Tag Archives: publishing

Author interview: Margarita Morris

Today I am thrilled to welcome Margarita Morris to my blog, not least because she sets novels in my home town, Scarborough, and (from her writing) appears to be entranced by the place as much as I am.

Margarita Morris is an indie author. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and two sons. When she’s not writing, she enjoys swimming, yoga and singing with a local chamber choir. To date she has published four novels. Oranges for Christmas is a Cold War historical thriller about a family separated by the Berlin Wall. Set in 1961, it tells the story of Sabine in East Berlin and her brother, Dieter, in West Berlin and Sabine’s attempts to escape the East German secret police. The Sleeping Angel is a Young Adult mystery/thriller set in 1870, 1970 and the present day. Set in and around Highgate Cemetery it intertwines a Victorian mystery, a vampire hunt and a murder. Scarborough Fair and its sequel, Scarborough Ball, are mystery/thrillers set in the seaside town of Scarborough, England. Scarborough Fair combines a Victorian mystery with a modern day crime story. Scarborough Ball continues the modern day story but moves the historical story on a generation to the 1920s, the age of cinema, flappers and wild parties.

Click to order: Scarborough Ball

What are you currently working on?
This year, 2016, has seen the publication of Scarborough Fair and the completion of Scarborough Ball which is up for pre-order and will be released on 16 December 2016. It’s taken me around 20 months to write and publish both books. I’m not entirely sure what my next project will be. I have a few ideas lined up which is a good position to be in. I intend to take a little time to play around with those ideas and see what takes root.

What has inspired your most recent novel/writing?
I like books that have a strong sense of place, for example Berlin, Highgate Cemetery and Scarborough. Scarborough is the quintessential Victorian, British seaside town and as a family we’ve had many wonderful holidays there. You can stand on the beach in Scarborough and see the medieval castle on the headland, the Victorian hotels and spa buildings, the old 1920’s Art Deco cinema and the modern amusement arcades all at once. It was this sense of layers of history in one place that inspired me to set a dual-time story in Scarborough.

Click to order: Scarborough Fair

How would you describe your writing process?
I do a lot of rewriting. It takes me a few months to hit 60,000 words, at which point the story is essentially in place. I take quite a few wrong turns along the way and quickly build up an outtakes file. Once the plot is sorted, I then add in more layers and bring the scenes to life which substantially increases the word count. My husband is my first reader and he always provides constructive feedback. After he’s read it, I do a major rewrite and another edit and polish. Then it goes to the proof readers for final checking.

What kind of research do you do & how do you go about it?
So far all my books have been set in places that I’ve visited. I went to Berlin (including East Berlin) in 1987 before the Berlin Wall came down so I have first-hand experience of Communist East Germany, although fortunately I wasn’t interrogated by the Stasi. I took my family to Berlin in 2013 and we visited the Berlin Wall Memorial site at Bernauer Strasse, the former Stasi headquarters and the former remand prison.

For The Sleeping Angel I booked myself on a tour of Highgate Cemetery and also spent time just wandering around the streets of Highgate and Hampstead Heath, soaking up the atmosphere. As for Scarborough, we’ve had lots of holidays there.

But most of my research comes from reading books. For Oranges for Christmas I did a lot of research into the building of the wall, life in communist countries and the methods people used to try and escape from East Berlin. Whilst writing The Sleeping Angel I learned about spiritualism, Victorian burial practices, the work of Christina Rossetti at Highgate Penitentiary and the events surrounding the so-called Highgate Vampire in 1970. Scarborough Fair saw me exploring the world of Victorian lunatic asylums and for Scarborough Ball I learned about early cinema and popular dance tunes of the period.

Click to order: Oranges for Christmas

Maps often play an important part in my research. For Oranges for Christmas I invested in a huge fold-out map of Berlin and marked the outline of the wall in highlighter pen. Otherwise Google Maps works just fine.

