Writer Spotlight - Matt Dunn

On Coffee and Roses I like to bring you news of exciting authors who are either waiting to be published or published and worth checking out. This week, I have a real treat: welcoming one of my favourite authors, MATT DUNN, back for a chat.

Everyone should have a Matt Dunn shelf in their bookcase (or virtually on their e-reader). Quite simply, Matt is one of our funniest, most enjoyable romantic-comedy novelists, author of eight cracking novels including the much-loved A Day At The Office and his latest, What Might Have Been. So sit back, relax and enjoy this cracking interview with the man himself!

What interests you as a writer?

Relationships, primarily. And the words ‘what’ and ‘if’.

What inspired your latest book, What Might Have Been?

It’s a love triangle, and *shameful face* I was involved in one once. When I found out she had a(nother) boyfriend, even though I was crazy about her, I did what I thought was the decent thing and walked away. And a part of me (the novelist part of me, if my lovely wife is reading this) has always wondered (hypothetically, sweetheart, honest!) what might have been if I hadn’t.

Do you believe in love at first sight? Oh yes. At least, ever since I first laid eyes on Halle Berry.

Who would play Evan and Sarah in the film version of What Might Have Been?

Whoever the director wants to cast - I’ll be too busy choosing which Ferrari to buy myself with the option money. Seriously, I never picture actors/celebs when I write my characters – I try to make them normal, relatable people, and I know that my readers have their own (and sometimes, very different) ideas of who the main protagonists ‘are’ – as will the director - so I wouldn’t even want to suggest anyone. Though obviously if I’m on a percentage of box office receipts, I’d have to say Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. Ferraris are expensive to run.

What do you love about writing romantic comedy?

The romance, and, er, the comedy. There’s something about crafting a good one-liner, or creating a funny scene, or writing about the awkwardness of relationships and the incompatibility of the sexes that’s hard to beat. And true love NEVER goes smoothly, of course, so there’s a lot of material out there.

Have you ever encountered prejudice being a male writer in what is often (wrongly) assumed to be a “female genre”?

Not at all, and in fact, I’ve been told by a few of my female readers that they like the male point-of-view I bring to the genre. In a crowded industry where it’s hard to stand out whatever you’re writing, I think it’s actually an advantage to be in the minority. Besides, there are a lot of male writers (Mike Gayle, David Nicholls, Jon Rance, Neal Doran, Nick Spalding, Graeme Simsion etc.) writing romantic comedy nowadays, so we’re not such a minority anymore!

Which part of the writing and publishing process do you like best?

When the royalties come in! Apart from that, I actually quite like the editing. For me, that’s where a book really comes together – especially when you can rework a scene and make it funnier, or give it some extra poignancy. Though there’s a downside to that too – there’s an old maxim that says something like ‘you never actually finish writing a book, you just decide to stop working on it’ – and usually that’s not our decision, but down to publishing deadlines (or to put it another way, our editors shouting ‘where’s the book?’ at us). If we didn’t have them, I’d still probably be tinkering with my first novel, not writing my ninth!

And which is the worst?

Sitting alone in front of your laptop, trembling softly, staring desperately at the ominously terrifying desolation of the blank page in front of you, while trying to ignore the deadline looming ominously into view...

If the X-Factor voiceover guy was to announce you, what would he say?

I don’t watch the X-Factor, but my twitter bio (I’m @mattdunnwrites) says something along the lines of ‘award-losing rom-com novelist’. That’ll probably still be the case when they’re writing my obituary, so I’ll go with that.

What are you working on now - and what would your dream writing project be?

I’m working on two things at the moment: One (which is my dream writing project) is the screenplay for my second novel, The Ex-Boyfriend’s Handbook, which I’m collaborating on with a real director (i.e. he’s already made several proper films which have been shown in cinemas and everything, and with the likes of Keira Nightly (sorry – Freudian slip – I meant Knightley) in them). I’m also writing my ninth novel - it’s called Home, and it’s about someone returning home to the jaded seaside town he spent the first eighteen years of his life desperate to escape from.

Thanks so much to Matt for popping back to Coffee and Roses! For a limited time, Matt's brilliant book, A Day At The Office, is only £1 on Kindle. You can read his guest post for Coffee and Roses about the book HERE.

Writer Spotlight: Emma Kavanagh

On Coffee and Roses I like to bring you news of exciting authors who are either waiting to be published or published and worth checking out.

This week, I'm delighted to welcome the wonderful EMMA KAVANAGH into the Coffee and Roses Writer Spotlight...

When did you first decide that you wanted to write?

I think I was 5 when I wrote my first story and got a gold star for it from the headmistress of my primary school - so pretty much then! I have always wanted to be a writer, but for the longest time I struggled with having the confidence and the life experience to do so. So, I went off and became a psychologist, started my own consultancy firm, had adventures and then, at the age of 28, finally decided to settle down and see if I actually had it in me to write that book. That book wasn’t this book. That book definitely wasn’t a very good book. But it did prove that I had it in me to stick with it and to write a novel. I haven’t looked back since.

What interests you as a writer?

Everything! I think the thing I love most about writing is that there is nothing that is beyond the scope of what I do. Anything that catches my interest - a crime, a personality trait, a large-scale catastrophe - can evolve and grow into a story. I also love how writing can be used to expose us to a world in which we would never normally find ourselves, and can give us the opportunity to imagine how we would react to it, how we would cope.

Do you have a typical writing day? If not, when is the best time to write for you?

