Amanda James

Meeting My Main Character Blog Hop

Thanks to the very marvellous Chris Stovell for passing the baton on to me. You can read all about Chris's main character, May, in her latest book Follow a Star which came out last week! I have a real live copy sitting on my table and can't wait to get my teeth into it.  Of course I don't mean literally, what do you take me for? No, don't answer that ... right where was I? Oh yes, you can meet Chris and May here.

Writers like to burble on about their main characters and I am no exception. So without further ado, here goes. Actually there is one further ado. I need to tell you the title of my latest book and show you a picture of the cover. Here it is.

Actually the title is on the cover so I don't need to tell you it. Clever, eh? Okay let's get cracking...

What is the name of the main character? Is she real or fictitious? 

Her name is Karen Ainsworth, but she might also have another name that I can't divulge here as it would spoil the surprise. And given that she is in a novel, I think it's a safe bet that she's not real. Having said, that she's real enough to me. She has bits of me in her,( not internal organs, but character) and bits of other people who I may, or may not have met. 

When and where is the story set?

It is set in the present and in Cornwall not far from where I live.

What should we know about Karen? 

She is slim, blond, thirty and very happily married to a doctor, Tristan Ainsworth who is the GP in a sleepy little Cornish village. Think Doc Martin but without the very scary Martin Clunes. Tristan is much nicer and much easier on the eye. Sorry, Mr Clunes if you happen to be reading this. Yes I know it is unlikely, but one never knows. For the record, I think Mr Clunes is a fantastic actor and probably very nice in real life. Karen has two children and a phenomenal singing voice. 

What is the main conflict? What messes up her life?

Karen is not as happy as she would have us believe. Oh yes, she adores, Tristan, but since moving to Cornwall at Tristan's behest, she has become withdrawn, reclusive an secretive. She was fine when they lived in Swindon, so what has Cornwall to do with the change in her personality? Moreover she loves to sing, it lifts her spirit and brings untold happiness, so why does she now keep silent? Well, that would be telling wouldn't it? Can't say too much on this, but she does have issues with her past and that does tend to mess up a person's life. However her husband has one or two problems of his own relating to his past also. There is a dark secret that one of them has, and if that secret is divulged, their marriage, their family, and even their freedom could be at stake ... But what is it, and which of them is keeping it? Again, you'll have to read it to find the answer.

What is Karen's goal?

She wants a happy life and to enjoy singing in the choir and living by the sea with her husband and children. Is it too much to ask? 

What is the book's title?

Blimey you have a short memory, it's called Somewhere Beyond the Sea and can be examined again here if you so wish.

Thanks again to Chris for passing on the baton. 

I am now delighted to hand it over to the incredibly talented Juliet Greenwood. You can find out all about her books and main character here  I am dying to find out what she has to say and I'm sure you are too!  

Guest Post - Alison Morton

Today, my writing friend Alison Morton launches SUCCESSIO, the third novel in her award-winning Roma Nova series featuring sassy detective Carina Mitela. As writer and broadcaster Sue Cook says, it’s a “A real edge-of-the-seat read, genuinely hard to put down.”

I know Alison as a RNA colleague and Twitter friend. I’ve followed her progress and although I write time travel, I’ve often wondered how different or difficult is was to write in an alternate history setting. And just to complicate things, she adds a feminist twist, but has plenty of love interest! 

So, Alison, Romans in the 21^st century - how do you write that?

“Thanks, Mandy. All the usual good ‘craft’ rules apply: cracking story, attractive and hopefully slightly quirky characters, emotional pressure, dilemmas and conflict, snappy and purposeful dialogue and, of course, a badly tangled love life.

The tools for writing alternate history are similar to regular historical fiction, plus an over active imagination!

My top tips:

• Identify the point your alternative timeline diverges from the standard historical timeline and research that point thoroughly so you can set the scene accurately;
• Anchor the divergence point story with references to the past;
• Use elements from the historic record carefully, but not fearfully;
• Think through the setting that has formed your characters;
• Make sure your characters live naturally within their world including, and especially, seeking and finding love.

What’s SUCCESSIO about?

Roma Nova – the last remnant of the Roman Empire that has survived into the 21^st century – is at peace. Carina Mitela, the heir of a leading family, but choosing the life of an officer in the Praetorian Guard Special Forces, is not so sure.

She senses danger crawling towards her when she encounters a strangely self-possessed member of the unit hosting their exchange exercise in Britain. When a blackmailing letter arrives from a woman claiming to be her husband Conrad’s lost daughter and Conrad tries to shut Carina out, she knows the threat to her happiness is real.

Trying to resolve a young man’s indiscretion twenty-five years before turns into a nightmare that not only threatens to destroy all the Mitelae but also attacks the core of the imperial family itself. With her enemy holding a gun to the head of the heir to the imperial throne, Carina has to make the hardest decision of her life…

 And here’s a trailer with some exciting music: http://youtu.be/B6Tr0VvKbJI

SUCCESSIO is available through your local bookshop (paperback) and online as ebook and paperback at multiple retailers.

