Hi, Lesley! It's been so long since we've spoken I am thrilled to welcome you back to my blog - I hope you've been well. You have a brand new release THE WARTIME BOOKSHOP which sounds just up my street - let's get things started with my questions...
1)
What is the best and worse thing you
have learned from an editor/agent?
The
best thing I’ve learned is to have more confidence as a writer. My current
agent, Kate Nash of the Kate Nash Literaary Agency, is great for spurring me
on. The worst thing I’ve learned was more in the nature of a challenge in that
my first book, The Runaway Women in London had to be shortened from
almost 140,000 words to around 100,000. I don’t think I’m a particularly wordy
writer as I have a background in writing short stories for women’s magazines,
some of which were only 1,000 words in length. It was therefore a little
daunting to reduce a story by more than a quarter. However, I knuckled down and
managed to get to the published length of 108,000 words. I need wine
afterwards.
2)
What is your typical day?
Ideally
I write every day, including at weekends, depending on family and social
commitments. Working at weekends means I feel I’m entitled to take time off
mid-week if necessary or if someone invites me out to play. My day is broken up
with domestic necessities such as washing, shopping, gardening and – deep
breath because I hate it – cleaning, as well as phone calls with my lovely
daughters. I also tutor and mentor other writers so that work has to be fitted
in too.
3)
What do you read while in the midst
of a project? Or don’t you?
I
always have a book on the go. I don’t often have time to sit and read for any
length of time but I love to read in the bath at the end of the day.
4)
What do you do with a paperback once you’ve
read it?
My daughters consider me a terrible book
hoarder and they’re right. I don’t have a problem parting with books I haven’t
particularly enjoyed but I do struggle with others. If I think my daughters or
their dad will like a book I pass it on to them. These books invariably end up
back at my house so I tend to donate them – and any other books I can bear to
part from – to one of the two book hutches near where I live. These are mini
libraries in people’s gardens. I might also donate some books to charity shops.
5)
Are you nervous about friends reading your
book?
I’m nervous about anyone reading my
books and start babbling on about how they aren’t any good so it’s fine not to
buy them. This is why it’s great to have such an encouraging agent.
6) What things inspire
you to write? Location, music, film or even in a book?
My books tend to come out of the ether rather
than being inspired by anything specific. Having said that, I find my ideas
flow best if I stare at the sky. I call it floating.
7)
What’s next for you?
The
Wartime Bookshop is a three-book series so I’m working on the second
book at present. The third book also. Eek! Lots to do!
Alice is nursing an injured hand and a broken heart when she moves to the village of Churchwood at the start of WWII. She is desperate to be independent but worries that her injuries will make that impossible.
Kate lives with her family on Brimbles Farm, where her father and brothers treat her no better than a servant. With no mother or sisters, and shunned by the locals, Kate longs for a friend of her own.
Naomi is looked up to for owning the best house in the village. But privately, she carries the hurts of childlessness, a husband who has little time for her and some deep-rooted insecurities.
With war raging overseas, and difficulties to overcome at home, friendship is needed now more than ever. Can the war effort and a shared love of books bring these women - and the community of Churchwood - together?
BIO:
Web: www.lesleyeames.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LesleyEamesWriter
Twitter: @LesleyEames
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