Saturday 13 December 2014

Albert's Christmas by Matthew Drzymala

This fourth story set in Bumpkinton is set just before Christmas when Father O'Grady is down a Santa Claus and asks the local down and out, Albert, to help out.

This is another gentle tale set in this hard to find village. I am enjoying this series and this is another fine addition.  These stories work well as shorts and each one intermingles with characters across other ones.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00Q1J55GS/?tag=jookuf-21



Friday 12 December 2014

Interrogating Matthew Drzymala

Next up is the man who discovered the little village of Bumpkinton.




How do you strike the balance between writing something you want to write and writing something that people want to read, in terms of the compromises you make, if any?

I have to be honest and say of the work I have released thusfar, I have written them for myself. Brainstorm, a short story about a clinical psychologist whose life is falling apart was written in a creative writing class I took in 2012/13. The main set piece was written in that class and I expanded it after I left. I wrote it solely for myself.

My Bumpkinton stories are again a product of that course and I write them for myself also. I have had a number of people asking me to write more about Amelia Goose. However, for me, she is a character purely there to irritate. Bittersweet, the first Bumpkinton novella had her as a main lead, but her elongated words can be grating and to base a lot of stories around her, for me, would be something I would get tired of.

However, saying that, I am currently working on a set of children's stories. I have definitely had to tailor those for the younger audience. Those are purely aimed at children and not myself. I find myself changing words to make sure I don't alienate a younger audience. I try to take the Roald Dahl and Harry Potter approach with those stories. It's best to write them so they don't talk down to children. Children are intelligent and there's no point patronising them. I have had to change some things they wouldn’t understand and describe more, but they are written in a way that an adult would enjoy too.

It's finding the right balance, so so far that is the only piece of work I've made compromises on.


What excites, attracts or appeals to you about the genre(s) you write in.

I write mostly humorous fiction. I like to think I have a good sense of humour. Bumpkinton, for instance, is very light and can be read by anybody. There's no bad language and they are an easy read. Sometimes after I've read a heavy book, I like to then read something that's a bit fluffy and daft to rest my brain. I hope that people find this in my Bumpkinton Tales.

They are the least stressful pieces I've worked on either published or still in rough draft and I just find humorous fiction enjoyable to write. It's always interesting to see how people react. A one-liner I think is brilliant may not hit a note with some readers, where a weaker one-liner I've had feedback saying they 'loved that line'. Every reader is different and I enjoy hearing what people like and don't like.


Do you have a box, drawer, folder etc where you keep thoughts and ideas for future stories? Such as names you have come across, bits of dialogue, ideas, characters - even if you have no idea when you might use them?

I have a number of notebooks with random ideas scribbled into them. Mostly it's the start of stories and the odd bit of dialogue.


How much of you is in your characters? Which of your characters is the you that you’d most like to be? Or be with ?

In my Bumpkinton Tales series, I would say I am most like Father Whitworth O'Grady. He gets vexed quite easily, tries to be a good person and always does what he thinks is best. However, you know at some point something will go wrong when his plans seemingly look straight forward. Story of my life, really haha

I'd like to have a pint with him. I'd find him hilarious.

In Brainstorm, Michael Eriksson, is very much the me of my early 20's (even though he's much older in the story). He's suffering from depression and struggling to cope. That is a story very personal to me, not only with what Michael is going through but the psychologist session is very much what I went through. The coping techniques with his patients are what I had to do to help with my problems. The issues are changed so as not to bare all that I was going through, but the sessions are very much personal to me.


Do you become so wrapped up in your writing that your spouse wonders if they're married to you or one of your characters?

I wish I had the time, actually, that sounds wrong. I don't write nearly as much as I wish I could. I have a number of other interests and they all fight for my time. I mostly write at weekends and the odd time during the week. Holding down a full time job as well as watching brilliant TV series and spending time with my partner, Elaine, means I don't neglect her for the sake of writing.

Maybe one day I'll write a lot more than I do, but I love spending time with Elaine and that is my first love before my writing.


What type of book do you like reading? Is it the same genre as you write?

