Hi, Pernille! So lovely to welcome you to my blog for the very first time - I am looking forward to learning more about you and your latest release, PROBABLY THE BEST KISS IN THE WORLD. Let's kick things off with my questions...
What did you want to
be when you grew up?
I always wanted to
tell stories. As a teen I wanted to be a journalist, but my English teacher,
who was also my careers teacher advised me that she didn’t think my writing was
good enough. And it totally threw me, as I had no idea what else to be. It put me
off writing for ten years too. I picked it back up when I finished work to have
my twins and it was lovely to write again, to keep my brain from shrinking.
Getting my book deal was lovely to prove her wrong.
Coffee, tea or hot
chocolate?
All of the above. I love the taste of coffee but it makes me
angsty so I tend to lay off it. I drink tea instead most of the time, my
favourite being Pukka’s Liquorice & Peppermint and I like a hot choc too
because Chocolate. A top treat would be a Mocha, but it’ll have me buzzing all
day.
What genre do you
typically read, Why?
Romance – because I’m a sap and they make me happy. They’ve
got to have a HEA though -Do NOT come at me with anything ambiguous. I also
choose YA books, for the fast pacing, snappy dialogue and contemporary themes.
And once in a while I grab crime novel, just to have justice done at the end.
If I’m going on holiday somewhere new, I’ll now try to find a book set there as
there’s a certain joy in recognising the places. I did this recently with two
books set in Whitstable; The Whitstable
Pearl by Julie Wassmer and The
Whitstable High Tide Swimming Club by Katie May and it sort of extended my
holiday. The TripFiction and Book Trail websites help on this front, (and if
your own novel is set somewhere real, it might be worth getting it listed on
the sites.)
Share a childhood
memory
The first stories I remember concocting were about Pinky
Rabbit and family, who I had drawn onto bits of paper. Pinky was white haired
with pink inner ears and wore brown shorts. I would tell myself stories about
them, moving the paper bits around ‘on set’ in my bottom bookshelf. What can I
say? I lived out in the sticks and telly was rubbish in the 70s.
Do you have a
shameless addiction?
Shameless addiction; Chocolate. Pure and simple.
(Shameful addiction; Twitter. I love so much about Twitter;
the connections you make, the amazing things you can discover from someone’s
retweet and the glorious wit, but I’m ashamed of my addiction to it, the time I
waste on it and my inability to curb that.)
What do you think is
the biggest challenge of writing a new book?
Without doubt, it’s whatever I am doing at the time.
In the beginning it’s about forming the idea, and I flail
around, discarding premises because they’ve been done before, are too
outlandish, too weak or just plain pants.
And after that it’s the planning as I want to be a planning
goddess, but then I get anxious that I haven’t started yet, so I end up forcing
myself just to launch in, figuring I’ll work it out as I go. So I’m a wannabe
plotter who is too impatient to plot…
Then I hit the 20-30k Suckage Point, and sure enough it will
be really sucky. (But I know it’s coming and I have faith it’ll sort itself,
but it is still feels like The Worst.)
Edits make me howl around the house in a huge teenage strop,
insisting that I CANNOT possibly take it apart as it’ll never work again this
perfect jigsaw of mine, then I’ll begrudgingly think ‘well, I’ll just try it,
to show it can’t be done’, after which the original version never sees light of
day again.
And then there’s the fear of how it will be received. Putting
your work up for review feels like putting yourself on a dartboard.
Writing is a very hurty process. Writing a book is a
challenge from start to finish. The End.
(Actually, writing The End is the good bit and makes all the
other parts worth it.)
Do you aim for a set
amount of pages/words a day?
It really depends on what I’m doing. I’m not the person that
does X-words-a-day no matter where I am on my current project. If I’m editing,
then I just get as far as I can in the time I have, knowing what my deadline
is. If I’m drafting then my goal is 10k words a week, ideally spaced across
five days with any shortfall made up at the weekend if necessary. I suppose the
most efficient people will keep their daily writing habit going in some way,
however small, even when editing or planning, so they can pace up immediately
when they move into a drafting phase, but I am not that person yet. One day…
What are your
thoughts about writing a book series?
If I had a relevant idea and could properly plot it, I’d
think that was great, but provided it’s a series based on a certain connection
(characters, place etc), as opposed one story divvied up into multiple parts,
as the middle part(s) often feels like a bridge and I wouldn’t want to risk
that.
Pernille Hughes- Bio
Pernille Hughes is a RomCom
author and mum, whose debut novel was SWEATPANTS AT TIFFANIE'S, soon to be
followed by PROBABLY THE BEST KISS IN THE WORLD (April 2019). Previously her
writing has been printed in The Sunday Times and the fabulous SUNLOUNGER summer
anthologies.
Pernille (pronounced Pernilla) studied Film & Literature at uni and took her first job in advertising,having been lured by the temptation of freebies, but left when Status Quo tickets was as good as it got. After a brief spell marketing Natural History films, she switched to working in Children's television which for a time meant living in actual Teletubbyland, sharing a photocopier with Laa-Laa.
Now, she lives in actual Buckinghamshire, sharing a photocopier with her husband and their four spawn. While the kids are at school she scoffs cake and writes RomCom stories in order to maintain a shred of sanity.
Pernille (pronounced Pernilla) studied Film & Literature at uni and took her first job in advertising,having been lured by the temptation of freebies, but left when Status Quo tickets was as good as it got. After a brief spell marketing Natural History films, she switched to working in Children's television which for a time meant living in actual Teletubbyland, sharing a photocopier with Laa-Laa.
Now, she lives in actual Buckinghamshire, sharing a photocopier with her husband and their four spawn. While the kids are at school she scoffs cake and writes RomCom stories in order to maintain a shred of sanity.
Social media links:
Twitter @pernillehughes
Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pernille-Hughes/e/B00DTAXQSG/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1547460555&sr=8-1
Probably the Best Kiss in the World
Jen Attison likes
her life Just So. But being fished out of a canal in Copenhagen by her knickers
is definitely NOT on her to do list. From cinnamon swirls to a spontaneous night of laughter and
fireworks, Jen’s city break with the girls takes a turn for the unexpected
because of her gorgeous, mystery rescuer.
Back home, Jen faces a choice. A surprise proposal from her
boyfriend, ‘boring’ Robert has offered Jen the safety net she always thought
she wanted. But with the memories of her Danish adventure proving hard to
forget, maybe it’s time for Jen to stop listening to her head and start
following her heart…
The ebook is available with online retailers, for example
here;
The paperback will be out on June 27th also via
online retailers such as these;
Thank you so much for having me Rachel! xx
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