I’m the mother of a toddler, so my writing life has evolved as he has grown. But typically, he toddles off to crèche or to grandparents and I start work by 8am. I then tend to work pretty solidly until he comes home at 1pm. I have always preferred to write in the mornings anyway, but since becoming a mother I have learned to grab my writing time whenever I can get it. What I have found interesting about that is that I am now far less precious about when and how I write. There is no more waiting for my muse to show up. I’m on a tight schedule. She pretty much has to turn up on demand!

Which authors inspire you and why?

There are so many wonderful authors out there. One of my all time favourites is Barbara Kingsolver. She is just such a fluid writer, and an incredible storyteller. I got to see her at the Hay Festival last year and was a little bit like a teen at a One Direction concert! I also love Kate Atkinson. I love how she has given herself permission to evolve as a writer, moving from literary to crime to the staggeringly awesome Life After Life. And J K Rowling, because…well, because she’s J K Rowling. She brought an entire generation of children to reading and managed to create a world that has taken on a life of its own. It is wonderful to see her now moving into crime fiction. I have nothing but respect for those authors who are willing to push their own boundaries and take a chance on something new. When I grow up I’d like to be one of these three women, please.

Tell me about Falling.

Falling is a psychological thriller about a plane crash and a murder. It tells the story of Cecilia (one of the few survivors of the crash), Tom (her husband and the detective responsible for investigating the murder), Freya (the daughter of the pilot who is forced to question her father’s role in the tragedy) and Jim (a father dealing with the murder of his daughter). Nothing is quite as simple as it seems, and as the story unravels we come to understand the way in which these events and the lives of these characters intertwine.

What did it feel like to see your finished book for the first time?

I cried. It was, in all honesty, quite an overwhelming thing. I had dreamt of this for so long, that to actually hold Falling in my hands and to see the incredible work that Random House had done on its design and cover was deeply emotional. I’m hoping this feeling will pass. Otherwise signings will be challenging!

What are the best things about being a writer?

I get to write. I get to sit down every day and write and call it my job. And the best bit is that I now have a job that I absolutely adore and that I would do (and have done) without getting paid a penny. It still takes my breath away that I managed to get so lucky.

And the worst?

I am someone who is very self-motivating. I’ve had to be as I’ve been self-employed for years. But that tends to mean that I am very hard on myself, and I will push myself to the limits to do the best job I can. That gets pretty tiring after a while. I am also a born worrier, and this job can be pretty brutal in that way. There will always be people who hate what I do, and I get an awful lot of time to worry about reviews and sales and whether I will be a sparkling success or a dismal failure.

What are you working on now?

I have just finished the edits on book 2. Well, I have just finished this particular round. There will, I have no doubt, be many more to come. This book is called The Casualties and it begins with a mass shooting. It then goes back in time to follow the lives of four of the casualties in the week leading up to the shooting, and looks at how their lives begin to knit together and how, inadvertently, each of these innocents will end up pushing the shooter towards their final, dreadful act.

Do you have a dream project you would love to write?

Ooh, good question! I have tons of dream projects. I have already written up summaries of my next three books, and I am so excited to get started on them. I think that with each new project you learn a little more about writing and about what it is to be a writer, so I am happy with that for the moment. But as I develop in my career, I want to keep pushing myself, stretching my boundaries and always learning something new.

What are your top three tips for aspiring writers?

1. Never give up - No, seriously. NEVER. It is a tough industry. An incredibly tough industry and it is not for the faint of heart. But if it is your passion then keep going and learn to treat each rejection as one more step towards your eventual acceptance.

2. Teach yourself how to write - None of us are born knowing how to put together a novel. It’s not something that is taught in schools. I found learning (through books and writing guides) the basics of novel building invaluable, and it helped me to move onto the next step. I never assume I know everything. I am learning constantly, which means that with each book I write I learn something new that I can then put into the next one.

3. Writing is always the answer - Like I said, this is a stressful industry, particularly if you’re a worrier like me. The only thing I have found that helps is to write. You need to keep moving forward, and for us writers that means moving onto the next novel and giving yourself something to focus on other than how stressed and anxious you are.

Many thanks to Emma for such a fab interview! Falling is published on 27th March by Century and I can't wait to read it! Click here to buy your copy!

You can follow Emma on Twitter @EmmaLK.

Neal Doran - Getting 'The Call'

At the beginning of this year I chose my magnificent seven Future Stars and I've been working with them on their amazing writing projects. So I was over the moon (and not surprised at all) when one of my Future Stars, NEAL DORAN told me he'd been offered a two-book deal! His first novel, Dan Taylor is Giving Up on Women is available on Kindle now - and it's brilliant. I asked Neal to tell what it felt like to be offered his book deal...

I had a clear idea how it was going to be when I found out I was going to be published.

My family would know I’d got ‘The Call’ because of the music that played. For years Rosalita (come out tonight) by Bruce Springsteen had been an essential part of the dream. If you don’t know it, it’s a fantastically uplifting song, written when Bruce was astoundingly young, about him trying to get his girlfriend to sneak out of her parent’s house for a big night out (it’s cool -- the characters are probably late teens/early twenties, it’s not about two 40-year-olds who still live with mum and dad). It’s medically impossible to not jump up and down when you hear it, and it has this line…

Whoa, so your daddy says he knows I don't have any dough,
Well, tell him this is his last chance to get his daughter in a fine romance,
Because the record company, Rosie, just gave me a big advance!

Now, this might not seem that relevant at first. I accepted, ooh, weeks ago, that I’m never going to be a rock star. And I was expecting to hear from a publisher not a record label. But it was this line, so full of exuberance, vindication, and joy that became part of the moment that would make the work worthwhile. It was going to be the soundtrack to jumping off a table, twirling my wife around the kitchen, and throwing my kids up in the air (and catching them). It was going to get the party started.

