Interview with Lia Mills

Lia Mills is the author of the novels Another Alice and Nothing Simple, the memoir In Your Face an account of Lia's experience with and recovery from oral cancer and most recently the historical novel Fallen which I reviewed last week Read my Review here 
Lia will be part of a panel on The Literature of War at The Dalkey Book Festival this Saturday at 2pm. Find out more about Lia and her writing on her blog http://libranwriter.wordpress.com/

Lia was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule to answer some questions for me.

1. Is historical fiction your preferred genre and do you think you will continue to write about the past?

I’d never written historical fiction before and I found it challenging. It can be tricky to balance the claims of history with the demands of fiction. But the question behind Fallen is a contemporary one: what’s it like if your city erupts in sudden violence you don’t understand? The week before Fallen’s official publication date, I heard a radio journalist reporting from Ukraine.  He said that there are extremists on both sides, but the vast majority of ordinary people are trying desperately hard to keep normal life going.  That’s what the characters in Fallen are trying to do, while the world they know falls apart.

It took a long time to write, and when I was in the throes of it I swore I’d never write another historical novel, but now I’m not so sure. There’s something very exciting and deeply satisfying about it.

2. Did you enjoy researching Dublin's history and WW1 for this novel?

I love research, I could spend forever reading my way around a subject, following trails, making connections.  I love the thrill of discovery.  It’s a bit like a legitimate form of gossip: you can hoover up information about people and speculate about connections without hurting anyone.

With the research for Fallen I got very involved with the story because the stakes were so high. I love Dublin, and it gets bad press about the Rising – which is ridiculous, since Dublin is where it happened and Dublin paid the price.  As for the WWI material – I didn’t intend to write about the war when I began to write Fallen, but I found I couldn’t leave it out. The more I learned about the Irishmen who fought in British forces (current estimates range from 200,000 to 300,000); about their reasons for fighting and what happened to them during and after the war, the angrier I got on their behalf. In some ways writing the novel felt like an act of restitution, to the city and to those forgotten soldiers.

3. What came first plot or character?

Interesting question. The historical events of the Rising suggested a template of sorts, but in the end I had to work against that so that Katie’s story could live.  Actually Dote, who is a minor character now, was the first character to emerge.  She and Katie’s mother were there from the very beginning. I knew Katie was there but I couldn’t feel her, I just knew her name.

4. Will you write more about Katie and Hubie?

I honestly don’t know.  Fallen was originally planned as the first in a trilogy of novels but the other two have slunk back into the shadows – for now, anyway.

5. what is the next project?

I’m working on short stories at the minute, and mulling over possibilities for the next novel.  All going well I’ll start work on that in October.  I find the autumn a great time of year for beginnings.

6. What is a typical writing day for you?

I love to start early, before anyone else is awake, and bring that sleep-befuddled consciousness straight to the desk, work my way out of it.  It’s exhilarating to know that I’ve done a substantial amount of work by the time everyone else gets up. I think this is crucial for people who struggle with finding time to write: try getting up earlier.  If you’ve broken the back of a scene or solved a plot problem before breakfast, you’ll be ready for whatever the day might throw at you by way of crisis or distraction, your best work is already done.

After the regular morning routine (breakfast, school run, walking the dog) I go back to the desk for several more hours. The range of work that goes into writing is more varied than most people realise. A lot depends on what stage I’m at, whether I’m writing or re-writing or researching – or recharging my batteries. I might spend days in a library, or reading, or visiting places where I want to set something.  Administrative and top-of-the-head work is for the afternoons. If I’m at the re-writing stage, I’ll often work all the way through from early morning to night, I could be at it for fifteen hours. On the other hand, sometimes I take whole days off between projects, just to read for pleasure.

7. Are you a planner or do your write without planning?

I usually have no idea what I’m at when I start.  I take breaks during the writing of a draft to summarise what I already have and try to make a plan, to get my bearings and give me at least the illusion of being in control. I make lists and chronologies and attempt outlines.  I make calendars and give myself deadlines. Then I go back into the draft and ignore all of those lists until I surface to attempt new ones.

8. Do you think fiction offers a good medium to better understand the complexities of the past, especially issues like Irish soldiers serving in the British army and the confusion and bemusement of most Dubliners when the Rising occurred? The official versions of history, as taught in schools often seems so black and white (us and them).

That’s exactly why I wanted to write the novel.  I was really interested in what it might have been like to experience the Rising as a mass of violent confusion, not knowing what’s going on or who’s behind it or where it will end.  Fiction is all about perspective – I suppose history is too, but history shines a big bright light over events, causes and outcomes and so on, while fiction burrows in under the skin to imagine the experience, how it might feel.  Obviously fiction is partial and imperfect, it has its own limitations and bias, but those are clear. In Fallen, we know all along that the Rising is being experienced by Katie; we know what her confusions, biases and prejudices are.

