Getting to know … Jan Jones

What genre would you say your novels fall into, or do they defy classification?

I write in several different genres: Cosy mystery (Penny Plain series), Regency Romance (Newmarket Regency series), romantic suspense... All of them have mystery, romance and humour in different proportions.

What made you choose that genre?

I enjoy reading a wide range of genres, so I suppose it never occurred to me that I should limit myself to only writing one type. Each has different challenges and a different focus. Swapping between them keeps my writing fresh.

How long does it take you to write a book?

Oh, goodness, how long is a piece of string? My standard-length Regencies took around four months for the first draft, then another four to edit and edit and polish and polish. My short novels take perhaps three months, perhaps longer. The trouble is that there is just as much work involved in creating a world for a short novel as there is for a long one. Getting all the details right is what takes the time. Short stories (magazine-shorts) can take a week or two.

What is your work schedule like when you're writing?

I write every spare moment. But like everyone else, I have a life as well. The days are one long juggle. I write new stuff best late at night when I don’t get interrupted. I edit best during the day when I can work in short snatches of time.

Where do you get your ideas for your books?

In general, I start every book with the main character and the situation. Once I begin to really think about her and her background and her life and what makes her tick, the story develops. I do a lot of free-fall thinking and a vast amount of scribbling on scraps of paper before I start writing.

The starting points for the ideas themselves are all around. Bursts of conversation. Glimpses of places through windows or in photographs. The look of a person – their expression, dress or mannerisms. The problem is to limit them!

When did you write your first book and how old were you?

I made up stories for my brother as soon as he was old enough to listen. My first written down story was in an exercise book when I was seven or eight. I soon realised that the act of writing it down made the whole process much, much slower, so I went back to spinning them out of the air until I was in my twenties!

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

Reading, losing myself in someone else’s world. Also researching and finding out new things that might come in useful one day.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

Oh, that you have to trust your own characters and your own instincts. If you’ve got the characters right, things happen as you are writing that is very much like magic.

How many books have you written?

A lot! But if you mean published, there have been eleven or twelve of various lengths. Some are out of print, so I am gradually putting them up on Amazon Kindle myself.

Which is your favourite and why?

When I am writing, my favourite is always ‘the next one’ (the one I haven’t written yet), because it is full of bright promise. I do actually like all my books, but I am especially fond of my most recent one FAIRLIGHTS, because it is romantic suspense with a mystery, which I love, and it was inspired by Mary Stewart, who I have adored ever since I first turned her pages. I am also very pleased with FAIRLIGHTS because when I originally wrote it, it was to a much shorter remit (for a magazine) which chafed at me. I always knew it should be longer, so I am really delighted that I revisited it and took the time and care to let it grow to the length and shape that it always should have been.

As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

I wanted to be a teacher, and an actor, and a singer … and a storyteller. Which I now am.

What are you working on now?

I’m currently working on a prequelly-spinoff idea that evolved at the back of my mind when I was writing FAIRLIGHTS. I wrote a long description of the various parts of the house, and when I got to the Regency wing I thought “Ooh, there’s a story in this” -- so I’m writing it.

Blog

Amazon Author Page

Twitter: @janjonesauthor

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Jan’s Novels

Contemporary romantic comedy:
Stage by Stage

Newmarket Regency series:
The Kydd Inheritance
Fair Deception
Fortunate Wager also available as e-book

The Penny Plain Mysteries (novellas):
The Jigsaw Puzzle also available as e-book
Just Desserts also available as an e-book
Local Secrets
The Christmas Present

Contemporary mysteries with paranormal elements (novellas):
An Ordinary Gift
Written on the Wind also available as e-book
Fairlights also available as e-book

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Getting to know ... Alan Hutcheson

What genre would you say your novels fall into, or do they defy classification?

Defy seems a bit harsh, but I can’t deny its accuracy. Let’s just say I don’t have the marketing savvy to zero in on a genre and then follow that formula. When asked, I generally describe my first novel, Boomerang, as a Comic Novel of International Intrigue and Jazz. The Baer Boys, which has just been released as an ebook, is a Character Driven Novel With a Flawed But Likable Main Character (Male) which some readers have likened to the works of Nick Hornby. But then again, another very well read early reader told me it reminded her of Anne Tyler. I have read most of Mr. Hornby’s novels, but only recently, long after The Baer Boys had taken shape. And Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is the only Anne Tyler work I have read. That was years ago.

What made you choose that genre?