I imagine every writer has something like this - a scenario that they can play out in the head, of what it’ll be like when they get the news they’re going to be published. It was one of those things you have to think about a lot when you’re stuck with a half-finished novel that looks in urgent need of CPR and you aren’t sure it’s going to pull through. It’s insulation for your hopes when the cold reality of another auto-response agent rejection comes in, or you get told -- yet again -- that you’ve written a funny book, but men don’t read rom-com, and women don’t read rom-coms written by men.

I knew that getting there (and I had to believe I’d get there) would involve being on the wrong end of rejection. I knew it was going to be a case of one step forward, one step back. There were a lot of times when it just felt like all the steps were being taken on a travelator going the wrong way.

But you go through all that to get The Call that means you have a book deal.

But when it happened, I wasn’t anywhere near the CD player, or the kitchen table. Instead, I was stuck in my home office, bleary-eyed and on a day job deadline. Kathryn from Carina UK called, and BAM! Out of nowhere I had a two digital book deal. Someone had mucked about with the travelator, and suddenly I was heading in the right direction. But life didn’t change in that second. Corks didn’t pop. I had a very late night ahead of me at work, I could only text my wife the news as she was in a big meeting, and the boys needed to get their chicken goujons before football practice.

For days I kept going in a kind of trance. I told lots of people and said I was really delighted. But if you’d heard me, I don’t think you’d have thought I’d achieved something I’d been working towards for years, and dreaming about for decades. It was a couple of days later before it really hit me. We were going away for the weekend for my birthday, it was a big one, and one that I’d set as a deadline for something to happen with the novel. Heading out of town and looking for a place to stop for ice-cream, I put on one of our in-car compilation CDs.

The guitar, Hammond organ and sax of the E Street Band blared, and Bruce started calling out his gal, Rosie.

It sank in. The setbacks and the self-doubt, the re-writes and the rejections had all been worth it. Dan Taylor Is Giving Up On Women was going to be published! I’d made my deadline by a day…

I looked out at the road ahead, the windows down in the early spring sunshine, my wife and two sons joining in with the ‘Hey! Hey! Hey!’s to one of my favourite songs.

I’d done it.

The thing with being in a car with the windows open, is it’s much more likely you’ll get something in your eye...

You can follow Neal on twitter @nealdoran and on Facebook.

Why I have a problem with Goodreads

Firstly, let me explain. I am posting this because Goodreads use the feed from my blog and repost it on their site. (Even though, if you visit my blog, you will see that all content is copyrighted and needs permission to be reproduced). And I want them to read this. This week I have been horrified by the treatment some authors have received from Goodreads and also by a small proportion of their users. I emphasise SMALL because I believe there are thousands of genuine, lovely readers on Goodreads. I want to make it clear that this is not about you. But someone I care about - a Goodreads user - was hounded by malicious messages this week because she dared to openly disagree with one feature of the site. She was sticking up for me and the abuse she received was so horrendous it made her want to close her own blog.

As authors, we're not supposed to answer back. If we get a bad review, or our books are rated and reviewed even when we're still writing it and nobody could have read the book because it doesn't exist (this happens on Goodreads), or if we receive abusive comments on our blogs and websites, or if people illegally download our work without paying for it, we're not meant to say anything about it. If we do, we're 'bad sports', or we 'only want to see good things about ourselves', or we shouldn't complain because we're 'doing our dream job' and, as such, 'have asked for it'. Now, apparently, our views don't matter to sites who use our books as collateral in order to generate discussions, either. A senior bod at Goodreads recently told a publishers' conference, "Goodreads isn't for authors." Fair enough, but without books (and authors) for the site to discuss, where would Goodreads be?

So, if you're a debut author who has self-published your book and know, without a shadow of a doubt, that nobody can have read it yet, but are faced with one and two-star ratings supposedly from someone who has read your novel, that's apparently OK. You can't answer back - and, when you contact the site displaying the clearly false rating, you're told their users are doing nothing wrong and that 'most users will take the rating with a pinch of salt anyway'. Except that if you're relying on a site like Goodreads to make readers aware of your self-published debut novel (and we're told as writers that the reason we can't complain is that it's good publicity), a low star rating could put off potential readers from even looking at your book. I've heard many stories like this from authors this week. And it's not just debut novelists: Harlan Coben posted this today:

To those reviewing MISSING YOU on Goodreads: I'm only halfway done writing it so could u tell me how it ends? Thanks. http://t.co/C7drEjX9Ul

— Harlan Coben (@HarlanCoben) August 19, 2013

But what angers me, more than all of the above, is that when people dare to openly question the system, they are subjected to malicious, horrific abuse. Abuse that they, like authors, are not supposed to respond to. I won't name the lovely lady who encountered this treatment this week because I don't want any more morons heading to her site. But she is a good friend of mine, an excellent reviewer and a member of Goodreads. She responded after I commented on Twitter that my new book had received a rating in June, when the rater couldn't possibly have read it because, like Harlan Coben, I was still working on it. She was angry at how some people were abusing the site she was proud to be a member of. So she spoke out. And the torrent of abuse she received was so bad it made her want to close the blog that she's worked so hard to create and is so well-respected by readers, publishers and authors alike. This is wrong. Whatever Goodreads say about their users, they cannot condone the merciless hounding of one of their users who dares to raise her head above the parapet - ultimately because she wants to make the site she is a member of a better place.