When I was doing the research for the novel, I began to seriously question the official gloss on the events of the Rising.  The casualties were so much higher than I knew. 440 people were killed – more than rebels and British army put together – and more than a thousand were seriously injured. The damage to the city was so extensive it ran to millions of pounds even then and 100,000 people had to go on relief in the aftermath.

When my generation were being taught about the Rising, the story was heavily edited. The emphasis was all on the rights and wrongs of the thing.  You were on one side or the other, for or against, right or wrong.  I never heard about the body count, or a single word about the many people who went out under fire to bring the wounded to hospital or to fight the fires, or those who opened their homes as temporary casualty stations to strangers, no matter what side they were on. That’s a hell of a silence, when it comes to teaching young people about the choices we make in life, the kinds of people we want to be.

The story of the Rising is our foundation myth, and we love it.  I love it. I admire the vision and courage that brought those people out to fight. We owe them a lot, even if subsequent generations have mangled their ideal.  I get a lump in my throat every time I stand in the Stonebreaker’s Yard, or think about how they had to tie the wounded Connolly to a chair so they could shoot him; or the O’Rahilly, writing a note to his wife while he died in a doorway. The stories ­– of the Asgard, or of Grace Gifford marrying Joe Plunkett in the chapel at Kilmainham hours before his execution – will always be thrilling.  But I do wonder why people still insist on referring to the sixteen men who were executed as if theirs were the only lives lost, when the truth is rather different.

Thank you Lia for those great answers. Fallen is published by Penguin Ireland and is available now.

Author Interview with Niamh Boyce

Niamh Boyce kindly agreed to take part in the #mywritingprocess meme when I tagged her and this wonderful insight into her writing world is the result. Thank you Niamh.

Picture courtesy of The Irish Examiner

What are you currently working on? Is it historical fiction?

I’m terribly superstitious with regards talking about a novel before it’s finished! I’ve done it before - chatted about a work in progress - and it seemed to disperse the energy I needed for the book, and the whole thing went flat on me. Though it’s really hard for me NOT to tell you, (I love talking about my work) I’ll have to stay silent and keep it secret till the novel is complete. But, it is historical...

What is it about your work and your writing process that differs from others? (what works for you?)
Probably the above! I like to work on the early drafts of a novel alone, without any feedback from anyone else. I need to convince myself of the world of my book, so I’m my only reader. Obviously there comes a stage where I feel it’s done, and I will submit to publishers and probably do nothing else but talk about it. On the other hand, I enjoy getting feedback on poetry. For some reason I feel differently about my novels and short stories. Also, I write that first draft in longhand. I love notebooks, and I enjoy the physically action of the pen on the page.


Why do you write what you do? and why do you write?
I don’t know. I try not to over think why I write what I do. I write what comes, what fascinates me ... hidden lives, folktales, superstitions, secrets, myths, power, revenge, murder, sex, death, art... I like the territory covered by writers like Emma Donahue, Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter, Pat Mc Cabe and John Connolly. As for why I write – it’s a compulsion. I have a love of language, but it’s more than that, when I try to pinpoint the truth of something or other that bothers me, I always fall back on writing about it – I guess it’s how I make sense of the world.


What is a typical writing day?
Though I’d really love the luxury of being able to write full time, I don’t actually have a writing day - I teach writing workshops, and have a job, and children - so I grab a few hours most weekday mornings, at around 5.30 am before anyone else gets up, and do my writing then. It’s a nice time, the house is quiet and there’s something special about the light, but it means I get tired (ie cross as a bag of cats) very early in the evening, and often go to bed before my kids do!


Any advice you would offer to aspiring authors?
Don’t give up, keep writing, and keep enjoying it.
Set your own goals and deadlines – short term and long term.
Don’t compare your writing journey to anyone else’s.
Write what you love, and don’t be afraid to go wild in your writing.
Don’t decide on one form and stick to it, try lots of different forms - plays, monologues, poems, slam poetry, novellas, novels, radio stories, flash fiction, haikus, rants... or a mixture of all the above.
Your writing is yours. Never let anyone take the pleasure out of creating from you.
Don’t talk about writing. Don’t read about writing. Write.


Your favourite authors/books?
I love Cormack Mc McCarthy’s The Road, Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle, Marion Keyes’s Watermelon, Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, Emma Donahue’s Astray, Sarah Water’s Affinity, Carol Ann Duffy’s Rapture, Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber... I also like Jeannette Winterson, Alice Munroe, Emily Bronte, Milan Kundera, and The Grimm Brothers. And biographies and autobiographies of artists, writers and actors- especially actors from the early days of Hollywood - Bette Davis, Mae West, and Louise Brooks are my favourites.