Here’s my marketing savvy again. I don’t choose genres, I choose characters. From those characters I get stories.

How long does it take you to write a book?

Way, way too long. Boomerang literally took fifteen years if you include the time I spent rewriting it after it made it to the “agent stage” but failed to get a publisher under the title “Close Enough for Government Work”. The Baer Boys started out as a comic murder mystery with a theatre teacher as the reluctant amateur sleuth. After reaching the short list for the first annual YouWriteOn book of the year contest, but ultimately falling short, I asked one of the finals judges what I could do better. He told me that I was not a genre writer, my characters were too well developed and my overall style or voice, if you will, was better suited to Novels with an upper case N. It took me close to nine years of bouncing back and forth, resisting and then following his advice, writing reams of stuff that never made it into the final product, before I felt I had a book worth releasing.

What is your work schedule like when you're writing?

Whenever I can. My day job has an extraordinarily erratic schedule. Some days I’m in at four or five o’clock in the morning. Some days I start at 3 PM or even 8 PM. Plus, I’m a husband and father, and those roles are important to me. So I squeeze my writing into lunch breaks, those slivers of time on days off when my domestic duties are complete, and a couple of times I have scheduled a week of vacation simply so I can have Days to Write.

Where do you get your ideas for your books?

Characters are the first thing that come to me and they are conglomerations of people I know or have known, real and fictional characters I have read about, and myself. There is at least a bit of me in every character in both books, and they both have a pretty large cast.

When did you write your first book and how old were you?

My first book was a collection of short stories that I wrote when I was in seventh grade. So that would make me twelve years old. The stories were all excruciatingly derivative of things like The Mad Scientists Club and The Marvelous Inventions of Alvin Fernald with a bit of Twenty-One Balloons and The Hobbit thrown into the mix.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I love to read. Big surprise there. And although I’m not a fan of the word “avid”, I think that describes my relationship with photography. Cooking is fun. Gardening is something I enjoy but am not terribly successful at. And both my wife and I love to travel, visit museums and go to concerts. To completely decompress I play guitar.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

That I could do it. I didn’t start writing with any intention to publish until I was in my late thirties. It began as a challenge, something to stimulate the grey cells that would involve something I was already passionate about.

How many books have you written?

I’m guessing we don’t want to include the seventh grade short story collection. So the answer is two. Boomerang and The Baer Boys.

Which is your favourite and why?

That’s like asking who I love more, my son or my daughter.

As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

Let’s see. Architect. Car designer. Rock and roll musician. Late night talk show host. Actor. That one lasted all the way into college.

What are you working on now?

I am about 18,000 words into a book featuring the main characters from Boomerang and also making notes for a follow up to The Baer Boys that would more prominently feature the character of Art Baer, the father.

Bio

We will dispense with the third person nonsense one usually finds in bios of this sort. Born in Michigan and transplanted to Arizona early in life, I have been avoiding skin cancer and gila monsters for decades and still am grateful not to be shovelling snow. By way of a day job I have been littering up the retail industry for longer than either retail industry or myself would care to admit. When not persuading innocents to part with their hard earned funds in order to obtain a shiny object or two, I read, play guitar, play with my dog Max, go on hikes with family and friends, and on occasion I have been known to pretend to be moderately knowledgeable in the subtleties of wine. When I retire from the day job I will be infesting whatever local theatre company that will have me.

I would love for you to drop by and say hello at any or all of these spots.

https://www.facebook.com/LiterarySnippets?ref=hl

http://alanhutcheson.blogspot.com/   otherwise known as Sketches by Plumboz

http://boomerangbyalanhutcheson.blogspot.com/

http://thebaerboys.blogspot.com/

https://twitter.com/AlanHutcheson

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fmthend90now/   Where you can find a bit of my photography

Boomerang

The Baer Boys

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Getting to know ... Joan Fallon

What genre would you say your novels fall into, or do they defy classification?

This is always a problem for me when I have finished a new book.  How do I classify it?  My novels do not fit easily into a prescribed classification - I like to consider them literary fiction, but this is such a vague term.  I even researched ‘literary fiction’ on the internet and it became clear that the meaning depends on the writer’s point of view as to what constitutes ‘literary’.  With some of my books it is clearer and I can pop them straight into the historical fiction category - although that too has restrictions.  What exactly is historical fiction?  My novel THE ONLY BLUE DOOR set in the 1940s is acceptable but THE HOUSE ON THE BEACH set in Spain during the Franco years is probably too recent.  The one thing that is consistent about my work is that they are books featuring strong, capable women. 