You can read more about Alison, Romans, alternate history and writing here on her blog at www.alison-morton.com

or on her Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor

Twitter: @alison_morton

Bio

Alison Morton writes Roman-themed alternate history thrillers with strong heroines. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French, German and Economics, a masters’ in history and lives in France with her husband.

A ‘Roman nut’ since age 11, she has visited sites throughout Europe including the alma mater, Rome. But it was the mosaics at Ampurias (Spain) that started her wondering what a modern Roman society would be like if run by women…

Both INCEPTIO, the first in the Roma Nova series, which was also shortlisted for the 2013 International Rubery Book Award, and PERFIDITAS, the second in series, have been honoured with the B.R.A.G. Medallion®, an award for independent fiction that rejects 90% of its applicants.  Alison’s third book SUCCESSIO is being launched 3rd June 2014.

My Writing Process Blog Tour

Thank you to my fellow Choc Lit author and wonderful friend, Chris Stovell for inviting me to take part in the blog tour. She has her new book due out in the summer and I for one can't wait! Follow a Star will be her third novel and I'm sure will be just as brilliant as her first two, Turning the Tide and Move Over Darling. You can find out more about Chris here

I also need to say thanks to Sharon Booth who nominated me a while ago but for one reason and another, er ... things went awry! Sharon is a lovely lady who is always very supportive of my writing which means such a lot. She is currently writing book two in a series and you can find out more about Sharon here

Okay, so what am I working on at the moment?

This is a picture of part of the magical Tintagel Castle about half an hour from my home. I got some of my idea for my new work in progress Summer in Tintagel when I visited earlier this year and the rest from walking along the cliff paths near by. It will involve aspect of mystery, romance and the paranormal. It is in the very early stages but I think I like where it is going.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I guess because I always like to have lots of often separate but interlocking threads running through my stories. I enjoy setting puzzles for the reader too and having a dialogue with them. As a reader I love to try and guess what is going to happen, or who has a secret. Therefore I try to write what I enjoy reading.

Why do I write what I do?

I have always written. Well, not always. A new born baby writing would be very disconcerting wouldn't it? But since I was around eight-ish I wrote short stories and poems. It is in my blood as they say. I get jumpy if I have nothing on the go. I enjoy losing myself in the writing and creating new characters and situations from nothing. It is kind of playing make believe when you are a kid in a way. The thing is, I have never grown up and don't intend to. 

How does my writing process work?

I have no set pattern to my work in that I don't get up at a certain time, sit at my laptop (pictured above) and crack on with it. I tend to just do it as and when, but normally I do writing of some description every day for a few hours. Neither do I plan very much. I am not a post-it note and scene-by-scene type. I just write the title (can't write without one) and a few key points, hit return on the keyboard a few times so I have a blank page and then go for it. My books although are similar in some respects - they all have a love story within them and a few twists and turns, but they are very different too.

You can see them below:

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Dancing in the Rain

A Stitch in Time

Righteous Exposure

I am delighted to now pass the challenge on to fellow Crooked Cat author, David Robinson on the 15th of May. David is a phenomenally successful author and lovely with it. His 'cozy' crime Sanford Third Age Club Mystery series are always riding high in the charts. I think he has written thirteen books in total. If I'm wrong I am sure David will put me right :) You can find about more about David and his books here

An Exciting Week!

I have had a very exciting launch week for Somewhere Beyond the Sea so far! On Monday I went to Radio Cornwall to guest on the very lovely Tiffany Truscott show.

Click on the link below if you'd like to listen to me on the show :

http://bit.ly/1ju2UX2

And today I appear in the St Austell Voice :)

Can't wait for the joint launch with fellow Choc Lit author Angela Britnell. Her novel, Sugar and Spice will be launched alongside Somewhere Beyond the Sea in Penzance on the 20th of May.

It will be held at The Edge of The World Bookshop 6.30-8pm. Refreshments will be provided and all are welcome :)

Yahoo! A Stitch in Time has a sequel!

Not only have I had two books out in the last few weeks, Somewhere Beyond the Sea and Dancing in the Rain, I am now in a position to announce that the sequel to A Stitch in Time will be out in December! Cross Stitch continues Sarah and John's story and introduces a few new characters. One in particular throws a spanner into the works to make Sarah's time travelling experiences as exciting as ever!

Can't wait for the cover now. If it is anywhere as fab as these and I'm sure it will be, I will be thrilled to bits. These are bookmarks by the way. The Cornish Print Company a local company in Newquay did them :)

Guest Blog - Tom Winter

I am SO delighted to have the author of Lost & Found, Tom Winter, as a guest author on my blog today! In August 2013 Lost & Found was chosen as the Book of the Month by the Mail on Sunday's You Magazine book club. That summer, the Kindle edition was also a No. 1 bestseller on Amazon UK. I can totally see why. It is beautifully written and I howled with laughter one minute and was in tears the next. 