I like to read Terry Pratchett's discworld novels, Sherlock Holmes and Jo Nesbo. To be honest, I'll give most things a go. I think I prefer reading thrillers if I had to choose. I take my hat off to anybody who can write so many plot twists. I have a thriller in mind, but I'm still working on how to throw in red herrings without babbling on. I'm sure I'll get there one day. 


How do you feel when a reader points out the spelling mistake(s) you have made?

Annoyed at myself! However, I quickly resolve it and upload a new copy.


What do you like most about visiting KUF/GR/forums?

KUF really is the friendliest forum I have ever know. I know of nowhere else where so many people are so supportive. People can be so cut throat in this world and begrudge success, but when you see an indie either sell well or get a publisher everybody is right behind them. 

I don't frequent GR as much as I should. I try to when I can and find people are supportive but I find it hard to get noticed on there.


What is on your near horizon?

I have a Bumpkinton short story out on 12th December 2014 called Albert's Christmas. The novellas Bittersweet and The Bachelor are the main Bumpkinton stories, but I like to throw in a festive extra, hence this years release and 2013's Last Christmas.

I'm also working on next years Bumpkinton novella. I am hoping I can make it into a full length novel, but we'll see. I'll know better by around April how long it can be and if I have the story to last a novel.

As stated earlier, I'm also working on a set of children's stories. At time of writing I have written one around 10,000 words long and plan to do another four around the same length. They are all based around the same character. He's a character I used for NaNoWriMo in 2011 but the novel, so far, just doesn't sit right with me. So, in the meantime, I've decided to make him a few years younger and write some background that I think will then help me smooth out the novel.


Where can we find you for more information?

You can read more about me at the below links:

I am also running a launch day on Facebook for my short story, Albert's Christmas. I will be giving away a number of prizes including Bumpkinton pens, Amazon gift cards and signed books by fellow indie authors. People can join or be invited at the below link:



Monday 8 December 2014

Rosa's Gold by Ray Kingfisher

This is the dual story of seventeen year old Nicole finding Mac's old journal in the cellar of the new house her and her mother have just moved into.  Mac's journal is his recollections of being in the wrong place at the wrong time in the second world war and ending up at Auschwitz.

Sometimes with a dual time story I might not like one side of the story or the other or sometimes the transition between the two times can jar, but this story was extremely well put together.  The two parts seem as though it's just one person reading another's story, but as the story unfolds we see where the two lives overlap.

Nicole seems like a lovely girl, I felt her parents' story was the only bit that slightly let the book down.  However Mac's story was heartbreaking at times.  Even though the descriptions of Mac's experiences in the concentration camp are hard to read it was sensitively done.

This author can turn his hand to numerous genres and is fast becoming my favourite author.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00QMVW4MI/?tag=jookuf-21


Sunday 7 December 2014

Interrogating Mads Sorensen

Here's Mads Sorensen


How do you strike the balance between writing something you want to write and writing something that people want to read, in terms of the compromises you make, if any?

I write because I want people to read what I write, the more the better. While I don't write something my heart isn't in, I endeavour to write stories I would like to read when, say, relaxing on a train journey rather than something I would like to write. But I've never been one for the deep, dark, painful stuff (a bit odd, I know, hailing from Scandinavia), so there usually isn't a conflict.


What excites, attracts or appeals to you about the genre(s) you write in.

My chosen genres of thrillers and sci-fi provide plenty of opportunities for action, and yet, I'm not much of an all-out action person in my tastes of films and books. I'm more interested in exploring the limits of individual human ability and endurance. With a few exceptions, my characters are what you could call normal people, who are hurled into abnormal situations they have to get out of, not only for themselves but mankind to survive.


Do you have a box, drawer, folder etc where you keep thoughts and ideas for future stories? Such as names you have come across, bits of dialogue, ideas, characters - even if you have no idea when you might use them?

I do write things like that down, but apart from ideas for future stories, I don't have any systematic way of storing such information, though I probably ought to.


