Hello, lovely readers and welcome to Friday Chats & Drinks With... Jane Lark!
This month I am welcoming the wonderful Jenny who is a hugely busy author and writing tutor as well as being a very good friend of mine after we met many moons ago through our writing.
Okay, settle in your favourite chair with your favourite drink and let's get started with my questions!
Rachel: Do you use pictures as inspiration at the start of a book? It's the only way I can start a book, personally!
Jane: I don’t think I have ever had a visual inspiration for a book, which tells me my brain engages more with sounds and experiences because music, places and true stories generally inspire my novels. I am a naturally inquisitive person. I’m always exploring something. Either going physically to historical places and when I hear a story tracking it down for all the delicious true details, or when I come across something juicy and intriguing that makes my imagination sing, I am burrowing further and further into rabbit holes online digging out every little speck of information that will help bring my fictional stories to life.
What I have used pictures for more recently, though, is for my new WWII series The Great Western Railway Girls. The story was inspired by the Great Western Railway factory and The Railway Village in Swindon. I lived near there for two decades, often walking through the factory site and village and even used the old workshops for training events. But when I was busy digging online to identify the facts I needed, I realised that the photographs in papers often gave me greater insight into the lives and work of the real women than anything that was written. So, I have looked at a lot of pictures, particularly for book two, when the GWR Girls do their bit for the war. The photographs helped me write the scenes about events that took place in England leading up to and following the evacuation of the army from Dunkirk and other beaches.
Rachel: What is your favourite period drama?
Jane: On television? I’m old school, that would be the 1998 series of Vanity Fair, with the 1995 P&P – Pride and Prejudice – series coming second and the runner up in third being the 2007-2010 series The Tudors, even though Jonathan Rhys Meyers defied reality and was dark-haired not auburn.
Rachel: Ooh, I don't think I've ever seen the 1998 Vanity Fair series - will be looking it up as soon as we finish this interview!
Rachel : Are the titles of your books important?
Many people speak about the cover of a book being the important thing that draws a reader towards reading a particular book, but I think the title on that cover is just as, if not more, important. The title should align a book to a genre to help people know what books they may like. The title should also inspire a little intrigue, insight and/or sense of affiliation for the reader.
Rachel: I've never been too worried about my titles and always leave it to the publisher's marketing team, but you are definitely right.
Rachel: If you’re struggling with a scene or difficult character, what methods help you through it
Jane: I stop trying to write and trust in my brain. If I do something like swimming, or just go to sleep, when my active thinking brain switches off, the next step or the story solution always pops into my brain from who knows where.
Rachel; It's always walking the dog or having a bath/shower for me!
Rachel: Are you an early bird or a night owl?
Jane: There was a time I was both… I used to wake up at six and write for an hour before getting up to go to my day job then come home from work and write into the wee hours. Now I would say the opposite, I am neither. As someone with Axial Spondyloarthritis and Fibromyalgia I suffer with extreme levels of fatigue these days so don’t get up early or stay awake late. I generally get moving at 9 a.m. and go to bed at 9 p.m. – living the high-life hey! I am used to this, though, so I am not complaining about it. It could be worse. Also, on the upside, one great thing about writing is I can stop and sleep whenever I need to – so writing fits really well around fatigue.
Rachel: As a friend who sees you often, you cope amazingly well, both personally and professionally x
Rachel: Who’s your favourite author? Why?
Jane: For most of my life I would have said Anya Seton because when I was young I read her book Katherine, which is based on a true story. It was this book that made me want to write historical stories. At the moment my historical books follow fictional characters in real settings, but I still have a desire and goal to write true stories. Some of the stories I would like to capture in a novel are on my blog at janelark.blog . I have dipped my toes into reality, though, in my novels Pride, Prejudice & a Pen based on a true story from Jane Austen’s life and in The Forbidden Love of an Officer which follows the true timeline surrounding the Battle of Waterloo.
So, who would I say now? I have fallen in love with Lucy Foley’s writing voice in recent years. I discovered her work when I started writing thrillers/suspense crime stories as J.S. Lark and loved her voice so much I read her backlist. Then I discovered she began by writing suspense stories in historical settings, and I love her historical writing voice even more! She has been given agreement to publish a Miss Marple novel using Agatha Christie’s character in 2026 and I can’t wait for that one.
