditched the sawn-off dining table I was using and took her furniture for myself.

    I don’t know if you can make out the small round hole in the right-hand window pane behind my PC. A friend asked me if it was a bullet hole, but he was visiting from North London and had preconceived ideas about my semi-vicious neighbourhood south of the river. In fact, we don’t know what caused it, we inherited it and have never had the glass replaced (are you sensing a theme here?). Sometimes the cat sits on the other side and looks through the bullet hole at me, which is the closest I get to social interaction for much of the day.

    Unfortunately, I find writing in this chaotic environment quite difficult – I know I would get on better if it were serene and ordered like my writer friends’. But believe it or not, my desk is actually deliberately stripped of distractions – there are no photos of family or friends, no phone. It hardly matters, though; even when writing is going well I manage to sabotage it by breaking off to congratulate myself. I’ll go and make a cappuccino or play some music as a nice reward for finally getting on with it. It’s all too reminiscent of my routines as a student over twenty years ago.

    The PC is old and about to be chucked out. Sometimes, without warning, a dark shadow encroaches across the screen on the left, which, if it catches me in the wrong mood, feels horribly symbolic, maybe even defining.

The Day You Saved My Life is published in paperback on 19 July (Sphere, £6.99).

The Secret Dreamworld of an Aspiring Author by Anna Bell - Don't Give Up Your Day Job

I’ve read blogs before where aspiring authors have given up work and vowed to get their book published within a year. I’ve winced at those blogs and hoped for their sake and their mortgage's sake that they made it. But, with the ease of self publishing and the ability to make money off your books without a publisher, is it more possible to give up your day job nowadays?  

Well, don’t wince, readers, but I handed in the notice to my employers yesterday!

I’m going to put your mind slightly at ease, I’m not leaving my job based on my book sales. I realise that book sales on Amazon seem to be random and unpredictable. I think if I had a number of books on Amazon and they sold the same number of books in their lifespan as my ebook has, then I honestly think it would be worth doing. But I’m no where near that stage yet. 

I’m leaving my job instead as my husband has accepted a job in Switzerland and, unfortunately for me, I’m not going to be able to work there. Which means I get to be a full time writer! Now before anyone throws daggers at me, remember I’ll be living in the 7th most expensive city in the world. Just think how little wine I’m going to be able to drink as I won’t be able to afford it! 

Sneak Peek of The Rose Petal Beach by Dorothy Koomson

We've already mentioned how excited we are about this book, so we were even more giddy to discover that the first two chapters are now available to read on Dorothy's website. Talk about a tease!

There's also a fabulous Q&A with Dorothy and a prequel to the book. You can find it all here for free.

P.S If you're a writer don't forget to check out the impressive collection of writing tips Dorothy has amassed since she first became a published author. There are gems from Adele Parks, Katie Fforde and Dorothy herself.

The Rose Petal Beach

Dorothy on Twitter

Dorothy on Facebook

Novelicious Chats To... Jane Green (Part Two)

By Amanda Keats

In part two of our exclusive interview with Author Jane Green, she talks about her passions for cooking and gardening, how great it felt to be put in her place by French chefs, how mortified she was when her step-daughter's friends started reading a sex scene she'd written and the kind of books she loves to read when she can find the time – and it might not be what you expect! As she was reaching the end of her UK book tour, Green also took the time to go puppy-hunting and ended up adding a gorgeous new dog to her family's collection of animals which already included one dog, two cats and seventeen chickens.

 

Where do you do most of your writing? I understand you don't write at home.

JG: No, I don't do any of it at home now because I just get horribly distracted. I go to this little writers' room that has opened up in my town. It's a little – well it's sort of a little shop. It's really cosy and the walls are painted sunshine yellow. It's just got tables and chairs and a couple of armchairs. It's quite quiet and they hold classes upstairs. They've given me keys because I'm always the first one there as soon as the children go off to school. I take my laptop and I go off to this little writers' room and I make myself a coffee. That is my office! [laughs]

 

And you have your own key! That is quite an honour

JG: Exactly! I love, LOVE having my own key and I really love having somewhere to go to because it feels like I'm going to work. Working in the house just doesn't work for me. I do have an office at home and I do edits at home. I have this huuuuge computer, this massive Mac that takes up almost half the office because when I edit – well it's much easier if you can put more pages on the same screen at the same time, when you're moving chunks of copy around. For writing, I write on the tiniest computer you can have, it's minuscule!