How do you manage plot bunnies (ideas that invade your mind that aren’t usually helpful to the story you’re writing but breed like...er...bunnies)?

I don't think I have many of those, or rather, I don't recognise them as such at the time. Even though I'm better at planning than I used to be, my stories keep going off the rails and into cul-de-sacs. It's infuriating and part of the reason they take so long to write. On the positive side, it's a way of exploring possibilities I otherwise wouldn't have thought of, but in a manner resembling the trial-and-error tree of evolution rather than a deliberate, systematic approach.


How much of you is in your characters? Which of your characters is the you that you’d most like to be? Or be with ?

There isn't a lot of me, or anyone else I know, in my main characters, though I sometimes use a real person as a template for a minor character. I wouldn't mind spending some time with Sid, the contract killer turned saviour from 15000 Feet Below. She seems fun to be with, as long as you are not on her hit list. And I kind of fell in love with her as I wrote the story.


Do you become so wrapped up in your writing that your spouse wonders if they're married to you or one of your characters?

Better not go there.


What type of book do you like reading? Is it the same genre as you write?

I read quite widely, including the genres I write in. I like literary fiction, too, even though I've never felt compelled to write a literary novel.


What lengths do you go to to convince us readers that your book has the X factor?

The cover and blurb are the first things prospective readers see, so that's where I put in the effort. I have yet to hear of anyone buying a book because the writer told them it was great. It has to come from readers. But the best way to promote a book is probably to write another.


How do you feel when a reader points out the spelling mistake(s) you have made?

Unless there are a lot, I don't feel much. I just correct them. I've stopped wondering why I can't get every word right. I just accept it.


What do you like most about visiting KUF/GR/forums?

The sense of community, sharing the joy and suffering of writing and reading.


What is on your near horizon?

The second book in a trilogy as yet without a name. It follows the characters from Echoes of The Kin in their bid to escape from the serfs. And who knows, perhaps they aren't the only humans left on Earth after all.


Where can we find you for more information?

On my website, madssorensen.com, though I have been neglecting it a bit lately. I plan an overhaul of the site when I get some time early in the new year.

Sunday 30 November 2014

Interrogating D.D. Chant

Meet the gorgeous DD who doesn't like to have favourites, she just loves everyone.



How do you strike the balance between writing something you want to write and writing something that people want to read, in terms of the compromises you make, if any?

I think that it’s really important for an author to write the sort of stories that they themselves would want to read. For me when I’m writing a story I’m excited to see were the plot is going to go, how the characters are going to grow and change throughout the story.
Hopefully anyone that reads my books can see my enthusiasm for my stories coming through and that it gives them extra enjoyment.


What excites, attracts or appeals to you about the genre(s) you write in.

King Soloman said that there was ‘nothing new under the sun’.
I think that’s the thing that I love most when I’m writing; the fact that, at its root, every problem and desire, every mistake, has been made a thousand times over. Nothing is new; the problems and dilemmas we face now are the same humans have always faced, they’re just wrapped differently. I find that intriguing.


Do you have a box, drawer, folder etc where you keep thoughts and ideas for future stories? Such as names you have come across, bits of dialogue, ideas, characters - even if you have no idea when you might use them?

I tend to keep a lot of ideas on the ‘notes’ of my iphone! Often I’m not in the house, or I haven’t a pen to hand, when I have an idea. So it all gets written into my phone.
Sometimes I’ll have a scene, or a plot twist, for months before I find a book to use it in!
I also have word.docs on my computer with synopses of books as yet unwritten!

How do you manage plot bunnies (ideas that invade your mind that aren’t usually helpful to the story you’re writing but breed like...er...bunnies)?

I stick ‘em in a word.doc on my computer. A high percentage of them get used in other books or further along in the story.


How much of you is in your characters? Which of your characters is the you that you’d most like to be? Or be with ?