If you are indie published, why did you choose this route? What are your five tips for would-be indie authors? What are the pros & cons to indie publishing?
I chose indie publishing because I was frustrated with the slow process of submitting to agents and then not hearing from them for ages. I actually wrote The Sleeping Angel before Oranges for Christmas and a couple of agents were interested in it, but it got no further. So I put it in a drawer and moved on to Oranges for Christmas. It was whilst writing Oranges for Christmas that I started to hear about indie publishing and by the time I had finished the novel, I decided I wouldn’t bother submitting it to agents. I’d lost faith in them and was keen to try this new route.

There’s a lot to learn when it comes to indie publishing, but that’s something I enjoy.

Click to order: The Sleeping Angel

The pros and cons of indie publishing are two sides of the same coin. Yes, you have to do a lot of work yourself, but on the other hand it puts you firmly in control of your own creative process. Here are five key tips:

Make the effort to learn about the industry. There are some excellent resources out there. One of the best is The Creative Penn website and podcast by Joanna Penn. Another excellent podcast is The Self Publishing Formula with Mark Dawson and James Blatch. I listen to podcasts whilst I’m doing the ironing or cooking.
Make sure your work is edited and proof read. You don’t want to look like an amateur.
Get a professional cover. I tried designing my own first covers for Oranges for Christmas and The Sleeping Angel. They weren’t terrible (I hope) but they certainly weren’t brilliant. Since then I’ve had all my covers professionally designed and I love them.
Connect with other indie authors through your website (WordPress is recommended) and social media.
Be prepared to pay for marketing and advertising. You can get a big sales boost if you advertise a sale on a site like Bookbub or EReaderNewsToday. Unfortunately Bookbub is very difficult to get on, but I keep trying.

How can readers find you and learn more about your writing?

My author website is margaritamorris.com. Here you can find out about all my books and read my blog.

I also run the good writer where I blog about grammar tips, self publishing and creative writing.

You can find me on social media:

Book links:

Oranges for Christmas

The Sleeping Angel

Scarborough Fair

Scarborough Ball

Author Interview: Ruth F Hunt

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Today I am thrilled to welcome Ruth F Hunt to my blog. She is author of the novel The Single Feather (http://www.tinyurl.com/ziaz82m) which has a protagonist who just happens to have disabilities. It asks searching questions about our attitude to disability. She is columnist with The Morning Star, freelance features writer and creative writing workshop facilitator. She is also a perennial student and is finishing off a degree in Creative Writing from The Open University as well as studying for the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCRJ) Diploma. She is an associate member of The Society of Authors and a member of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

What are you currently working on?
My intention was to take a brief sabbatical from novel-writing while I finished off my studies, but suppressing ‘the writing monster’ hasn’t been easy at all, and at times I’ve had to let it come out. It isn’t a sequel to The Single Feather, but it does have a social justice element to it, and features characters that are on the margins of life. With Brexit, Trump, the migrant crisis and so on, I think it has become more important for writers and artists to show we have more in common with each other than not.

What has inspired your most recent novel/writing?
As someone who has both used and worked in the provision of Local Authority (and NHS) services, I’m very much inspired by social issues. I don’t preach politics, but I do examine what is happening in the world and look for ways stories could deepen our understanding of those who may be left behind or disregarded. The Single Feather was told from the point of view of a young woman with paraplegia, who along with others was facing hardening attitudes towards disability, encouraged by sections of the press. It featured characters with disabilities, and some over the age of 60-65. I’ve been delighted with the reviews that show readers have connected with the storyline and have come away with a deeper understanding of what it is like to be disabled.

Can you give 5 tips about tackling characterisation?
Well rounded, interesting and believable characters should be the aim for any fiction writer.

1) Don’t just look at your character’s life now, but look at what triggers, events, and personal history made them who they are. If they are abrupt and cold, why is this case? If they are needy, find out why. What motivates them in life? What kind of life have they lived up to now? Do they feel fulfilled, or is something missing?

2) Try to spend plenty of time on your minor characters, so they don’t just seem like cardboard cut-outs.