In case you didn't know Niamh Boyce is a Irish writer, winner of The Novel Fair in 2012 and a winner of the Hennessy XO New Irish Writer of the Year Award. Niamh's debut novel The Herbalist is available in paperback from Penguin Ireland and I reviewed it here

Hazel Gaynor Writing Process Interview

Q1  What are you currently working on?

With my debut novel, THE GIRL WHO CAME HOME, recently released, I'm currently busy with promotion, which is a really fun side of the writing process, and one I've never really experienced before. I've done lots of radio interviews with stations in the U.S. and Ireland and have been busy answering lots of great interview questions for book bloggers and the press. So much of the job of writing is spent in isolation so it's been really great to connect with readers and reviewers and come out from behind the laptop for a while! Other than that, I'm expecting final edits back any day for my second novel, DAUGHTERS OF THE FLOWERS, which will be published in early 2015. I'm also deep in the first draft of my third novel and tinkering with an idea for a screenplay.

Q2 What is about your work and your writing process that is different from other writers?

I suspect I'm very similar to most other writers in that I struggle and I suffer from self doubt and I procrastinate and I wonder how on earth I'm ever going to write another book! I consider myself to be on a wonderful learning curve and I expect (hope) to get better with each novel I write. Every book is an opportunity to stretch yourself that bit further and to learn from the experience of each novel. I'm a long way from where I want to be as a writer, and I know that I have lots more words and novels to write in order to get there, but I am relishing the process and the experience and am excited to see where my writing might go in the future. I'm probably way more disorganised than other writers. Thankfully, nobody can see my desk!

Q3 Why do you write what you do? (and why do you write?)

I write because I simply cannot not write (if that makes sense!) Even when I was at my lowest point, without an agent and with two novels that had failed to secure a publishing deal, I found myself back at the laptop or scribbling ideas in my notebook. It was the only way to lift myself out of my dreadful writing funk. I think if writing is in you there's not much you can do about it but let yourself write. I write historical fiction because I'm fascinated by the past. There are so many untold, intriguing stories of people, events and places and I really find it a wonderful basis to explore for a novel. I write fiction, rather than non-fiction, because I love the creativity. It's the possibilities and the imagined insight into what someone might have felt, thought or said in those historical settings that really interests me. I am excited by the lives of the people whose stories I want to tell in my own words - it is that which gets me out of bed at 6am.

Q4 What is the writing process like for you, what is a typical day?

There isn't really much that is 'typical' about my day. At the moment, I work during school hours (8.30am to around 1pm) and the afternoons are mainly about family and playdates and after school activities, but I can sometimes get a little work done, too. With my publisher and agent being based in New York I also find that I work at the end of the day, when the boys are in bed. It's a little chaotic and ideally it would all be far more organised, but that's not how my life is at the moment. It rarely is when young children are involved! I feel incredibly lucky to be doing a job I adore which gives me time with the children, so I have to be flexible and juggle to allow that to happen. Of course I have visions of the perfect writing space with no interruptions and a sweeping landscape to inspire me and weeks of uninterrupted creative time, but for now the attic, a sleepy cat and a messy desk is just perfect, because that's my normal.

Finally any advice that you would offer to aspiring authors?

Write what you want to write and what you are really passionate about. Don't try to force yourself to write a novel about something if that something doesn't excite you. It may have turned into a bestseller for one author, but that doesn't mean it will do the same for you. I wrote The Girl Who Came Home in 2011 and I am as excited and enthusiastic about the subject matter now as I was when I first wrote my research notes three years ago. I hope to be talking about the book and Titanic for many more years. Write the book you would want to read - and don't give up. Ever. You never know what's ahead.

Thank you so much Hazel for taking time out of your busy schedule to pop by. I had the pleasure of meeting Hazel at the launch for The Girl Who Came home and here is the girl herself (the book that is) with the rest of my haul from the bookshops of NYC

The Dead Ground Blog Tour Review and Q&A with author Claire McGowan

The Dead Ground by Claire McGowan is the second book in the Paula Maguire series. Paula is a forensic psychologist working with the missing persons unit in Ballyterrin a Northern Irish town close to the border with the Republic. It is a town full of secrets and uneasy alliances. It is also Paula's home town and she has a personal interest in finding missing people as her own mother disappeared when Paula was a teenager. In the previous book The Lost, Paula had investigated the disappearances of two teenage girls and was also briefly involved with her married boss and her ex Aidan now she is pregnant and doesn't know who the father is or even if she plans to keep the baby. The town is held captive by heavy snow and ice and gripped by fear as a baby is taken from the local hospital and a local doctor who helps arrange abortions for women  is also missing. There is a strong theme of babies, mothers and of course death running through this novel and of course the religious and moral views held by different sides of the community. This is a compelling and gripping read. I would recommend you read The Lost first, although you could read this novel as a standalone but Claire's writing is so brilliant you'll want to read more. If you enjoy thought provoking crime fiction and are a fan of Tana French, Arlene Hunt, Louise Phillips then you'll love this. I was lucky enough to get Claire to stop writing long enough to answer a few questions, check them out below. 