So, I'm standing up. I will not tolerate people being abused on social media or websites like Goodreads, especially not in my name. This lady did nothing wrong. She spoke up to improve the site she felt was being abused by a tiny, idiotic minority. She spoke up to protect Goodreads, by suggesting one thing the site could change to improve it. She did not ask to receive so much abuse that she was scared to go online. This has to stop. NOW. If you're reading this on Goodreads, do something about it. Raise awareness of the abuse perpetrated in the website's name by a minority of its users. Bullying of any kind is illegal. It should be taken seriously. Because if it is allowed to continue through inaction, it can be devastating. I am not prepared to stand by and allow it by my silence.

Why books are a cinema just for you...

Today, I sat in a cinema all by myself and watched a film.

This is not a statement that I have no friends or that I'm a rock-star author who can command private screenings. It was just a lovely, serendipitous happening. But it made me think about what writers do for our readers.

Image: TheNextWeb.com

I didn't have special permission from the director the view the film alone. I didn't have to pay a King's ransom for the opportunity. I didn't even have to book the experience in advance. I simply turned up at my local multiplex cinema on a Saturday morning and bought a regular ticket for the first show of the day. As it happened, nobody else had the same idea and so, with my £6.20 ticket, I watched the film as the only person in the cinema. Yes, I felt like a celebrity. And yes, I grinned like a complete loon all through the film. It was one of those moments that probably won't ever happen again, but I loved every second of it.

And then, it hit me: as an author every book I write offers each reader an experience like this.

Every author who writes a story for other people to read is inviting those readers into an amazing world which feels as if it was created just for them. The audience of one. It doesn't matter if a book is read by one person or several million, the experience is the same. We offer people the chance to step into their own private cinema of their imagination and project a story into it for them to enjoy. And as each reader's ideas and expectation of the story are different, each mind-movie is different, too. We give readers an indulgent, VIP experience by welcoming them into worlds of our creation, no matter who or where in the world they are.

That's why books are magical.

I mean, where else can you receive that kind of attention for less than a price of a cinema ticket?

Not just a one-trick pony...

There has been - unsurprisingly - a humungous amount of publicity in the past couple of days about the announcement of J.K. Rowling's new novel. Aimed at adults this time (although I know an awful lot of 'grown-up kids' who adore her previous work!), the novel will be very different from the books she has become famous worldwide for. So, is it a good move?

Photo © Wall to Wall Media Ltd. Photographer: Andrew Montgomery

All the blaze of publicity yesterday about the new novel - and the resulting response on twitter, news sites and blogs - was fascinating to watch. As ever, twitter served up the most witty responses, with most of the reaction good-natured and positive. People seem to be genuinely intrigued to see what a 'different book' by J.K. Rowling will look like. But some in the media seem to be quite miffed that she's writing 'out of her genre' (I apologise for the awful phrase) - and this made me think about the preconceptions and labels that a lot of authors deal with.

I read a fantastic interview of Stephen King by Neil Gaiman in The Sunday Times Magazine last week, where he was asked whether he saw himself as a horror writer - and whether he minded being labelled as such. He didn't mind at all, but said, 'I never thought of myself as a horror writer. That’s what other people think.' Of course, Stephen King has written a great deal of other stories and books that aren't horror at all (I know because I am a complete wuss and those are the only ones I've felt brave enough to read!), but he admitted that it took a long time for him to be recognised for this.

Being stereotyped is something that unfortunately all authors will face. Imagine the media furore if Hilary Mantel wrote an urban fantasy novel, or Jeffery Deaver published an emotional family saga (although personally I would love to read either of those!) While I love, love, love writing romantic comedy, I also have ideas for other stories that are different. My short stories, for example, are significantly darker in style than my novels. And I have a comedy urban fantasy novel currently being rejected a lot by major publishers (under my pen-name of Ellis Parker). I'm working on an idea for a story that combines a natural gift with a murder case. I have a children's story idea bubbling away in the background... Will any of them ever see the light of day? Maybe not, but I hope that one day I can share some of them with the lovely people who read my stories. In the meantime, it's perfectly OK to want to write different stuff and I think it's good for me as a writer to try out other styles of writing because of what it teaches me. A crucial part of being a writer is exploring new stories - whatever shape or flavour they might be.

While many of us writers can only marvel at the phenomenal success of J.K. Rowling, I do wonder if she ever felt hemmed in creatively by the novels she created. I know some people would argue that she didn't have anything to complain about, what with all the money she was making, but writers know that writing is about more than just making a living. Expression is something you can't put a price on - as is inspiration. I wonder if she had a million and one other ideas bubbling away as she worked on the behemoth of the Harry Potter series (a common ailment amongst writers) - was it ever a source of frustration to her that she couldn't explore these?

I don't know whether The Casual Vacancy will sell gazillions or be moderately successful. I suspect that her legion of fans will buy whatever she writes (because readers aren't as bound by labels as the media or publishing industry seem to be). And in a way, it doesn't matter. Practically speaking, she's more than proved herself and it's less of a risk because her mortgage doesn't depend on its success. But I applaud her for showing another side to her craft.

When I Fall in Love - Episode 1 - It's the RONAs!

This year I'm taking you behind the scenes of writing, editing and publishing my fourth novel, When I Fall in Love. This week, I head down to London for the swanky RoNAs award ceremony - so I'm taking you with me...

It's an odd honour being nominated for an award... It's wonderful and thrilling and exciting of course, but you never really know what to expect. This was my second RNA award nomination in three years (a fact I'm incredibly proud of) but I didn't feel any more prepared this time. For one thing, I still can't quite believe my luck at being let in to a room of famous authors, yet alone being nominated alongside some of them!

