And the Winner Is!

It's the morning after the night before. Last night was the Festival of Romance 2012 and my Young Adult novel, Future Shadows, won first place in the paranormal romance category! It's always so good to have positive feedback on a script, but to actually come first in a competition is very special - especially when I know how much amazing talent is out there. The evening was full of fun and it was so nice to meet new writer friends and talk about the highs and lows of being an author (more highs than lows I'm glad to say).

One of the nicest comments to be made about my script was how invested in the protagonists the judging panel felt. During the writing of the book I fell in love with my three main characters Erin, Adam and Hal and I'm so glad that others felt the same. You never know how readers are going to react to your characters and so I'm delighted that the panel felt that the book's central love triangle story struck the right note.

Future Shadows is my first, as of yet unpublished, attempt at both a young adult novel and a paranormal romance. Of course, knowing that everyone's on the lookout for the next Twilight was one of the motivating factors in writing it but I also wanted to tap into the darker side of my psyche to see what would come out. The cover blurb for Future Shadows follows, you can of course read the opening page on this blog:

Suddenly it didn’t matter where he had come from, where he was headed or what his reasons had been for hiding the truth. All that mattered was that somewhere along his journey we had found each other, no matter how briefly.

Occasionally there are two people who are so meant for each other that destiny will overcome even time itself to bring them together. Erin Marshal doesn’t believe in fate but her life is turned upside down by the sudden appearance of Adam Hunt.

Who is Adam? Where has he come from? Who, or what, is pursuing him? As Erin struggles to unravel the web of confusion a distant menace draws closer leaving murder in its trail. Finally confronted with the truth, Erin must re-evaluate everything she thinks she knows about Adam. It’s amazing how staring down the barrel of a gun can crystallise the thought process – especially when it’s the love of your life who’s about to pull the trigger.

 

Erin can only fight what is flesh and blood. It is Adam who must face the shadows on the horizon and be willing to sacrifice everything to remain with Erin.

All she’s asking for is eternity.

 

 

 

How did you become an author?

This is the question I am most frequently asked during author talks.   I always know that by this people mean, when did you first get published?  The assumption is that you're not a 'proper' author unless you're published, with your own name on the cover.  When I was first published I felt I wasn't a 'real writer' as it was under a pseudonym.  Twenty books later I still hadn't managed to convince myself I was doing anything other than the writing equivalent of painting by numbers and it wasn't until Petrify was published last year that I really felt I'd 'arrived'.  However, I digress. 

Okay, so, where did it all begin?  Well, my mother would say that as a child I would lie on the floor scribbling away.  I remember writing a story for my best friend when we were twelve and avid fans of a-ha.  She was passionately in love with Morten Harket (anyone born in the seventies won't require an explanation) and so I penned a happily ever after story which involved my friend, Morten and a beach on Antigua (ahh, the thrill of artistic license).  It might not have  been the stuff that wins the Orange prize for fiction but it gave me my first insight into what it was like to write for an audience.

A few years later I decided to get serious and bashed out on a typewriter a detectives on horseback novel which I sent out with high hopes.  These hopes were soon extinguished as the rejections began dropping on the doormat.  One of the rejections came from Penguin but some kind person to whom I shall forever be grateful had scribbled at the bottom of the standard letter, you might try Working Partners, they publish this sort of thing. 

For those who may not know, Working Partners is a packaging company.  They have a brilliant team of editors who come up with terrific ideas for books which are then matched to suitable authors who write to spec.  I duly approached Working Partners and not too long after was invited to 'try out' for their Animal Ark series.  I was unsuccessful but they did provide me with detailed feedback on my manuscript.  A while later they invited me to try out for their Heartland series and this time I was taken on as one of their writers.  I'll never forget the day I played the voicemail saying that I'd been successful - a twenty something turning cartwheels is not the most graceful sight to behold! 

The best thing about working with a packaging company is the help and advice you are given by the editors.  I was first privileged to work with Amber Caraevo before coming under the guidance of the very lovely Victoria Holmes.  We have now worked on four series together (Heartland, Chestnut Hill, Champions Yard, Sanctuary) and Vicky makes the process from beginning to end a complete joy.  However, I soon came to realise that to reach the next rung on the writing ladder was to secure an agent....

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them...

Are great authors born or can people build upon average writing skills to become great authors?  I was interested to once hear Jackie Collins describe herself as a storyteller (with sales of 500 million this lady must surely be at the top of the storytelling game).  She was drawing a distinction between her art and the writings of other authors who she would describe as great.

For sure, creativity is something you are born with.  It runs in families.  As an assessor of specific learning difficulties I know that where there is dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, etc, there is a strongly creative nature.  With a plethora of conductors, composers, musicians, artists and poets, creativity certainly runs in my family, but everyone has worked hard at their art which has often had to come second to a day job.

I remember one occasion after I had submitted my second novel, one of my editors scribbled on my manuscript alongside a particularly laborious piece of prose, “I’ve just stabbed my eyeballs out with a spoon.”  She even drew a little picture to demonstrate how tortured my writing was making her feel!  I’d like to think I’ve come a long way since then but know I have much further to travel.  I often pick up a book, turn to the first page and think, I’d love to be able to write like that.  I’m currently reading Jodi Picoult’s Lone Wolf and am absolutely hooked both by her storytelling skills and the effortless writing.  Are such authors born or have they just worked very hard at their art?

I know that many authors would not want the greatness that is thrust upon them.  The authors I know are private individuals who, whilst happy to see their work in print, are less enthusiastic about participating in the publicity that accompanies it!  Increasingly these days an important part of the author’s role is self-publicity.  Not only do you have to turn out a manuscript in an ever competitive climate that gets you noticed, you also have to demonstrate the ability to market yourself.

Of course, there are those ‘authors’ who have ‘greatness’ of a different sort and choose to cash in on their fame by putting their name on a book cover.  For us plebs who have struggled for years to hone our art and secure a book deal this can be the most discouraging practice of all.  I can happily take on board editorial criticism – pictures included! – as part and parcel of improving my writing skills; far harder to swallow are the tabloid headlines of £400,000 advances to those in the public eye to whom writing is not of any great personal importance. 

But the pay cheque sure is…..

The Final Edit

Whenever I finish a piece of writing, be it a proposal, a short story or a novel I'm always in such a tearing hurry to get my agent's/editor's feedback that almost as I'm writing The End I'm attaching it to send.  (There's a poem in there). 

The truth is that a cooling off period should be written into every author's schedule.  By this I mean letting enough time lapse so a writer can grow sufficiently detached to return to the project and view it objectively.

I've often been delighted with a piece only to return to it after a cooling off period to think, did I really write that?!

Patience is one of the best, and hardest, lessons an author can learn.

Suffering from Writer's Block... or should that be Blogger's Block?