1. Have you always been a writer or is it something you came to after trying other things?

 I’ve been writing since I was about nine, and it was the only thing I wanted to do, but I could never finish anything, so I had other jobs for about six years. But I was quite lucky and got published when I was 30, which is quite young for writing.

2. Do you plan your books very carefully or just see where the characters take you?

 I’m not much of a planner at all. I know what needs to happen to the characters and roughly where the story will end up, but for the rest I just trust that the story will take over and get me there. Of course now I’m at the tying up loose ends stage on book 4, I deeply regret this approach.

3. How many more books about Paula will you write?

 It very much depends on my publishers, but I’d like to do at least six. There’s a whole backstory that needs to be explained, concerning what happened to Paula’s mother.

4. You create a very powerful sense of place in your books, do you came back to visit Northern Ireland often?

Yes, I go back at least six times a year, to see family or do book events. I love listening to local radio when I’m there, to get a handle on the voice and also pick up ideas.

5. What is the best writing advice you have received and what advice would you give to those who have just set out on the writing path?

 There’s a book called Writing Down the Bones which I love, and which is all about letting go in your writing and freeing yourself to write anything at all, even if it’s rubbish – just getting words on the page. My advice is always to try and do at least 1,000 words a day for several months. It’s a lot less than it sounds when you aren’t editing. Then after a short while you will have a book that you can work with. So much better than blank pages!

6. Who are your favourite authors and why?

I always admire writers like Tana French and Sarah Waters who are very commercial but also brilliant writers saying something important. I’m a big fan of Lionel Shriver too – she uses detail in such a convincing way. 

Kevin McCarthy Interview

Kevin McCarthy's second novel published earlier this year is shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards, you can vote for him here and check out my review of Irregulars here.

1. Who are your favourite authors/biggest influences and why?

My favourite authors? Like favourite films, this list changes often, but I do keep going back to Joseph Conrad and one of his acolytes, American novelist Robert Stone. As far as influences go, both of them would be big influences in terms of outlook and the notion of average men, working men and women put in positions of moral (and actual) peril. I’ve huge, big love for Derek Robinson as well, and his novel, Goshawk Squadron—nominated for the first ever Booker prize, incidentally—was a real influence on Peeler. Robinson went to great lengths to debunk the mythologies of the air war in WWI and instead reveal the grim realities of the pilot’s lot. I took this as a template for my treatment of the policeman’s lot in Ireland during the War of Independence. Alan Furst, as well, is one of the masters, and qualifies as a favourite because I ration his books and only read them on holidays so as not to read them all too quickly. I did the same with Patrick O’Brien.

As my novels are crime fiction—historical crime, if you will—I recognise Michael Connolly’s Harry Bosch novels as a real influence. So to Joseph Wambaugh, Per Wahloo and Maj Sjovall, writing brilliant Scandinavian detective fiction with a lefty bent before it went all dragons and tattoo trendy!

Recently, I’ve gone through a big Alice McDermott phase—one of THE great Irish American novelists, in my humble opinion.


2. What draws you to the period you write about; Ireland during the War of Independence and Civil War?

I think it’s mainly the turbulence of the period, and the fact that over time (and with research) I came to discover how simplistic has been the conventional historical narrative re the period. The one I was taught as a kid seemed so black and white, good v evil, Brit v Irish etc. that I just knew there had to be more to it and sure enough, there was. It was also a period of great conflict and terrible grief across Europe, in the wake of the Great War and I wanted to fit Ireland and her troubles into that pan-European experience, I suppose. But mostly I thought the ambiguity, the messy reality of Irish men shooting other Irish men—cops, mainly—in back alleys and ditches, was the perfect setting for crime novels that would examine the underbelly of the founding of a nation. That sounds a bit pretentious, I realise, and I wasn’t thinking as such when I started writing Peeler. Mainly I was interested in the idea of writing about something that hadn’t been much examined in fiction at the time, ie the experience of the Irish constable as both predator and prey, trying to solve a case of terrible murder, in the midst of violent revolution.




