Welcome to the newest slot on my blog, the Sunday night Novel Nights In where I bring you guests’ novels in their entirety over a maximum of ten weeks. Tonight’s is the fifth instalment of the first novel in this series and features the second section of Book 2 (of three) of a novel by literary author, poet and interviewee Rose Mary Boehm.
For shorter pieces I would run the story then talk more about it afterwards but because this is a longer post, here is an introduction to Rose then the fifth part of her novel…
A German-born UK national, Rose Mary Boehm now lives and works in Lima, Peru. Two novels (‘Coming Up For Air’ and the follow-up ‘The Telling’) have been published in the UK, as well as a poetry collection (‘Tangents’). Her latest poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in US poetry reviews. Among others: Toe Good Poetry, Poetry Breakfast, Burning Word, Muddy River Review, Pale Horse Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Other Rooms, Requiem Magazine, Full of Crow, Poetry Quarterly, Punchnel’s, Verse Wisconsin, Naugatuck Poetry Review (contest semi-finalist), Avatar…
Her poem ‘Miss Worthington’ won third price in the coveted Margaret Reid Poetry Contest: http://winningwriters.com/contests/margaret/2009/ma09_epaminondas.php
You can find out more about Rose and her writing at her blog: http://houseboathouse.blogspot.com, and you can also read one of Rose’s short stories on http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/short-story-for-critique-003-mrs-boffa-by-rose-mary-boehm.
Coming Up For Air
A young girl’s struggle to take control of her life – click to read Book I: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Book 2: Part 1. If you don’t want to wait the 10 weeks for the whole story, you can purchase Coming Up for Air at Amazon.com (just $2.95) Amazon.co.uk (only £1.87). The rest of the ‘adventures of Annie’ can be read in THE TELLING.
***
33
Gisela and I had finished our homework. The late afternoon sun was about to sink behind the horizon when we decided to walk very fast along the towpath by the canal to see whether we could be fast enough and ‘catch’ it before it disappeared. We knew it was impossible and just a game.
We talk while we walk. Suddenly Gisela stops. “Do you think it’s true about how they make babies?”
“What do you mean… that the man lies on top of the woman?”
“Well, yes, and that he puts his willie into her hole.”
That’s not something anyone ever told me about and definitely hasn’t occurred to me. I have never seen my brother other than at least wearing his underpants, and my father never ever walks through the house in his underwear or even in a dressing gown. I have only ever seen him fully dressed. Still, I have an idea what a ‘willie’ is, I am not that dumb, but the idea that anybody should ‘stick his willie into my hole’ gives me the creeps.
To Gisela I pretend I know exactly what she is talking about. I am too embarrassed to let on that I just discovered how backward I am. So I say boldly, “Of course it’s true, but it’s really disgusting, isn’t it? I don’t think I’ll go for it.”
“Neither shall I. I’ve thought about it often. And I don’t understand how my mother could actually do it with my father…”
Now there’s a thought. This, of course, is a revelation. When I get home I look at my parents with different eyes and decide that they are really quite despicable and that I’ll never, ever…
*
I took high school very seriously and actually enjoyed it. The school was in another part of town, and in the winter we took the tram which rattled past the coking plants, the steel works and even through some leafy roads lined with sycamore trees. In early spring we’d go by bike. There were usually three of us, three girls. We lived very close to one another and became good friends over the years almost by default. With Gisela I discovered how babies are made and with Helga I learned how to smoke.
*
Helga’s mother works and isn’t home yet. That’s why the three of us are alone in her house – Gisela, Helga and I. After sneaking in to see ‘Les Diaboliques’ we realised that we have to do something or we’ll be hopelessly left behind. Not smoking clearly marks us as little girls of no importance, and therefore smoking is one of the first things we have to learn how to do.
Helga has stolen a handful of cigarettes from her mother, one by one so she wouldn’t notice. We each take one and hold it awkwardly, imagining we are Simone Signoret, Rita Hayworth or Betty Grable. Helga holds a match to each one, and we suck the air through the cigarette to make it glow. The smoke fills my mouth and stings, tasting of unpleasant and smoke-filled memories. We hold the smoke in our mouths for a moment before we let it drift out again.
“I don’t think that’s how it’s done,” says Helga. “When my mother smokes she inhales it, it stays in her body for a while and then she exhales and the smoke comes out with her breath, sometimes through her nose.”
“Alright, let’s try…”
The next puff has us inhaling and immediately coughing until our eyes water and sting. We double over, nearly vomiting, and we look at each other with tears in our eyes – we look pale grey to green.
“Okay, guys. This needs practise. Since everyone smokes, it can’t be difficult to get used to it.” By the end of the afternoon we feel rather sick but triumphant: we don’t cough any more, our eyes don’t water, and we hold and light the ‘glimmersticks’ like old pros, ready to conquer the grown-up world, ready to enter a party with something to hold on to, ready to give us the air of utter sophistication and experience. Now we have to practice the ‘look’ (think Lauren Bacall) and we’ll be complete.
*
We’d meet up by the local cinema and from there go to school together – either by tram or by bike, depending on the time of year. On the way we were sometimes met by boys who used the same route but, living closer to the school, joined later. We never actually agreed to meet, but when it happened we were particularly giggly and slightly hysterical.
*
Our French teacher doubles her duties and has us once a week for religion. Even though I like it, I’m usually in trouble because I just can’t get my head around certain Bible stories and their interpretations. As far as I am concerned, some of the stuff just doesn’t add up.
“Miss …?”
“Yes, Anne…?”
“Well, when you say that Judas will roast in hell for his betrayal of Jesus, I disagree.”
“Oh?”
“I think that Judas got a bonus when he got to heaven. And I do think he went to heaven.”
“Why is this then, Anne? Why would you think Judas could get anywhere near heaven?”
“Because he did them all a favour, didn’t he … if it hadn’t been for him, the Big Plan wouldn’t have succeeded. Somebody had to do it. So, I suppose, Jesus and God ought to have been grateful.”
I am really very serious, but the class giggles. They think I do this on purpose to sideline Fräulein Franzen and make her forget what’s on the syllabus for today. Judas – and many other aspects of our Bible studies – just have me baffled. There is no way, I think, that logic and belief need to be mutually exclusive, and to me it’s logical that all the players get a fair deal.
Then there is this thing about ‘God Knoweth Best’ which implies that I know very little… So if I ask God for things and then have to say ‘But not as I want it, but as You want it for me in Your wisdom’, I give God carte blanche and may as well not have bothered. If I ask for a beautiful bicycle and God thinks that’s a bad idea, he won’t give it to me. So why ask?
Then we are being taught that the universe doesn’t lose anything, it just transforms. That’s physics. But physics has to be applied to all things. So, if that’s how things are, then my thoughts are matter, and it must be as bad to want to kill someone as it is to actually kill him. And if that’s so, my soul can’t just disappear after I die, since the universe doesn’t lose anything.
I read that in India they believe in reincarnation. Now that begins to make sense. My soul goes on forever and sometimes is transformed into a body and sometimes it’s in a non-body state. I try to imagine where the non-bodies go to while they hang around until they come back again, but all I can think of is that they are probably peacefully sleeping somewhere until they are woken up to go back.
When I hear people say, ‘God is so cruel. Why did He allow this baby to die? It didn’t even have a chance to live…” I think that life isn’t all that hot anyway – at least from what I can detect so far – and then I have a feeling that God doesn’t ‘allow’ anything. He just doesn’t get that actively involved. He got the creation ball rolling and then retired into a benign but remote presence to let us get on with it.
I imagine that the soul probably makes a deal in its non-body place: ‘I go down there even though it’s not my turn yet. But don’t you dare to leave me there longer than the three years you promised. I am willing to teach these people about loving and losing and heartbreak, but don’t you trick me! And don’t forget: I get another 150,000 years bonus for that!’
There is no way I can make my teacher understand any of this. She isn’t even willing to consider the options. So I get sent out of class yet again and have to write 100 times ‘I must not be so obnoxious’. For tomorrow.
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Welcome to the newest slot on my blog, the Sunday night Novel Nights In where I bring you guests’ novels in their entirety over a maximum of ten weeks. Tonight’s is the fourth instalment of the first novel in this series and features the first section of Book 2 (of three) of a novel by literary author, poet and interviewee Rose Mary Boehm.
For shorter pieces I would run the story then talk more about it afterwards but because this is a longer post (9,173 words), here is an introduction to Rose then the fourth part of her novel…
A German-born UK national, Rose Mary Boehm now lives and works in Lima, Peru. Two novels (‘Coming Up For Air’ and the follow-up ‘The Telling’) have been published in the UK, as well as a poetry collection (‘Tangents’). Her latest poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in US poetry reviews. Among others: Toe Good Poetry, Poetry Breakfast, Burning Word, Muddy River Review, Pale Horse Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Other Rooms, Requiem Magazine, Full of Crow, Poetry Quarterly, Punchnel’s, Verse Wisconsin, Naugatuck Poetry Review (contest semi-finalist), Avatar…
Her poem ‘Miss Worthington’ won third price in the coveted Margaret Reid Poetry Contest: http://winningwriters.com/contests/margaret/2009/ma09_epaminondas.php
You can find out more about Rose and her writing at her blog: http://houseboathouse.blogspot.com, and you can also read one of Rose’s short stories on http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/short-story-for-critique-003-mrs-boffa-by-rose-mary-boehm.
Coming Up For Air
A young girl’s struggle to take control of her life – click to read Book I: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. If you don’t want to wait the 10 weeks for the whole story, you can purchase Coming Up for Air at Amazon.com (just $2.95) Amazon.co.uk (only £1.87). The rest of the ‘adventures of Annie’ can be read in THE TELLING.
***
25
I am in love! I know I am! Wilfried is the oldest boy in my new class. He is 14! He is in our class because he had to repeat several times. He is very handsome, with dark hair that’s cut less short than other boys’ and sometimes it falls into his eyes. I sit in the middle of the class towards the back, and Wilfried sits further to the front in one of the right-hand side benches by the wall.
Whenever I look in his direction, he seems to be watching me. He has big, shiny brown eyes and a quick and naughty smile. From time to time he ‘sends’ me coveted swaps on the back of which he writes ‘Ich liebe Dich’. It’s a bit embarrassing, but I am also excited. The swaps are passed from desk to desk until they arrive in my hands which means that everyone knows and giggles.
When we are in the school yard during breaks, Wilfried catches me more often than any of the other girls and holds my arm just a bit longer, and when we go back inside for our next lesson, he hangs around just close enough to make it obvious. Once he even pushes one of the other boys out of the way. This must be love, and I have a funny fluttery feeling inside that makes me giggle a lot.
*
We didn’t know it then, but while we were in what was East Germany (to become the GDR, the German Democratic Republic), even though we went hungry more often than not, we had been relatively well off; we were spared the results of the Morgenthau Plan (Program to Prevent Germany from Starting World War III) which didn’t remain active for many years, but while it was being implemented, things were dire.
Letters had kept us somewhat up to date about family, friends and neighbours in the Western Allies’ occupation zones: many had either frozen or starved to death during the worst winter in living memory, and armies of half-starved, skinny kids dressed in rags had been seen scavenging through rubbish bins for anything at all to eat – discarded potato peels being about the only thing left to ‘recycle’. Then we received the sad news that Father’s mother, Grossmama Becker, had died of hypothermia, facilitated by acute starvation. Grossmama had been a proud woman and must have been either too embarrassed to ask for help, or those she did ask couldn’t give it. She died in the spring of 1948 – just a few months before we would return.
Even though the original plan proposed by American Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. had been somewhat softened before it was implemented, it still had every intention to turn Germany into ‘a country primarily agricultural and pastoral in character’ and was agreed to, and signed by, Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Second Quebec Conference in September 1944. The first ‘level of industry’ plan from 1946 foresaw to lower German heavy industry to 50% of its 1938 levels by laying waste to 1,500 of its manufacturing plants.
Soon it became only too apparent that these policies not only devastated Germany, but created a chain reaction. They put the brakes on a general European recovery, thus resulting in huge expenses for the occupying powers who had to make up the most glaring shortfalls through a relief programme.
It also became soon obvious that something had to be done – and not only for humanitarian reasons: with the onset of the Cold War, the Allies got very worried about Europe’s political leaning, fearing that the lethal combination of abject poverty and famine would drive especially the Germans into the arms of Communism and, since the long-term economic health and continued prosperity of the US depended on trade, export markets had to be either revived or created.
Enter the Marshall Plan. Secretary of State George Marshall’s ‘European Recovery Program’ was to take the form of easy loans. In 1949, the plan was extended to include the newly created Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany, aka West Germany), the idea being that the Europeans would use Marshall Plan aid chiefly to buy manufactured goods and raw materials from the United States.
But that was later, and even then it didn’t solve the immediate need of the German people in the US and British occupied zones who, in two of the most severe winters on record, were either starving or freezing to death. In the winter of 1946, after touring the American occupied zone of Germany, ex US President Herbert C Hoover was not only extremely critical of US occupation policy, but what he saw made him despair.
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Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biography, Black Leaf Publishing, books, Burning Word, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, ESL, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, Full of Crow, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literary, literary author, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, Muddy River Review, multi-genre, murder mystery, Naugatuck Poetry Review, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, Other Rooms, Pale Horse Review, paranormal, pinterest, Pirene’s Fountain, poetry, Poetry Breakfast, Poetry Quarterly, publisher, Punchnel’s, rejection letters, rejections, Requiem Magazine, romance, Rose Mary Boehm, Rosmarie Epaminondas, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, Smashwords, story author, story authors, submissions, Toe Good Poetry, traditional verse, Twitter, vampire, Verse Wisconsin, western, world war 2, World War II, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing magazines, WW2, WWII, YA, youtube
Welcome to the newest slot on my blog, the Sunday night Novel Nights In where I bring you guests’ novels in their entirety over a maximum of ten weeks.
And now I’ve added Saturday nights with the serialisation of my chick lit novel The Serial Dater’s Shopping List!
Tonight’s is the third in the Sunday series and features the conclusion of Book I (of three books) of a novel by literary author, poet and interviewee Rose Mary Boehm.
For shorter pieces I would run the story then talk more about it afterwards but because this is a longer post (8,360 words), here is an introduction to Rose then the third part of her novel…
A German-born UK national, Rose Mary Boehm now lives and works in Lima, Peru. Two novels (‘Coming Up For Air’ and the follow-up ‘The Telling’) have been published in the UK, as well as a poetry collection (‘Tangents’). Her latest poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in US poetry reviews. Among others: Toe Good Poetry, Poetry Breakfast, Burning Word, Muddy River Review, Pale Horse Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Other Rooms, Requiem Magazine, Full of Crow, Poetry Quarterly, Punchnel’s, Verse Wisconsin, Naugatuck Poetry Review (contest semi-finalist), Avatar…
Her poem ‘Miss Worthington’ won third price in the coveted Margaret Reid Poetry Contest: http://winningwriters.com/contests/margaret/2009/ma09_epaminondas.php
You can find out more about Rose and her writing at her blog: http://houseboathouse.blogspot.com, and you can also read one of Rose’s short stories on http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/short-story-for-critique-003-mrs-boffa-by-rose-mary-boehm.
Coming Up For Air
A young girl’s struggle to take control of her life – click to read: Book I: Part 1 and then Part 2. If you don’t want to wait the 10 weeks for the whole story, you can purchase Coming Up for Air at Amazon.com (just $2.95) Amazon.co.uk (only £1.87). The rest of the ‘adventures of Annie’ can be read in THE TELLING.
***
18
On 30 April, 1945, in his bunker under the devastated city of Berlin, Adolf Hitler blew his brains out while the whole of Germany lay in ruins, with every major city destroyed by Allied bombs. Bridges had been blown up, train tracks had been bombed and every road was clogged with refugees. Thousands of women in eastern Germany drowned themselves rather than submit to rape by the Russian soldiers who were advancing rapidly towards Berlin. Boys of 14 and younger, and old men of 60 and older had been forced to fight the advancing Allies in a hopeless, last-ditch effort. German soldiers who had survived and returned from the eastern front stripped off their uniforms and swam naked across the river Elbe to surrender to the Americans. The Germans were terrified of the Red Army who already had gained a reputation during their advance for committing unspeakable atrocities.
People cowered in their underground bomb shelters in the cities or waved white flags of surrender from their windows in the smaller towns and villages. Thousands of homeless people had taken shelter in the bombed-out shells of churches and were cooking over open fires in the streets. Refugees trying to flee from the war zone sat for days beside the railroad tracks waiting for trains which never came. Others tried to escape on foot with their meagre possessions but had nowhere to go, and Allied planes were strafing everything that moved.
Subways were flooded, phone lines and electricity cut. The water supply in the bombed cities was either contaminated or non-existent, and there was no food, clothing, or medicines… Thousands of dead civilians were still buried under the destroyed buildings in every large city, adding the stench of decomposing flesh to the general confusion and misery.
On 27 April, 1945, American troops advanced eastward across Germany to link up with their Russian allies. The Russians had been marching west, across Poland, towards Berlin and beyond.
The American tanks had lined up on one side of the village by the upper woods; the German remainders were digging in on the other side, by the lower woods. Our village lay stretched out between the two fronts. Sporadic exchange of fire would send us scuttling down to the shelter. Many houses and farms were burning now, hand-to-hand fighting had begun in the streets. I had also seen some youths ducking down along the road carrying bazookas.
We heard the crackling sound of burning wood just after the explosion and raced upstairs to put the fire out, each one of us armed with one of the buckets filled with water that had been strategically placed on each landing. Before we reached the attic, we saw water trickling down the stairs. In the attic stood a zinc bathtub filled with water for just such an occasion. The shot from one of the tanks had ripped through the roof on its way to the opposing army, and shrapnel had hit the bathtub. What we’d heard was the water dripping down the stone stairs.
It’s over. Our white sheet hangs from the window but Adelheid’s father is furious.
“Germans do not capitulate!”
“Oh, do be quiet once and for all. What do you think will happen to you? We don’t ‘capitulate’ you silly man, we are being liberated, especially from people like you!
This sheet will probably save even your mean neck!”
**
19
As the American planes, jeeps and tanks rolled over our fields to ‘park’ behind the house, I watched with alarm the damage they did to the growing corn. It was still green and very young. For me, this was the obscenity, the blasphemy, this was the ultimate disregard for life, for growing food. In my small world this was worse than killing people… after all, the dead had been with me as long as I could remember.