Nevertheless, gold funky hat firmly placed on my head, I travelled down to London to attend the ceremony... and you'll just have to watch the vlog to see what happened!

Your questions will return next week, so feel free to ask me anything - the more questions the merrier! Let me know what you think of the vlog by popping a comment in the box underneath this post or email me at mirandawurdy@gmail.com.

Enjoy!

p.s. This week's nominated freeze frame features the brilliant crime novelist and guest speaker at the awards, Peter James, and is entitled: 'A Nice Break From The Funky-Hatted-One'!



..and, just in case you missed it (because I realise I didn't actually post this on Coffee and Roses - oops!), here's the last vlog:

Writer Spotlight: Jessica Ruston

On Coffee and Roses I like to bring you news of exciting authors who are either waiting to be published or published and worth checking out.

This week, I'm thrilled to welcome the wonderful JESSICA RUSTON into the Coffee and Roses Writer Spotlight.

Her new novel, The Darker Side of Love is released on 16th February and should definitely be on your wish-list! I managed to grab five minutes with Jessica to ask about her life as a writer.

When did you first decide that you wanted to write?

I grew up in a family of writers - my mother's a novelist and my father's a Shakespeare scholar, so I was always surrounded by words. I started off writing screenplays in my early twenties, then moved on to non-fiction and journalism, and finally realised I couldn't put off the inevitable any longer and published my first novel when I was 31.

What interests you as a writer?

So much. Creating new characters, creating worlds. Parallel narratives, unreliable narrators, characters that hide things from the reader as well as from other characters/themselves. Multiple viewpoints, shifting backwards and forwards in time... It's endless, really. There's always a new challenge, something new to try and make work.

Do you have a typical writing day? If not, when is the best time to write for you?

Ish. When I'm working on a new book I tend to write first thing in the morning – I set an alarm (a really gentle one called Sleep Cycle on my iphone – I highly recommend if you have to get up early as it wakes you when you're in a period of light sleep so you don't feel awful) really early, sometimes as early as 5.30, and do a few hours then when it's quiet and dark and before everyone's woken up. I find that when I'm writing that first draft, getting the words down first thing, before the day intrudes and emails and phone calls get into my head, is the best way. Depending on what state of deadline panic I'm in I'll try and get between 2-3,000 words then each day. Sometimes more - when I'm nearing the end of a book I tend to go quicker, like running down a big hill. Then I'll get up, answer emails, play with my website, mess about on twitter, do general jobs. Then I might go to the gym or whatever else I have to do that day, and then use the afternoon to do other work - journalism, or research, or working on new ideas, or marking assignments for the courses I teach, for instance. Sometimes I'll come back to the book in the evening. There's a quote about writing working best at the edges of the day, and I think it's true for me.

What inspires you as a writer?

Oh, it changes constantly. I pick up inspiration from anywhere and everywhere, like a magpie. Other writers, people I meet, songs. Relationships, family dynamics. I'm constantly trying to unpick relationships in my writing, and burrow under the surface of people. Fragments of memories, photographs, images. I'm quite visual. As pretentious as it sounds, the book I'm working on at the moment was inspired by a line from a Louis MacNiece poem, Autumn Journal.

What are the best things about being a writer?

Getting paid to do what I really love. Being able to read novels and watch TV and call it important research and therefore work. Being able to work from my bed.

And the worst?

There's nothing properly awful about it. I mean, I'm not a big fan of working through my copy edits and having my embarrassing errors pointed out to me, but it's not much of a hardship really.

Tell me about what you're working on now.

My fourth novel. I won't say the title yet as I'm not sure whether it'll get changed (though I hope not!) but it's about a woman trying to discover the truth about her family, in particular her mother, as a result of a key that she receives in the post... Lots of secrets and family dynamics and the past coming back to haunt... As I said earlier, it's also the first time that I've written a significant chunk of words in the first person, so I hope I pull that off!

What would be your top three tips for aspiring writers?

1. Read, of course, but 'just' reading isn't enough - you need to read widely and thoughtfully.
2. Be curious.
3. Keep going.

Do you have a dream project you'd love to write?

There's a play that I've wanted to write a film adaptation of for years. I still haven't found quite the right angle on it, but I'm getting closer... I'll get there!

Anything else you’d like to say?

Thanks very much for having me! I really hope you enjoy The Darker Side of Love if you get to read it. Here's some more info about it:

Lies: we all tell them.

To protect those we love, to disguise failure, to hide disappointment. To mask betrayal, or deceit. But what happens when those lies start to catch up with us? When our lives begin to be shaped by the lies of others?

The late 'noughties'. A global recession looms. A group of old friends, all leading outwardly successful, interesting lives. All in apparently loving, secure relationships. Yet all, in some way, lying to those closest to them, concealing secret worries, jealousies, desires. This group of friends is about to discover that the truth won't stay buried for ever...

Welcome to the darker side of love.

Thanks so much to Jessica for stepping into the Coffee and Roses Writer Spotlight!

I can't wait to read The Darker Side of Love - I loved both of her other novels.

You can find out more about Jessica on her website, read about her writing courses, book to join a course here and follow her on twitter @JessRuston

The Chick-lit Debate: Give Readers Credit!