3. Were you a bookish child and what were your favourite books in childhood?

I was. I read pretty much anything I could get my hands on, really. At one stage I read every Hardy Boys novel there was and then, secretly, every Nancy Drew as well. The first real ‘adult’ book I read was ‘Alive’ by Piers Paul Read, when I was 9 or 10, about the rugby team that crashed in the Andes and were forced to resort to cannibalism to survive. I went through an obsession with survival stories and my mother encouraged it, really, buying me any she could find. I loved crime novels as well, of any kind, discovering Joseph Wambaugh when I was about 13 and loving the illicitness of much of his writing. I still love his books.

4. Are you a planner or a pantser when it comes to writing?

I tend to be a pantser for about the first third of the book—though this is kind of disingenuous as I’ve spent months thinking about a book before I finally find myself sitting down to write it—and then usually write myself into a cul-de-sac and have to plan out the rest. This plan is flexible, however, and often I’m surprised by the turns the story takes as I’m writing it. Also, I occasionally come across something in researching that totally changes the course of the story, making the plan somewhat redundant. But then again, this is not a bad thing. Someone once said—can’t remember who—that “if I’m not surprised by what happens in my book, how can I expect the reader to be surprised?”



5. Best writing advice you ever received?

Don’t give up the day job! That sounds flip but it’s actually very good advice as there is simply no way to make a living as a novelist without hustling so much for work that it affects the quality of your fiction. (And I know several writers for whom this is the case.) A day job allows a writer to write what he wants to without much concern for the market or fear that his/her kids won’t be able to eat unless you publish something, anything!

Write drunk, edit sober…again, somewhat sarcastic, Papa’s advice, but I believe not to be taken literally. He means, I think, to write one’s drafts quickly, mindlessly, without inhibition or restraint and then to edit with the cold, sober critical eye you’ve suppressed thus far.

To this, I’ll add my own bit of advice: Get the damn draft done! Don’t edit as you go along, just get the thing done. Anything you write now, no matter how rubbish you think it is, can be fixed later. A stack of pages is a stack of pages, crap or not, while a fraught and polished ten pages is really nothing to work with and not enough to drive you on to finish. A writer’s greatest enemy is self-doubt—this is shit, I can’t write, I can’t think of a word that works, I have no right to be competing with the big boys and girls when I write this kind of garbage—and one way to vanquish self-doubt is to drown it under a weight of written—however badly—pages. Nothing inspires a writer to sit down at his desk like a stack of already-written pages to work with.


6. What are you working on at the moment?

I’m working on a stand-alone novel—separate from the O’Keefe series—set during the Indian Wars in post-Civil War America. I’m about a third way done with it and it might be time to write down some sort of plan, actually. I've been researching it for over a year and writing sporadically. Hoping to go away for a month in the summer and get some sort of draft done.


7. Your three desert island reads?

Depends on the day! I would probably take along an Alan Furst, not sure which one as they’re all brilliant. Ummm, SAS Survival Guide? Rick Stein’s Great Seafood Recipes?


8. Your favourite fictional character (your's and someone else's)

Let’s see… I really like Nora Flynn from Irregulars. She is a CID Detective Officer in what is essentially a Free State hit squad. She is the result of a great bit of story-shifting research I came across. I read that the Criminal Investigation Department in 1922 had 6 female agents/detective officers on their books that were ‘cloaked as typists.’ They were armed and played a vital part in the rather nasty work of the CID. Originally I’d written her character as a man and then realised what an opportunity I’d be missing. She is the first female protagonist I’ve written and I have to say, I’m really proud of her. I asked my wife if she read realistically as a female character—does she act, think, react like a real flesh and blood woman would--and she replied that, yes, she did, and “I really don’t like her!” I do like her though, compromised though she is.

Someone else’s? Hmm. I love the two knucklehead, surfer patrolmen in Wambaugh’s recent Hollywood Station trilogy. They are, at the same time, hilarious, frightening and very believable. The kind of cops you both would and wouldn’t like to be arrested by, depending on the surf conditions.


9. How much research do you do for your novels and where?

Loads and loads and wherever I have to go, I go. I spent a brilliant week in Wyoming last summer, researching the book I’m currently writing and hope to go back this summer again. It’s one of the fun things about writing historical fiction.

Yes, you do have to read some pretty dry stuff as well, but mostly, the research is fascinating. And it had better be because you shouldn’t be writing about something if you don’t love it, be it the period or the event or whatever. I’ve been to archives, here and in the UK, the Imperial War Museum, National Library and every pub in Irregulars. All in the name of research, of course!







10. What books (and writers) would you recommend for anyone who wants to learn more about Ireland in the early twentieth century.