Mother was relieved that the Americans had reached us first.
“Gott sei Dank! I prayed so hard that the Americans would get to us before the Bolsheviks!”
My brother had come into the kitchen from his nightly radio listening.
“They said on the radio that the Americans are about to take Berlin!”
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Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biography, Black Leaf Publishing, books, Burning Word, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, ESL, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, Full of Crow, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literary, literary author, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, Muddy River Review, multi-genre, murder mystery, Naugatuck Poetry Review, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, Other Rooms, Pale Horse Review, paranormal, pinterest, Pirene’s Fountain, poetry, Poetry Breakfast, Poetry Quarterly, publisher, Punchnel’s, rejection letters, rejections, Requiem Magazine, romance, Rose Mary Boehm, Rosmarie Epaminondas, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, Smashwords, story author, story authors, submissions, Toe Good Poetry, traditional verse, Twitter, vampire, Verse Wisconsin, western, world war 2, World War II, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing magazines, WW2, WWII, YA, youtube
Welcome to the newest slot on this blog, the Sunday night Novel Nights In, where I bring you guests’ novels, in their entirety, over a maximum of ten weeks.
And now I’ve added Saturday nights with the serialisation of my chick lit novel The Serial Dater’s Shopping List!
Tonight’s is the second in this series and features part two (9,100 words) of Book I (of 3) of a novel by literary author, poet and interviewee Rose Mary Boehm.
A German-born UK national, Rose Mary Boehm now lives and works in Lima, Peru. Two novels (‘Coming Up For Air’ and the follow-up ‘The Telling’) have been published in the UK, as well as a poetry collection (‘Tangents’). Her latest poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in US poetry reviews. Among others: Toe Good Poetry, Poetry Breakfast, Burning Word, Muddy River Review, Pale Horse Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Other Rooms, Requiem Magazine, Full of Crow, Poetry Quarterly, Punchnel’s, Verse Wisconsin, Naugatuck Poetry Review (contest semi-finalist), Avatar…
Her poem ‘Miss Worthington’ won third price in the coveted Margaret Reid Poetry Contest: http://winningwriters.com/contests/margaret/2009/ma09_epaminondas.php.
You can find out more about Rose and her writing at her blog: http://houseboathouse.blogspot.com, and you can also read one of Rose’s short stories on http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/short-story-for-critique-003-mrs-boffa-by-rose-mary-boehm.
Coming Up For Air
A young girl’s struggle to take control of her life – click here to read Book I, Part 1. If you don’t want to wait the 10 weeks for the whole story, you can purchase Coming Up for Air at Amazon.com (just $2.95) Amazon.co.uk (only £1.87). The rest of the ‘adventures of Annie’ can be read in THE TELLING.
***
11
As part of the blackout effort, there was no longer any light in our hallway. On each half landing between one flat and the next one were two lavatories, separated from each other by a wooden partition. When we first arrived at the village, Adelheid and Ulla showed me their ‘secret lavatory telephone system’: the holes in the wooden seats had wooden lids which one could pick up by a handle and put on the side of the box seat. Enormous pipes ran from either lavatory to one even bigger main pipe which then ran all the way down into the cesspool. An outside lavatory in the yard served the workers and us children when we played out there. When we played ‘telephone’, one of us would be in the yard loo, one of us somewhere half-way upstairs, and another one all the way up in one of the lavatories on the top landing. We’d lift up the lids, first let the flies escape and then shout to each other through the pipes until the grownups told us to stop it. So much for ‘secret’!
*
It’s bed time and Mother finishes the story… I have been holding my wee for some time now because there’s no way I can leave our flat, walk alone up the dark staircase to go to the lavatory. Out there is everything I fear. I need Mother to accompany me but she is busy and impatient with me. But I know that something will get me in the dark. My heart is beating fast. I wobble on my stool. I try to pretend I don’t need to go any more. Mother’s face promises storms, and – not for the first time – I can’t hold it any longer. It’s inevitable, wet and warm and totally embarrassing. Every morning in the light of day I promise myself that tonight I’ll face the dark. After several weeks of this I cannot hold my wee at all. I hurt. The doctor diagnoses a severe bladder infection.
*
It’s harvest time. I watch the horses pull empty carts out into the fields. They trot, the farmhand holding the reins. They are the same horses that pulled the plough in the spring but then they take turns. Now, late summer, they go out together. Soon all the corn will be cut, it’ll be tied into bales and five of them will be stacked against each other to form something resembling an Indian tepee. This way the corn can dry, and we can play hide and seek inside the stacked-up bales. Inside each ‘tepee’ is just enough room for one of us.
I have learned to run across the dry stubble without hurting my feet. Even though I tread on a thistle from time to time, it’s not much of an event because the soles of my feet are now as tough as leather.
The sun stays with us. The summer never ends. Soon the corn is dry and can be taken to the barns. The rhythmic sound of the flails echoes through the village.
When the harvests begin, we pick up empty sacks and bags and go to those fields where the farmers have nearly finished and where the last bundles of wheat, corn or barley, or the last sacks of potatoes, are being lobbed onto the carts. As soon as the farmer gives us the go-ahead, we begin to walk slowly across the field. Taking a sack each, we pick up whatever the machines have left, and the field is picked clean in no time.
The whole village is here, well, everyone who does not live on a farm. Old women, young women, children, some old men. Each gatherer follows his ‘own’ track. Some are gathering faster than others and take from the tracks of the slower ones. Some old people who can’t move very fast or bend very easily have very little to take home, and then there are some mean farmers who rake the fields until there is nothing left anyway.
We also gather sugar beets. Mother boils the sugar beets in the washhouse. It takes many pestilential hours of boiling the beets until a bowl of brown, sticky mush is left which Mother keeps for the winter. I can’t stand the taste of sugar-beet syrup because it reminds me of the smell when she boiled it in the washhouse.
*
I am by myself. The evening sun is still warm. It paints golden specks on the world. I feel lonely and like it. I can hear Armand’s voice from afar. Armand is one of the French prisoners of war who help the farmers. Armand is the nicest. He always has a smile for us children. He sings beautiful and sad songs. His voice makes me shiver. I can see him now. He sits high up on the wagon, the reins left lose, the horses walking very slowly. When he comes over the hill, down the hill, towards me, he sings the most beautiful and sad song of all – the song of the Normandy. I recognise it because Father often used to sing this song to me and, even though I don’t understand the words, I remember Father’s translation and feel sad – Armand must be lonely for his home. Now he sees me. He waves his beret at me. This is how pirates must have looked – proud, strong, beautiful. I hope that he can go home soon, home to his Normandy. Everybody seems to be in the wrong place.
I have learned French:
“Bonjour, Armand!”
“Bonjour, mademoiselle, ma belle!”
**
12
An estimated 2,000 thunderstorms are in progress at any one moment anywhere in the world, with lightning striking around 100 times each second. Daily, there are about 45,000 thunderstorms and yearly around 16 million all over the world.
*
And still it is hot. It’s already autumn, but the midday sun burns. The horizon behind the church steeple is now covered by a threatening dark metallic grey. The sparrows on the telephone wires are quiet; there is no wind. The horizon is blackening and slowly takes over most of the sky. The sun is still free, but its light has grown weaker. Everything made from polished metal takes on an eerie shine. And still there is no wind. The black spreads like a disease. The sun slowly expires, and the air grows heavier. Soon the wild riders will fill the sky. We wait. Nature waits. The trees await their punishment. My friends and I are holding hands and look up into the trees, waiting for the first sign. There… the leaves begin to whisper – quietly at first, then more urgently.
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Welcome to the newest slot on my blog, the Sunday night Novel Nights In, where I bring you guests’ novels in their entirety over a maximum of ten weeks.
And now I’ve added Saturday nights with the serialisation of my chick lit novel The Serial Dater’s Shopping List!
Tonight’s is ‘Coming Up For Air’, the first in this series and features part one of this novel by literary author, poet and interviewee Rose Mary Boehm.
For shorter pieces I would run the story then talk more about it afterwards but because this is a longer post (10,006 words), here is an introduction to Rose then a little about her novel before it begins…
Rose Mary Boehm
A German-born UK national, Rose Mary Boehm now lives and works in Lima, Peru. Two novels (‘Coming Up For Air’ and the follow-up ‘The Telling’) have been published in the UK, as well as a poetry collection (‘Tangents’).
Her latest poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in US poetry reviews. Among others: Toe Good Poetry, Poetry Breakfast, Burning Word, Muddy River Review, Pale Horse Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Other Rooms, Requiem Magazine, Full of Crow, Poetry Quarterly, Punchnel’s, Verse Wisconsin, Naugatuck Poetry Review (contest semi-finalist), Avatar…
Her poem ‘Miss Worthington’ won third price in the coveted Margaret Reid Poetry Contest: http://winningwriters.com/contests/margaret/2009/ma09_epaminondas.php. You can find out more about Rose and her writing at her blog: http://houseboathouse.blogspot.com.
Coming Up For Air
A young girl’s struggle to take control of her life
What did readers have to say about it? In Amazon most gave it five (5) stars – these reviews can be read online in their entirety: http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Air-Rose-Mary-Boehm/product-reviews/1907407073
- “A wonderful surprise. Looking forward to reading it again.”
- “Rose Mary Boehm is an exquisite writer […] Take a look at life through the eyes of young Annemarie Becker, […] gain access to a piece of history unknown for some, distant for many and enlightening for all.”
- “This is the story of Anne Marie Becker who grew up during World War II. She was only two-years-old when the bombs started falling. As the author states, part of this novel is fiction, part fact and part autobiographical. In any case, Coming Up For Air is a hard book to put down.”
- “This tale took me to a place in history I had never seen before, with eyes of a child. I had a hard time putting it down. It was fast moving […]”
You can read other reviews at Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7957702-coming-up-for-air.
You can also view her book trailer on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg7zN8kNaO4.
If you don’t want to wait the 10 weeks for the whole story, you can purchase Coming Up for Air at Amazon.com (just $2.95) Amazon.co.uk (only £1.87). The rest of the ‘adventures of Annie’ can be read in THE TELLING.
Foreword
When, in the 70s, in London, young friends of mine asked me about ‘my side of the story’, I wasn’t sure where to start, whether I had one (a story to tell), or whether I actually wanted to talk about it. When I began the dig, I found memory fragments rather than a story, and I found a small voice. I decided to ‘start at the very beginning’. The novel you are about to read is the result. I wrote it in three parts:
- Book I (Another Kind of Childhood) is unashamedly autobiographical
- Book II (The Unbearable Burden of Sex) consists of my tales and tales from friends
- Book III (Spitting against the Wind) is pure invention.
Some characters in the novel are based on real people, others are blends of people I’ve known; events, places, dates and time I shifted at will, and all names of the protagonists are fictitious.
I have tried to convey a time of love, fear, solidarity, bewilderment, pain, hypocrisy, fun, hope, friendship, optimism, promises and expectations. But, more than that, I intended to show today’s young adults that there is nothing new under the sun, and that we can free ourselves from repeating errors (quite a few of which are born from the many confusing messages life imparts) in our reactions to our world.
Be patient, gentle reader, the voice of the small child who understands very little grows up during the story into someone who begins to understand even less.
***
Book I: Another Kind of Childhood
1
Mother carries me down to the shelter and I feel safe. I sit on her arm, and she holds me close. I clutch her neck with my arms and know everything is alright.
Father carries me down. He doesn’t sit me on his arm: he wraps me into a blanket and presses me tightly to his chest. I slowly slip down through the blanket.
*
Already in World War I, the Rhine-Ruhr area was a prime target for Britain and France, who even then planned air attacks on its industrial cities.
In World War II, the Rhine-Ruhr power stations and coking plants topped the list of targets for the British strategic air war against Germany. The Rhine-Ruhr industrial region was the ‘Armory of the Third Reich’, where the industrial giants of their time manufactured the components for Hitler’s tanks, aircrafts, submarines, cannons, etc.
In May 1940, British Bomber Command opened the strategic air war against Germany, and night after night British bombers took off in the direction of the industries of the Ruhr.
Following the German air attacks on British cities in the autumn of 1940 and the spring of 1941 which had caused around 40,000 deaths in London alone, the British Air Ministry and the War Cabinet decided in favour of air attacks on important German industrial cities such as Cologne, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen and Hamburg. The Unison plan envisaged strategic air raids on the populated areas in various industrial cities.
I must have been about two-and-a-half or three years old when the bombers began to come with ever increasing frequency.
For me, there existed no history, no guilt, no hate, no understanding. All I knew was my life between ‘upstairs’ and ‘downstairs’, and the sound of the district siren screaming from the schoolhouse opposite our house, paralysing me with fear. I knew that night meant danger and that this piercing sound, accompanied by the staccato of the anti-aircraft guns, would inevitably be followed by the low hum of overhead bombers and then the ear-splitting explosions which shattered windows and doors, shook walls and made me want to curl up into a ball.
The ‘shelters’ were the cellars of the buildings in which we lived. As soon as the air-raid siren started its deafening warning, Mother, Father, my brother and I would hurry downstairs to the shelter. But not without my dolls. I was the ‘mother’ of a collection of motley down-and-outs. One had a hole in its celluloid head and its hand was mangled. I used to chew the celluloid fingers.
In November 1944, the US Secretary of War ordered the US Strategic Bombing Survey, one of the last directives coming from the late President Roosevelt who had always believed that an impartial and expert study of the effects of American aerial attacks on Germany would allow the Americans not only to evaluate the potential of air power as an instrument of military strategy, but also help plan the future development of the United States armed forces, while determining future economic policies with respect to the cost of national defence and, as expected, the report’s major conclusion was that strategic bombing, particularly the destruction of the German oil industry and truck manufacturing, contributed tremendously to Allied successes in World War II.
Not that it is very important to those who are at the receiving end, but there is a distinction to be made between tactical and strategic bombing: strategic bombing missions seek to destroy a country’s industrial infrastructure, throwing in a few cities for good measure, while tactical bombing missions go for military targets such as airfields, ammunition dumps, command facilities, troop concentrations etc. Never before had the world seen strategic bombing as used in World War II. In some cases thousands of aircraft dropped tens of thousands of tonnes of munitions on a single city.
Between them, the Allies were able to bomb around the clock. During the day, the US Air Forces made precision raids against specific targets with their well-defended aircraft, while the less protected British bombers crossed into Germany under the cover of night and massed over the cities by the hundreds.
**
2
I am small. Everyone else is very tall. The big ones take care of me. They smile at me, hold me. Sometimes they sound angry and sometimes they sound frightened. Sometimes they make me laugh and I love them very much. One of the big people is Father, one is Mother, then there is my big brother. Father is the most beautiful and the strongest. He is not with us very often. On some evenings he comes into the room where I sleep.
The wallpaper by my bed is covered with little pink flowers that are connected by thin whirly lines. I always look at them before I sleep, and I have found out where one pattern ends and the same pattern begins. It has a rhythm. It never changes, it never ends. I like it. There is a secret spot where I can peel the thick paper off the wall. That feels almost as nice as peeling off a scab. But when Father stands by my bed and smiles at me, I forget about the pattern.
He makes me feel warm all over. Like my blanket. Soft and cosy. His eyes shine when he looks at me. I drown in that blue, blue, moist warm shine. I want to get close to him, smell him, touch him, feel the roughness of his suit, creep into his arms. I want to stay like this forever.
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Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biography, Black Leaf Publishing, books, Burning Word, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, ESL, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, Full of Crow, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literary, literary author, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, Muddy River Review, multi-genre, murder mystery, Naugatuck Poetry Review, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, Other Rooms, Pale Horse Review, paranormal, pinterest, Pirene’s Fountain, poetry, Poetry Breakfast, Poetry Quarterly, publisher, Punchnel’s, rejection letters, rejections, Requiem Magazine, romance, Rose Mary Boehm, Rosmarie Epaminondas, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, Smashwords, story author, story authors, submissions, Toe Good Poetry, traditional verse, Twitter, vampire, Verse Wisconsin, western, world war 2, World War II, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing magazines, WW2, WWII, YA, youtube
Welcome to Post-weekend Poetry and the forty-eighth poem in this series. This week’s piece is by literary author, poet and interviewee Rose Mary Boehm.
A Rainy Afternoon in London
Heavy water runs down the flanks of
the horses on the merry-go-round.
The aquarium is warm and dark.
-Grandma, come. Fish.
The butterfly house
is rainforest hot. And humid.
Soft wings burr past my face.
A huge blue morpho parks on the baby’s
sleeve. Shivers. She purses her lips
in concentration and speaks with it
eye to eye.
The notice says that the big animals
are in a safari park somewhere
in Somerset. This zoo is now too small
for twenty-first century consciences.
Some dromedaries, looking uncared-for
and unutterably bored, hang out
in the old elephant house.
The moat is wide
and deep.
There are some sheep in the baby zoo. And rabbits.
-Grandma, wassthat?
-Guineapigs.
They eat them in Peru.
Thank you, Rose.
A German-born UK national, Rose Mary Boehm now lives with her second husband in Lima, Peru. Only after 20 years immersed in the English language did she attempt to write in her new ‘mother’ tongue.
She travelled extensively, made a career in advertising, worked as a copywriter, founded her own business(es), married her first husband and had two children, had a one-woman show of her drawings in London, UK, then moved to Madrid, Spain, where she finally retired from the corporate world, moved to Peru, and now dedicates her life to writing.
Her two novels, COMING UP FOR AIR and THE TELLING, have been published in the UK in 2010 and 2011 respectively, as well as her first collection of poetry, TANGENTS. She won a few prizes for poetry and photography, and three of her latest poems will appear in US poetry reviews in end-of year and Spring editions. You can find out more about her from her blog http://www.coming-up-for-air.com.
***
If you’d like to submit your poem (40 lines max) for consideration for Post-weekend Poetry take a look here.