I'm such a hermit that if I didn't leave my house [to write] I would never leave my house! I buy everything online, friends come to me. But once I'm out I may as well stay out. I don't have to scurry back to the safety of my house.

 

"The chef would shout at you and I couldn't just say 'Excuse me, I'm a bestselling author, do you mind?', I just kept saying 'I'm sorry Chef, yes Chef, sorry Chef.' I really loved it!" - Jane Green on doing a course at the French Culinary Institute.

 

You have strong interests (and talents) in areas other than writing, for instance the interior design posts about Figless Manor and the cookery and recipes on your blog – have you ever thought of writing a non fiction or self help book?

 JG: Er, [laughs] self help book – no! I do quite a lot of public speaking, key-note speaking at charity events, things like that. I definitely try to put a lot of thought into it and make it – you know – motivational. I wouldn't write a book about it thought, I've got no place really doing so.

Non-fiction though, like a cookbook or something, yeah I'd love to do that some time! I garden obsessively as well. I just love everything to do with the home really.

 

Sounds like you could be the new Martha Stewart!

 JG: You never know, you never know [laughs]! I actually know Martha Stewart very well. I'm the diametric opposite to her really. With Martha, everything is rather perfect and I'm rather sloppy and messy. There's piles of papers and books and clutter all over my house. You don't really get that at Martha's.

 

What kind of books do you like to read? Do you even have spare time to get any reading done?

 JG: Oh yes, I read an awful lot! I read a bit of everything. Most of the authors we have in America are very different to the authors over here [in the UK]. There isn't a lot of crossing over. What I'm reading right now is a fantastic book called To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal, which I'm loving and I've also got my hands on the new Marian Keyes which is called The Mystery of Mercy Close. It's not out till October and I have to tell you, it is fantastic! Oh God, it is Marian at her funniest. You have got to get yourselves a copy because it is just wonderful Marian back on her top form.

 

See, Marian did a cookery book.

 JG: She did! See, I'm not a baker. Baking is not my thing. I can bake and I do from time to time but again, because I'm sloppy, I'm completely imprecise.  I have – as my husband puts it – the patience of a fruit fly. Baking is much more precise and I just can't really be bothered.

 

Speaking of cooking, I understand you did a cooking course at the French Culinary institute last year. How did that go?

 JG: Yes, it was really lovely! I was about the oldest person there. They were all 20-somethings. They were all going on to become chefs – apart from me! Normally when I'm out in the real world, I'm out as a writer. I live in a little bubble! I live in a small town, by a beach, where I'm mum.

When I go out to New York and such, it's usually something connected to work. So, what was fantastic about this was that I was in New York every day but it wasn't for work – it was as a student! I had the chef shouting at me! They were French, and very, very serious! It was a bit like those television shows like Hells' Kitchen. It was exactly like that [laughs]!

The chef would shout at you and I couldn't just say 'Excuse me, I'm a bestselling author, do you mind?', I just kept saying 'I'm sorry Chef, yes Chef, sorry Chef.' I really loved it!

Review - A Twist of Fate by Joanna Rees

Reviewed by Cressida McLaughlin

It would be hard to find a title more enticing than A Twist of Fate, and as I haven’t read any Joanna Rees before, I had that title and the joy of a new author to whet my appetite for this book. It has one of the most dramatic beginnings I’ve read for a long time. Two babies are exchanged in an illegal deal in East Germany in 1971; one is destined for a good life with loving parents in America, the other is fated to grow up in a German orphanage. The horrific way they are parted and the different lives they are heading towards makes their separation all the more gut-wrenching.