Much has been said and written recently about the ‘death of chick-lit’, with media commentators quick to grab their pitchforks and hound out anything with a remotely pink cover. From angry attacks (Harriet Walker writing in The Independent, stating that chick-lit is ‘saccharine silage that fails women’) to the downright incorrect (Lauren Paxman’s ridiculous Daily Mail article which identifies Jodi Picoult as a chick-lit author), journalists have had a field day.

So here’s my response, for what it’s worth.

I write romantic comedy. If my books ever become films, they will probably be labelled ‘chick-flicks’, so by definition my novels are often referred to as chick-lit. They have sparkly covers, one of which may even have featured the colour pink. They are written from a woman’s perspective and address life’s issues using humour and, I hope, a cracking good story.

I’ve read all the articles, and seen the excellent, dignified response from authors such as JoJo Moyes and Tasmina Perry, together with the intelligent, witty debate on Twitter. Debate is good and the question of whether we classify ourselves as chick-lit writers or not is as old as the nametag itself.

But what I can’t agree with – and what angers me more than anything – is the way in which readers have been slandered by the media blitz. The reports assume that the women (and men, for that matter) who choose to read light romantic fiction are somehow less intelligent and less discerning about the literature they choose to read. How dare someone dictate what people should or shouldn’t read! And how dare they suggest that the only worthwhile literature should be what they deem as worthy!

Reading should be a pleasure – whether it challenges us, enlightens us, scares us or makes us laugh. The point is that reading should be a choice. It is the universal right of the reader to decide what he or she wants to read and nobody’s right to take that away. So what if the book they choose to read is light-hearted, romantic comedy? Light-hearted reads are not ‘retarding’ readers, as one report suggested. In fact, if anything, they help us relax and gain important perspective on the issues we face. Comedy is a powerful tool for addressing the issues of our day, and the best comedy fuses humour with moments of deep emotion and resonance. Let’s face it: we have little to laugh about at the moment, with the economy in freefall and many of our futures uncertain. Why should we then be denied the right to find light relief in what we read?

The other assumption that these articles have made is that readers are only capable of reading one genre of book. This simply isn’t true. I am, and always will be, a fan of romantic comedy. But I also love thrillers, literary fiction, biographies and comedy-fantasy. In the past month I have enjoyed books by Laurie Graham, Howard Jacobson, Lucy Diamond, Helen Simonson and Sir Terry Pratchett. Surely anything that encourages people to pick up a book should be celebrated? Yes, literature should be well written. Yes, there are an awful lot of books (in all genres) that are marketing department ‘write-by-number’ attempts to cash in on successful formulas. But there is also a wealth of stunningly original, witty writing to be savoured and enjoyed. Contrary to what some in the media would have you believe, readers are discerning, intelligent people who are more than capable of deciding what to read. They should be celebrated, supported and encouraged, not lambasted for their choices. It is time that the media and some areas of the publishing industry gave readers more credit.

As for the ‘chick-lit’ label, I agree that it has become a derogatory term used by lazy journalists to lump everything written by and for women together. But readers know a great author when they find one and, ultimately, they will decide who succeeds and who fails in the industry. And may it ever be thus!

New Rose Prize 2011 - a judge's view

Well, the waiting is nearly over - who has won the very first New Rose Short Story Prize? The decision has been made, and I'll be announcing the winner and runners-up on MONDAY 26th and FRIDAY 30th SEPTEMBER respectively, together with an extra Judges' Special Mention award that we created after we read the story in question...

While the nail-biting continues for a couple more days, here's what competition judge Jamie Guiney thought about the experience of reading the entries for this year's prize:

I wholeheartedly enjoyed reading and judging each entry for this year’s New Rose Prize. My main prerequisites for deciding the shortlist, were that each piece should not only be well written, but should also tell a great story. After reading through all of the entries, I had some observations and two main things which stood out for me.

I found it astonishing just how many talented, unpublished writers there were. A lot of stories were very well written, but were prevented from making the final shortlist by a flaw in the story itself - for example, some of the tales were unnecessarily long, others fell short of being able to hook me in and keep me there until the end.

The winning story really impressed me. For a piece that was written by an unpublished writer, it just totally blew me away! I will look forward to reading more of their work in the future!

I just want to also say well done to everyone for submitting their work. It’s not easy to send your stories out into the world, an experience that can be extraordinarily daunting for first-time writers. To all of those who were shortlisted, I offer my congratulations. Let this be a pat on your back: you have talent, keep writing, keep learning. To those who didn’t make it this year, some of you were closer than you’ll ever know. But keep on writing, keep on trying. You are all writers, all you need to do now is simply ...practice.

'Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.' Samuel Beckett

'You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.' Isaac Asimov

I'd like to say a massive thanks to Jamie for his expert eye and for all the hard work he has put into judging this competition. He put in more hours than anyone else and, to recognise this, we awarded him the title of Head Judge! We had an enormous amount of entries - more than any of us expected - and it was a pleasure and privilege to read all your work.

So, watch out for the big announcement on MONDAY 26th SEPTEMBER at 12 NOON (UK Time) - when I'll publish the winner's story here. The two Runners-Up and the winner of the Judges Special Mention award will be announced on FRIDAY 30th SEPTEMBER and you'll be able to read their entries here, too.

Best of luck to everyone - not long to wait now!

Writer Spotlight: Lucy Diamond

On Coffee and Roses I like to bring you news of exciting authors who are either waiting to be published or published and worth checking out.

This week, I'm really excited to welcome the wonderful LUCY DIAMOND aka SUE MONGREDIEN into the Coffee and Roses Writer Spotlight.

Author Photo by Alexander James

Sue's new book as Lucy Diamond, The Beach Café is published today and I can't wait for my copy to arrive in the post (it's my post-editing reward!). So, without further ado, it's over to Sue!

