My author interview this week is with Colette Kebell.
What genre would you
say your novels fall into, or do they defy classification?
My first two are chick-lit/rom-com or rather, contemporary
female. I then turned my hand to a raunchy
and a crime thriller… so I guess you could say I am eclectic J My next two shall be a return to chick-lit
though, which is my favourite genre.
What made you choose
that genre?
It’s a genre that I enjoy reading, and there are so many
variations around that I find it unrestrictive, which I like, hence being
self-published.
How long does it take
you to write a book?
That depends on how the story flows. I’m a punster, not a plotter and so one book
might take 4-6 months from start to finish (copy editing and cover design
included), whereas another might take years. The two WIPs I’m currently working
on have been on the back burner, so to speak, for around three years, but have
now come to the forefront.
What is your work
schedule like when you're writing?
I’m terrible at disciplining myself. If the story isn’t flowing at any given time,
I procrastinate and go off and do something else or look after my dogs or some
such J Thankfully, that doesn’t last that long, but
life has been rather hectic of late due to being involved with a couple of
rather sizeable multi-author book signing events and so, at this point in time,
my first and second round of edits have suffered. I’m itching to get back to writing again but
edits come first of the next two books won’t be launched any time soon.
Tell me something
about yourself your readers might not know.
Though I write chick-lit, I was a complete tomboy growing
up. There were no girls my age around
where we lived at the time and so I hung around with my brother and his friends
playing cricket and football and yes, naughty on occasion, playing games such
as like knock down ginger.
When did you write
your first book and how old were you?
My first published book was written in 2014, shortly after
having been made redundant. I was 48 at
the time. I have another which I wrote
some 10 years earlier which sits in a drawer collecting dust, which I doubt I
shall revisit.
What do you like to
do when you're not writing?
I love variety in my life, so I don’t stick to any one
thing. I’m passionate about cooking,
sewing, gardening and when it comes to DIY, I can turn my hand to most things,
with a little help from my husband, of course.
What was one of the
most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
How cathartic it is to write. At the time, I was incredibly angry at having
been made redundant but writing that first book expelled that anger and brought
out my suppressed creative nature.
How many books have
you written?
So far I have published four, though have two WIPs on the go
currently. All four of those have been
lovingly translated into Italian by my husband, two have been narrated for
audio, with the other two in the process and a number of them have been
translated into other languages. It has
been a hectic time as audiobook production is almost as time-consuming as the
writing itself, particularly when self-published.
Do you Google
yourself? What did you find that affected you most (good or bad)?
I haven’t googled myself for quite some time, due to having
found a large number of sites purporting to offer my books for free. I report each I come across to google and
also subscribe to a website that monitors those and has them taken down. Other than that, most of what turns up on
google are either genuine book-related posts or interviews such as this one.
As a child, what did
you want to do when you grew up?
I never knew what I wanted to do when I grew up but was
always creative, whether it was writing, drawing, sewing (my grandmother was a
tailoress for Jaeger). My parents talked
me into doing a secretarial course, as something to fall back on, and I got
stuck in that rut until I was made redundant and decided I didn’t want to work
for someone else any more.
How many unpublished
and half-finished books do you have on your computer?
Ouch, that is a question and a half. I have two that I am currently working
towards launching this year, one which is another raunchy which needs some
major edits, another crime thriller which hasn’t even reached the halfway mark
and a few short stories I would like to build on. I don’t ever delete, just park ideas until
the inspiration takes hold again.
Bio: Colette
Kebell is an eclectic author, though a relatively new one and thus far has
self-published her books. Her books are light-hearted, fun and quirky and even
considered by some to be inspirational.
She publishes mostly for the English speaking market and the Italian
one. Colette Kebell does not stick to
just one genre when writing though, as you shall discover from her latest book
which launched on 5th April 2019.
As a career, Colette spent her later years as a legal
secretary. After a first attempt at writing many years ago (a book that still remains
in her drawer) she resumed this passion a few years back, after being made
redundant. After few book signing events
and a book talk, which almost caused her to collapse with nerves, Colette now
spends her time between her home in the UK and her home in France.
Colette has two adorable dogs and, when not writing and
marketing her books, she likes cooking for herself and her husband, gardening
or designing various items for their home.
Amongst her other hobbies, she has also experimented with furniture
upholstery, and she might, from time to time, have a paintbrush in her hand.
Buy her books here: https://amzn.to/2SUK6sl
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ColetteKebell
Website: www.colettekebell.com
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