The story follows the two girls, Thea and Romy, as they grow up, their childhoods and teenage years unfolding in startling – sometimes shocking – clarity. Thea grows up in a beautiful New England home called Little Elms, part of the incredibly wealthy Maddox family. She is happy and carefree, surrounded by people that she loves, her business-tycoon father giving her everything she wants. But at eight years old she suffers a tragedy that changes everything. Meanwhile Romy is living as a prisoner in the orphanage, working long hours under brutal guards who, she soon discovers, have plans for the girls as they grow into young women. Early on Romy realises that only she can change her future, and she is determined to get out.

The chapters move alternately between Thea and Romy’s stories. Both are gripping and unpredictable – I got to the end of each chapter desperate to find out what happened next, only to be flung back into the life of the other sister where I would get instantly immersed once more.

The book covers several decades, and Rees masterfully works the popular culture and news events of the period into her writing. There’s a particular event that collides dramatically with Thea’s life that I hadn’t seen coming, but which left me with my heart in my throat! The sisters’ lives take them all over the world, to beautiful villas, bustling cities and snow-covered villages. I had such a strong sense of time and place as I was reading, each new year and location was as vivid as the one before.

Review - You Take It From Here by Pamela Ribon

Reviewed by Debs Carr

When best friends Smidge and newly divorced Danielle go away on their annual trip together Smidge refuses to tell Danielle where they’re going. It turns out they’re not physically travelling very far, but what Smidge has to tell and then ask Danielle will make all the difference to her life. Smidge has terminal cancer and she wants her best friend, Danielle, to take over from her when she dies. This means moving in to Smidge’s home, getting together with her husband and bringing up her daughter Jenny. Smidge is overbearing and selfish, but Danielle is her closest friend, or so she believes and wants to help her. However, Danielle doesn’t want to leave California and move back south to the small Louisiana town she happily left years before. She hadn't planned on moving back for any reason, even if the locals are friendly most of the time. She has a lot of thinking to do and a lot to cope with and Smidge is not going to make it easy for Danielle to turn down her offer.

Review - Destined to Play by Indigo Bloome

Reviewed by Jenni Cahill

Alexandra and Jeremy have been best friends since university. They have always been close, becoming lovers and experimenting as well as pushing boundaries with one another, but their lives have taken them in different directions. At 36, Alexandra is a wife and mother of two, working around her family’s needs and always putting them first, while Jeremy is a widely acclaimed doctor. Alexandra is just beginning to realise her marriage is lacking in both intimacy and excitement when her work brings her back into contact with Jeremy. With her husband and children away on a trip, Alexandra flies to Sydney for some meetings and plans to meet up with Jeremy while she's there for drinks and a catch up.

Alexandra is both nervous and excited to be seeing her old friend and lover again. They shared some amazing experiences together when they were younger, but times have changed and she is now a married mother. So when Jeremy asks Alexandra to cancel her work commitments to stay with him in his luxurious penthouse suite for 48 hours, Alexandra is torn. She still has strong feelings for Jeremy – both emotionally and physically – but her actions will have consequences for her marriage and her children’s lives. Alexandra has never been able to say no to Jeremy and so she ends up agreeing to stay with him. Later, as they share a sensuous bath, Jeremy requests two more things from Alexandra. Will she agree to give up her sight and ask no questions for the entire 48 hours they'll be together?

I’ve seen Destined To Play compared to Fifty Shades a lot over the past week or so but, as I haven’t read Fifty Shades (yet), I am judging the book on its own merit and without comparison. Destined To Play started off quite tame as we are introduced to Alexandra and Jeremy, but it soon began to heat up, building in intensity with each hour that Alexandra spends in Jeremy’s company. We see how their relationship developed while they were at university and how Jeremy’s dominance began to rise to the surface. Alexandra has to put all her trust into Jeremy as without sight, she is completely at his mercy. To begin with she struggles with her loss of power and independence and refuses to let go, but she goes along with Jeremy’s plan and in doing so she begins to unlock the person she once was before work, marriage and children changed her.