Rachel: Do you have a pet peeve?
Jane: Am I allowed two? The first - writers who don’t bother to do any research, other than reading other fiction books, and get things obviously wrong in historical novels. Although I know as a reader you generally don’t care because it doesn’t impact the story, but when you know the right thing it stops me enjoying a book.
A good example of a continued error travelling through Regency Romantic fiction is ‘the short season’. Georgette Heyer made up a short Christmas period season where the elite would gather in London as they did in the spring season to fit with her storyline and allow the characters opportunity to socialise in the period she had placed them in London. There is no evidence this was real, and a lot of evidence that in the dark months of the year most of the rich were living in their estate houses as they could not go out and about on muddy, icy, roads in the cold and dark without a great deal of discomfort. That error doesn’t bother me very much but my favourite mistake was a stocking being thrown over a lampshade in the early 1800s; they didn’t have lampshades and if they had thrown a stocking over a candle it would have gone up in flames… I laughed.
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A reviewer recently said I didn’t know the era, no, I think they have read too many incorrect books. I hate to say it, but it is often the US authors of popular Regency fiction who don’t learn the British differences; like lace up dresses – this is correct for the period in America not Britain, clothing here used buttons or hooks and eyes. Men’s shirts did not have buttons, though, they were only open at the neck, the neck cloth was used to close the front and lift the collars, cuff links were later introduced for the open cuffs on sleeves. In Britain trousers were introduced in the Regency period and were the height of fashion, pantaloons were generally only worn for riding and sport activities. But in America pantaloons continued to be worn and trousers were called pantaloons when they came into fashion – hence trousers called pants in the USA today. I could go on, I’ll stop… She says with a wry smile.
Rachel: HAHAHA!! I can't certainly tell this is a pet peeve of yours...
Jane: Number two is quick, celebrities who say they have published a book when they have usually contributed nothing to the book other than their name – my eyes roll as these books fill all the shops’ shelves leaving hardly any space for the real authors. Again, I know as readers you rarely care so I shan’t go on and you can happily live with the myth, while I place a genuine author’s book in front of theirs on the shelves, that’s the little smiling devil in me.
Rachel: Can you tell me a little about your next project?
Jane: Well, I have more J.S. Lark’s to come at some point, and my Regency Romance series The Marlow Family Secrets has just been updated with a brief rewrite and rereleased by Boldwood Books this summer, a whole series of deliciously luxurious, passionate and emotional period romances for your summer holiday TBR pile.
Of course, book two in The GWR Girls series is also released in September, which focuses in on the month of June in 1940 when the Germans raced through France and forced the Allied forces to hurriedly withdraw. When, after the small boats have done their bit, those working on the railways takeover. Women and men work day and night to bring the men away from the coast and ensure they survive.
Rachel; So good to hear we've got so much to look forward from you, Jane! Now I'd love to share the blurb and buy link for your latest WWII novel, The Great Western Railway Girls...
BLURB:
A BRAND NEW, enthralling WWII industry saga, perfect for fans of Nancy Revell and Maisie Thomas.
'Friendship, drama and an array of authentic characters make this debut saga a must-read.’ Maisie Thomas, bestselling author of The Railway Girls series
September, 1939.
When war is declared, Lily sees an opportunity to escape her domineering father: she will join the Great Western Railway factory to win her financial independence and move out of home.
Maggie doesn’t want to simply follow in her sisters’ footsteps and work in the laundries at the GWR. So, when the chance comes to volunteer for men’s work in the machine shop, she’s the first to raise her hand.
Catherine, a clerk in the GWR office, has been helping with London’s evacuation efforts, organising trains to move children out of the city. But when her task is completed, will she defy her family and fiancé’s wishes and sign up for a more dangerous role?
Taking on demanding new duties, Lily, Maggie and Catherine – and others – develop an unexpectedly close bond.
Bio:
international bestselling author of both historical fiction and psychological thrillers, and a finalist in British Fiction Industry awards.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Janelarkauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jane.lark/
Website: https://www.janelark.co.uk/
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