Fiction wise, anything by O’Flaherty, but The Assassin is a particular favourite of mine. It’s pulpy but gives such a rich sense of the bitterness and latent violence in the period immediately following the Civil War in Ireland. The Informer is also wonderful. Peeler and Irregulars by Kevin McCarthy? ;)

Non-fiction, the memoirs by Ernie O’Malley, Tom Barry, Dan Breen, invaluable and thrilling in their own way.

Thanks so much Kevin

Reviews and Interviews coming Very Soon

Reviews

The Golem and the DJinni by Helene Wecker

Longbourn by Jo Baker

Bellmann and Black by Diane Setterfield

and Interviews with Irish authors Kevin McCarthy and Caroline Finnerty

Author Interview with Shirley Benton

 Shirley Benton is the author of Can we Start again? and Looking for Leon, Pictured below. She was a panel guest at The Literary Ladies Evening which I hosted last summer in Drogheda and she is pictured below with fellow Irish writers Michelle Jackson and Helen Moorhouse. 

        1.   Did you always want to write?
Oh yes, particularly when I was younger and was being asked what I wanted to do when I grew up – mind you, I kept that to myself whenever I had my consultations with the career guidance teacher at school. Even back then, I knew I’d be told to do something else if I ever wanted to make a living. It was always at the back of my mind, though, even when I went on to work in industries that weren’t in any way related to writing. I always thought the sense of achievement of seeing your book on the shelves would be huge, and I aspired to experience that feeling one day myself. 

2. What was your favourite book as a child?

When I was very young, it was the series of Noddy books by Enid Blyton rather than just one particular book. I moved on to Enid’s obligatory Malory Towers and St. Clare’s books, then graduated to the Sweet Valley High series by Francine Pascal. 

3.When/where/how do you find the time to write?(do you have a separate writing desk or room?)

I have an office – a very neglected office. The daily plan is that I spend at least three hours there at night after the children have gone to bed. The reality is that I grab time here and there during the day because I usually don’t have a block of three hours in the evenings, due to various family and work commitments. When the plan occasionally works out, it is fabulous – but the reality is more frantic than the aspiration!

4.Who/what inspires your writing?

The fact that I know this is what I want to do for a living inspires me to write, although that’s possibly more of a motivation than an inspiration!

5. What advice would you give aspiring authors?

If writing a book is something you really want, you have to be prepared to sacrifice something and just make the time for it – not tomorrow, not next week – today. It could be something as simple as cutting out a TV show that lasts an hour and you’re not really keen on it anyway. There’ll always be a reason to put off writing your book, but you owe it to yourself to try if it’s what you really want – and nobody will do it for you or make that time for you. It’s entirely within your control to make your dream a reality, and that’s a powerful position to be in.

6.What's the best advice you ever got?

I suppose it’s an offshoot of what I said above – it’s the old Nike classic, 

           7.Do you have a favourite fictional character that you love to write about? 

I actually don’t. I guess people writing a series of books would, but all of my books are standalone. 

8.Have you ever/Would you ever base a character on a real person?

No 

9.why? 
I think it’s asking for trouble to do that, because I’m sure some folks would recognise themselves! I also think it would exploit people. Even for “nasty” characters, I would never base one on someone I didn’t like in real life. 


10.What do you think of people who dismiss women's books/popular fiction as chick lit and say it is a passing fad or just frivolous?

If it’s a passing fad, it’s a very long one! I don’t think women’s fiction as a genre will ever be defunct. As regards frivolity, well, I personally think chick-lit is a misleading label that doesn’t accurately reflect the content of the vast majority of women’s fiction books. I can think offhand of various books that are classed as chick-lit and deal with alcoholism, depression and coping with death. If those issues were explored in a book written by a man, would the book be dismissed as being frivolous? 

I often wonder what exactly is/are the distinguishing factor(s) between a book written by a woman and aimed at the female market that isn’t classified as chick-lit, and a book written by a woman and aimed at the female market that is classified as chick-lit. For example, I recently read   a book written by a woman that focuses on a love story, and this particular book is very much not being marketed as chick-lit. However, a lot of women’s fiction that contains love stories will instantly be classified as chick lit. So what’s the difference? Is it the humour? The tone? And if so, aren’t these criteria rather subjective and arbitrary anyway? Why are some books deemed to be so much more worthy than others?

Personally, I don’t let the label worry me too much. As long as people who read my books enjoy them, I’m happy. However, I do think the dismissal of chick lit as fluff is disempowering for women – but I choose not to let that get to me, and I focus on enjoying what I’m doing instead.

11.How do you think the e-book will affect the book world and your career in writing?