Destined To Play has plenty of graphic scenes but it isn’t just about the sex. By stripping away all her inhibitions, Alexandra begins to discover who she is and re-evaluates her life. There is also the pull she feels towards Jeremy, the bond she still feels even after all the years they have been apart. There were two very slight downfalls for me – Alexandra’s lack of guilt at cheating on her husband and the science parts relating to Alexandra’s and Jeremy’s professions. If I’m honest, most of it went way over my head, but I got the gist of what was happening and that seemed to be enough to follow the plot and so it didn’t really hinder my enjoyment of the book

7/10

INDIGO BLOOME'S PAGE AT HARPERCOLLINS

MORE ABOUT DESTINED TO PLAY

Exclusive! Novelicious Chats To... Jane Green (Part One)

By Amanda Keats

Jane Green says she is 'having a really lovely time' when I talk to her about her new book The Patchwork Marriage and how her UK book tour is going. The bestselling author was over here recently to promote the book, catch up with old friends and generally reacquaint herself with her native England. The author, who now lives in the US with her husband, children and numerous pets – which include two cats, chickens and now two dogs – was one of the pioneering authors for the chick-lit genre back in the 1990s with books like Straight Talking and Jemima J.

In her latest offering, Green writes about a woman, Andi, who finally marries her dream man but struggles to cope when one of his two daughters from a previous marriage is nothing but difficult and hostile towards her and tries very hard to break up their marriage.

"I did a lot of reading and anonymous lurking on various step-parenting forums. There was one particular dynamic that I found fascinating and I kept coming across it. It was the woman who marries the man with children and the children don't like her. She thinks, 'I'm a good person, and all these children need is enough love and kindness and they will love me. I will make them love me and we will create, I will create, this happy family.'" - Jane Green on the research for The Patchwork Marriage.

 The new book The Patchwork Marriage is about a woman who marries a man who already has children. You have a bit of a patchwork family yourself – is that why you wanted to write about this subject?

 JG: Yes. I got a bit stuck after I finished The Love Verb, because I think it was so emotionally draining for me. I had every writer's worst nightmare in that I just ran out of stories and had no idea what to write next. My editor took me out for lunch and said: 'Well, what's going on in your life? What are the themes? What are you interested in? What are you thinking about?'

Of course, I'd just got married for the second time and found myself with a blended family and in a bid to try to understand what that meant and figure it all out – because it definitely presents unique challenges – I did a lot of reading and anonymous lurking on various step-parenting forums. There was one particular dynamic that I found fascinating and I kept coming across it. It was the woman who marries the man with children and the children don't like her. She thinks, 'I'm a good person, and all these children need is enough love and kindness and they will love me. I will make them love me and we will create, I will create, this happy family.'

Of course that seemed to be so rarely the case.

That became the foundation for this story.

 

Why did you decide to show both Andi and eldest step-daughter Emily's perspective in the book, instead of just sticking to one of them?

 JG: The beginning of the book is all Andi's point of view but after a while, she just comes across as being completely self-absorbed. As soon as I started writing as Emily – who I really didn't like – I understood her and I understood that this wasn't personal. She didn't hate her stepmother – in some ways she wanted to love her – but she couldn't because she felt she would be betraying her mother. She was a child in pain and she didn't know how to express that pain. I really empathised with her.

It threw a completely different light on where the book went after I started writing in her voice.

 

So at the beginning, was it just meant to be Andi's perspective?

 JG: Yes! I had no intention of writing as Emily and in fact it was my editor's suggestion and I'm so glad she did. I was very nervous when she suggested it, I didn't think I could do it. As soon as I started, though, it made perfect sense and I just felt like I understood what this girl was about.

They're both flawed. There isn't an obvious heroine here. As I get older, I'm far more interested in writing about people who are flawed because we are all human and we're all doing the best we can. It just isn't realistic to write about people who are leading perfect lives.

  

There were moments when I read the book that I wanted to scream at the characters – particularly Ethan – to stop being so stupid. Did you consider that kind of reaction when you were creating the characters?

JG: I don't think I found him quite as frustrating as clearly people do but I think that's why marriages come apart. During my research, I found that so many second marriages come apart and so many people I spoke to put the reason down to step-children and to the husbands not standing up for their wives. I think that frustration that you felt reading it was probably an accurate reflection of how these women felt about their husbands.

 "I could argue till the cows come home that it's a pejorative and the problem is in the definition but people have been arguing that since 1996 and honestly – you're not going to change how people think of the term, or what people assume the definition of 'literature for chicks' means, so why bother?" - Jane Green on the term 'Chick Lit'.