It’s hard to answer this one.
Creating characters is difficult, your goodies have to be people that readers can respect but at the same time they have to challenge their idea of what ‘good’ is.
It’s one of the things that I really enjoy exploring when I’m writing the characters in my books: is this action by my hero only acceptable to me because he’s the hero? If the villain had done the same thing would I have condemned him as evil?
Tom in my Broken City series is very kind and gentle toward his family and the heroine, but at the same time he’s a soldier. He has killed people. He’s taken lives to protect the people he loves, regardless of the fact that the people that he has killed have loved ones too. Can he still be called a hero?

Kai in my Chronicles of Discord series has been brought up to put the good of the many over the good of the few. Yet is it always right to do so? He says that difficult decisions have to be made and he needs to be strong enough to make them. Yet isn’t that just an excuse for inhumane behaviour? Can he still be called a hero?

Leofric in my Lady Quill Chronicles series points out that he and his foster brothers are no different to the mercenaries they are chasing. They make war and plunder other peoples lands. Just because they are protecting their kingdom and their king, does that really make them any better? Can they still be called heroes?

I can’t really pick a favourite to be or be with.

I love Daegmund’s irreverence and the fact that he has his own moral code and doesn’t care if people agree with him.
I love Leofric’s determination to hide his own worries from his friends and not be a burden on them. He refuses to indulge in self-pity.
I love Shin’s fairness, his desire to do the right thing and his willingness to stand by his friends no matter what the cost.
I love Kai’s reasonableness, the fact that he can be calm and hold his temper in check no matter what the provocation.  His unwillingness to give in to his own loneliness.
I love Tom’s willingness to protect those who are weak and his love of his family.
I love Ryder’s loyalty to his brother.
I love Deeta’s innocence, Astra’s strength, Adele’s understanding and Esme’s open nature.


Do you become so wrapped up in your writing that your spouse wonders if they're married to you or one of your characters?

I’m not married, in my case it’s my mum and sister. Apparently they haven’t seen me in two or three years…
They always know what kind of scene I’ve been writing because (so they say) I take on the mood of the bit I’m working on!!!


What type of book do you like reading? Is it the same genre as you write?

I read anything with adventure and mystery to it, I also like a bit of romance but not a book that is *only* about romance. Thrillers, suspense, historical, dystopian… I’ll read everything but horror.

What lengths do you go to, to convince us readers that your book has the X factor?

I usually bribe prospective readers with brownies and fluffy pillows!


How do you feel when a reader points out the spelling mistake(s) you have made?

Thankful!
I have my books professionally proofread, but errors always creep in.


What do you like most about visiting KUF/GR/forums?

I love finding new authors and talking about books, bacon and chocolate! The online community of readers has been very welcoming to me and I’m very grateful to them!


What is on your near horizon?

I’ve just released Claire and the Big Bad Bunny, book three in my Claire series of short stories.
And later on in the month I’ll be releasing the 2nd book in my Chronicles of Discord series.
I’m also working on Broken City 3!


Where can we find you for more information?




My twitter page  https://twitter.com/DD_Chant

Monday 24 November 2014

The Clout of Gen by Ahmad Ardalan

John Teddy, a newspaper reporter feels his life has no more meaning, but whilst contemplating ending things by jumping off a cliff, he spots a box, the contents of which will change his life forever.

It's hard to class this book as, even though the centre of it has a time traveller, it is about Teddy's new found life and his search for the figure on the video in the box and the consequences of it.

I found this story to be enthralling and I was quite moved at times.  The descriptions of the settings in Kyoto made me think I might like to visit it.  This is one of those gems I've discovered and feel glad that I have.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008J0BSZO/?tag=jookuf-21


Sunday 23 November 2014

Interrogating Barbara Silkstone

Here is Barbara Silkstone who lives in a slightly parallel universe



How do you strike the balance between writing something you want to write and writing something that people want to read, in terms of the compromises you make, if any?

I can only write what makes me happy. If I break out in giggles while writing, then I know I have hit a sweet spot that will make my fans laugh. For me writing is all about sharing my joy with others. I couldn’t bear the thought of causing my readers nightmares, suspense and thrills, yes. When I first started writing I took workshops with Stephen King and PD James. Back then I loved the idea of “putting worms down readers’ shirts” and watching them squirm in terror – not the worms, the readers. But as our world grew more hostile, I felt it would be kinder to spread giggles and not wiggles. I am, by nature, a kind person.