The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with non-fiction author Joy Vassal – the five hundred and fifty-seventh of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
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You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) 
on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: author, interviewee, literary, poem, poet, poetry, Rose Mary Boehm, writing
Welcome to the five hundred and twenty-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with debut literary novelist J.R. Crook. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, JR. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
JR: My name is Jamie Crook. I grew up in South Devon, but I’ve lived in London for the past ten years. As a child I always liked writing stories and as a teenager I was quite a serious reader, mainly of twentieth-century literature. When I was nineteen I moved to London to pursue an undergraduate degree, which fuelled my interest in writing my own fiction. After graduating in 2005, I set about slowly writing my debut novel, Sleeping Patterns. I spent six years writing it on and off, all the while trying to develop a style that not only felt natural to me, but that I could also call my own. In December 2011, I was fortunate enough to win the Luke Bitmead Writers’ Bursary for the novel and was published by Legend Press in the summer of 2012.
Morgen: It’s funny you say it’s taken you six years (on and off) to develop your style. I’ve been writing (on and off) for seven and feel I know what I’m doing (while still learning, of course). What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
JR: I write literary fiction with a tendency toward the experimental side of things. No, I’ve never considered writing anything else, such as genre fiction or verse. I wouldn’t know how to anyway.
Morgen: I’m right there with you on verse. I write poetry very occasionally (usually for writing group homework) but don’t read it and have never been taught it so I stick with fiction, my comfort blanket… er, zone. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?
JR: My debut novel, Sleeping Patterns, is my only published work to date. However, I’m currently busy working on my second novel, so that will hopefully change soon. I write under an abbreviation of my real name.
Morgen: Do let me know when your second book comes out. You could come back for an author spotlight. Is your book available as an eBook? How involved were you in that process? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
JR: Yes, Sleeping Patterns is available as an eBook. As a traditionally published author, there was very little for me to be involved with – the digital text is the same as the one my editor and I had agreed on for the print version. As for my reading habits, I like the tangible qualities of printed books. I don’t read eBooks at present, but I don’t have any problem with them, providing the author’s original formatting isn’t corrupted or altered to adhere to the technology. In other words, so long as the author’s implicit meanings aren’t diluted in some way during the process of translating their words into hypertext. In general though, this is more of a problem for works with expired copyright, such as the classics, because anyone is free to digitise the text without paying the necessary attention to the original formatting intended by the author (and therefore potentially affecting its meaning). For dead authors with expired copyright, there is little anyone can do about this. But this is an ideological concern and the vast majority of people simply don’t care about something as seemingly inconsequential as formatting, so long as it’s convenient. It’s similar to how people will readily accept heavily-compressed music files, rather than make the effort to source lossless ones. Convenience trumps all, and aesthetics are always the first thing to go.
Morgen: I’d not thought of it like that but then I tend to listen to non-digital-radio-classical (i.e. pop, rock, dance) through iPod earphones so definitely lose a lot of ‘source’. As for books it’s great having the option of both (I have the Kindle app on my iPad) but nothing beats the feel and look of a printed book, especially one that has your name on it. What are you working on at the moment / next?
JR: My main project is my second novel, but I’ve recently also completed a short story that I’m pretty happy with. It was an experiment really, but it turned out to be quite influential on the new novel.
Morgen: Excellent. Do send me the link if you do anything with it. I welcome flash fiction for my Flash Fiction Fridays slot but can’t pay (because I don’t earn any money from this blog) so wouldn’t ask you to send me something that you could get paid for elsewhere. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
JR: Structure and form are massively import aspects of my writing. Whilst I do plan things carefully (and often quite meticulously – my notebook for Sleeping Patterns is probably four or five times the length of the actual novel), there always comes a time when you just have to run with it. Things start coming together once you actually start writing it. After that, everything begins to evolve on its own accord.
Morgen: Wow. That’s some notebook. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?
JR: I write in a mixture of the first and third person, usually alternating back and forth between the two. In general, I don’t like reading books that are solely written in the first person. I have indeed written in the second person before (and recently too) and will probably do so again, providing it’s appropriate. One of my favourite books is Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller and this, as I’m sure you are aware, is largely written in the second person. Now, how about the fourth person?
Morgen: I am, although I’ve not read it yet (because I’ve never found a copy, I should). I am part-way through his ‘Marcovaldo’ which is very good. And I have Jay McInerney’s ‘Bright Lights, Big City’ which is second person (again part-way through).
Fourth person? I had to Google that (and found Wikipedia’s take on it, as ‘one’) and also spotted someone had come up with a fifth person! Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
JR: Yes, of course. They never bothered me too much because I never had any expectations of ever being published. I simply wrote for myself and considered anything else as a bonus. I think that’s the only way of dealing with it, because after all, the odds are stacked so high against you anyway. Never underestimate the element of luck involved in getting published either. Published writers aren’t always ‘better’ writers; sometimes they’re simply just ‘luckier’ writers.
Morgen: “I simply wrote for myself” is the best way although having reader feedback is priceless. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
JR: I’m with an independent publisher, so I do have to do my fair share of self-promotion, but I don’t like doing too much of it. I’m not particularly comfortable with the idea of writers needing to be ‘brands,’ although I appreciate it’s an inevitable consequence of the current publishing climate. The idealist in me believes that the text should be allowed to stand on its own, wherever possible. For example, I have little or no idea what many of my favourite writers even look like, because it isn’t particularly important or interesting to me. In many ways, a work of literature lives independent of its author, it exists in the mind of the reader, so I find it somewhat strange when people consider the ‘author’ – rather than ‘the author’s work’ – as the ‘brand’.
Morgen: I’d like to think that a reader will enjoy a piece of writing so much that they remember who the author is, especially if they want to read other works by that author… a good case for having more than one piece available. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
JR: The one where you close your eyes, open a copy of Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet, and put your finger somewhere on any page.
Morgen: What do you think the future holds for a writer?
JR: Poverty. But it will always be worthwhile poverty.
Morgen: Absolutely. I’ve rented out two bedrooms of my (three bedroom) house so I don’t have to have a day job and it’s totally worth it to me, plus my dog and I enjoy the company. Where can we find out about you and your writing?
JR: Either on my website (www.jrcrook.com) or on my publisher’s (www.legendpress.co.uk). I can also very occasionally be found on Twitter (www.twitter.com/jrcrookkk) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/jrcrookwriter).
Morgen: I’ve heard good things about Legend. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
JR: Thank you for having me.
Morgen: You’re so welcome. Thank you for joining me.
I then invited JR to provide a synopsis of his book…
Following the death of her narrator, Annelie Strandli, a character in the unfinished novel, Sleeping Patterns, revisits fragmented scenes in search of hidden meanings…
In a run-down student residence in South London, Annelie, a beautiful but confused designer, who is disorientated after leaving her native Finland, finds herself gravitating towards Berry Walker, an insomniac and aspiring writer.
Berry is often introspective and withdrawn, but in his writings Annelie sees the chance to glimpse him as he truly is. With the help of the narrator, she conspires to discover parts of a secret story that is concealed within his desk. As Annelie gradually puts the pieces together, she finds herself questioning not only her relationship to Berry, but ultimately the dividing line between fiction and memory.
Sleeping Patterns is a novel of intricate layers, hidden within each a tale of love, uncertain meanings, and the relationship between writer and reader.
*
J.R. Crook grew up in a small town in South Devon, before moving to London in 2002 to undertake a degree at The University of the Arts. In 2005, shortly after graduating, he moved into a series of bedsits in North London to begin writing what would eventually become his debut novel, Sleeping Patterns. The novel went on to win the Luke Bitmead Writers’ Bursary in December 2011 and was published the following summer. He is 29 and currently living in Ealing, London, where he is working on his second novel.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on the main blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have this blog, http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com, on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to the main blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, debut, erotic romance, erotica, experimental, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, fifth person, flash fiction, fourth person, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, J.R. Crook, Jamie Crook, JR Crook, Kobo, Legend Press, LinkedIn, literary, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, mystery series, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, points of view, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, Twitter, vampire, viewpoint, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Welcome to the four hundred and fifty-ninth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with debut novelist Robert Ford. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Robert. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Robert: Hello. My name is Robert Ford. I’m based in London and I came to be a writer in the same way that Forrest Gump became a runner – one day I just started and I’m not quite sure how to stop.
Morgen: Me too (January 2005) and I certainly don’t want to stop… I think (hope) that once you’re hooked, that’s it. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Robert: Apparently I write Literary Fiction, although genres are not my strong point – the book is just exactly what it needed to be.
Morgen: I guess you need to know for the likes of Amazon but I write so many genres (and most aren’t one in particular) that I know what you mean. What have you had published to-date?
Robert: The King of Spain is my first book.
Morgen: Is your book available as an eBook? How involved were you in that process? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
Robert: My book is currently only available as an e-book. In the future I would love for it to have a physical publication. I read both and think they each have their plus and minus points.
Morgen: There’s nothing quite like holding a paperback with your name on it in your hands (although my only so far is a charity anthology) but even so… Do you have a favourite of your characters? If your book were to be made into a film, who would you have as the leading actor/s?
Robert: Hal is my favourite character from the King of Spain. In my head he was always played by John Hurt.
Morgen: A superb actor. Which author(s) would you compare your writing to?
Robert: Not sure. Others have mentioned Mervyn Peake and Louis De Bernieres which is hugely flattering for me. Perhaps not so much for them.
Morgen: If others have mentioned it I’d say that’s flattering to all of you; (a) because ‘others’ have read all your work and (b) you have a style that’s clearly recognisable. Did you have any say in the title / cover of your book? How important do you think they are?
Robert: Yes, I was definitely consulted. They are hugely important, even in the realm of ebooks.
Morgen: Absolutely. I’ve seen thumbnail covers that are almost impossible to read the title and author (dark on dark). What are you working on at the moment / next?
Robert: My second novel. It’s called the Parish of St. Anne. I can’t say any more other than it’s amazing. Obviously.
Morgen: A writer has to believe in their work because if it doesn’t inspire them, it won’t inspire their readers. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
Robert: I try and write everyday but I am at the whim of my creaky brain – some days we work well together, others not.
Morgen: Oh dear. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Robert: Plot. A little structure helps me feel more free to write productively.
Morgen: That works for me too. You mentioned Hal, do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?
Robert: For the most part names etc come to me randomly and they either work or not, but I get there in the end. Hopefully my characters are believable because they are a product of their environment, of the world of the book.
Morgen: A reader has to engage with them, don’t they. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Robert: Editing. All the time editing. Writing for me is a painful process and my work needs a lot of revision before it’s right.
Morgen: What a shame. You clearly love your books though so a painful process that’s worth it (I have to say editing is my least favourite aspect of the writing process). Do you have to do much research?
Robert: I avoid research as much as possible!
Morgen: Oh, me too. I’m so grateful for the internet. I check my facts until I’m sure they’re spot on and that’s it. What point of view do you find most to your liking?
Robert: The King of Spain is a third person narrative. That was right for this story but my second novel will be first person.
Morgen: Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?
Robert: Yes. And for good reason.
Morgen: <laughs> Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Robert: Unfortunately rejection is just part of life and definitely part of being a writer. You just have to believe in your work and carry on.
Morgen: You do, the best way to think. Do you enter competitions? Are there any you could recommend?
Robert: I entered – and won – Fiction Fast-Track.
Morgen: Congratulations. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?
Robert: No, but I would like one, they are pretty fundamental to any physical publication deal.
Morgen: Certainly with the bigger publishing houses. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
Robert: I engage with social media to an extent, you have to.
Morgen: You do (and it’s the most common answer to the second part of my next question). What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?
Robert: The least favourite thing about my writing life is the fact that I have to write at night when the rest of the world (and my wife) is asleep. It’s very tiring and in a way my greatest wish is to be able to spend my days writing.
Morgen: I quit my job in March to write full-time but I blog / deal with emails full time which is why I started my 5pm fiction slot back on June 1st, so I’d write something every day, although I ‘found’ two days this week to do final edits to two of my novels which I’d promised to take to one of my (very firm but fair) writing group colleagues – there’s nothing like a deadline to get something done. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Robert: Don’t give up. Enter Apostrophe Books’ writing competition Fiction Fast-Track.
Morgen: which I’ve added to my competitions calendar. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?
Robert: I’d just like to spend an evening in the pub with Hunter S Thompson. No food required.
Morgen: If you had to choose a single day from your past to re-live over and over, what day would it be and why?
Robert: I’m a nostalgic person, but the future excites me too much to want to re live the past.
Morgen: Good answer. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Robert: Balderdash.
Morgen: I love it too and reminds me of Baldrick from (the much-loved, especially series two) Blackadder. What do you do when you’re not writing?
Robert: Look after my daughter and dream of getting more than 4 hours sleep in one hit.
Morgen: I thought I was doing badly at five or six. Finally, where can we find out about you and your writing?
Robert: http://apostrophebooks.com/writers/robertford
Morgen: Thank you, Robert. It would be great to see you again when your second novel comes out.
I then invited Robert to include an extract from his novel…
A wheeze and creep and timid clatter filled the otherwise silent bedroom as the various electronic devices ran their separate, habitual tasks. Sam lay on his back in the gloom and blinked his large blue eyes, happy to let the darkness wash over him in gradual shifting waves of purest black and dull, streaked silver.
‘Hello? Hello? Sam?’
‘Grimes?’
‘Yes.’
‘Sam.’
‘Hello?’
Loud sobbing from the other end of the phone. The sound of an aeroplane’s engine passing low overhead. Music somewhere, distant. And in the background, a wavering, nondescript announcement – security procedures, boarding gates.
‘Please. Please, you must come… Stop it, Lizzie. Lizzie for goodness sake it’ll catch fire… Sam? Hi. Sorry. Look. One needs help. Can’t you see that? You must come.’
Would all remaining passengers for flight 4302 please make their way…
‘Mr Grimes?’
A loud sequence of bangs, fuzz on the line.
‘Hello?’
‘The game’s up, Sam. This thing has become tidal. All hands to the bloody pumps…’
The call had come a week ago, a strange and incomplete exchange – it seemed Grimes had offered him a job, had been inclined to invite him to the facility, that much at least was clear. But for the most part the conversation had consisted of a mixture of squawked abstractions and elliptical half starts that ended almost as abruptly as they had started, with a squeak and whistle and slam of the receiver.
Each day since had been defined by a certain anxious, ripe banality. And now it was time to go, to leave, to set out into the world, although in that moment any such action seemed quite beyond the limits of his resolve: the night had been torrid, filled with tangled and unsympathetic sleep, and so it was that Sam had woken to find himself in the grip of an intense melancholy, a heavy, lingering sadness that only really comes from dreams, that lies in the limbs and in the chest. He felt sick. And tired. And, for a time at least, the day could wait.
***
And a synopsis…
When unworldly 22-year-old Sam is offered the chance to swap life in his regulation bungalow for a job at a countryside retirement home, he drops everything and heads to the rolling fields of Sussex. But things at the eerie Edge Hill are far from what he imagined.
The residents are easily over 100 years old, but due to rigorous cosmetic upkeep they look like they are in their twenties. The strange ‘handlers’ who work in the facility seem to have everything under control – until a geriatric stampede sets off a mind-blowing sequence of events that threatens to alter his life for ever.
In this sensational debut novel set in the not-too-distant future, Robert Ford has created a universe of his own in order to brilliantly illuminate the one – and the age – we all share…
***
After graduating from Reading University in 2003, Robert briefly worked as a journalist in India before turning to the world of film editing, where he has been employed ever since. As well as prose, he has written several screenplays, and his directorial debut Sexy Pig was broadcast on the BBC HD channel last year.
He now lives and works in north-west London, roaming the streets in search of inspiration, drinking too much coffee and not writing as much as he should.
In 2012, he won Apostrophe Books’ Fiction Fast-Track new-writing competition with The King of Spain, which is his first novel.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, debut, e book, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, flash fiction, Forrest Gump, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, john hurt, king of spain, Kobo, LinkedIn, literary, literary fiction, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, Robert Ford, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Complementing my daily blog interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the one hundred and fifth, is of novelist Gale Martin. Click here for a list of the other spotlights.
Gale Martin is an award-winning writer of contemporary fiction who plied her childhood penchant for telling tall tales into a legitimate literary pursuit during midlife. She began writing her first novel at age eleven, finishing one three decades later.
Her first novel, Don Juan in Hankey, PA, is a humorous homage to Don Giovanni, Mozart’s famous tragicomic opera about the last two days of Don Juan’s life. It was named a Finalist in the 2012 National Indie Excellence Awards for New Fiction.
She blogs about opera–the art form, not the platform—at Operatoonity.com, and is an opera reviewer for Bachtrack.com, an online site featuring classical performance worldwide. She can name any aria in three notes. Okay, five notes, perfectly sung, with full orchestration.
Her second novel Grace Unexpected was just released this month, and is wryly witty women’s fiction. It features a protagonist who can hear her ovaries ticking, with a heart of pure gold, wrapped in lead. But a string of crummy boyfriends would do that to any lovable woman who’s waiting and waiting and waiting for Mr. Right.
Martin would commit a misdemeanor to score some Babybel cheese and goes weak-kneed for hummingbirds. She is a wife and mother of one and a communications director by profession who owes her signature joie de vivre to regular Curves workouts.
She has a master of arts in creative writing from Wilkes University. She lives in Eastern Pennsylvania, which serves as a rich source of inspiration for her writing.
And now from the author herself:
Serving the reader
I enjoy reading across many genres—mainstream contemporary, historic fiction, cozy mystery, thriller, literary. Not surprisingly, my reading is reflected in my writing. I have written full-length fiction in a number of genres as well and enjoy the freedom to do so.
Also not surprisingly, faithful readers expect a certain style and standard from the authors they like, myself included. I’ve just published my first two novels which are contemporary humorous fiction, which most people have considered to be funny books. But I’m nearly finished with another that is contemporary suspense with only the gentlest of humor used here and there, to lighten the tension. I have one editing pass to complete, and then I’m shopping it.
So, I understand why authors use pseudonyms. One of my favorite writers of Victorian-era mystery suddenly went fantasy with a new release. And I hated it. I couldn’t finish it. I was disappointed in the writer and in myself for a long time. Then I asked myself why I’d felt betrayed by her latest literary effort.
It wasn’t until I began writing creatively myself that I understood why this writer wanted to try something different. Perhaps she’d always wanted to write fantasy but knew that historic crime fiction was more marketable. So, she made her reputation on a certain kind of writing and then had earned enough clout and success to write what she wanted.
As much as the writer in me would like to holler, “Don’t fence me in, readers,” I realize that a publisher might want me to adopt a pseudonym as a condition of picking up the suspenseful novel. I wouldn’t object either because the person who matters most in this triangular relationship is the reader.