I hope it can only affect it in a positive way, in that it will help authors – including me - to reach a wider audience. 

12.How long did it take to write your first book?

It took eleven months to write, if I remember correctly. 

            13.What's the hardest part about writing?

For me, time is always my enemy. There’s always so much I want to do relating to writing, but there’s only so much time you can make in your schedule to perform writing-related tasks without neglecting some other aspects of your life. It’s not enough anymore to write a book and get it published – you need to actively make sure it meets an audience and get involved in marketing it, and that takes time. I really enjoy it all, but I am usually scrambling to find time to do everything I need to do!

14.What do you think of the 50 Shades phenomenon? what next?

I haven’t read any of the trilogy and probably won’t because it doesn’t appeal to me at all, but I think it’s just one of those phenomenons that only come along every few years as a result of a combination of factors, and although its success will be analysed and attempts will probably be made to replicate its level of success, it’ll be impossible to do so. As for what’s next, I think I can safely say that nobody really knows – which some people would consider quite frustrating and others would see as being very exciting, because anything is possible.

This will be the last of this series of Interviews as I will be introducing two brand new regular interview features called My Life in Books and My Writing Life. Please get in touch if you would like to take part in either. I am looking for writers, bloggers, publishers, readers basically anyone who works with or loves books.

An Interview with Michelle Jackson author of 4am In Las Vegas

1.
Did you always want to write?

I didn't always want to be a writer but I did always love to read. I studied in the national college of art and design when I left school which was always my dream. I enjoyed my five years there and went on to do design work before becoming a teacher - writing came to me after my daughter was born and I always refer to her as my muse. I had become very frustrated by my own artwork and I was never pleased with anything that I produced. the medium of words suits me much better and I wasn't burdened with any preconceptions about literature that I seemed to have with the visual arts. Writing came very naturally and it is still such a pleasure to sit down at my laptop and work on a novel.

2.
What was your favourite book as a child?

As a child I used to often stay in my grandmothers and she always had a pile of Mills and Boon books bedside her bed and I would sneak one under my blankets and read until the small hours. I suppose it is no surprise that I am now writing romantic fiction!

3.When/where/how do you find the time to write?( do you have a separate writing desk or room?)

I write in bed and although I know it is probably not good for my back it is where I am the most comfortable. I am very fortunate to have a view of the sea from my bedroom window and i enjoy looking out while I write. I work part time as an art teacher and have an active part in my children's after school activities so I tend to squeeze my writing time into the mornings that I am off or at night when the children are in bed.

4.Who/what
inspires your writing?



Life inspires my writing and as I enjoy to travel very much I like to weave the settings of different places into my stories. I feel that they help me create a colourful texture and tapestry through my writing.

5.What
advice would you give aspiring authors? and 6.What's
the best advice you ever got?






The best advice that I ever got is the advice that I would give every aspiring author. That is - to get a good editor to look at your work before sending it out. Agents and publishers expect your work to be in top condition before they receive it. Also I would suggest that you know your genre and send it to appropriate agents - the Writers and Artists Yearbook is a good place to start.

7.Do
you have a favourite fictional character that you love to write about? 



My favourite fictional character is probably Kate from my novel Two Days in Biarritz. I think an authors first novel is very special and she is the character that I relate to the most.

8.Have
you ever/Would you ever base a character on a real person?9.why? or why not?




I would think that most authors get inspiration for their novels and characters from the world around them. The amusing thing about characterisation is that people never recognise themselves!

10.What
do you think of people who dismiss women's books/popular fiction as chick lit
and say it is a passing fad or just frivolous?








I have no issues with the term chicklit - I am very pleased that I write for women as they read 90% of all books written! I also think that contemporary women writers reflect the world in a very real context - mothers, wives, girlfriends are responsible for so much of how our modern society works that I think in the future  chicklit will be referred to for its social/historic merit - in the same way as Austen's Pride and Prejudice is today.

11.How
do you think the e-book will affect the book world and your career in writing?



I think that ebooks will radically change the way that books are produced and it will be a good opportunity for some to self publish. I do think that it will be more difficult for authors to monitor Copying and ultimately this will effect revenue for authors. I suppose we will have to wait and see but it is important that people continue to buy books or pay for their downloads - this will ensure that authors will be able to continue working.

12.How
long did it take to write your first book?
It took me three months to write my first book which was 100k words in length. 


13.What's
the hardest part about writing?
I don't find writing hard - it has always been a natural and organic medium for me and I put this down to perhaps the fact that I didn't study literature. I have found that the five years that I spent studying art has made me too critical of what I produce visually and I am not confined by writing in the same way.