Review - The Camera Never Lies by Tess Daly

Reviewed by Kirsty Nicole Pole

When this book dropped through my letter box I spent a lot of time looking at it, contemplating whether or not I could put aside my views on celebrity authors and enjoy the book for what it was -a debut novel. Eventually I decided to take one for the Novelicious team and go for it…

Britt Baxter is our main character in ‘The Camera Never Lies', she's a blonde bombshell from the North…weird that, isn’t it? Britt is a model whose career looks like it’s about to come to an abrupt end. Add that to her relationship with boyfriend Alex descending into boredom and Britt doesn’t know what to do next with her life. Maybe she could become a TV Presenter…hmmmmm…

Doing just that Britt gets a job as a fashion reporter on ‘Rise and Shine’, the nation’s biggest breakfast show. Soon people are stopping her in the street for autographs and she’s thrown into a celebrity world that she’s never been a part of before.

Obviously taking inspiration from her own life and career, Tess writes convincingly about the backstage secrets of working in television and as I continued to read I actually grew to like Britt as a character - I could empathise with her struggle to figure out what it is she actually wanted in life and I enjoyed reading about transition to a more confident, career driven woman. The characters were realistic and well rounded.

The Secret Dreamworld of an Aspiring Author by Anna Bell - Slushpile Success

I was reading the Novelicious interview with Louise Candlish last week and what she said got me thinking. Ten years ago she wrote a novel, submitted it to agents, got an agent who sold the novel straight away. She then wondered if the traditional route to being published would be that simple now. And it got me thinking, does slushpile success still happen? 

I’ve read countless author interviews where authors wrote (or in some cases partially wrote) manuscripts and sent them to slushpiles and got published. But these all came from authors who now have an established career and multiple books under their belt. 

I’ve been racking my brains for stories of people I’ve met since my writing journey began to think of anyone that has had slushpile success. I’ve met a few aspiring authors who have agents, but they got them either a long a time ago or they got them from meeting them in another way. 

Novelicious Chats to... Poppy Dolan

We love Poppy Dolan here on Novelicious. Her debut The Bad Boyfriends Bootcamp is blummin brilliant!

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

I work full-time so my writing day is more like a writing evening/commute/Sunday afternoon. But I find it such a brilliant way to escape normal life that I really look forward to diving back into my WIP at the end of a long day. Besides, I can't get away with smoochy, climatic romantic endings in an open plan office. Mind you, I haven't actually tried.

 

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

I take the odd character trait here and there from friends - a funny nickname, a way of laughing, flirtations that sometimes otherwise pass under the radar and I liberally steal from my other half too. Which I must point out he does not condone, and I only get away with it due to super fast document minimising skills. I'll sometimes use a celeb as a basis for a hero, but that can lead to dangerous drooling and getting out the Mad Men box set. And then very little work gets done.

 

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

Ooohhh, that is a pickle of a question. I want to say Bridget Jones' Diary as that had a seismic effect on little 15 year old me. (I even thought I had 'so much in common' with Bridget. At 15. Sheesh.) But another novel that seriously schooled me on how clever and funny and finger-prickingly sharp good rom coms can be is a novel called Lazy Ways to Make a Living by Abigail Bosanko. It's got some of the best flirting you'll ever read, and weirdly also some wicked chess playing.

 

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

I have a weird lightbulb moment at the strangest moments, then a whole story lights up before me from there. So, for The Bad Boyfriends Bootcamp I was actually doing the washing up and listening to the radio when the Pixie Lott song 'Cry Me Out' came on. I was wailing away as I sponged my egg whisk and the line 'I got your email. You just don't get females, now do you?' suddenly jumped out at me and I thought, God some men are that crap. Why can't we train them? Also, I used to live in East Dulwich where they run scary bootcamp training sessions in the park. It always baffled me that people paid to have themselves broken down and rebuilt, but then I realised if being a pants boyfriend was that ingrained in your brain, you needed a bit of tough love to help build you up from scratch. And maybe some advice on tucking shirts into jeans.