I’ve read books, sometimes famously authored, in which the author has forgotten about the reader. The worst offender in this category was Colleen McCullough’s Antony and Cleopatra, a book so dense with the rotted fruit of torturous research that I gagged on it. I wanted a book with wonderful, sweeping storytelling like The Thorn Birds. I got Encyclopedia Cleopatra. Did I do my homework, you may be thinking, preparing myself for the newer release? No, I didn’t. I listed her as a favorite author in my local library’s nifty new release distribution program, and when I got the phone call, I picked up the book. She’s not the only offender, but readers do know when the writer is writing to serve the story or to serve themselves. I’d previously thought Colleen McCullough brilliant. Now, she seems arrogant.
Perhaps you find the tone of this Author Spotlight confusing, even brassy. The bio is cheeky, but this essay is rather straightforward. The fact is that I have two funny books on the market. If and when another book is published, I intend to address the style and tone of the overarching author bio that serves all my work.
Sometimes the best pieces of advice are simply said and easily internalized. I remember hearing a story about a famous navy admiral universally held in highest regard. When people would ask him how he became so high-functioning, this was his response. “Every day, I go to my safe, unlock it and pull out a piece of paper. On it is written, ‘Port—left. Starboard—right.’”
My port and starboard happen to be “serve the reader” and “serve the story” (but “serve the story” is the stuff of another post, though they are related topics).
How about you? What simple precepts guide your writing day in and day out?
Morgen: Knowing I have to get my story online every day for 5pm. Thank you, Gale.
And for more about Gale and her writing via…
Both of Gale Martin’s novels are currently available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com and some independent bookstores in print and ebook. Her blog “Scrivengale” can be found on her website at http://galemartin.me, where she features author Q&As. You can also find her on:
***
The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with historical and non-fiction R L Tecklenburg – the four hundred and forty-second of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: author, Bachtrack.com, contemporary, cozy mystery, Don Giovanni, Don Juan, Gale Martin, genres, historic fiction, interview, literary, mainstream, Mozart, novelist, opera, Operatoonity.com, spotlight, thriller, writing
Welcome to the four hundred and twentieth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with crime and thriller author Colin Llewelyn Chapman. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Colin. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Colin: Hi Morgen with an E.
Morgen:
Colin: I live on Canvey Island in Essex, which now seems to be the butt of so many jokes, but how many can boast the tranquillity of a wildlife reserve yards from their doorstep! I love it here. I came to writing only about two years ago and quite literally on a whim! I have always favoured true crime or autobiographies for my own reading pleasure, but fell into ‘The lost symbol’ by Dan Brown because of its masonic connections (we usually get bashed in the press or media!). I was instantly drawn by his imagination and lyrical prowess. After I managed to eventually put it down I boldly announced ‘I want to try doing that’ and set about eeking out a plausible storyline.
Morgen: What genre do you mostly write and have you considered other genres?
Colin: CRIME CRIME and CRIME…with a bit of thriller thrown in for good measure. I haven’t really thought about any other fictional genre, but I would love to write true crime too.
Morgen: Ah, then you should speak to my friend Lae Monie. What have you had published to-date?
Colin: I have just published my debut fictional piece called ‘Tom’foolery.
Morgen: Yay, congratulations. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Colin: I have had a few rejections to-date, but I try to focus on the positive aspects of their comments. Constructive feedback is vital to hone your skills and find that edge that sets you apart from the thousands of other credible writers.
Morgen: It is, absolutely, and it being not right for that person may not mean it’s not right for the next one. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions?
Colin: As yet I am un-entered! But I really should have a crack, shouldn’t I?
Morgen: Not necessarily. A lot of writers do perfectly well without them. I do find the themed ones get me writing something new but I could do that and not send it off… in fact I do, I have been writing a short story a day since May 1st for Story a Day May then 5PM Fiction. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?
Colin: I don’t have an agent, but really do want to get on-board with one. I was very close recently, but she felt that my work suited TV and film, an area in which she had no in roads… sadly! Chin up though and keep plugging away.
Morgen: If you have that in writing it might be worth finding an agent who specialises and use that as an opening tool. The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook is a good place to start (or Writers’ Handbook, Google search etc). Is your book available as an eBook? How involved were you in that process at all? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
Colin: My first book is only available as an eBook at the moment, but when I find my agent…! I have done all the uploading and formatting myself, which was quite daunting to start with, but mastered it quite quickly. I tend to only read eBooks now myself, unless there is a juicy one and I have no choice but to buy a paper copy!
Morgen: eBooks are the way forward really although pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to still also wants to read paper (as I do). How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
Colin: I do everything myself and desperately need help, it is a minefield in which I am admittedly very lost I only really do the basic Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn so it’s all slow going.
Morgen: I’d say 99.9% of all the authors I’ve spoken to have said the same. You have to be in it to win it and more and more people are being picked up because they have a presence online. Hopefully it’s an enjoyable necessary evil. Do you have a favourite of your characters? Who would you have as the leading actor/s?
Colin: My favourite character has to be Vincent Llewelyn, the policeman! He would be either Gerard Butler or Tamer Hassan and Robin Bradford would have to be Geoff Bell! Not sure about Elizabeth Fenwick though, maybe Kierston Wareing?
Morgen: I’m clearly so behind the times; out of that list I only know Gerard Butler but I’d go and watch him. Presumably you picked the title / cover for your book? How important do you think they are?
Colin: As an eBook publisher, I had carte blanche in picking covers. The cover is very important as it is the first thing anyone sees when they look at it… it has to lure them in! Funny thing is with mine, everyone wants to know if it is me on the cover of ‘Tom’foolery!
Morgen: <laughs> I bet your wife would be pleased if it was. What are you working on at the moment / next?
Colin: My next project is ‘Skull’duggery, a twist on something I have gleaned from my true crime reading. It is very different from the first book!
Morgen: Great titles. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
Colin: I don’t manage to write every day but I do try to scratch out as much as I can when I get the chance. Writer’s block! Yes, but it is usually because something is going on around me which draws my focus… like life!
Morgen: I know that feeling. I got hooked on writing fiction seven years ago but it’s only the past couple that I’ve lived and breathed it. Having left my job in March I do little else but blog-related emails… it’s quite ‘sad’ really but great that so many people want to get involved. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Colin: A bit of both usually. I get a start, middle, and end, then everything else seems to slot in neatly around it!
Morgen: I love it when that happens – for me it’s the not knowing what’s going to come out and then (hopefully) loving whatever does. You mentioned a couple of your characters, do you have a method for creating them and what do you think makes them believable?
Colin: Hmm… not really, they just sort of come to me and try to make them fit their role. People-watching is the best tool for creating characters and making them work for you.
Morgen: Isn’t that great. We can legitimately stare at people all day. Whenever I’m walking the dog past a couple talking (especially juicy when they’re arguing), I pretend to turn up the volume on my iPod but I’m really pausing it so I can earwig. Do you write any non-fiction, poetry or short stories?
Colin: I have dabbled in poetry, but purely for my wife’s enjoyment!!
Morgen: I dabble with poetry too but say I don’t ‘get it’ – I’ve never studied it and don’t read it so that doesn’t help. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Colin: I have a system… write it out by hand as fast as I can, while it is fresh in my head. Then I edit and reform sections as I type it into the computer.
Morgen: I’d always recommend just writing it because you can’t edit a blank page. Do you have to do much research?
Colin: I do some research, but not a lot. I do want to get more in-depth with some of the crime scenes though, but worry it is too fashionable at the moment.
Morgen: I wouldn’t say it matters. You need to give enough detail so the reader can understand what’s going on but not so much that it’s like you’re showing off. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?
Colin: Now that is easy… the long drawn-out wait for agents and publishers to come back to you! Favourite part is definitely the positive feedback… you can’t beat the buzz of a good review!
Morgen: Absolutely. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Colin: Just keep on and on… if you have it, someone will find you!
Morgen: Indeed. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?
Colin: Maggie Thatcher, Steven Gerrard and John Bishop… and it would have to be a takeaway as my cooking skills are somewhat lacking!
Morgen: It would mean you could concentrate on the conversation. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Colin: ‘You’ll never walk alone’ has to be my favourite, especially sung by the kop!
Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing? Any hobbies or party tricks?
Colin: I love sea fishing and spending time with my wife Michele. As for party tricks, I’m partial to a bit of fire-breathing!
Morgen: Wow. Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful?
Colin: There is only one must have book and that is ‘The Writers and Artists Yearbook’.
Morgen: Ah, yes, I mentioned that earlier. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?
Colin: I dabble with Twitter and LinkedIn, but that is about my limit at the moment. Once you have worked out a system, they can be useful if you are dedicated to them.
Morgen: And that’s the time-consuming bit. These posts are set up to automatically appear on both of those (plus Facebook, Yahoo Groups and Tumblr, but I only do occasional comments above that, usually where people have ‘mentioned’ me. What do you think the future holds for a writer?
Colin: eBooks all the way I’m afraid!
Morgen: Mostly, I’d say, yes but as eBook-only self-published I’m not complaining. Where can we find out about you and your work?
Colin: http://www.colin-llewelyn-chapman.co.uk.
Morgen: Thank you, Colin.
I then invited Colin to include a synopsis of his book Tom’foolery…
Centered around the dark and seedy sex industry of Essex’s most prominent seaside town, Southend. ‘Tom’foolery follows Robin Bradford and his family in this well paced crime thriller. His actions not only reverberate around the local towns, but also that of his family and friends causing carnage wherever he goes. Surely the counties finest police officer Vincent Llewelyn, must get his man?
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
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Welcome to the four hundred and nineteenth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with humorous romance author Barbara Schnell. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Barbara. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Barbara: I’m married and living in Los Angeles. I’ve worked as an actress (still a member of SAG) and started writing to keep myself occupied as I waited by the phone. I found that I prefer writing to acting—and as a middle-aged woman that’s a fortunate discovery to make—so I’m focusing on that.
Morgen: I’ve never acted (unless you count two lines in a school play and a dress rehearsal stand-in in May this year) but do imagine there’s a lot of hanging around so an ideal scenario for writing. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Barbara: I consider my novel to be literary mainstream but it’s also romantic and humorous. I’ve decided to push the romance because I read that 70% of book buyers are women and women like romance (I know I do). But it’s more of a serio-comedy, slice-of-life novel. The fact that it’s hard to pigeon-hole makes it difficult to market but let’s face it; in life as in literature, one size does not fit all. It’s my niche and I’m happy with it. I thought of trying science fiction but it’s not a good fit. My raucous sense of humor doesn’t lend itself to alien invasions.
Morgen: I don’t read sci-fi so I tend not to write it although one of my Story a Day May 2011 pieces was sci-fi and one reader said it was their favourite story, and another said the same about my one and only western so maybe I should broaden my scope. What have you had published to-date?
Barbara: I’ve had one short story, Grandma’s Straw Hat, published in an anthology. And I’ve just put my first novel, First Year, in eBook format (available on Kindle, Nook, iTunes). First Year is also available in soft-cover hard-copy.
Morgen: I love the title of your story, it sounds really sweet. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Barbara: Oh Lord, have I had rejections. With a first novel that’s pretty much to be expected. But I worked as an actress so rejection was a way of life. It’s not meant personally (usually a rubber stamp saying “Sorry. Not for me”) so I don’t take it that way. Just chalk it up to experience and move on.
Morgen: Exactly – right thing for the wrong person. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions?
Barbara: I’ve won 6 “Will Write for Food” flash fiction competitions sponsored by the Southern California Writers’ Association and had my stories published in the SCWA collection.
Morgen: Well done. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?
Barbara: I had an agent. She was supposed to be the biggest West Coast agent and people were surprised when she took me because she didn’t accept first-time novelists. She told me she’d never heard her top reader talk about a book like he talked about mine. He was “over the moon!” So she shipped my novel off to the big five publishers in New York. Then she told me Creative Artists wanted to represent the movie rights. There was much excitement. Well, it’s a first novel, nobody had ever heard of me, so all the New York people ‘passed’. Then the agent fired most of her staff (including my White Knights), told me she’d never really been behind my project, and dumped me. Now I’m gun-shy about agents. I self-published (because I had to), got myself some great reviews, and have been selling First Year myself with some success. The advantage of not having an agent is you don’t have to pay someone 15% of your earnings. Plus you keep the rights. The disadvantage is being unable to submit to a publisher (agents still serve as gatekeepers). And if you don’t have an established publisher it’s hard to get reviews from respectable sources. It can be done but it’s hard. The internet and birth of eBooks have turned publishing on its head which is interesting. I just attended a seminar where the lunch speaker was an agent. He said that agents were a dying breed but he wasn’t surprised; agents and publishers had been abusing writers for years. He felt that writers should be nurtured not insulted and ripped off. Another agent attending the meeting wasn’t too happy to hear that. He got all red in the face and raised his hand to argue but was ignored.
Morgen: I love that. As eBooking isn’t as scary as it seems, so many authors (including myself) are going that way. So your book’s available as an eBook… do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
Barbara: It is and I loved being involved in the process from start to finish—great if you’re a control freak. I do read eBooks. I find them convenient. But I love hard copy too–especially with a glass of wine in a comfy chair.
Morgen: I agree with you on the control thing. Apart from first readers / my editor, I have full say, and of course I do overrule them on some thing if their suggestions will change the work too much. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
Barbara: I do everything. Maybe not well but I’m learning.
Morgen: I think every writer, regardless of their support team, has to. Most hate it (OK, hate’s perhaps a strong word) but see it as a necessary evil. The worst thing is that it takes so much time away from the writing, and we’re writers after all. Do you have a favourite of your characters, who would you have playing him / her as the leading actor/s?
Barbara: I like my lead character, Stevie. I can see Jessica Alba playing her.
Morgen: Please tell us a little about the cover of your book.
Barbara: I have a friend, a political cartoonist in Phoenix, draw the cover based on my suggestions. He picked more vivid colours than I would have but I think his choice of colour is more impressive.
Morgen: What are you working on at the moment / next?
Barbara: I’m working on a two-part novel tentatively titled I was a June Bride. It’s the story of a young woman’s search for independence from her mother while she plans a wedding that she isn’t sure she wants to go through with, can’t afford, attended by feuding relatives…you know, reality. The sequel is a continuation.
Morgen: Happens all the time, I’m sure. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
Barbara: I’ve been on hiatus dealing with life issues but intend to get serious soon—like tomorrow. I’ve done the chapter breakdowns so it’s just a matter of fleshing things out. I find I have to write daily to be productive. It’s like exercise; you have to do it regularly to get any benefit.
Morgen: Absolutely, a pianist would, athletes do. I write a short story (mostly flash fiction) for my 5PM Fiction slot and it’s easy to find the time when I have to (usually scribbling on my morning dog walk). Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Barbara: I start out with a beginning and an end. Then I break it down into three acts (theatre training), then break it down more into chapters. I do character back-stories then start writing. Things usually take on a life of their own and I have to throw a lot out the window but at least I have a framework to start with.
Morgen: I found that with my first novel (a lad lit – still to be honed and eBooked) that regardless of what I plotted, it would go off at a tangent… usually for the better. You mentioned Stevie earlier, do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?
Barbara: I look in phone books of the areas the characters are from to get names. And my characters are all amalgams of people I know.
Morgen: It sounds like you’re very thorough, although you did say that you throw a lot away (which is a shame), do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Barbara: I had 1,000 pages of First Year that I edited down to around 450. The manuscript looked bloody by the time I got done with it. Now I self-edit as I go along. Saves a lot of time.
Morgen: Ouch. Do you have to do much research?
Barbara: My books are contemporary romantic comedies so I use places I’ve lived for settings. I just have to get dates correct.
Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person?
Barbara: I like writing in first person—my first three books will be first person. The book after that will be third person. I’m told it’s easier. We’ll see.
Morgen: Without wishing to state the obvious, you’re not limited to one person’s point of view. In first person your protagonist can only recount what he or she thinks someone else is doing, not what they’re thinking. Some novels are first / third alternate chapters so that could be an option. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?
Barbara: A science fiction story. Just can’t seem to get it to work. Maybe after this book I’ll look at it again.
Morgen: The more practice you do the more (in theory) you’ll see holes in that story. I have LOADS (100+) of stories I’ve not done anything with so I hope that when I go back to them I can do something with them all. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?
Barbara: The discipline is my least favourite part of writing. You have to put pants to chair and plug along. Sometimes my mind takes flight and it’s pure joy but until the first draft is done it’s pretty much slogging for me. I’m surprised sometimes at the finished product. I think, “Damn, that’s good. Did I really do that?” I guess that’s what we call the muse inspiring us.
Morgen: I love that. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Barbara: There are a lot of negative people out there. Ignore them. They’ll sneer and tell you that you need an agent and that you have to have an established publisher. What they don’t say is that while agents and publishers make life easier, you have to have a proven sales record before they’ll take you on—very much of a Catch-22. Writers are like actors; you have to be in the union before you can be cast and you have to be cast to get in the union. Just keep plugging away. Have lots of product so when someone finds you, you’ll have lots to sell. Until then pursue writing as a hobby. You won’t drive yourself to drink that way.
Morgen: Some authors are being ‘found’ online so it’s definitely changing… hopefully for the better for us authors. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?
Barbara: Jane Austen, Mark Twain, and Patrick Rothfuss. We’d have three centuries to discuss. I hope they like lasagne.
Morgen: I’d say most people would. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Barbara: That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But didn’t Nietzsche die in an insane asylum?
Morgen: Almost, according to Wikipedia. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?
Barbara: I belong to GLAWS (Greater Los Angeles Writers’ Society).
Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing?
Barbara: I sing (mezzo), I play flute, I’m learning ballroom dance. I have a 1921 CA bungalow that needs a lot of work so that keeps me busy.
Morgen: I love D.I.Y. but have little time to do any (she says looking out on to her jungle of a garden). Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful?
Barbara: Check out the GLAWS website (www.glaws.org). Tony did a lot of work on it.
Morgen: Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?
Barbara: I’m on LinkedIn, twitter, Facebook–just starting to explore them so I don’t know how helpful they are.
Morgen: I love them all for different reasons. LinkedIn helped me tremendously earlier this year when I was running out of interviewees… and still helps (mostly via their Published Authors Network group), I’m now in eight months in hand. What do you think the future holds for a writer?