14.What
do you think of the 50 Shades phenomenon? what next?
Fifty shades of grey is just a passing trend but bodice rippers have been popular for years - as I mentioned my granny had plenty beside her bed! Anything that entices people to buy books is good - be it the Da Vinci Code or Harry Potter!

15. Do
you travel a lot? What comes first the place or the characters?
I use a vey free and organic approach to my writing and usually I have a germ of an idea for a novel after I have travelled somewhere that has been inspiring. I love to travel as much as I can and I am always taking photographs and collecting brochures and books from the places that I have travelled.


16.What comes first the place or the characters?

The characters will develop from conversations that I will have with people either on holidays or when I return. I always like to weave into the plot something that reflects what is mood or tone of the year in which I write the novel. For example the theme of my new novel is emigration which is a very current situation for many in Ireland and I travelled to Australia in February to research my setting. The book is called 5 Peppermint Grove after one of the most desirable suburbs in Western Australia.

17.Does
travel inspire you? How do you keep going after 4 novels ?
(finding ideas and inspiration)




As I mentioned before I have been fortunate as writing comes easily to me - I have an endless pool of ideas that I am itching to write about and there are a lot of places that I haven't visited on this lovely planet so I don't imagine I will be running out of ideas for some time!

Images courtesy of http://www.michellejackson.ie/

Author interview with Nicola Pierce

Are you from a family of readers and or writers?

I have three sisters and one of them; Rachel is also a writer and editor, her children’s book will be out next year. We all read widely as children and our parents made sure we had plenty of books.

What was your favourite book as a child?

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott was my favourite book growing up. I wanted to be Jo.

So it was an inspiration to you?

Absolutely I wanted to be a writer like Jo and I’m thrilled to able to write for a living now. Writing is a fantastic job.

How did you get into ghost writing?

I was working for Brehon Press and I wrote three history books for them and I heard that John Mooney from Maverick Press was looking for an editor. I called him up and he said “What do you know about Thailand?” I said “I’ve heard of it” He needed a book ghost written in six weeks. It was a big challenge but I ghost wrote three books about Thailand; “The Last Executioner”, “Angel of Bangkwang Prison” and “Miss Bangkok”. I also wrote “Mother from Hell” for O’Brien Press in 2009 and this year I wrote “I was a Boy in Belsen”.

What made you decide to write a Children’s book?

Actually Michael O’Brien asked if I had ever considered writing for children after he read “Mother from Hell”. He suggested a Titanic story. I worked on the story for about six months and then re-drafted for another six months.

So where did you get the idea to write from Samuel Joseph Scott’s point of view?

I had edited a book called “Written in Stone” by former Lord Mayor of Belfast Tom Hartley who does Titanic tours, Tom mentioned that Samuel was Titanic’s first death and he was buried in an unmarked grave in Belfast so I decided to write about him and I felt that his ghost would have wanted to watch the mighty ship being built and launched.

Tell us about meeting Samuel’s relatives

That was a huge shock but a good one, Tom got talking to the right people and a headstone was organised for Samuel and at the ceremony earlier this year I was waiting for it all to begin when a young man spoke to me and explained that he was a relative of Samuel’s. I was stunned, the young man then introduced me to his Grandmother; Samuel’s niece. It was a wonderful feeling and something not many writers ever get to experience.

The Spirit of the Titanic is a hugely popular book and you have been speaking about Titanic around the country in schools, libraries and bookshops have you enjoyed that?

I have, it has been a fabulous opportunity and although I have been nervous about public speaking in the past I am starting to enjoy it now. It has been great to be able to visit schools, festivals, museums and learn more and more about Titanic it is a fascinating subject I even had the chance to travel to Paris to The Centre Culturel Irlandais this year which was fantastic.

Do you have a favourite Titanic movie?

I have to say that “A Night to Remember” the old black and white movie is the best one although the James Cameron film had fantastic attention to detail.

Tell us more about “I was a Boy in Belsen”

“I was a Boy in Belsen” is my most recent book it is the autobiography of Tomi Reichental who is one of the last remaining holocaust survivors in Ireland. I wrote the book by asking Tomi questions and pulling everything together into a narrative. It was a difficult process because much of the story was distressing for Tomi to recall. 

Do you have a favourite author?

Absolutely I enjoy reading a lot of different authors but my favourite writer is Richard Ford and my favourite book is Independence Day. Some other books I really love are Breathing Lessons by Ann Tyler and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.

What are reading at the moment?

I am reading Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey who is my favourite biographer.

What was your book of the year?

Life and Fate by Vassily Grossman

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Read as much as you can and write everyday. Someone once said that they wrote five pages a day and I think that’s a manageable target even if you have other commitments so if you want to write just do it.