3) If you are a white, straight, able-bodied male or female writer – think about diversity. I’m not talking tokenism here, but instead reflecting the diverse nature of any population. Be careful not to fall into stereotypes.

4) Once you’ve developed your well rounded character, you should already be ‘hearing’ what they ‘sound’ like, so make sure your dialogue fits the character, in terms of age, class, background, education, where they were born, where they live now, and so on.

5) When describing the physical features of your character leave some aspects for the reader to imagine. You should be giving pointers and clues, which help a reader form an image in their mind.

How would you describe your writing process?
I can spend months and months getting an idea right in my mind. I then do a lot of notes including character profiles and chapter plans, so that when I’m writing my first draft I have a plan. That’s not to say I don’t change anything. During my next drafts, I chip away, like a sculptor with clay, writing and rewriting, until the story emerges.

A first draft can take two years, so my poor family get sick to death about hearing about the book, to the extent that when I open my mouth ready to talk about the latest development, I’m interrupted and the subject of the conversation gets changed. I don’t think I could ever write without knowing what is going to happen or how the book is going to end – though this method does sound exhilarating.

What helps you to write/what gets in the way?
I live in a terraced house next to a family who have four children under the age of 10. Even with my noise cancelling headphones I can sometimes hear children screaming. So, I tend to write early in the morning and late at night, when it is much quieter.

I suffer with a lot of pain, and find writing at my desk for a prolonged period of time, harder and harder each year. I now use a Freewrite, which I carry around with me. It is lighter and easier to use than a laptop, and ideal for when I can’t sit at my desk.

Why I chose the Independent Route for The Single Feather and some tips for would-be indie authors
The Single Feather was published by the small independent press, Pilrig Press. I was delighted to accept their offer, especially when I knew of other writers who had published with them and was impressed by the quality of book production and care they took with their authors. They have published the likes of comedian/author, Bill Dare and Scottish writer, Marianne Wheelaghan amongst other talented authors. If you are approaching independent presses there are a few things you need to look out for.

1) The first thing I would do is to type the name of the publisher in the Amazon search engine, and look at what and who they are publishing. Do you recognize any names? How many reviews are the authors getting?

2) You want a publisher who will be able to devote time and energy to your book, so beware of publishers who have three or more books out each month. Yes, it shows they are popular, but does that mean your book won’t get the attention it deserves?

3) If you are paying money to have your book published, then please do your research. Some vanity publishers, who operate under a multitude of names, and disguise themselves as independent, hybrid and traditional book publishers can charge excessive amounts for a relatively poor service. Look for forum discussions; see what other authors are saying.

4) There are pros to working with indie presses. The time it takes for your book to get to the market is often much shorter than going down the traditional route and you may also find indie publishers who are more willing and able to take on risks. However, make sure they are prepared to spend the time and resources to ensure, for example, that your book is carefully edited and well produced.

5) The down-side is that there is less money to devote to marketing so the onus falls onto the author to generate interest. However, more and more traditional authors have to do the same, as cuts bite and budgets tighten.

Find out more about Ruth F Hunt:
Her website is http://www.rhunt4.com
The Single Feather book trailer is http://youtu.be/Ysu3QKPDjU0
You can find her on Twitter as @RFHunt1
The s shortened link to buy The Single Feather on Amazon is. http://www.tinyurl.com/ziaz82m
The link to buy The Single Feather from the publisher is: http://www.pilrigpress.co.uk/books.html#feather

7 things you need to know about proofreading

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Today I welcome fellow author, David Powning, who is also an experienced copy-editor & proofreader, to guide us through what we need to know as writers about proofreading. Learn more at: www.inkwrapped.com and find out more about his novel The Ground Will Catch You go to: https://goo.gl/wtkdod (10% of the proceeds goes towards the struggle against breast cancer).

1. Copy-editing and proofreading are not the same thing.
This foxes a lot of people, and understandably so, mainly because there is a certain overlap between the two disciplines. The aim of a copy-edit is to not only find errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation, but also to address issues around style, usage, consistency and repetition, among other things. In other words, it involves editing the text.