Barbara: I think we’ll always need writers. The nuts and bolts of book publishing will change but they’ll always need the people who dream up new worlds and write about the human condition. Entire industries depend on the imaginations of storytellers. The movie people made the Potter books memorable but they needed Ms. Rowling to give them a world to interpret artistically.
Morgen: Absolutely. Stories started in caves so I can’t see people losing interest any time soon. Where can we find out about you and your work?
Barbara: Go to my website at www.bagmlit.com. I’ve included two sample chapters as well as reviews and links to online merchants.
Morgen: Is there anything you’d like to ask me?
Barbara: What do you write?
Morgen: I say I write ‘dark and light’ (crime and humour) but it tends to be more of the former, although recently I was asked to write a love story and had fun with that, although I still managed to have a dead body in it. Thank you, Barbara.
I then invited Barbara to include an extract of her writing and following is a “Will Write For Food” winner. Writers were given a picture and asked to write a 250-word story about it. I can’t show the cartoon presented due to copyright issues but imagine a depressed skunk in a bed complete with floral-decorated linens (you can see it here).
Release
It all started with that damn deer, Flower thought mournfully as he surveyed the horticultural wreckage his life had become.
He’d been a lonely little fellow. Nobody would play with him because he tended to expel nasty gases when he got excited. He’d been hiding in a flowerbed, enviously watching the other kids play, when Bambi caught sight of him and mistakenly called him ‘Flower’. So, to make himself acceptable to herbivores he’d adopted the name and buried himself in all things floral to mask his natural scent. He finally had friends. Unfortunately, none of them were skunks.
The friends grew up, as friends do, and gravitated to others of their kind. Except for Flower. Other skunks thought his fixation with plants (for decorating, not eating) was odd. Some whispered that he was gay.
Now Bambi had a mate and Flower had pansy-motif bed linens.
He was an adult skunk, dammit! It was time to accept what he was, find a mate, and get on with life. He released long pent-up flatulence with a sigh of relief. What freedom it was to be able to quit worrying about personal odor! He looked at his bedroom critically. Tomorrow he’d lose the foliage and get striped sheets and a leather daybed. He rubbed his paws together in anticipation. Little skunky odors escaped from under the covers and he inhaled them in appreciation.
But first he’d change his name to Stinky.
***
Barbara Schnell has dedicated her life to full-time employment avoidance. She’s been an actress, renovated a 1921 California Bungalow, set a cash-winning record on $25,000 Pyramid, and came in last on Jeopardy. Barbara lives in Los Angeles with her patient husband and two cats.
***
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Tags: author, Barbara Schnell, fiction, humor, humorous romance, humour, interview, literary, literature, novels, romance, short stories, writing
Welcome to the four hundred and eighteenth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with literary author and poet Stuart Ayris. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Stuart. Can you tell us something about your writing…
Stuart: I would say I write ‘Literary Fiction’ have published two novels, both under my real name – ‘Tollesbury Time Forever’ and ‘A Cleansing of Souls’.
Morgen: Great titles. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Stuart: I had plenty of rejections. I handled them rather pragmatically which is why I ended up opting to self-publish on Kindle. Had I not made that decision however I can imagine that my pragmatism may well have turned to despondency fairly quickly!
Morgen: Oh dear. That’s the great thing about being able to go it alone and it’s not that hard (once you know how, of course). Have you had any success in writing competitions?
Stuart: I have never entered any writing competitions but it’s definitely something I will keep in mind.
Morgen: I haven’t entered anything for a few months but like the themed ones as invariably it gets me writing something new. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?
Stuart: I don’t have an agent. If I was to opt for the ‘traditional’ publishing route I can see how it may be of benefit to have an agent. Equally, having taken the route I have, it’s wonderful being in control of all aspects of the process – the writing, the editing, the pricing, the promotion – I think I would struggle to delegate any of that to anyone else now!
Morgen: I have to say I love being able to make all the decisions (with guidance from my editor and first readers). How involved were you in the actual eBook process? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
Stuart: The only part of the process in which I was not directly involved was the front covers. My wife, Rebecca, painted the covers and Liam Sweeny designed the lettering for A Cleansing of Souls. I have only recently had a Kindle and I can already see the benefits. I have a huge collection of paperback / hardback books which will, in my house at least, never be replaced.
Morgen: Me too. My bookcases would look odd with just a Kindle sitting on them. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
Stuart: I do all the marketing. It has been a steep learning curve but I have found my confidence has increased just by having to promote my work. It has, and continues to be, a wonderful learning experience. I have also had the great pleasure of conversing and interacting with some lovely people.
Morgen: Isn’t that great. I’ve made so many friends, all over the world, even just in the last year. I’ve met some of them too which has been a real thrill. I’m just back from Jane Wenham-Jones’ launch party for her latest novel ‘Prime Time’ which was fantastic. I say I’d go to the opening of a rejection envelope and it’s not far off. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?
Stuart: Simon Anthony, the main character in Tollesbury Time Forever, is my favourite character at present. I think Timothy Spall would do a wonderful job of portraying him!
Morgen: He’s great, and his son Rafe is a fantastic actor too. Regarding the title / covers of your books, how important do you think they are?
Stuart: I think covers for eBooks are perhaps not as vital as for traditionally published works but it definitely pays to have a professional-looking, intriguing cover regardless of the medium.
Morgen: I agree. Whilst I’ve not been put off buying a book because of the cover, a bad one doesn’t inspire me to find out more about the book… catchy titles do. What are you working on at the moment / next?
Stuart: I am 24,000 words into my third novel. It’s called The Bird That Nobody Sees and I aim to have it completed by the end of the summer.
Morgen: Another great title. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
Stuart: I do try to write every day, even if it’s just a couple of paragraphs. I wouldn’t say I suffer from writer’s block, no. There are times though when I spend a long time thinking about the story, whether I’m cooking dinner or lying awake in bed. I’m a great believer that all stories are written – it’s just a case of remembering them, letting them come fully formed into your consciousness. I have become very sensitive to knowing if I am ‘forcing’ my writing. If I find that happening, I just stop and go back to thinking again. It seems to work for me anyway!
Morgen: I usually do something else (another story or something completely different) then find it easier to come back to it. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Stuart: I start with an idea and then get an image of the final scene. I then write the beginning (or what I think is the beginning!) and then write various scenes that form in my mind, scenes that will invariably be in a different order when the final edit is done. I see it as being a little like films are made – scenes being filmed out of sequence and then spliced together to form a coherent story.
Morgen: Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?
Stuart: Most of my characters are based, physically, on people I know or have seen. The names seem to just fit the characters. I do like to use anagrams of people I know too – an anagram of my wife’s name (Rebecca) is the name of one of the characters in Tollesbury Time Forever.
Morgen: I’ve just booked in my 666th interviewee; a horror writer called Violet LeVoit whose first name is an anagram of her surname (or vice versa), how cool is that? Do you write any non-fiction, poetry or short stories?
Stuart: I have written some poems in the past and have written a short story called ‘A Day in the Death of Stafford Plank’ which I think may be published in time as part of a collection.
Morgen: I write more short stories than anything else and have literally written hundreds. I think that eBooks are the way to go with them. They’re great for reading electronically, especially on a small screen like a mobile phone, although I’m working on getting my novels online at the moment… really it’s still what most people read. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Stuart: I find that the main editing is done in terms of pace – moving scenes around etc. The editing in terms of spelling / grammar is performed by a lovely person I have come to know via Goodreads called Kath Middleton.
Morgen: Do you have to do much research?
Stuart: I only do as much research as I have to. With my novels being part Literary Fiction and part Magical Realism, I can get away with making quite a lot up!
Morgen: The fun stuff. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?
Stuart: Tollesbury Time Forever is written in the first person, A Cleansing of Souls the second person and The Bird That Nobody Sees is a combination of first and third person. There are also elements of second person narrative in each of the novels. I guess that means I haven’t quite settled on a favourite style yet!
Morgen: Bravo on writing ‘A Cleansing of Souls’ in second. There aren’t many novels in that viewpoint – Jay McInerney’s ‘Bright Lights Big City’ is probably the most well-known. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?
Stuart: Not really. I’m quite determined!
Morgen: Glad to hear it. Most of my short stories are dormant on my computer or still in files to be typed up but I hope they’ll all see the light eventually. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?
Stuart: My favourite part is when I wake up the following morning, read what I’ve written and realise it has merit! The least favourite part, I have to say, is the promotion side. It doesn’t come naturally but I’m getting used to it. In terms of surprises, the positive response to both novels has been a wonderful surprise!
Morgen: I love having reader feedback, even the bad ones (for me on Goodreads) and most interviewees have said the same about marketing – it takes out so much time from when we’d rather be writing. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Stuart: Don’t force things, don’t let anyone bring you down and be nice to everybody you meet!
Morgen: As Jimmy Durante said “Be nice to people on your way up because you meet them on your way down”. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?
Stuart: Thomas Paine, William Blake and Jack Kerouac. I think it would have to be something very rustic and simple.
Morgen: Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Stuart: “In this world you can be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. For years I was smart; I recommend pleasant.” (From the film Harvey with James Stewart as Elwood P Dowd)
Morgen: Brilliant film. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?
Stuart: No. Just my books.
Morgen: Plenty to keep you occupied, by the sound of it. What do you do when you’re not writing?
Stuart: I love playing my guitar, watching cricket, and of course reading. I do very much like alcohol and have learned over the years to drink just sufficient to enable me to write well when I’m writing and to not offend anyone when I’m not writing. Some may disagree though…
Morgen: Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful?
Stuart: I find Goodreads and the UK Kindle User Forum excellent in terms of engaging with readers about both my work and other books I’ve read. I have never really got into the writing sites with regard to writing per se although, if any, I would recommend www.writewords.org.uk.
Morgen: I haven’t been on the Kindle forums yet but have heard great things. I will for sure when I put my novels up. Are you on any networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?
Stuart: I am on Facebook and Twitter. I find them very helpful in learning about the writing world, meeting like-minded folk and getting the word out about my books.
Morgen: What do you think the future holds for a writer?
Stuart: For me, I just want to keep writing and publishing my books. I think the eBook world will settle down over the next year or so with Amazon perhaps exercising tighter quality control and less flexibility over pricing.
Morgen: I’d like them to let me put my eShorts up there for free. I can’t expect anyone to pay $0.99 (their minimum) for a 600-word story (although some have). Smashwords is better in that respect (and for submitting on my behalf to Sony, B&N etc). Where can we find out about you and your work?
Stuart: I have a blog at www.tollesburytimeforever.blogspot.com, can be found on Facebook under Stuart Ayris and on Twitter.
Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Stuart: Just to thank you for asking such interesting questions!
Morgen: You’re very welcome, thank you for answering them.
I then invited Stuart to include an extract of his writing and this is from The Bird That Nobody Sees:
Eryn Rose was never born and she will never die. She is an angel, an idea, a thought, a spasm, a lightening, a moment. She bursts and she sparkles and she retires and she wavers. There are various names for clouds and for water-flows. Rock formations can be referred to in many ways. But an angel is an angel only. The sands shift. Volcanoes rumble. Even the seas sigh. Eryn Rose is the mellow in the honey, the cool in the deep hot blue, the breaking of the wave and the shimmering soft of high, high comfort. She is the sparkle and the glint, the hint of a hint of a hint. She is rapture and she is fantastical. Where others wander, she soars and where you dream she inspires and cracks and breaks into a million different suns that will just shower and float into the ether of all your wondabulous thinkings. And can she fly? Of course she can. She is an angel. But even angels ache.
Stuart Ayris was born in the Summer of 1969 in Dagenham, just on the border of East London. School was largely unproductive educationally and he went on to work in various fields (not literally!) including putting up stalls at Romford Market, working in a record shop, putting up ceilings, gardening and road sweeping. After resigning from an insurance company to play in a band, he found himself unemployed for two years. Then finally he got back on his feet and has been a psychiatric nurse since 1997. He began writing A Cleansing of Souls in 1991 when he was 22 years old and he wrote Tollesbury Time Forever between 2008 and 2011 publishing both as eBooks in the early part of 2012. In terms of writing, his heroes are Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck, Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. He has three wonderful sons and lives with his wife, Rebecca, in Tollesbury, Essex.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literary, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, Stuart Ayris, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of radio interviewing, is brought to you by literary novelist and spotlightee Christopher Profeta.
The Authors Show
As a stay at home parent, it is often hard to find time to write. While the kids are napping, I can usually get a little bit of work done, but my three and a half year old is phasing out her afternoon nap, and getting up earlier and earlier, and staying up later and later. By the time she’s finally asleep at night, the only thing I have enough physical or mental energy to do is drink myself into a stupor, but I usually fall asleep before I can finish doing even that.
So when I was contacted by one of the nation’s top rated internet radio shows, The Authors Show, to discuss my book Life in Pieces on their program, I of course accepted, but in the back of my mind I wondered how the singing and giggling children in the background would get edited out, and if I’d really be able to intelligently discuss my book over the delightful din of doodie jokes.
It turned out that, for quality and editing purposes, they needed me to call in from a land line. Since, like most people my age, I have not lived in a house with a land line since the early 2000’s. I made arrangements to go to my parents’ house to call into the show. This didn’t solve the problem of what to do with the children, however, because my parents were on vacation, sunning themselves on the peaceful sands of retirement in south Florida.
Arrangements were made for the interview to start at 2:00 on Friday, so when I called in from the land line at my parents’ house only to find out that the interview was not to take place until the following Friday, I wrestled the kids back into the car and began the thirty minute drive back home. Luckily, when Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks is mixed with the constant hum of the highway, it puts my kids right to sleep.
It all worked out for the best, as the following Friday my parents were back home and able to watch the kids while I put on my intellectual airs and discussed writing, politics, and the publishing industry with the good people at The Author Show. It’s interesting how the chaos of watching two small children always has a way of resolving itself. Now if only I could remember that when we run out of milk in the middle of the day.
# # #
This post was originally published on my blog Real Men Stay Home. Click here to follow.
How annoying, but you got there in the end. Thank you, Chris!
Chris teaches writing at Macomb Community College and Davenport University. He has had various works published in the Foliate Oak online literary magazine, one of which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
He attended school at Wayne State University where he was awarded two Loughead-Eldridge Scholarships in Creative Writing, and at Michigan State University where he was a winner of the Jim Cash Creative Writing Award.
He lives in Clawson, MI with his wife and two kids.
You can find more about Chris and his writing via… his website, Facebook, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Lulu and Twitter.
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with children’s author and romance novelist Jackie Anton – the three hundred and seventy-third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: Chris Profeta, Christopher Profeta, guest blog, literary, literature, radio interviews, radio shows, writing
Complementing my daily blog interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the seventy-seventh, is of Christopher Profeta.
Chris teaches writing at Macomb Community College and Davenport University. He has had various works published in the Foliate Oak online literary magazine, one of which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He attended school at Wayne State University where he was awarded two Loughead-Eldridge Scholarships in Creative Writing, and at Michigan State University where he was a winner of the Jim Cash Creative Writing Award. He lives in Clawson, MI with his wife and two kids.
And now from the author himself:
My book “Life in Pieces” tells the story of an unemployed stay-at-home-dad who wakes up one morning and reads the paper only to find out he is running for congress. The unlikely candidate’s thoughts serve as a pointed satire of politics and the economy, as well as a moving love story about the strength and importance of family. While I have never run for congress myself, I am a stay at home dad who works part time. In this section of the book I was able to let out a lot of frustration both about the economy and about family in a quirky and humorous way.
In the second “piece” of the story, Michael Langley, a college freshman, struggles to find his place in a new setting that doesn’t make much sense to him. When he finally meets a group of friends that make him feel at home, he realizes that if he is to build a life with what might be the woman of his dreams, he’ll have to give up everything he thought he ever wanted.
And somewhere, a crazy old man couldn’t care less about either of these stories. This last “piece” follows two old lovers who have figured out a way to ignore the struggles of the world around them and be comforted only by their love as they reach the end of their earthly lives together, and resolve the conflicts of their past. There was a lot of wishful thinking going on on my part in this section of the book. This guy was so much fun to write, and I hope to care as little as he does about things someday.
In “Life in Pieces”, all these stories come gracefully together to show that we are never too old to come of age.
You can find more about Chris and his writing via… his website, Facebook, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Lulu and Twitter. Chris will be guest blogging for me mid-May and I shall be interviewing him late June.
The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with literary mystery and non-fiction author John Brooke – the three hundred and forty-fourth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me. You can read / download my eBooks from Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore and Kobo, and Amazon. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: author spotlight, Christopher Profeta, college freshman, davenport university, interview, literary, literature, macomb community college, novel, novelist, stay at home dad, wayne state university, writing
Welcome to the three hundred and second of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with multi-genre novelist Joseph Devon. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Joseph. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Joseph: Well I grew up in New Jersey, went to college in Atlanta, moved to New York and have lived here ever since. As for how I came to be a writer… frankly I’m not sure I’m there yet. I don’t think it’s a place you get to, I think it’s a skill you keep honing. I’m always trying new things and trying projects that are outside of my comfort zone. I have a lurking feeling that when you decide that you “know” how to write, you stop trying as hard and your work suffers. As for the less pretentious sounding answer, though, I had an assignment in Junior High English class to write a short story. It was the first time I had tried writing fiction and I fell in love with it instantly.
Morgen: You’re right. I’ve heard top authors say they’re still learning. We’re like brain surgeons; there are always new techniques. I fell in love with writing at evening class – you just do, don’t you. What genre do you write?
Joseph: I’m actually all over the place with genres. My books tend to be larger stories that encompass a few different characters’ lives and weave them together, so I think that’s the common theme. But I’ve written urban fantasy, which is Probability Angels, and YA Literary and romance and horror, and humor and suspense, and anything else I can think of. I like to try new things.
Morgen: Me too. I’m so glad that I don’t have to write to form, and it means I don’t get bored. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Joseph: Oh lord no. How much editing a piece of work needs does not seem to decrease with practice. I think how much editing and rewriting is needed is a lot more dependent on the work itself. Some things just pop out pretty much fully formed. It’s a very relaxed process at that point. Some works, though, you have to wrestle to the ground. And those need a lot of rewriting. Actually sometimes I wonder if the amount of rewriting needed is related to how unwilling I am in my first draft to just let the story be what the story needs to be. The story tends to win out in the end anyway so you’d think I’d learn not to fight it with my preconceived notions of what I want it to be, but that seems to be a difficult lesson to learn. Oh, and there’s also the fact that your rewriting skills definitely become better and more powerful the more you work at them. So actually I think maturing as a writer might mean more rewriting, more loving polish and attention to tiny details and restructuring scenes and all the stuff that I just can’t do on a first draft.