Hi Tom, thanks for being my guest today! I have just finished your clever, funny, poignant and all round fantastic book, Lost & Found  and can’t wait to pick your brains. No, not really – that would be really painful, (a bit like that joke.)

The blurb on your book reads : Meet Albert and Carol, two lost souls, brought together by a series of unforgettable letters ... Can you tell us a little about how you came up with such a unique idea?

It all began in early 2010. I was at the end of a rather messy five-year relationship—not the kind that ends in screaming and smashed crockery, but rather the sort that slowly chokes itself to death after stripping all the oxygen from the air. The experience made me want to write a story about a woman who persisted in a marriage long after she knew it was doomed.

 As the character of Carol became clearer in my mind, it was obvious that she’d got herself into this situation precisely because she couldn’t express her feelings face-to-face, so it made sense that she’d choose to put her thoughts in anonymous letters. Yet she’s also reached the stage where she has a desperate need to be heard (by someone, anyone), so writing letters alone wouldn’t have been enough for her. At first I imagined her leaving the letters around her local park, perhaps tucking them into tree trunks or leaving them on benches, but as I began to imagine the kind of person who would find them, and why these anonymous letters might mean something to him, I developed the character of Albert. From that moment on, the story fell into place very quickly.

  

Are any of the characters based on anyone you know – or bits of them? I don’t mean like an arm or leg, but traits within a personality.

The people in my life have probably been wondering the same thing, though none of them have been brave enough to ask yet! My writing draws on many thoughts and observations, so there are definitely elements that I could trace back to certain individuals. Mostly, however, the two characters are based on me; they are two very different aspects of my personality.

  

Do you think Max ever got over the flower incident, or do you think it tipped him completely over the edge?

No, I think it pushed him right over the edge. I believe there’s a certain kind of bully who chooses to be mean to people as a defence against his own brittle fragility. As soon as someone fights back, he disintegrates. I imagine Max living out the rest of his days with the living room curtains drawn tightly shut.

  

You have a cracking sense of humour. The bit about the protective clothing to guard against exploding office workers had me in tears of laughter the most. Are you a funny person in your day-to-day life?

I suspect you’d find me very disappointing in real life! I do like to make people laugh (though it’s easier said than done here in Germany). I come from a mad family—mad in the classic, medieval sense of the word—so making people laugh was an important skill to have as a child. Although I’m always thrilled when people find my writing funny, in truth it’s the distillation of many hours spent staring at a blank wall, which means I actually qualify as the most boring person you know.

 Ha! I doubt that very much! 

Lost & Found is your debut, have you always written, and how long did it take to achieve your success?

I’ve been writing since about the age of four, when I took my mother’s diary and filled in many of the entries with statements like ‘This is my snot’. Hopefully it was obvious to everyone that these weren’t my mother’s words, least of all because I’d also decorated the pages with smears of the real thing.

In all the years since, I have always imagined being a published novelist, but I struggled for a long time to find my voice as a writer. A few years before Lost & Found, I wrote a very different book which, after endless rejections, got me an agent in New York. For a while I thought my career was taking off, but in retrospect I can see that I had written the wrong book, and chosen an agent who wasn’t right for me. The experience was a tough learning curve, but I finally got back on my feet and started all over again by writing Lost & Found. Happily, that led me to the perfect agent, Juliet Mushens at The Agency Group, who became a real champion of my writing.

That kind of support is crucial, so pleased you found Juliet. And as I have just finished laughing again because of your 'snot' explanation, I am further convinced that you are NOT boring!

  

 Can you tell us a little about your next book, Arms Wide Open?

It’s about a brother and sister who discover that their long-dead father may actually be alive. The only person who knows the truth is their mother, who has succumbed to early-onset dementia, a rare and hereditary form of the disease. Over the days and weeks that follow, Jack and Meredith are forced to consider both the past and the future: their memories of their mother, their hopes for finding their father, and the fear of what’s in their bloodline. As in Lost & Found, I’ve used black comedy to lighten very difficult subjects. The paperback is out in April.

Cue a shameless plug: You may also like to know that I’m currently writing my third book, Days of Wonder, which will be published next summer. But that’s another story (no pun intended).

Fantastic, I love the title! Will look out for that too. And Arms Open Wide sounds like another roller coaster ride of tears of sadness one minute, and laughter the next. Can't wait to read it. So, Tom, what is the one bit of advice you would give to writers trying to get published?

Never give up! Keep writing. Keep honing your craft.

That advice is so important. I always say the same thing :) And  can you tell us who is your very favourite author?

I’m going to cheat and give you two. I love Nick Hornby and David Sedaris. They could publish their shopping lists and I would still buy them.

Good choices! Thank you so much for taking the time to be a guest on my blog, Tom. It was great fun and  can’t wait for  Arms Wide Open and Days of Wonder!J

Here is the link for the paperback of Lost & Found  Click on the link above if you would like to purchase the Kindle version. I guarantee you will not be disappointed ... unless you have no sense of humour and/or are a very boring person.