Novelicious goes to... A Patchwork Marriage Book Launch with Jane Green

By Amanda Keats

Jane Green was the author to watch in the 90s with books like Straight Talking, Mr. Maybe and Jemima J. So it was lovely to be invited along to meet her at the launch of her new book, A Patchwork Marriage. With many of her family present and the Penguin team just gushing with praise for one of their biggest authors, it was lovely to see that Jane was as friendly and chatty as fans of her books might expect.

Jane, it seems, is returning to one of her earliest characters with an idea to make Jemima a writer and start writing YA fiction by her. She seemed genuinely excited to return to the character and was so delighted to have people at the event.

Join us next Wednesday for our exclusive interview with the lady herself as she reveals more details on Jemima J's next project, her very special writing room, what she misses about the UK and her thoughts on eroticism in novels...

Novelicious Natters - Christian Grey Matter

  By Kirsty Nicole Pole

You only have to check your Facebook or have a quick gander on Twitter to see that the whole world is going gaga over Mr.Grey. I decided to do a little investigation into what they're calling the Grey Effect…

Selling 397,889 copies in its first week, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ by E L James has over taken Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ as the fastest selling paperback of all time (with a significantly racier plot!) and is causing controversy amongst men and women alike. Described as ‘Mummy porn’ and even ‘Vom Rom’ I sat on the fence listening to other people's conversations about Christian Grey and how they had been overwhelmed by the trilogy that had been keeping them awake into the early hours of the morning and causing such a stir. I sat in front of my computer staring at the Amazon books page for half an hour, my finger hovering over the mouse knowing that with one click and 5 seconds it could be on my kindle in front of me…my hand “slipped” and the deed was done…

Now, for the record, I hated ‘Twilight’. Seriously. I actually hated it - I never bought into the whole vampire thing and I didn’t care how much in love Bella and Edward were or about the fact that he sparkled in the sunlight, so the comparisons to fan fiction did put me off. But underneath all of the sexual exploits (and there are A LOT of blushing opportunities!) I found myself addicted to Christian Grey, a haunted man I longed to understand. I wanted to know why this sexy, brooding, carnal character is the way he is and I admit it... I did feel the ‘Grey Effect’.

I have been surprised by men’s opinions on the whole thing: Within 20 minutes of me posting a Facebook status about reading the book a male friend had written underneath it “We all know you’re reading porn.” – Woah! Hang on! Ten minutes later there were numerous other angry opinions from my male friends voicing their thoughts that there is no story, it is just an excuse for us girls to read glorified porn, even going as far as to suggest that we shouldn’t be reading it in public because everyone will know what we’re reading about. Now hold on a minute there boys…are we not allowed to read something that could dare to push the boundaries of sexual exploration in writing?....have we gone back to the Victorian era? Where is my corset and chastity belt?! I must have forgotten them! Doh!

Review - The Girl On Paper by Guillaume Musso

Reviewed by Jenni Cahill

The Girl On Paper begins with a prologue, told through media reports and emails marking the relationship and subsequent break up of novelist Tom Boyd and classical pianist, Aurore Valencourt. Newspapers and magazines spread gossip of their house hunting, ring shopping and then fights in restaurants. Tom is devastated when Aurore leaves him and his life starts to spiral out of control with drink and drugs.

Tom is a successful author with the first part of his Angels trilogy becoming a bestseller and the second instalment is eagerly awaited. So the pressure is piled onto Tom as the deadline for the third and final Angels book looms but, due to his heartache over Aurore, Tom is unable to write. The mere thought of opening his laptop sends him into a panic but he must find a way to complete his manuscript to not only fulfil his publishing contract, but to save him and his best friend, Milo, from financial ruin.

Milo is Tom’s best friend, but he is also his agent and has foolishly lost all their money and assets. They will both lose everything they have worked hard for if Tom doesn’t finish his book. One stormy night, a naked woman appears in Tom’s house, claiming to be Billie Donnelly, a character from his novels. Once Billie manages to convince Tom she really is a character from his books, she makes a deal with him; she’ll help him win back Aurore if he finishes his third book in the trilogy, allowing her to go back home.