Morgen: “loving polish” absolutely, and I love the image of wrestling your writing to the ground. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?
Joseph: Wow. Now that’s an interesting question. The second part I mean. As for the first part, I’ve written both in first and third person and I like them both. They each have their place. Obviously in first person you get a lot more insight into the narrator, one of my favorite things I’ve ever written was a short story called Black Eyed Susan where a married couple is telling the story of how they met and it keeps switching from one of them narrating in first person to the other. That worked really well in that story. However for something like Probability Angels where you have so many different threads of story being woven together it would be really tough to use first person, unless you did it for like seven different characters. I think at that point it’s best to just use third person. Now as for second person…man what would that even be? “You walk into the room and you see a dog?” Something like that? That could be super interesting but, no, I’ve never tried it before.
Morgen: That’s it – spot on. I love it and most of my writing at the moment is coming out in that (see Tuesday Tales). It doesn’t suit everyone but if you would like to have a go you could try some of my second-person Sentence Starts). Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Joseph: Of course I’ve had rejections. Do you know authors out there who don’t? I’d be pretty fascinated to meet them.
Morgen: I’ve had a handful here actually. They’ve either been very fortunate with what they’ve sent out or they’ve not submitting so that definitely helps.
Joseph: Lord, when I first moved to New York I used to hang my rejection slips on the door of my room. I papered over the whole thing a few times. When I moved I couldn’t even get them all down and managed to do a number on the door’s paint job trying to peel them all off. After that I decided not to ruin any more doors and just threw rejection slips in the trash. I don’t know of any great way to deal with rejection, but I do know that the more you write, the more stories you have out there in any form, the more fans you slowly build up, the less those rejections sting. But, yes. My rejections were so overwhelming that I ruined a door with them.
Morgen: That’s hilarious. Well, not at the time, probably but you know… Are your books available as eBooks? Were you involved in that process at all? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
Joseph: I strive to make my books available in as many formats as possible. I don’t really see it as a matter of one format being better than the others, I think it’s a matter of choice and I want my readers to be able to experience my work in whatever way they want. Currently that means paperback and in, I believe, every major e-book store for every major e-reading device. As for me, I only read on my phone now. Three years ago if you had told me I’d be reading books on my phone I’d have thought you were insane. But I bought a Kindle around then and it promptly sat in its box next to my couch for months. Finally I took it out, begrudgingly, and charged it up and read one book on it. I was hooked immediately. It has a lot of advantages in my mind. And then I got a new smart phone and someone pointed out that I could read on there and, again, I thought I’d hate it. But I don’t mind reading on a smaller screen at all and the ability to always have all of my books in my pocket, to never have to think, “Should I take my Kindle with me?” when I walk out the door? That’s huge. It outweighs everything else for me.
Morgen: I have a BlackBerry and haven’t read anything on that yet but I do like my Kindle. I’ve only had it a month or so and whilst it’s not changed my life (I still read paperbacks at home), like you, it’s great knowing I have 400+ books with me for the size / weight of a paperback. What are you working on at the moment / next?
Joseph: Probability Angels is the first book in a trilogy. The second book, Persistent Illusions, goes on tour in a few weeks. And currently I’m doing research for the third book, which I’ll start writing as soon as I feel I’ve got enough of a grasp on my topics.
Morgen: Ah, the beloved research (can you hear the hint of sarcasm?). Do you have to do much research?
Joseph: I do as much research as I possibly can. I’m always terrified of a know-it-all out there reading a minor scene in one of my books and calling me out on using the wrong type of bird for the region the scene is in or something. So I wind up reading almost all non-fiction for months before I start writing something new. The odd thing is that I only use it as a touchstone. There’s always a moment when I know that, in order to serve my story correctly, I have to take a leap away from the research and trust my gut. So basically I do a ton of research so that tiny minor details are, hopefully, correct but then wind up making up tons of stuff. I never said it was a good system.
Morgen: I’ve heard a couple of authors say they’ve been caught out. Historical novelist Simon Scarrow said (at Oundle Lit Fest last year) that he’d proved a queryer (clearly no such word but hey, we’re allowed to make them up, aren’t we) wrong but Alexander McCall Smith (who were there last night, coincidentally) was proven wrong. So it happens to the best. At least with eBooks we can go and change our errors. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Joseph: Every author gets tired. Every author hits the middle third of their book and wonders why they should keep going. Every author has writers block. Every author sits down at their keyboard and gets filled with dread at some point. These are not problems specific to you. These are not signs that you are doing something wrong. They are, in fact, signs that you are just like every author you admire and read. We’re human and writing a book is a giant task and it’s just going to have its bad days. Don’t let them get inside your head. Treat them like bad days and move on. We’ve all been there.
Morgen: Ah yes, the saggy middle. Writing a book is a giant task and I love the fact that 300 words a day equates to a 100,000 word novel in a year (109,500 actually) so if someone thinks of it like that, it’s not so scary. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Joseph: “Chop wood; carry water.” It’s an old Zen quote… and all Zen quotes are open to all sorts of interpretations. That’s part of the fun of them. But I just like the clean quick orders of that phrase. Chop wood; carry water. As someone who spends a lot of time inside his own head overcomplicating things when I haven’t even started them it helps to have this phrase on hand to remind me to actually do some real work first and see if complications even show up. A lot of times they work themselves out. It’s best to just go chop wood and carry water. Best to do and let actual problems stop you than the ones inside your head.
Morgen: Exactly. It’s easy to worry and more difficult to tell yourself (or in my case, my mother!) not to but things do have a habit of working out, don’t they. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?
Joseph: I tend to sign up for every social networking site possible. Most of them I don’t find very useful. Facebook used to be very important but I find myself more confused there than anything else nowadays. Twitter, however, where I’m @josephdevon, I find invaluable. It’s a great place to network, share work, chat with fellow creatives, meet new people, have fun, tell jokes, read links. Twitter is the perfect Internet cocktail party and I love it.
Morgen: Isn’t it great. I’m sure only having 140 characters to get your point across has made some authors’ editing skills. Facebook I like too as it seems more intimate. And LinkedIn is definitely a great site for problem airing and sharing (and solving) – I’ve met some great authors on there. Where can we find out about you and your work?
Joseph: My website has all the information you could possibly want plus my blog and contests. The site itself is http://josephdevon.com. The Probability Angels page is here. And then there’s short stories and contests. There’s tons more on there. Definitely poke around.
Morgen: Ooh contests, I like the sound of that. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?
Joseph: Do you view yourself and your blog as an important tool for the future of publishing? Or do you just love books and writing and are following your heart? Or is it a mix of the two?
Morgen: What a great question. I think that publishing will tick along nicely if I wasn’t here (I know what you meant ) but I do love being a part of it. It’s a really exciting time to be an author right now and I love the fact that we have more of a say (or all the say) in our books. I started this blog (because I’d heard it was a good idea) just under a year ago and it’s taken over my life (literally) and although it’s hard work, I’m loving every minute. And yes, definitely following my heart. Regular readers (and writing friends) will know how much I’m following my heart – I quit my job last October and due to a variety of misfortunes trying to find a replacement will finally be leaving this month and although part of me is still cautious as it’s been so long coming but the rest of me is wearing the biggest grin. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Joseph: I run a few contests that I’d love your readers to know about. The first is called The Great Typo Hunt. Basically any reader who spots a typo in my fiction that still exists in my master copy wins a signed book of their choice. The second is my Annual Fan Art Contest. There are some great prizes that winners can choose from by submitting art based on my books.
Morgen: I love the idea of the Great Typo Hunt. I’d like to think that anyone spotting a mistake in my writing would tell me so I can correct it quickly. Thank you, Joseph.
My interview with Joseph, and several other authors before him, was brought to you in collaboration with Nurture Your Books.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, crime fiction, critique, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, horror, humor, humour, interview, Joseph Devon, Kobo, LinkedIn, literary, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, Nurture Your Books, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, suspense, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
…starts in 45 minutes. 7pm UK time / 2pm EST.
You may notice every now and then around this blog I mention Radio Litopia.
Apart from being on-air (music, interviews, previous shows) 24 hours a day, we all congregate in the chat room every Sunday at 7pm (UK time) / 2pm (EST) for a fun-filled hour-long Open House.
Agent Pete sets us tasks and we relish in completing them – we’ve not beaten him yet! Whether it’s limericks, collective nouns or the perfect trifecta you’re bound to have fun… we do.
Once we’ve worn our brains down, we then sit back, relax and listen to Agent Pete and Dave Bartram chat to studio and Skype guests of a variety of genres while we, still in the chatroom get to comment, ask questions and, as is often the way, go completely off at a tangent.
So if you’re game (pardon the pun) for an evening of literary mayhem and education click here.
Fellow Litopians include Issy Flamel, Jack Martin, Joseph V Sultana, Julia Kavan, Lae Monie and Sarah Tanburn and you can tweet @Litopia on Twitter.
Tags: agent, chat room, collective nouns, Dave Bartram, games, interviews, Jack Martin, literary, litopia, Open House, Peter Cox, Radio Litopia, writing
Welcome to the two hundred and eighty-fourth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with literary author and poet Rose Mary Boehm. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Rose. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Rose: Oh, dear, where to start… I have written all my life, it seems. I live in Lima, Peru, because I married a Peruvian. So that’s a logical next step, isn’t it? After I retired I could finally dedicate all my free time to writing. I am a German-born UK national. Writing in English did take about 15 years of immersion into my new language. Once you have a certain standard in your own language, you expect to write to that standard in your second one.
Morgen: I guess made all the more difficult though by not living in an English country. Whenever I’m in Germany (I have friends there) I start soaking it in from hearing conversations around me. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Rose: I write fiction for intelligent readers who would like to be entertained and even moved, as well as perhaps picking up some knowledge on the way. So far, it’s mostly women who have been especially delighted with my novels. As far as ‘considering other genres’ is concerned, yes, I do. I am more and more developing as a poet. That was the biggest hurdle as an ESL author.
Morgen: Although poetry is spare it is hard. I don’t write much so I find it hard, but then I’ve never been taught it and don’t practice it so that doesn’t help. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?
Rose: Not a pseudonym, just my maiden name which I lost somewhere with my first marriage. I write as Rose Mary Boehm and have published two novels and one collection of poetry.
Morgen: Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Rose: Of course I had rejections. I think rejection letters / mails are almost a badge of honour. At first I felt hurt. Didn’t I just offer them the best new novel ever? After that I got hardened and more pragmatic. But I actually got picked up relatively quickly by a small UK publisher, the Black Leaf Publishing Group.
Morgen: Oh well done. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions?
Rose: The poetry yes, I actually won Third Prize in the 2009 Margaret Reid Poetry Contest for Traditional Verse (US) with my poem ‘Miss Worthington’. Been shortlisted on the monthly Goodreads poetry contest.
Books is a different kettle of fish (wherever did this expression come from?). In order to be able to submit a novel (or any book) for one of those biggies, they have to fork out an awful lot of money. I think for the Booker you need 5,000 Pounds on registration and 5,000 Pounds on acceptance – something like that. No small publisher can afford that. I think the cheapest is still at least 1,000 Pounds reading fee.
Morgen: Ooh I didn’t know there were Goodreads contests. I’m registered on the site but all I tend to do is accept friend requests (which is great). I keep intending to explore. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?
Rose: No, I don’t have an agent. Every agent I wrote to (very few, actually) wasn’t ‘in’ that week. I mean, if they bothered to answer they answered months later and then mostly with a curt ‘not my type of thing’.
Is an agent vital? I really don’t know. Perhaps a ‘hungry’ agent can do a lot for you. Especially get you better deals / contracts. But very few (at least none I ever heard of) wants to bring an unknown author to fame and bestseller status. Too much up-hill work.
From what I gather this is now done by book publicists who also want a fortune. One quoted between 2,500$ and 4,000$ for a month (plus) of not exactly rocket-science activities without being able to give me an idea on ROI (Return on Investment). I passed.
Morgen: Very wise. It’s much easier for us to go our own way now, which excites me. Are your books available as eBooks? Were you involved in that process at all?
Rose: My books (the novels, not the poetry collection) can be bought as paperback as well as eBooks on Amazon. I was not involved in the process. I think I would have liked to have been.
Morgen: I’m only on Smashwords so far (which I did myself) but I’ve heard Amazon is easy (SW wasn’t hard). It’s in my plan so we shall see. Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
Rose: I personally prefer ‘real’ books, but living in Peru makes it almost impossible to buy good books in English anywhere in Lima, and having them sent via the normal postal service by Amazon is almost impossible because they disappear on arrival in the post office somewhere. That leaves me an expensive messenger service, or sending them to my friends in Europe where I pick them up when I travel ‘home’ (extra weight, not that good an idea when flying) or Kindle. I have recently purchased quite a few Kindle books.
Morgen: That’s the joy of it, isn’t it. Instant and light. I love technology. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works?
Rose: Not as much as I should, I suppose. I prefer writing to marketing. I am also not so hot in the new ‘social network’ compartment, and know just the basics (even though I am learning). I am nearly 74 – so I didn’t grow up with facebook, twitter and blogs.
I have, however, created a book blog for the first novel, COMING UP FOR AIR which I have badly neglected, and might create a blog to include the second one, THE TELLING, where I’ll probably include the first. Let’s say that’s under construction.
But I am more and more active as a poet TANGENTS is already well behind me. My recent work is published more and more in mostly US poetry reviews. As I am also a photographer I combined my two passions – and more - AND share the platform with others, I created a blog for the arts in general. It’s relatively new, but it’s already been noticed and commented on very favourably indeed. It’s also registered with DUOTROPE. Take a look at http://houseboathouse.blogspot.com. It is intended to become a showcase of everything artistic of a high standard.
Morgen: My mum’s 80 and she’s always refused to have a computer so I’m very impressed. Mary Wesley (of ‘Camomile Lawn’ and other novels) was 74 when she had her first book published. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?
Rose: Both my novels are the story of one protagonist told in two books (even though THE TELLING is very much a stand-alone read).
I could see COMING UP FOR AIR as a TV novella in three parts – that’s how the book is written. It’s definitely a ‘coming –of-age’ novel with a difference:
Part I: Another Kind of Childhood (set against the backdrop of WWII in Germany)
Part II: The Unbearable Burden of Sex (set against the end-of-the-war years in Germany)
Part III: Spitting against the Wind (a young woman discovering what she takes for love)
COMING UP FOR AIR would have to be played by at least three actresses to span the ages from three-and-a-half to 20.
THE TELLING could be one film. If she were still around, I’d like to have Katherine Hepburn take the title role. Should she be busy, I’d happily have Lauren Bacall. No problem.
Morgen: Wouldn’t that be great. Did you have any say in the title / covers of your book(s)? How important do you think they are?
Rose: I approved both, for better or for worse. I think they are immensely important. It’s the packaging of the content, isn’t it? I don’t really know how well we did.
Morgen: I’m no expert but they look pretty good to me. What are you working on at the moment / next?
Rose: Right now I am writing poetry exclusively, and look after my blog.
Morgen: Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
Rose: Yes, I write every day and yes, I sometimes feel as though I’ll never write another creative line.
Morgen: Oh dear… but you keep going. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Rose: I do plot, but then the characters run with the story and lead me in directions they prefer.
Morgen: Isn’t that great! I love that about fiction. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?
Rose: I use people I have known or amalgams of more than one person. They tend to be believable because I draw shamelessly on their real personae.
Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?
Rose: I have used the second person singular / plural only in poetry. Both my novels are written in the first person because I felt this would give it immediacy. But in THE TELLING I interchange third-person chapters with first-person ones. One and one – in rotation. I found that interesting because the third-person point-of-view can explain better, sees more, may be more honest.
Morgen: Alternate viewpoints have become really popular and I think works really well. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?
Rose: Yes, possibly. Who knows.
Morgen: What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?
Rose: I am a bit of a loner, even though I have an extrovert personality. So, doing stuff by myself is cool. What surprised me was that these guys I invent try and take over.
Morgen: My favourite aspect of the craft. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Rose: Just get going. Trust your instinct. But then get a good editor (and listen to him / her!) I felt the lack of an editor keenly, especially with my first novel.
Morgen: Absolutely. There was a huge debate on LinkedIn recently where a chap said he was going to self-edit then self-publish and no-one agreed with him. Having an editor is my only expense but apart from finding errors (fortunately not many) she’s come up with some wonderful suggestions. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?
Rose: It’s always difficult to combine people you would like to be with but who may not like each other. However, having that privilege, I’d probably invite Oscar Wilde, Bette Davis and David Niven. For their sense of humour, their wit, their intelligence and their willingness to gossip! I’d have high hopes that David Niven would be good on the barbie, and that we wouldn’t mind too much anyway because I’d lay on an excellent Rioja (or two or five).
Morgen: Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Rose: ‘If you have nothing to do, don’t do it here.’
Morgen: I’ve not heard that before but I love it. Are you involved in anything else writing-related?
Rose: My new ‘poetry and much, much more’ blog, http://houseboathouse.blogspot.com, my photography https://picasaweb.google.com/home, and travelling (I still have to discover chunks of my wonderful new home country, Peru).
Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing?
Rose: I am very boring person. If I am not writing, I like to read. Oh, yes, of course, I nearly forgot: I travel whenever I can and photograph whatever lets me.
Morgen: Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful?
Rose: I admit I haven’t looked far. I am a member of Goodreads, in my case a member of their poetry ‘club’. Goodreads is an excellent site.
Morgen: Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?
Rose: I should be far more active in that respect. I can’t say I have found them valuable (yet) because I haven’t made the effort. I have been a member of LinkedIn for many, many years. But I only recently discovered its usefulness. I am on facebook and just picked up courage to use twitter. Give me time. I am on the case!
Morgen: I always thought LinkedIn was just for business (which writing is really) but had a few requests to join people already on it so I succumbed and love it. Everyone’s so helpful (most of the time) to each other but that’s the great thing about this ‘industry’ – we all want each other to succeed (most of the time ). What do you think the future holds for a writer?