What excites, attracts or appeals to you about the genre(s) you write in.

I write comedy mysteries and comedy adventures. In my imagination I am always writing for John Cleese, Cameron Diaz, and Debra Messing. I love creating heroines who despite having the best of intentions, cannot help but become involved with the barmiest villains. I like to think my stories would amuse Oscar Wilde and Lewis Carroll. 


Do you have a box, drawer, folder etc where you keep thoughts and ideas for future stories? Such as names you have come across, bits of dialogue, ideas, characters - even if you have no idea when you might use them?

I am forever jotting down ideas and throwing them into a large plastic box. I once dated a Brit with a very upper-crust accent, purely for his witticisms. I was forever jotting down his Pythonesque expressions. Once my little notebook was full I ended the relationship. Besides he turned out to be a notorious international conman.
Often my ideas come flying in the window much like Harry Potter’s owl. They swoop low and drop a plopping good idea on my head.


How do you manage plot bunnies (ideas that invade your mind that aren’t usually helpful to the story you’re writing but breed like...er...bunnies)?

Plot bunnies are the parents of sequels. What does not fit it Book One might make a dandy adventure in Book Four.


How much of you is in your characters? Which of your characters is the you that you’d most like to be? Or be with ?

Alice in The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland, Age 42 and Three-Quarters is the closest to the real me. A terminal anglophile, she is gullible, good-hearted, and plots a wicked revenge.
Wendy Darlin - Tomb Raider and I often hang out together. She’s a Miami real estate broker who supplements her income by returning stolen antiquities. What she lacks in physical coordination, she makes up for in sheer determination.


Do you become so wrapped up in your writing that your spouse wonders if they're married to you or one of your characters?

I am the opposite of a hoarder. I throw out anything I haven’t used in three months. That is what happened to my last husband. I now enjoy blessed peace and quiet as a singleton.


What type of book do you like reading? Is it the same genre as you write?

I love British comedy mysteries. I’m a big fan of Helen Smith’s books. I adore Elmore Leonard’s novels for their terse dialogue. Any book where I can imagine John Cleese as a main character is great fun. I recently re-discovered Pride and Prejudice. Cleese is a bit long in the tooth to be Darcy, but Colin Firth is a perfect substitute.


What lengths do you go to convince us readers that your book has the X factor?

My humour either hits the reader straight off or goes over their heads. Humour is subjective. It’s like trying to convince someone to “get” Monty Python.  


How do you feel when a reader points out the spelling mistake(s) you have made?

Typos are like fleas on a dog. They can happen to the best of hounds. I am blessed with a number of beta readers, a terrific scene editor, and a final editor. Admittedly crossing from Yank to Brit does cause some comments. My latest bug-a-boo is the word noddle. Noddle is not noodle. Noddle is a British word for head. Noodle is the American version.


What is on your near horizon?

I have happily entered the world of Pride and Prejudice variations. I love Jane Austen’s subtle humour and gentle sarcasm. I have just released my second book in my Mister Darcy series by Barbara Silkstone. I plan five books in the series, a contemporary spin on Austen’s timeless characters from Pride and Prejudice. Mister Darcy is a man of mystery. Dog psychologist Lizzie Bennet dreams of someday treating the corgis in Buckingham Palace.
I enjoy the delicious anticipation of the culmination of their relationship. It is the journey and not the destination that provides the fun.


Where can we find you for more information?

Barbara Silkstone is the best-selling author of the Wendy Darlin Tomb Raider series that includes: Wendy and the Lost Boys, London Broil, Cairo Caper, Miami Mummies, Vulgarian Vamp, Wendy Darlin Tomb Raider Boxed Set. Her Romantic Suspense Fairy Tales series includes: The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland, Age 42 and Three-Quarters; Wendy and the Lost Boys; Zo White and the Seven Morphs. For a squirt of paranormal comedy try: Cold Case Morphs. True fiction fan? Try: The Adventures of a Love Investigator.