A proofread, on the other hand, is the final read-through before publication. Its purpose is to look for errors and inconsistencies in spelling, grammar and punctuation that were missed by the copy-editor or have subsequently crept in when the author made amendments to the text. Your proofreader will also check layout, page numbering, chapter headings etc.

The important thing to remember is that a proofread is the last read of the text to make sure everything is as ‘clean’ as possible. It is not an edit.

2. It isn’t particularly cheap. And if it is, you should be hearing alarm bells.
The bad news is you will have to shell out a bit for a copy-edit, and for good reason: when done properly, it’s time-consuming. The copy-editor has to get inside your text, hunting out mistakes and discrepancies, and that includes keeping tabs on people’s details (the colour of their hair or eyes, for example) or what car they drive (if it’s a green Ford Fiesta on page 24, it can’t be a grey Ford Fiesta on page 238), as well as the timeline to make sure events are happening in the logical order. There’s a lot involved, and, as with everything in life, you get what you pay for.

The good news, however, is that a proofread is cheaper.

3. You can’t proofread your own work.
I know, it would be lovely if we were all able to proofread what we’ve written – and of course I’m not suggesting that you don’t continuously check your work – but it’s a fact that even the best writers have to hand over their efforts to a professional. The problem with proofing your own work is that you know what you’ve written, so, like it or not, there will be times when your brain fills in the words simply because it ‘knows’ what’s coming. And that’s where mistakes occur. You need a neutral person to look at it, because they don’t know what’s around the corner so to them everything will be fresh.

Also, logic dictates that if there are some words you always mis-spell or grammatical constructions you get wrong, how would you know the difference? You can’t spot what you don’t know.

4. A good copy-editor/proofreader will respect the author’s wishes.
Sometimes as a copy-editor you come across stylistic curiosities that aren’t what you would call, erm, ‘traditional’. Grammatically wrong, even. If it’s a one-off, nine times out of ten you would automatically just correct it. However, if it’s something that crops up repeatedly, then you have to bring it to the author’s attention. And if they say it’s deliberate, then you have to respect that, even if it makes your red pen quiver every time you see it happen. It’s a delicate balancing act. Readers may well go, ‘Ah-ha, I’ve spotted a mistake there, and there, and there…’ but if your client is happy and views it merely as their own stylistic quirk, you must take that on board. It may go against a copy-editor’s natural instinct, but as with a magazine’s house style, sometimes there will be things you disagree with.

5. Proofreading is important.
I’ve often heard it said that readers are not fussy these days about coming across typos when reading a novel, but, you’ll be shocked to hear, I don’t think it’s acceptable. Of course, even with the best will in the world, the occasional error may slip through the net – and that’s true of all books – but to me anything more than that is the thin end of the wedge. If you start to think, ‘Oh, I’m not too bothered about a few spelling mistakes in my novel’, then what’s to stop you being bothered about half a dozen in the next one, and ten in the one after that?

Self-publishing has really taken off in the past few years, and I think indie authors have a duty to keep their standards as high as possible so that the public can buy with confidence, as when purchasing a novel from an established publisher/author. Is it okay for a CD to jump half a dozen times? Wouldn’t you return it if it did? Well, the same goes for books. Typos and grammatical errors stop the flow of words and momentarily take the reader out of the imagined world you have created, thereby undermining all your hard work. What’s okay about that?

6. Track Changes is a wonderful thing.
For those not in the know, Track Changes is a function in Microsoft Word that records each amendment a person (i.e. your copy-editor/proofreader) makes in the document. This means that when your novel is returned to you, you simply go through each change and either ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ it. I mention this only because chances are you’ll be sending your work to a copy-editor as a Word file, and I’d be very surprised if they didn’t use Track Changes. It’s simple to use and gives you complete control over the final product. Brilliant.

7. Proofreading is very satisfying.
I love copy-editing and proofreading, whether that’s for magazines or books. To me it’s a challenge to find things that aren’t quite right, and not because I want to feel clever. Every writer makes errors (my novel went through the wringer quite a few times until I was happy), so when you discover something amiss you know you are doing your bit to improve the work, and that’s a good feeling.