Rose: That’s so very difficult to guess, isn’t it? As more and more writing is in demand for all the new technology-driven sites, the quality of the writing goes noticeably downhill. Perhaps I’m just an old grouch. But when I try and read young people’s ‘angst’ or even ‘texted’ poems, I growl.
Education in schools is also a problem for potential writers because the humanities and arts are no longer taught as a natural and important part of a young person’s development, and sciences (new technology, computer science etc.) are hogging the limelight and teaching time and talent. Universities have complained bitterly that many of their new intake A-level students aren’t able to read with enough understanding, or write well enough to make themselves understood. That’s a sad state of affairs.
Morgen: Isn’t it. No, you’re not an old grouch. Either that or I’m a 40-something grouch. Where can we find out about you and your writing?
Rose: I suppose on any good online bookstore, including Amazon.com.
My book blog for COMING UP FOR AIR.
On Amazon you can read quite a few first pages of both novels.
Here are the links to my two book trailers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg7zN8kNaO4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zc3iPpxY6A
Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Rose: Yes. I also write short stories. One of them, Mbaya, has just been published: http://outwardlink.net/features/rosemaryboehm/mbaya.html and quite a few of my recent poems have been / are to be published in various US online magazines.
Morgen: Oh great, I love short stories. Thank you so much Rose.
I then invited Rose to include an excerpt of her writing and said she wanted to leave us with one of her poems recently published by Burning Word, where she was one of their guest authors:
The Collector
finds them in bars,
parks, buses, the underground
or coffee shops;
he frequents downtown
pole-dance joints, picks up
blondes, brunettes or curly blacks.
Long legs, ample behinds,
he’s not choosey. All have one
thing in common: they talk.
Too much.
Somewhere in Soho they stagger
down those stairs
on dizzying heels,
click-clacking their way
into his basement. Call him
affectionately ‘Nutter’,
make themselves comfortable.
He smiles, puts his finger
to his lips and readies
the little machine. Pushes
the button and records
ten minutes of their silent breathing.
***
A German-born UK national, Rose Mary Boehm now lives with her second husband in Lima, Peru. Only after 20 years immersed in the English language did she attempt to write in her new ‘mother’ tongue. She travelled extensively, made a career in advertising, worked as a copywriter, founded her own business(es), married her first husband and had two children, had a one-woman show of her drawings in London, UK, then moved to Madrid, Spain, where she finally retired from the corporate world, moved to Peru, and now dedicates her life to writing. Her two novels, COMING UP FOR AIR and THE TELLING, have been published in the UK in 2010 and 2011 respectively, as well as her first collection of poetry, TANGENTS. She won a few prizes for poetry and photography, and three of her latest poems will appear in US poetry reviews in end-of year and Spring editions. You can find out more about her from poetry (and more) blog http://houseboathouse.blogspot.com and her book blog http://www.coming-up-for-air.com.
***
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Welcome to the two hundred and fortieth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with children’s author, scriptwriter, ghostwriter and literary thriller novelist Fiona Veitch Smith. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Fiona. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.
Fiona: I trained as a journalist but have always written fiction and scripts as a hobby. When I turned 30 I decided to turn that on its head and try to write fiction and scripts for a career and just dabble in journalism. My cunning plan took a while to get going though and I’ve been thankful that I’ve always been able to fall back on freelance journalism and now lecturing in journalism between my more ‘creative’ work.
Morgen: What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Fiona: I have been the most successful – if you judge ‘success’ by publication – in writing for children. I have ghostwritten 18 children’s picture books (6 of which are published, the other 12 pending publication, in the Myro the Microlight series) and have now started a series under my own name – the Young David Picture Books. I have also had a series of children’s short stories published in Aquila magazine. My first published book was a chapter book for 6-8s called Donovon’s Rainbow. I also write for theatre and screen – for children and adults. However, I have always wanted to write adult novels and have finally released my first one, a literary thriller called The Peace Garden. In terms of genre, I have a penchant for mysteries and thrillers. My most recent book is what I would refer to as a ‘literary thriller’ as it has a mystery / thriller framework but also deals with themes, ideas and symbolism – hence the ‘literary’ dimension. But as there’s no shelf for ‘literary thrillers’ or ‘literary mysteries’ it’s simply filed under thriller / mystery or sometimes romantic thriller (there’s a romance sub-plot).
Morgen: Wow, a busy lady. That may have made my next question redundant unless there’s more. What have you had published to-date? If applicable, can you remember where you saw your first books on the shelves?
Fiona: Apart from what I’ve listed above, I have ghostwritten another two books – a non-fiction book called ‘Mentors’ aimed at career guidance, and an autobiography called ‘The Choice’ by Elizabeth Robertson Campbell (Bridge Logos Publishing). In addition I have had some devotional booklets published for CWR. I am currently contracted to Lion Hudson to co-author the life story of a boy soldier from the Congo called ‘Child of War’. Mmm, the first time I saw one of my books … ah yes! It was Donovon’s Rainbow in an Exclusive Books in Cape Town. A very surreal experience.
Morgen: And fantastic, I’m sure. Have you ever seen a member of the public reading your book… in any unusual locations?
Fiona: I saw a little boy on a bus reading Donovon’s Rainbow and I once saw a woman in a coffee shop with a copy of one of my devotional booklets for Inspiring Women Everyday. I also once overheard a couple in a lift talking about a play they’d been to see the previous evening – Pig Stew – which was mine. Unfortunately they got out before I heard whether they liked it or not!
Morgen: Oh no! I think I would have followed them. That’s so wonderful though, seeing three incidents of your books in readers’ hands. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
Fiona: As much as I can. I do a lot of social networking and try to give talks to reading and writing groups when I have the opportunity. I also send press releases to the local paper and have given talks on local radio stations. I have also approached established writers for reviews. Most recently RS Downie who writes the Ruso series of Roman mysteries (and is a NY Times bestselling author) gave The Peace Garden a great review. I was then able to use that in my publicity. Every little helps. As I’ve recently launched my own indie publishing house, Crafty Publishing, (with two other partners) I’m having to do more and more of that. So far we’ve only published my own titles, but we’ve just signed another two authors so will have to do marketing for them as well. However, as part of their contract with us they are obliged to co-operate as much as possible in the marketing of their own books. Gone are the days when a writer wrote and left all the marketing to the publisher.
Morgen: I think I’ve only had one or two interviewees say that they leave everything to the publisher, because they can. That would leave more time for writing but it’s great chatting to the readers (which I’m sure they still would do). Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions and do you think they help with a writer’s success?
Fiona: Donovon’s Rainbow won the Writers’ News Best Independently Published Children’s Book in 2003. (It was published by Vineyard International Publishing, a small indie publisher). Pig Stew won the People’s Play Award in 2010. I’ve also had a number of play scripts and film scripts short-listed for awards. Each time I do I can use it as a publicity platform. It’s a fine balance though between ‘sharing your good news’ and ‘crowing’. The other benefit these awards have is giving me a sense of achievement. Both the Donovon and Pig Stew awards came at a time when I was feeling particularly discouraged about my lack of ‘success’ – receiving the awards encouraged me to keep going. It helps to know that people besides your family and friends think you have talent.
Morgen: And great things to add to your ‘CV’. Do you write under a pseudonym? If so why and do you think it makes a difference?
Fiona: Not by choice. As a ghostwriter other people’s names are on books I have written, but I’ve never written under a pseudonym for my own writing. Do they affect an author’s profile? When ghostwriting, yes. If people search for my name very few titles of the now twelve books I’ve had published will come up. But I know some authors choose to write under different names for different genre as this frees them from being type-cast by readers and publishers into a certain niche. In marketing terms, it’s useful to be able to refer to Fiona Veitch Smith, children’s author, because it simplifies things, when in fact writing for children is just one string in my bow. For this interview, for instance, I would like to be described as Fiona Veitch Smith, literary thriller writer. The media also like to type-cast writers. I once went to a radio interview to talk about my new play Pig Stew that was opening the following week, but all the interviewer wanted to talk about was Donovon’s Rainbow that was published 10 years ago! That’s the first thing that came up when he googled me and he hadn’t bothered looking at anything else. He looked confused when I told him that I actually wanted to talk about my stage play. ‘So you’re not a children’s writer,’ he said. ‘Yes I am, but not today,’ I answered. Suddenly pseudonyms seemed very appealing …
Morgen: Some ‘household’ authors do that (Ruth Rendell = Barbara Vine, Joanna Trollope = Caroline Harvey and journalist Jane Bidder, who I interviewed on Christmas Eve, uses three pennames). Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?
Fiona: No. I think an agent could help open doors that I have been unable to open myself, and perhaps higher up the ‘career’ ladder than I’ve managed to achieve myself, but as I and many other un-agented authors show, they’re not essential. However, if anyone’s interested in representing me, we can certainly talk …
Morgen: Are your books available as eBooks? If so what was your experience of that process? And do you read eBooks?
Fiona: Up until recently I’ve only read non-fiction e-books as part of my part-time job as a lecturer. However, this year I developed a nasty allergy to the bleach in book paper (seriously) and so have started reading fiction on a Kindle. And I’ve been surprisingly pleased with the experience. I don’t know why I resisted for so long. Donovon’s Rainbow has been available as a free download through my website for the last five years – I thought it would encourage people to buy the print version. But I was wrong. People who buy the print book tend not to have read the e-version. And those that have downloaded it haven’t bothered to buy a print copy. Oh well, I live and learn. However, in light of the Kindle Revolution, I decided to bring out my debut adult novel in e-book only. As my husband and business partner is a computer programmer, it hasn’t been as stressful as I thought it would be. Sales have been slowly increasing and I’ve had some good reviews on Amazon. My children’s picture books (ghostwritten and my own) are not on e-book yet as the technology on the cheaper e-readers is not quite ready to cater for full-colour manuscripts. But when it is, they will be going digital!
Morgen: That won’t be long, I’m sure. I’ve not heard of anyone being allergic to books, that’s really sad. 
but at least there’s a great alternative. Did you have any say in the title of your books? How important do you think titles are?
Fiona: I’ve made the final decision on all the books in my own name. For ghostwritten books I’ve had some say in some of them and no say in others. Titles are crucial as they are the first hook to catch a reader.
Morgen: They are. I’m a big title fan. I have one of James Patterson’s co-written books called ‘The Quickie’ (with the brilliant Michael Letwidge who co-wrote ‘Step on a Crack’ – actually wrote as I understand that James comes up with the plot, the other author writes the book then James makes it his voice). But seriously, who came up with the title ‘The Quickie’. It may have a different meaning outside of the UK but I laughed when I first saw it. I’ve not read it yet but not taking the title seriously may not help. Do any of your books have dedications? If so, to whom and (if appropriate) why?
Fiona: My grandma, my daughter and my husband (different books). Why? My grandma because she inspired me to start writing in the first place; my husband and daughter because they inspire me to continue. And I love them. This is just a small, tangible expression of that love.
Morgen: Who designed your books’ covers?
Fiona: Amy Barnes designed the cover for The Peace Garden. I gave her a brief – dark, brooding, must include plants. I wanted the mood of the cover to suggest foreboding and to create an ironic counterpoint to the potentially benign title. Amy gave me a selection of six sketched ideas; we narrowed it down to two, then one. We settled on the image quite quickly, but the font choice took weeks!
Morgen: I really like it so I’d say it was worth the trouble, plus as you say it’s the first thing (because it bears the title) to hook in the reader. What was your first acceptance and is being accepted still a thrill?
Fiona: Donovon’s Rainbow was my first book that was accepted. The thrill hasn’t lessened over the years.
Morgen: Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Fiona: Oh yes. Too many to count. I usually mope for a few days then pick myself up and start again. As I normally have a few projects on the go at one time I can always distract myself and pour my hope into something else. But each rejection hurts – bitterly. After a few days (or in some cases months) when the pain subsides I will try to look at the feedback (if any was given) more objectively to see if there is something I can work on to make it better.
Morgen: It is a shame that it affects you so badly, when it’s just one person’s opinion, but I guess they know what they want. My second rejection impacted me more than the first. The first thing I’d ever submitted (a short story to Woman’s Weekly) was accepted so I was OK with the first rejection as it balanced things out. Then the second made it lopsided and overall, I’ve had more rejections than acceptances so have grown a thicker skin. What are you working on at the moment / next?
Fiona: Well my memoir of the boy soldier is currently on pause as we’re waiting for some developments in the subject’s life to work themselves out (which may require a rewrite). So I’m now working interchangeably on a new stage play with an Olympic theme…
Morgen: We have the Olympics here in London (I’m not in London but it’s only an hour away) this July so that’s very timely.
Fiona: …and my next adult novel, a reporter sleuth mystery called Deadline. I’m hoping to develop a series for my main character, Astrid Parker.
Morgen: ‘Deadline’ – I love that title, very apt. Do you manage to write every day? What’s the most you’ve written in a day?
Fiona: I manage to write about three days a week. The rest is taken up with admin and marketing as well as my lecturing commitments. And oh yes, there’s the little matter of having a family to look after too. In the run-up to a deadline I will write on weekends as well, or get up extra early before the rest of the family. I think I once managed to write 8,000 words in a day, but my average is closer to 1,000. I would rather have one thousand words (or fewer) of quality than 8,000 of dross (which most of it was!)
Morgen: Oh dear (the dross). 1,000 is still incredible. 300 words a day is a 100,000 novel in a year so you do three a year. What is your opinion of writer’s block? Do you ever suffer from it?
Fiona: No I’ve never suffered from it. I always have loads of ideas. My main problem is finding the time to actually write them!
Morgen: Oh me too, which is why (perhaps rashly but I don’t yet regret it) I’ve quit my day job. What do you like to read?
Fiona: People often raise an eyebrow when I refer to my book as a literary thriller as there is a perception that books should either be ‘genre’ or ‘literary’. But I, and I’m sure other readers, like a mix of both. There are lots of precedents – all of which are the type of books I like to read: a book that has something important to say about the world or the human condition but which is also a gripping good read. Examples include ‘The Interpretation of Murder’ by Jed Rubenfeld, ‘The Historian’ by Elizabeth Kostova, ‘Clay’ by David Almond, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ by Thomas Harris, ‘The Name of the Rose’ by Umberto Eco and ‘The Wire in the Blood’ series by Val McDermid (I suppose the latter are more ‘genre’ but they have a subtle literary quality). I also enjoy books like Yann Martells’ ‘Life of Pi’, ‘The Book Thief’ by Marcus Zusak and ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ by Mark Haddon.
Morgen: Mark comes from Northampton (where I live ). I’ve not him yet but I should track him down (in a non-stalkery way). And Val has agreed to be an interviewee so I hope to bring that to you shortly. What do you do when you’re not writing?
Fiona: I play the clarinet badly, I sing in the church worship band (not too badly) and I hoolahoop exceptionally well.
Morgen: I’m hopeless at that, although owning a hoolahoop would help. Where can we find out about you and your work?
Fiona: http://fiona.veitchsmith.com
Morgen: I’ve really enjoyed this, thank you Fiona.
I then invited Fiona to include an excerpt of her writing and this is taken from her new novel from ‘The Peace Garden’:
The murder charge was only one of the things he had come to South Africa to face; the other was winding her way towards him through dozens of statues of mothers and infants. As she passed a soapstone dog suckling two pups, she stepped into a pool of sunlight, and paused for a moment, enjoying the rare warmth on the crisp winter day.
She was still as beautiful as he remembered, only more so. The braided hair was pulled up into a sophisticated French knot, drawing attention to the poised neck and proud jaw. Her shoulders, still slight, gave way to full breasts and her waist, thicker than it had been, slowly swelled to rounded hips, not unlike those of the silent African women bearing witness in stone to the first meeting of these lovers in two decades.
“Poppy,” he said softly, then louder when she didn’t respond. He stepped out from behind one of the watching women and into her pool of light. She looked, but didn’t speak.
“Poppy!” He said, this time slightly pleading. She smiled, but not with her eyes, then took his hand and led him to a nearby bench. The hand was soft yet cool despite the warming sunshine. They sat together for a long time; Gladwin did not know what else he could say.
Formerly a journalist, Fiona Veitch Smith is a writer of books, theatre plays and screenplays. Her latest novel, The Peace Garden, is a literary thriller set in England and South Africa. It is available as an e-book. Her Young David children’s picture book series is available online and through bookshops in the UK. She is a member of the British Society of Authors and her full list of published books, including ghostwritten books, can be seen there.
Fiona is also the editor of the popular writing advice website The Crafty Writer and her courses attract students from around the world. She has just been commissioned to write the feature screenplay for the adaptation of ‘The Choice’.
Fiona lives with her husband, daughter and two dogs in Newcastle upon Tyne where she lectures in media and scriptwriting at the local universities. She has kindly mentioned this interview on her sites crafty publishing.com and fiona.veitchsmith.com.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children's, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, Fiona Veitch Smith, flash fiction, ghostwriting, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literary, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, Society of Authors, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, thriller, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Welcome to the two hundred and sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with literary and crime author Avril Joy. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Avril. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.
Avril: I started writing about twelve years ago. At the time I was working in a women’s prison on the outskirts of Durham City UK and the Governor decided to appoint a Writer in Residence to work with the women prisoners. That writer was Wendy Robertson. She worked a lot in my classroom. We became great friends and I joined the workshop she ran for the staff including prison officers and teachers. When she decided to put a collection of the women’s work together she asked me to contribute a piece about teaching and about women writing. After I gave it to her, with I might add, some trepidation, she told me she thought I was a writer, so I guess the idea grew from there. I’d been struggling for a lot of years with the desire to be creative, had done some painting and collage, now suddenly I’d found what I was looking for. I was incredibly fortunate in subsequent years to have her as a friend and mentor. I learned so much from her and still do.
Morgen: A lot of established writers (household names, even) say they’re still learning. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Avril: Literary fiction has been my genre to-date but I’ve always been interested in the darker side of human nature and I’ve recently completed a crime novel Blood Tide which will be published in Spring 2012.
Morgen: I love dark. I always say I’m a dark and light writer: crime and humour. What have you had published to-date? If applicable, can you remember where you saw your first book on the shelves?