Pride and Prejudice contemporary variations:
Mister Darcy’s Dogs

Mister Darcy’s Christmas
Silkstone’s writing has been described as “perfectly paced and pitched – shades of Janet Evanovich and Carl Hiaasen – without seeming remotely derivative. Fast moving action that shoots from the hip with bullet-proof characterization.”

All books are available on Audible.com

Barbara Silkstone’s Amazon Author’s page

Blog:


Tuesday 18 November 2014

Like London Buses by Louise Warman

Cally (who was first and last seen in Follow Me) is back in England.  Living in a shared house in Oxford, life is not as exciting as it was when she was a chalet girl on the piste.  That is until she meets a man on the street and falls in lust.

At the beginning of this book, I didn't care for Cally as I did in the first book.  She seemed a bit snotty about having what could be a dream job for a lot of people.  As the story went on and I got to read about the two men in her life I was keen that she made the right choice.  But what is the right choice?

I warmed to this as it went along.  It possibly helped as I am going skiing in a month's time and I'm feeling the urge to be in the snow just as much as Cally wants to go back.  I look forward to reading the next bit of Cally's life and I hope there's a bit more snow in it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00NHJRMXO/?tag=jookuf-21


Sunday 16 November 2014

Interrogating Jodi Taylor

My chair and lamp have been dusted off and the time travelling Jodi Taylor is first up.



How do you strike the balance between writing something you want to write and writing something that people want to read, in terms of the compromises you make, if any?

I consider myself to be very fortunate. When I wrote my first book – Just One Damned Thing After Another – I had no idea what I was doing. They always say, ‘Write the book you would like to read yourself,’ so I did, and fortunately, everyone else wanted to read it too.
I do get the occasional note from my excellent editor, saying ‘More (or less) description here,’ or ‘Can you insert an explanatory word or two here,’ but otherwise there’s not a great deal of conflict between what I want to write and what people want to read. As I said, I’m very fortunate.


What excites, attracts or appeals to you about the genre you write in?

It’s having the opportunity to imagine. To create new worlds – and I’m not talking about creating new planets, but dreaming of different worlds, where different rules apply. Where there are different pasts and the possibilities are endless. Worlds over which I, as an author, have complete control.
Reading through that last bit, I do sound rather like some power-crazed despot, although I assure you, I am quite nice, actually.


Do you have a box, drawer, folder etc. where you keep thoughts and ideas for future stories? Such as names you have come across, bits of dialogue, ideas, characters, - even if you have no idea when you might use them?

I was so hoping never to be asked his. I’m sure that proper writers have neat files, or a card index, or even a special box where they store their ideas for the future.
My system is slightly more chaotic. I have discovered through bitter experience  that inspiration can (an often does) strike at the most inconvenient moments and I have learned to have a notebook always to hand so I can scribble something immediately. I have to do this because, sadly, I have the concentration span of a sock.
My best ideas come to me in the bath, so there are several much wrinkled shorthand pads in the bathroom, full of blurry scribbles, which I can barely read.
Any visitor to my home would find many, many scraps of paper, exercise books, and paper napkins from cafes – all covered in cryptic notes and scatted around everywhere. About once a week, I collect them up, squint at them in dismay, and try to work out what on earth I was thinking at the time.
Are you sure you want to continue with this interview? It’s not too late to get in a proper writer if you want to do something spectacular for your 80th!


How do you manage plot bunnies (ideas that invade your mind that aren’t usually helpful to the story you’re writing but breed like…er…bunnies)?

Plot bunnies! So that’s what they’re called. I welcome them. It’s a wonderful opportunity to sit, staring into space, weaving ideas, characters, and conversations into something new and wonderful. And if they can’t be used now I might still be able to use them another day.
I don’t think any writer should ever let an idea slip by – no matter how bizarre it may seem at the time.
The best thing of all is that I can sit staring into space, while my mind soars all over the place, and because I’m a writer everyone gets excited about it. Especially if I have a pen in my hand at the time! Gone are the days of parents/employers/teachers/whoever yelling at me for daydreaming. Daydreaming is allowed! So I make my plot bunnies welcome. Maybe I could offer them a plot carrot…or plot lettuce…
Sorry, back to the interview...