Ultimately, when you’re working for an author, it’s a partnership. You’re both striving towards the same thing – high standards – and to help someone achieve that, after all the hours they’ve put in creating a story, really is very gratifying.

#Scarboroughmysteries – Halloween Treat!

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I am very proud to announce that my three novels – The Art of the Imperfect (https://goo.gl/JrGat2); The Art of Survival (https://goo.gl/6RPzk5); The Art of Breathing (https://goo.gl/ZqJZjN) – are safely launched. Available in paperback and on kindle via Amazon or from good independent book stores such as Wardle & Jones in Scarborough (http://wardleandjones.co.uk/) and the Book Corner in Saltburn (http://www.bookcornershop.co.uk/).

The signing at WH Smith on Saturday went really well. Thank you to the manager, Russell White, and everyone who helped or came along. Twenty-two books sold and several people going away clutching cards with the book details on so they could download to their favoured kindle. It was great to meet readers and potential readers and just to chat about books.

I was very happy to re-meet Andy. He had seen by chance on Twitter my signing last year and had come down and bought the first two. He turned up again to buy the third, declaring he had ‘loved’ The Art of the Imperfect and The Art of Survival. He then, bless him, went home and tweeted the books he had bought that morning – mine and one by Lynda La Plante – including the authors’ handles. And, yes dear reader, I was retweeted and then followed by Lynda La Plante (or whoever deals with her twitter account). How chuffed am I? Thank you Andy.

Associated with the launch, I have been lucky enough to be interviewed on Radio Humberside: https://goo.gl/xAUWDg (scroll forward to 11.15am) and by Margarita Morris: https://goo.gl/AYxKHA.

And there are a few more events and interviews to come before I can put my feet up – or rather get back to my writing, which I fear has been sadly neglected for the last several months.

Still, for the moment, I can bask in what I have achieved so far!

Author Interview: Helen Cadbury

How to write a (crime) novel #9

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In previous parts of this series of blogs I have looked at

Getting started.
Characterisation.
Plotting – setting clues in plain sight.
Structure.
Settings.
Finding the ‘shadow’ side as part of characterisation.
The crime genre as a vehicle for asking questions about our society.

Hopefully you have found something useful and of interest in each part. However, in the end, the only real way to write any type of novel is to write, read, write, read, write, get some decent feedback and write some more.

Unless we are lucky enough to have a literary agent or publisher interested in what we are writing, the hardest thing may be to stay motivated. For me, it’s about routine; being in love with the process and craft; and having supportive writing friends. Sometimes it hits me that, in all honesty, the only person who would care if I never wrote another word would be me – and that’s a difficult realisation to swallow. But I do care, because writing gives me such pleasure and at many levels keeps me sane.

If you have kept motivated and you have worked on your craft, it maybe that you now have 60,000 words you want to share with an audience through publication. There are currently two routes. The traditional, find a literary agent, or ‘indie’ publish. You will find much advice on ‘indie’ publishing on my blog. However, I have said little about the traditional route.

In the UK, for fiction, it is generally through a literary agent, as publishers won’t look at unsolicited manuscripts. On the other hand, some will have ‘open submissions’, so it’s worth looking out for them. In my opinion, as well as working hard, having some talent and shed-loads of luck, to go down the traditional route you also have to be very strategic.

When I started, thirty years ago, it was about researching the right lit agent for your genre. It’s gone way beyond that. You have to be tuned into what’s going on in the literary word, building yourself an author platform, entering competitions, networking,… I have come to the recent conclusion that the only way to get a literary agent these days is to go on one of the very expensive courses they have begun to run.

I am indie publishing for the third time. The Art of Breathing, Scarborough Mysteries #3, has been written, copyedited, proofread and formatted for a local print run, for createspace and for Kindle. All the Scarborough Mysteries have swanky new covers. And I am now in the throes of organising a marketing campaign for the launch date of October 31st. Having paid a professional copyeditor, proofreader and designer for my covers, there is no way I will make any money back on sales. But I am happy to do this as I am very, very proud of my novel series.