When did you first decide that you wanted to write? (Was it a Damascus-esque flash or a slow-burn?)
It was a long, slow burn for me (ouch, that sounds painful – it wasn’t!). I have always written – lots of poems and stories as a child (including my prize-winning poem Aston Villa We Love You when I was six), diaries, letters etc. Then, after graduating, I managed to wangle my way into publishing, starting in the children’s editorial department in Random House. Part of my job was reading the slush pile which, depressingly, was largely atrocious. After rejecting the thousandth variation on Betty Bunny Has a Tedious Adventure I decided I could do better, and began writing my own teenage novel. (Plus, being rather shallow, I was lured by how attractive an author’s life appeared from the outside – we were always sending them flowers and new covers to approve and reprints etc. I thought, I’ll have a bit of that, please!)

What interests you as a writer?
Oh, all sorts of things. I am extremely nosy. Relationship dynamics, family dramas, falling in and out of love, betrayal, secrets – and I’m a sucker for heroics. I found the stories from the recent 7/7 inquest so moving, for example, the real-life heroism and humanity that was shown by so many people that day – awe-inspiring.

Do you have a typical writing day? If not, when is the best time to write for you?
I have to write within school hours, so between 9am and 3pm, usually. It’s a short day and can be frustrating if I have to stop work right in the middle of a juicy scene to hurry back to school, but I find that having such time constraints is a good motivator to actually get stuff done. I try to write about 2,500 words in that time but it depends enormously on what else is happening.

What made you decide to write The Beach Café?
I remember as a little girl being on a seaside holiday in Cornwall and deciding that when I was a grown-up I would definitely live there and run the café. (The thought of ice cream all day every day played a big part in this ambition, but still… ) Sadly I have failed on both these counts, but it was great fun to revisit that dream and have my main character inherit a beach café in a gorgeous Cornish setting. It was even more fun being forced to research all those Cornish pasties and cakes…

What are the best things about being a writer?
The satisfaction of writing ‘The End’ on a first draft is pretty hard to beat, as is holding finished copies of a new book for the first time. Lovely emails and letters from readers are brilliant too – they make all the torturous parts of the process worthwhile.

And the worst?
The self-doubt that creeps in now and then that the book I’m writing is rubbish and no-one will want to read it. One-star Amazon reviews make me want to cry. And I sometimes miss all the banter and camaraderie from working in an office. Thank goodness for Twitter!

Tell me about what you're working on now.
I’ve just finished my sixth novel, which will be out next year. It’s about two very different sisters being forced to live together again – lots of arguing, jealousy and bitching – those scenes were a joy to write! I also write children’s books too, under my real name, Sue Mongredien, so by complete contrast, I am also working on a new adventure story featuring an evil witch, smelly trolls and lots of magic.

You've written books for both children and adults and have been short-listed for this year's Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance for your book Sweet Temptation. What would be your top three tips for aspiring writers?

a) Read your work out loud – I always say this, but it’s the best advice I can give. By reading your story aloud, you get a much better feel for the rhythm of the prose, you can hear whether or not the dialogue works, and any mistakes, repetition or boring bits will leap out at you.
b) Raise the stakes. Make things really difficult for your characters – don’t give them an easy ride. Every time they think the worst is over, ratchet the angst up a notch. It’ll make the novel a much more interesting read.
c) Stick to the story. Keep asking yourself – is this scene relevant to the main plot? You may have written the most brilliant or hilarious dialogue exchange in the world but if it doesn’t move the plot along in any way then sometimes it’s best to cut it out. Harsh, but ultimately for the best…

Do you have a dream project you'd love to write?
I’d love to write for television – it must be so exciting seeing actors speak your lines on the screen. Sadly I think writing for film and TV is probably even more competitive than book publishing so right now, it will have to remain a dream. But maybe one day…

The Beach Café by Lucy Diamond is published by Pan Macmillan on June 3rd. For more information on Lucy Diamond’s books, visit her website. I can’t wait to read The Beach Café - it's going to be a perfect summer read and I can't wait to get started on it! Why not treat yourself, too?

Book Special: Happy P-Day Jill Mansell!

Every now and again on Coffee and Roses I like to highlight books I think you'll love. Today's Book Special features the brand new book by the thoroughly fab JILL MANSELL.


Jill's brilliant books are an inspiration to me and countless other rom-com writers - so I know you'll adore her new novel, To The Moon and Back as much as I will. It's published today and here's the blurb:

When Ellie Kendall loses her husband Jamie in an accident she feels her world has come to an end. But life has to go on and eventually she’s ready for a new start – at work, that is. She definitely doesn’t need a new man, not while she has a certain secret visitor to keep her company...



Entrepreneur Zack McLaren seems to have it all, but the girl he can’t stop thinking about won’t give him a second glance. Why can’t she pay him the kind of attention she lavishes on Elmo, his time-share dog?



Having moved to an exclusive flat in North London, Ellie becomes friendly with neighbour Roo who’s harbouring a secret of her own. Between them, can both girls sort out their lives? Guilt is a powerful emotion. 



But a lot can happen in a year in Primrose Hill...


I can't wait to read it! I'm still in the post-delivery glow of finishing the first draft of It Started With a Kiss, so I'm catching up on my reading (after being somewhat of a frantic scribbling hermit during the past couple of months), so To The Moon and Back is at the top of my reading indulgence list...

Jill will be appearing on Coffee and Roses in a Writer Spotlight in the near future, so keep watching for that!