How much of you is in your characters? Which of your characters is the you that you’d most like to be? Or be with?

I think there might be a little bit of me in all of them. Not the same little bit, obviously, but just like all of us, I’m a little bit nice, a little bit naughty, a little bit bad-tempered and so on. I simply take the little bit that I want and inject it into that particular character.
For instance, my heroine and her antagonist had a face-to-face confrontation and I really wanted it to be nasty. Fortunately, because I am a little bit nasty, I found I was easily able to put myself in the antagonist’s position. I myself felt all the jealousy and resentment and hatred of someone who was convinced that she should be the heroine, and all her dislike and spite just flowed out of my pen and onto the page. It was a bit scary, actually.
I think, of all the characters I’ve created, I’d most like to be Mrs Partridge. She moves unobtrusively behind the scenes. Nothing is beyond her and she always looks elegant. Oh, if only …
The one I’d like to be with is Peterson. I know Leon is the hero, but Peterson holds a special place in my heart. If not Peterson then Russell from The Nothing Girl. He’s so chaotic and over the top and such fun to write.


Do you become so wrapped up in your writing that your spouse wonders if they’re married to you or one of your characters?

Fortunately, I’m not married so that doesn’t arise.


What type of book do you like reading? Is it the same genre as you write?

I used to read anything and everything. Now I find I don’t often have the time, which is a little bit ironic. I do a lot of research reading and then reward myself by picking up anything that takes my fancy. I read for pleasure at night in bed, and on Sunday afternoons.
Actually, I just put that last bit in to impress you. I fall asleep in front of the TV on Sunday afternoons.


What lengths do you go to convince us readers that your book has the X factor?

This is a tricky one. I’m really not sure what the X factor is. I didn’t set out to write a best seller, partly because I didn’t think I could, and partly because everyone – absolutely everyone – is always saying how difficult it is to become a successful writer. I assumed my book would simply disappear into some literary black hole somewhere and that would be the end. I would continue to write and self-publish and my family would loyally buy a copy each, but that would be it.
Whatever the X factor is, someone somewhere recognised it and offered me a publishing deal, but I’m still none the wiser.
Sorry!


How do you feel when a reader points out the spelling mistake(s) you have made?

I’m a bit of a perfectionist – I go over and over my book until I’m nearly blind. Or insane. Or both. My editor does the same so it’s intensely annoying to find that despite our best efforts, we’ve still missed something.
There was some comment, I think from readers in the US, who queried some of my spelling, but it’s a British book by a British author about British people, so obviously the spelling is British too.
I pass all comments on to my publishers and they do put them right so I am actually quite grateful that people take the trouble.


What is on my near horizon?

Well – I have two short stories going live on Kindle on the 13th November. The fourth in the St Mary’s series, A Trail Through Time is issued by Audible on 11th November. I’m finishing off Book Five, working on an historical novel, blocking out another short story concerning the origins of St Mary’s and trying – somehow – to research a novel I’ve been wanting to write for ages concerning a family labouring under not just one but two family curses.


Where can we find you for more information?

There’s my Facebook page – www.facebook.com/AuthorJodiTaylor or you can email me at authorjoditaylor@gmail.com. I do make every effort to respond.
I have an author page on Amazon, which I must update, so thanks for the reminder, and I’m on Goodreads, too.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jodi-Taylor/e/B00DOSKIHU/?tag=jookuf-21

Many thanks for the opportunity to contribute to your blog. I’ve enjoyed answering your questions and I hope you find them reasonably entertaining.
Below is a list of my books if you can find the room to post them!

The Chronicles of St Mary’s series (in order).
Just One Damned Thing After Another
A Symphony of Echoes
A Second Chance
A Trail Through Time
When a Child is Born (Christmas short story)
Christmas Present (Christmas short story)

Romance Novels
The Nothing Girl
Little Donkey (Christmas short story)