Avril: I’ve published The Sweet Track – 2007 Flambard Press and most recently on Kindle The Orchid House and When You Hear The Birds Sing – all available through Amazon or linked on my website. I saw the first copy of The Sweet Track on a library shelf in Durham City. That was a very special moment as I’m a big fan of libraries having spent hours in the Public Library as a child.
Morgen: Me too and they’ll feature heavily when I go freelance in the New Year (quiet, no internet connection and a twenty minute / half-hour walk each way to the nearest ones). Have you ever seen a member of the public (whom you don’t know!) reading your book… in any unusual locations?
Avril: No, but someone once told me they saw a news item about trains and a passenger waiting on the platform was reading a copy of The Sweet Track (of course it has nothing to do with trains).
Morgen: How thrilling. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
Avril: My marketing really consists of my blog / website www.avriljoy.com. I also blog for authors electric, a daily blog by professional UK authors independently publishing e-books for Kindle and other devices.
Morgen: Ooh, I’m going to have to check that out, being one of those… well, UK with independent eBooks, I’m working on the ‘professional’ bit.
Avril: I do work quite a bit with writers in the community so that gives me a platform too.
Morgen: It’s all about getting out there, isn’t it. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions and do you think they help with a writer’s success?
Avril: In 2003 I was awarded a Northern Promise Award by New Writing North. This led indirectly to my first publication. I think one of the great things about competition success is that as well as getting you noticed it helps you believe in yourself as a writer. I would definitely encourage all new writers to enter appropriate competitions.
Morgen: New Writing North sounds familiar… if they do anthologies I think I may have one (I’m going to have to check and see if around 2003… wouldn’t that be funny. ). Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?
Avril: I do have an agent but I think increasingly writers are doing it for themselves and not waiting for agents and editors approval.
Morgen: Yep, that’s me. Are your books available as eBooks? If so what was your experience of that process? And do you read eBooks?
Avril: I love e books! The Orchid House and When You Hear The Birds Sing are available on Kindle. I put them onto Kindle myself and although the process can be tricky at first, once you know how, it’s not too difficult and the rewards are great – royalties are up to 70% of all sales – which is much more than you can expect from a conventional publisher.
Morgen: I’ve only gone with Smashwords so far because I knew their style guide was 70+ pages – in the end it wasn’t that tricky and I now have the shell so just slot new pieces into it. Amazon next. Did you have any say in the titles of your books? How important do you think they are?
Avril: My titles are my own. I think titles should attract and intrigue the reader although I’m not sure mine fit this bill. Up until now I would say the cover’s the thing but with e books this is becoming less important.
Morgen: I agree although I think the cover picture you’ve given me is great (and I’d say perfect for eBook – striking colour, large lettering, simple design). Who designed your books’ covers?
Avril: I had a lot of input into my book covers, smaller publishers are great for allowing this. I have chosen all my covers to date. I like simplicity and I go with what I think looks classy. I’ve been lucky as I’ve had some help from my daughter who works in the design field.
Morgen: What was your first acceptance and is being accepted still a thrill?
Avril: My first acceptance was for my first novel The Sweet Track from Flambard Press. They phoned me up and I have to say I was dancing around the room! I don’t think that thrill of recognition diminishes. I experienced it recently when a story of mine was placed in a competition and published in the anthology.
Morgen: I think if a writer wants to write, the thrill will never diminish. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Avril: I’ve had plenty of rejections, mostly via my agent. I’m always upset but after a day or two this fades. I try to deal with it by remembering that the writing is what brings joy and feeds the soul and the rest – success in particular – is often illusory and doesn’t necessarily bring peace or happiness with it.
Morgen: It’s just finding the right thing for the right editor. What are you working on at the moment / next?
Avril: Stories I’ve written about women in prison. I’m calling the collection Beyond The Mask. The first, which is around 10,000 words, When You Hear The Birds Sing is available now for 99p on Kindle. I am hoping to share the proceeds with a charity that supports prisoners.
Morgen: Let’s hope this interview helps a little.
Avril: I’m also working on a sequel to my crime novel.
Morgen: Ooh great. Do you manage to write every day? What’s the most you’ve written in a day?
Avril: I write most days but I’m not strict about it as I don’t have a problem getting the work done. This is probably a throwback to my last, huge, Senior Manager’s job in the prison; everything just seems easy after that. To complete my crime novel I wrote approx. 2,000 words (a chapter a day) for two months while in France. So when I came home I had the first draft of the novel complete.
Morgen: My goodness, that’s two NaNoWriMos in a row. A question some authors dread: where do you get your inspiration from?
Avril: Place is my big inspiration. When I go somewhere new I always seem to find a story. The Orchid House grew out of a visit to the Lost Gardens of Heligan and also my travels in Sri Lanka and India.
Morgen: Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Avril: I mainly get an idea and run with it then stop along the way to think about the plot. I do like to let it develop organically through character, when possible and then do the planning later. With Blood Tide, my crime novel, I found I did have to pay more attention to plot and I did more continuous planning for this novel. But whatever I’m writing I’m always asking myself what’s going to happen next?
Morgen: That’s good because if you do, hopefully your readers will too. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?
Avril: Names are crucial and often the character comes into being when I find the right name. I look everywhere for names, especially on the credits at the end of films and TV programmes and I’m always jotting down names I think I might use. If I’m struggling with a character sometimes I’ll change their name and this can make a huge difference, somehow with a new name I suddenly get them. I look for pictures too – paintings and photographs – as I need to see my characters. But when I can hear their voice that’s when I know I’ve really found them and they are believable.
Morgen: Credits… what a good idea. I’m going to stay a bit longer in the cinema in future. Do you write short stories? If so, apart from the word count, what do you see as the differences between them and novels and why do you think they’re so difficult to get published?
Avril: I do write short stories. I think the difference between a short story and the novel (apart from the most obvious one of length) is that a good short story is less explicit. It’s full of space. It has room for the reader.
Morgen: “It’s full of space.” I love that. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?
Avril: I run writing workshops and conferences with two colleagues at Room To Write and currently I work monthly with a small group of people who are completing their first novels.
Morgen: Room To Write (another site for me to check out ). Who do you first show your work to?
Avril: My agent.
Morgen: A very good place to start. Mine’s my editor, Rachel, although my writing groups get my favourite bits. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Avril: I do tons of editing and think I always will. I believe it’s when the hard work really starts.
Morgen: Having ‘won’ (completed) my fourth NaNo, I’d agree with you there. What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write?
Avril: I just start. I don’t find it difficult. A cup of tea helps but I don’t suffer from writer’s block.
Morgen: Snap. Idea, tea, crack on. Do you write on paper or do you prefer a computer?
Avril: I write in notebooks first usually and transfer to the computer later. I think this is more creative and I’m less likely to let my editor’s head interfere too early in the creative process. I sometimes write direct onto the machine but always, if I do, I try to keep the editor at bay.
Morgen: I’m quicker on my computer but the good thing about writing then typing it up is that it can also be your first edit, plus it uses different parts of the brain apparently. Some writers like quiet, others the noise of a coffee shop etc. Do you listen to music or have noise around you when you write or do you need silence?
Avril: I like the silence but I’m happy to scribble in notebooks in cafes too.
Morgen: Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?
Avril: Some, but on the whole I think you should use what you’ve written. I’m not someone who believes in tearing up your work – it’s just too wasteful.
Morgen: Absolutely not. I cringe when I hear writers say they deleted or shredded some of their writing. Coming back to it later you may well think it’s better (often much better) than you think. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life?
Avril: Favourite: People who say wonderful things about your book – it’s amazing how generous readers are.
Least favourite: When an editor wants your book and your agent thinks it’s sold and then in the end it doesn’t come off – big disappointment. As I’m sure you can guess this happened to me fairly recently!
Morgen: I love getting feedback – even if it’s constructive criticism – it’s how we learn, plus I often get some great ideas from that (Rachel’s good at that). If anything, what has been your biggest surprise about writing?
Avril: That I can do it – I had no notion of being a writer or that it was something I might be able to do.
Morgen: Me neither, but I’m hooked, have been for months and there’s nothing quite like it – the not knowing what’s going to come out. It’s why I wear myself out every NaNo. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Avril: Write every day. Don’t give up when it’s tough. Start a blog and get used to publishing your words. Most of all LOVE what you do.
Morgen: What do you like to read? Any authors you could recommend?
Avril: I’ve just re-read Toni Morrison’s Beloved - it defies description in a few words – so I’ll just say read it if you haven’t already. I love most things by Alice Hoffman and I’m currently enjoying Julian Barnes The Sense of An Ending – very thought provoking.
Morgen: I’ve not read any Toni Morrison (although I’ve heard great things) but do like Alice Hoffman. The only Julian Barnes I’ve read (listened to on audiobook actually) was ‘Arthur and George’ and wish it had been half as long and called ‘George’ (I couldn’t get on with Arthur at all – how funny (peculiar) was that? Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Avril: Oh there are so many! I’m an inspirational quote junkie. At the moment this is sitting scrawled on a piece of paper on my desk: Those who wish to sing always find a song. – Swedish proverb
Morgen: I like that, and writers / inspiration. What do you do when you’re not writing?
Avril: Talk about writing with friends, think about writing, blog, garden a bit, read a lot, drink wine, hang out and watch TV.
Morgen: You’ve mentioned a few already but are there any other writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful and would recommend?
Avril: I go back again and again to Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down The Bones – Freeing the Writer Within. It’s great if you’re a beginner but it’s also refreshing to go back to. For anyone writing a novel I always recommend This Year You Write Your Novel, Walter Mosley. It’s such a slim volume but it tells you all you need to know.
For anyone working on editing their novel I have a number of blog posts under ‘editing your novel’ on www.avriljoy.com on which I’ve had some really good feedback and which people have said they found helpful. Writing Our Way Home is a great site for those interested in the way writing connections with our spiritual life. Advice To Writers is great for the daily quote.
Morgen: Where’s the best place to find out about you and your work?
Avril: www.avriljoy.com
Morgen: What do you think the future holds for a writer?
Avril: The future for writers is wide open and exciting. With the advent of e-books we are witnessing a revolution in publishing and I believe we will see many more writers getting their work published and readers having a much greater choice.
Morgen: I think so too, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it. Every time I get a ‘purchase’ or ‘review’ notification from Smashwords it makes my day. If you could have your life over again, is there anything you’d have done differently (writing-related or otherwise)?
Avril: Started writing earlier!
Morgen: Oh me too (I started at evening classes, lead by crime writer Sally Spedding six years ago). Thank you so much, Avril.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Avril Joy, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, ebooks, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literary, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Welcome to the fifth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, directors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. Today’s is with mixed genre author Sue Roebuck. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate the author further. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here.
Morgen: Hello, Sue. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.
Sue: I live in Portugal, although I’m British, and I love the easy way of life here (even if we’re all tightening our belts at the moment, but then who isn’t?). I’ve always been a writer of some kind or another and my favourite subject at school was English (I was a real nerd because I jumped for joy when it was Drama or Composition Writing). My family are all artistic – my grandmothers were, my father wrote and my brother was just an all-round genius (you should see the caricatures he made of me when I was little, talk about fat!). My brother was my real muse – I could give him a mere suggestion and he’d turn it into a full-blown story in seconds.
Morgen: Wow. Mine’s a great editor. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Sue: I don’t know. LOL. Genres rule me. My published novel falls between genres. When people see it marked M/M (gay), they immediately pigeon-hole it into erotic which makes me mad because it’s not even explicit, it’s more suspense and just happens to be about two homosexual men. Reviewers have called it, “light literary” which suits me fine. I’ve also got a short story coming out in an Anthology soon which is horror / fantasy (more or less) and I’m currently writing a novella which I’d like to be soft horror, but it’s turning out to be inspirational – how weird is that? As I say – genres rule me.
Morgen: I write pretty much everything. I avoid sci-fi (although not intentionally, I just don’t read it) but wrote a piece for Story A Day May 2011 and one reader said it was his favourite so maybe I should write more of it! What have you had published to-date? How much of the marketing do you do?
Sue: My novel, Perfect Score, was published by Awe-Struck Publishing and later Mundania Press (e-book and now paperback) in September 2010 and May 2011. How much marketing? Boy oh boy – too much!! It’s a full-time job and I’m no marketer. I MUCH prefer writing, but that’s life these days. I am cutting down though because I really just want to write.
Morgen: If you count this blog as marketing then I too am doing more of it than writing but when we have to (like for Story A Day and NaNoWriMo) we find the time, don’t we. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?
Sue: Not really, not just now anyway. I was a debut novelist when I went on the submission circuit. I approached agents but they’re all so busy and I wasn’t, probably, hitting the right ones anyway. It’s very difficult to write the synopsis or pitch they want (and they all want something different). After twenty rejections I decided to try publishers directly. I knew I wasn’t going to get much joy from the big boys so I tried smaller, independent publishers. I got a lot of interest from them. One publisher said they’d love the book if I’d work with one of their editors to make it more erotic but I didn’t really want to do that (it didn’t suit the characters). Then two other acceptances came in on the same day! I do believe having an agent to protect your interests and to promote your career is excellent, but at this time I can’t expect that luxury. I would like an agent in the future though if one came along.
Morgen: You mentioned Perfect Score is an eBook, what was your experience of that process? And do you read eBooks?
Sue: Yes, Perfect Score was published first as an eBook. It worked very well – the publishers did everything, the cover art, formatting and I had a wonderful editor (Marie Dees) who “got” the theme perfectly. The publisher kept to their deadlines and published when they said they would, the royalties (ahem, not a lot) come in on time. I’m obviously not going to get rich this way but you never know in the future… Yes I do read eBooks but I still read paperbacks. It depends what comes to hand.
Morgen: I think most people do / will still read paperbacks. eBooks are convenience on the move, aren’t they. What was your first acceptance and is being accepted still a thrill?
Sue: I cried when Perfect Score was accepted because it was a confirmation that the book was readable (my biggest doubt) and that someone wanted it.
Morgen: Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Sue: Rejections are hell! It’s a terrible experience because they send you into the realms of self-doubt. I didn’t, fortunately, dwell on them – just put them into a folder and I don’t think I looked at them again. I understand the process of rejections and that form-letters have to be sent because publishers and agents receive thousands of submissions, but they still hurt.
Morgen: I’m the same. My rejections are in a red folder (and acceptances in a blue one, sadly the former currently outweighing the latter). What are you working on at the moment / next?
Sue: I’m on the horror novella that is turning into inspirational (how did that happen?) LOL. But my main project is a full-length novel which will be suspense. It won’t be M/M. Perfect Score was M/M because it worked best for the characters. This one (currently called When the Moon Fails) is set between the UK and Portugal and US. It features fishermen and a very very bad female bullfighter. I hate corruption and injustice (themes that are very much to the fore in Perfect Score) and they’ll be raising their ugly heads again in When the Moon Fails.
Morgen: You said that your marketing has been outweighing your writing, do you manage to write every day? What’s the most you’ve written in a day?
Sue: I try. Sometimes I mess about on the internet. You see, the marketing side of this business is extremely time-consuming – there’s the blog, the contacts, the groups, Facebook, Twitter, reading and commenting on other blogs, finding other marketing outlets – the other day I did my first professional interview for a newspaper (that was an experience – and I had to speak Portuguese!). Phew! I don’t know what the most I’ve written is. Probably not much because I’m a slow writer.
Morgen: I’m lucky that I think quickly and type quickly, I just need to sit down and do it. What is your opinion of writer’s block? Do you ever suffer from it? If so, how do you ‘cure’ it?
Sue: Only when I was plunged into an acute depression which unfortunately came after a serious illness a couple of years ago. But I’m out of that now, thank God, and the juices are running again. There was no cure in this case, I think. I just gradually crept back into it.
Morgen: Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Sue: Yes, I know the beginning, middle and end, and something about the characters. But the stories tend to run themselves when I get going and I always need to “layer” the characters. Often the final ending is not what I had in mind initially. Perfect Score had twenty-seven versions!
Morgen: Good grief – I’m lucky then with four edits for two of mine. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?
Sue: Only those I wrote years ago, and I’m not always sure where they are (gulp). I wrote a ghost story many years ago which I loved, but I can’t find it now and don’t think I can reproduce it.
Morgen: What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life?
Sue: Isolation is my least favourite and also people’s comments that it’s not a real job, I’m just playing. I also hate people’s reactions to Perfect Score and the fact it’s M/M. Some immediately jump to the conclusion it’s just another “Brokeback Mountain” – I’ve had that comment, and others have said “I don’t think it’s my kind of thing” when they don’t even know what it’s about. My favourite? I just love it when I’m in “full flow”. It’s better than any high that drugs or alcohol can give you. A real adrenalin rush.
Morgen: It’s funny, Sherri Dub said on Tuesday that she hates the solitude, I love it. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Sue: Keep at it and have confidence in yourself. If you think something’s wrong with your writing, it probably is. So go with your instincts and seek professional editing help if you think you need to. Don’t ask your family and friends to help because they won’t give you honest answers. But never give up. If you really love writing, then you’re a writer and people will want to read your work.
Morgen: My mother does. What do you like to read?
Sue: Anything and everything. It does depend on my mood. I’ll go light if necessary or heavy if I’m feeling intelligent enough. I’m reading The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift which is literary, but I’ve just read On My Knees by Tristram La Roche which is erotic M/M – so if that’s not eclectic….
Morgen: Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how invaluable do you find them?
Sue: www.litopia.com (I’m suemont there), http://www.facebook.com/SuRoebuck, http://twitter.com/#!/suemonte; I don’t know if they’re invaluable, but I have to have them LOL.
Morgen: Where can we find out about you and your work?
Sue: http://lauracea.blogspot.com (my blog).
Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Sue: Thank you having me, Morgen!
Morgen: You’re so welcome, Sue, it’s been a pleasure to catch up with you outside of Facebook and Litopia, thank you.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, anthology, author, author spotlight, Awe-Struck Publishing, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, ebooks, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, gay, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, homosexual, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literary, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, Mundania Press, murder mystery, NaNoWriMo, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short story group, Smashwords, story a day, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, sue Roebuck, Tristram La Roche, Twitter, vampire, western, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
You can find out more about Rose and her writing at her blog: http://houseboathouse.blogspot.com, and you can also read one of Rose’s short stories on http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/short-story-for-critique-003-mrs-boffa-by-rose-mary-boehm.