Which would you choose: traditional or indie? And why? If traditional, do you have any tips to pass on?

Author Interview: Anna Chilvers

And the adventure continues

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This Autumn I will be indie publishing my third novel, The Art of Breathing, as well as re-launching The Art of the Imperfect and The Art of Survival with new covers. The three form the beginning of a crime series set in Scarborough which (among other things) explores themes around mental wellbeing and surviving childhood trauma.

To be honest, this is not my favourite part of the process. The manuscript being sent off to the proofreader, I am in the middle of: formatting for createspace, kindle and a local print run; liaising with cover designer and printer; ‘organising’ (begging for) reviews, guest blog posts and events; and re-vamping my website. I’m not saying none of it is fun or enthralling, but a lot of it is a bit of a grind, especially the marketing side. Having now indie published two novels, I know effort does not equal outcome when it comes to promotion. There is a whole lot of luck and who you know involved. I am trying to be more targeted and canny about it this time around, even so it is tough to remain motivated.

I read recently an article about mental resilience. This suggested that people with a good balance of optimism and realism are more likely to be mentally resilient. It also said that mentally resilient people do not feel an entitlement. On the other hand, it seems to me that there is a strong societal script out there which goes something like: ‘If you try hard enough, you can achieve anything.’ It appears to me, this narrative is undermining of what are apparently factors in building mental resilience. In reality, the vast majority of us will be ‘also ran’s and, even if we work hard and throw our whole heart into a project, this does not entitle us to any particular result.

I have begun to volunteer a couple of hours a week at my local library and I was also asked by a friend to vote for her book on The Guardian’s ‘not the booker list’. Well done to Anna Chilvers Tainted Love for getting on there and look out for an interview with her on this blog on the 22nd of August. What I have come to realise (even more than I did before) is that there are an awful lot of books out there, a lot published by traditional publishers and a lot I haven’t heard of, despite being an avid reader. It is, perhaps, hardly surprising that my books have hardly made an impression.

Why should I want sales? It’s not about the selling/money as such, it is about reaching readers. And I love to talk about my writing with those who have read it… so if you have, please feel free to get in touch. The stories told in my three novels are very important to me, yes I want them ‘heard’ but I also hope they may help others have a greater understanding and/or feel more ‘normal’.

I have written three books I am proud of and by the October they will all have gorgeous covers. Celebrate that with me, but please don’t ever ask my about my sales.

How do you keep motivated? What is it about writing which makes it important for you to keep going?

Author Interview: Anne Goodwin

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Anne Goodwin at her launch, Jesmond 2015

It is a year since author, Anne Goodwin, published her debut novel, Sugar and Snails. An intriguing novel which explores the sense of being different and feeling not quite right in one’s skin. I am delighted to welcome her as today’s interviewee and to catch her during her anniversary tour.

Anne Goodwin loves fiction for the freedom to contradict herself. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, about a woman who has kept her past identity a secret for thirty years, was published in July 2015 by Inspired Quill and longlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize. Her second novel, Underneath, about a man who keeps a woman captive in his cellar, is scheduled for May 2017. Anne is also a book blogger, author of over 60 published short stories and was recently awarded First Prize in the Writers’ Bureau short story competition.

What are you currently working on?
I’m working on the edits of Underneath and trying to get to grips with the second draft of what I hope to be my third novel, Closure, about lives wasted through psychiatric incarceration.

What has inspired your most recent novel?
Sugar and Snails emerged from a strange interaction between my response to a newspaper report about a distinguished academic who died of anorexia without anyone in her immediate circle being aware of her difficulties; questions about gender fluidity and my attempts to reconcile myself to my own traumatic adolescence. Underneath stems from my academic and personal interest in attachment, and particularly the terror of being totally dependent on someone who is unreliable. Closure builds on my interest in family secrets and on my first job as a qualified clinical psychologist as part of a team tasked with resettling long term psychiatric patients to the community.