What made you choose that genre?

I have always been a bit of a champion for women’s rights, so like to write about women and how they cope with what life throws at them.  I studied history at college and later at university and have always been drawn to social history, so enjoy putting my female characters into a historical setting.

How long does it take you to write a book?

On average about six months. My latest novel THE SHINING CITY took a year to write, from research to final editing.  This was because I was writing about a period in Spanish history that I knew nothing about and had to do a tremendous amount of research.

What is your work schedule like when you're writing?

I try to start work at 10 am and work through to 2 pm five days a week.  Sometimes if things are going really well I will write for a couple of hours in the evening as well.

Where do you get your ideas for your books?

Ideas come from various places - a news item, something I’ve read that sparks off a train of thought that leads to a story.  Sometimes someone will tell me about something that has happened and I can see it as a new story.  I wrote SANTIAGO TALES because we had spent a number of holidays in Galicia and one year we were in Santiago de Compostela in Holy Year and saw all the pilgrims.

When did you write your first book and how old were you?

I didn’t start writing until after I had retired.  This was in 2007, after I had finished doing a Creative Writing Course with the Open University.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

Well, I’m married and have a family that I like to spend time with.  I also have two dogs which need constant attention and I play golf.  On a less active side, I watch a lot of films and read all the time.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

It was something that I learned from the Creative Writing Course - that writing is as much a craft as it is inspiration.  When you realise this you can tackle your writing in a much more practical way.

How many books have you written?

I have written one book of non-fiction and eight novels.  Three novels are still to be published.

Which is your favourite and why?

While I am writing a novel that is my favourite one but I suppose, in answer to your question, I would say SPANISH LAVENDER.  It is set in the Spanish Civil War, here in Málaga.  My father came over from Ireland to fight with the International Brigade and although he told me very little about what happened back then, I feel a connection to the events of that time.

As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

I wanted to be a journalist.

What are you working on now?

I am just publishing my latest book, THE SHINING CITY, a historical novel set in 10th century Spain, in Madinat al-Zahra, just outside Córdoba.  For once the action is evenly distributed between the sexes - Omar, a young and talented potter falls in love with Jawhara, a slave girl who becomes the favourite concubine of the Caliph.

Bio:

Joan Fallon was born in Scotland, but spent most of her formative life in the south of England.  After a brief spell working in industry, she became a teacher and later a management consultant specialising in Behavioural Studies. She moved to the south of Spain in 1997 and began writing full-time. Since living in Spain she has become very interested in the country and its culture and this is reflected in her books.

Joan’s books on Amazon

DAUGHTERS OF SPAIN

THE HOUSE ON THE BEACH

SANTIAGO TALES

LOVING HARRY

THE ONLY BLUE DOOR

SPANISH LAVENDER

Connect with Joan Fallon:

https://www.facebook.com/joanfallonbooks

http://costawomen.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=2c1f68w4av1hk

http://www.thehouseonthebeach.joanfallon.co.uk

http://www.joanfallon.co.uk/index.html

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=157658100&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile

https://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard

Twitter: https://twitter.com/joan_fallon

http://twitter.com/notesonspain

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/joanfallon

http://www.iauthor.uk.com/profile

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Research, query, write

Sasha from Brixton needs some marketing advice, she writes: I have written several articles on technology issues, but I’m really struggling to find outlets for them. Can you help me find markets?

There are two ways to deal with market research. One is to read several copies of a magazine and then think up an idea that might be of interest to the editor - taking into account the publication's style and content. If the editor likes your idea in outline form, you would then write the article to suit the magazine.

The other way is to think of an idea and then research a magazine that might be interested in it. This is by far the harder way of doing things. However, sometimes ideas come to us and we want to write them, so we have to research for the right outlet.

What you are trying to do is to find a market for existing articles. This is almost, but not quite, impossible. The articles may well need substantial rewriting to suit the publication. You might be able to use the facts, but end up with an entirely different article at the end, depending on what the editor asks for.

This is why it is so important to query with an outline - so that you don't waste time and effort on writing an article for which you do not yet have a market.

With regards to your technology articles, you need to find magazines that appeal to you as a reader and study the tone and content, then write an outline using your facts, which you feel would catch the eye of the editor. If the editor then accepts any of the ideas, you can alter your existing articles so that they are right for the readership.

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