How much do you think fiction intertwines with real life?
I live so much in the fictional world, I’m not sure I can separate them! It’s something I continually puzzle about, but I think a lot of my fiction starts with my own experience of the world as I see it. Yet, both for my own privacy and because, as a reader, I prefer a gap between author and narrator, I don’t want that link to show. If your writing has deep emotional resonance, which is something I aim for, it’s highly likely to connect with themes that interest, energise and disturb you in “real life”. But I’d like that to occur on the level of metaphor, rather than in the nuts and bolts of the writing.

Any tips to aspiring writers?
After a blog post questioning the creative writing industry, I’m loath to advise others on how to write. However, Sugar and Snails has taught me a few things about writing about diversity and on crafting the awkward character which I’m happy to pass on (via the links).

Another thing I’ve learnt, and am still learning, is that when there’s a choice – be it regarding character, plot or use of language – go for the simpler option. The best piece of advice I got regarding my novel, Sugar and Snails, was to cut two of the three point of view voices. As a book blogger, I read too many debuts that would have been better had the author had been less ambitious. It’s very hard as a novice writer, as we are trying to distinguish ourselves and impress, but I’m increasingly discovering that less is more in this business.

How would you describe your writing process?
I like to play with the ideas in my head for as long as I can, be that hours, days or months, before committing anything to page or screen. The benefits of playing with the ideas seem to outweigh the risks of losing a good idea. I start to write when my thoughts are overwhelming and I have sufficient space to channel them, uninterrupted, onto the screen. I’m not a planner, and I like to take my time. However, last winter, partly inspired by National Novel Writing Month, I surprised myself by producing a fast first draft. It hasn’t altered my overall approach, but it was a bit of a revelation that I could keep going at an average of a thousand words a day.

In terms of the mechanics, I’m proud that my mother taught me to type the quick brown fox runs over the lazy dog way, using all fingers and thumbs of both hands. But too many dissertations left me with repetitive strain injury, so now I type by voice. The manufacturers claim their voice recognition software is faster than typing but, until they produce a version perfectly attuned to my Cumbrian vowels, I have to disagree.

What helps you to write/what gets in the way?
I have the usual love-hate relationship with social media, especially Twitter, through which I’ve gained the support of lots of lovely fellow-writers, as well as a few book sales, but it does eat time. Bad weather that keeps me indoors is helpful – although I can go a bit stir crazy if I don’t get out for a walk.

What kind of research do you do & how do you go about it?
I’m a lazy researcher, and tend to write about topics I already know something about, just checking facts and details on the internet. Also, my husband is the kind of person who knows all those obscure facts that come up in pub quizzes, so I often ask him. I’ve also recently taken to asking Twitter for answers to factual questions; you get a great sense of the supportive community when someone comes back with exactly what you need to know.

Please say something about your publishing journey.
I’m published by a small press, Inspired Quill, which has worked well for me. I have a post on Writers and Artists website advising others considering that route to learn about self-publishing; not to be afraid to ask questions of the publisher; negotiate a contract; and be realistic about the limitations of what the publisher can do.

What’s the scariest thing you’ve done to promote your work?
An interview for Bay TV Liverpool, which has recently been broadcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAnBqfEIGmc&feature=youtu.be. It was the first time I’d ever been filmed for TV, yet only ten days later I was involved in some filming for an event in the Peak District where I volunteer.

How can readers find you and learn more about your writing?

My next event is at The Bakewell Bookshop, Derbyshire, on 6 August 2016.

Catch up on my website: annethology blog Annecdotal or on Twitter @Annecdotist.

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14157781.Anne_Goodwin

In honour of its first birthday, Sugar and Snails is available in Kindle format at only £0.99 / $0.99 until 31 July 2016.

Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Sugar-Snails-Anne-Goodwin/dp/1908600470/

Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sugar-Snails-Anne-Goodwin/dp/1908600470/

Author interviews – Jaq Hazell

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