Plus, the latest sparkly installment of my VLOG will be arriving here shortly, so the goodies just keep on coming...

Writer Spotlight: Tom Cox

On Coffee and Roses I like to bring you news of exciting authors who are either waiting to be published or published and worth checking out.

So this week, the Coffee and Roses Writer Spotlight falls upon the brilliant (and very lovely)
TOM COX.

When did you first decide that you wanted to write?
As a very young child I would always nag my parents to read to me before bed and I remember when I was about seven I had three ideal jobs: writer, librarian or inventor. Somehow, things all went awry in my adolescence and I decided I wanted to be a pro golfer, and essentially didn't read a thing between the age of ten and eighteen. I then got back on my original track when I decided I wanted to be a music journalist, but I was always a stage ahead of myself: as soon as I got my dream job writing for the NME, I was yearning to write about other subjects other than music; as soon as I'd started broadening my journalistic canvas, I started yearning to stop doing journalism altogether and write books.

What interests you as a writer?
Finding the humour in the mundane has become a bit of a theme, recently. I also love writing about weird parts of British life. More and more, I like the actual detail of writing - fiddling with sentences until they're nice and clean. For several years I beat myself up for not having written a "serious" book. I've started (fairly humourless) works of fiction twice, got up to around 30,000 words, and scrapped them. I'd love to write a ghost story or a horror story or a historical novel but I don't think it's where my real talent lies, or at least not if I approach it in the style I was approaching it before. I'm now thankfully over the idea that a very funny book can't be serious as well. My favourite writers - Richard Russo, John Irving, David Sedaris, Kate Atkinson - prove this pretty comprehensively. When I think about what really makes me happy as a writer, it's conveying something funny or absurd that's happened to me or people I know in the most economical and pithy way, or discovering a new turn of phrase, or that moment when you actually learn something as you're writing it. Plot is not something I've found myself hugely interested in yet - I like to have as little idea as possible where a book is going when I start - but that might change. I'd still love to write fiction one day, but I don't want to be the person in that Peter Cook anecdote who's always "working on a novel" ("Oh, really? Neither am I.").

Do you have a typical writing day? If not, when is the best time to write for you?
I remember Salman Rushdie saying that there's a specific writing energy first thing in the morning that has to be bottled before it escapes. The belief in that might just be the only thing Salman Rushdie and I have in common as writers. My ideal day would involve working from about six am until one pm, with cocktail gherkin and cold Malteser treats as incentives for finishing paragraphs, then spending the afternoon lazing about in cafes people-watching and reading, but it never quite works out that way (apart from the cocktail gherkins and Maltesers). My life is a fairly comprehensive lesson in how not to time manage at the moment: I spend far too much time socialising to be a Proper Writer, find it hard to not see another human being for more than 24 hours, and get too caught up in the stuff surrounding writing (Twitter/chasing for money/convincing myself I can't write a decent sentence before I've vacuumed my floor), but I keep hoping I'll be a better-behaved crafter of prose. One thing I've learned, as a slightly reformed workaholic, is the importance of battery-recharging time.

What made you decide to write 'Under the Paw'?

I think there were originally seventeen references to my cats in my previous book, Bring Me The Head Of Sergio Garcia. Even the most ardent cat lover - and certainly the cat-disdaining editor of the book, who quite understandably asked me to remove several of them - would probably agree that that's too many cats for a book about golf. This kind of thing had been happening for years, though: my cats bullying their way into totally inappropriate areas of my writing. I thought I'd relent and give them centre stage - especially as they treat my house like a hotel, and it was about time they started pulling their weight financially. One thing that probably stopped me writing the book earlier was the inevitability of being known as "The Cat Man" but maybe I'm more comfortable being weird, as I get older, even though "Cat Man" is only one of many weird shelves of the weird cupboard that is my brain. Publishers are going to want to use that gimmick in the marketing of a book like Under The Paw, and I accept it. But I'd like to be known as a humour writer more than someone who writes about cats, or golf (or - especially - music, which I don't think I've ever written really well about), and I think that's one of the challenges I face with future books. I'm hoping I've started meeting the challenge with Talk To The Tail which, though a form of sequel to Under The Paw, is only 50% about cats, with other animals "getting the floor'" for the other half of the book. Some of the non-cat essays in the book are my favourites. But I feel sure I'll be writing again about cats in the future.

What are the best things (so far) about being a writer?
1) Ability to choose your own hours.
2) The strange assumptions people make about what The Writing Life might be comprised of.
3) The fact that my whole house can become an office.
4) Snacks.

And the worst?
1) Ability to choose your own hours.
2) The strange assumptions people make about what The Writing Life might be comprised of.
3) The fact that my whole house can become my office.
4) Snacks.

Tell me about your new book, 'Talk to the Tail'.

At the moment, I'm feeling very pleased with it. I want to remember this feeling - that I've done my very best with it - because (and I think this happens to everyone who has a book published at some point, no matter how successful) there'll inevitably be a time when a bad review or a comment here or there makes me question myself. I think it's a (deliberately) messier book than Under The Paw, which doesn't run in chronological order, and a more profane one (mainly due to my dad's greater presence in the book, and my cat Shipley's increasing bad language), but I hope a slightly more strongly felt and funnier one. I was late delivering - mainly for the reason that during its inception, in spring 2009, my relationship broke up. It's ultimately supposed to be a fun read, so I didn't have to write about the break-up in great detail, and wouldn't have felt that was fair on my ex, but because that relationship was a fairly sizeable element of Under The Paw, it would have been an insult to my readers not to write about it at all. I needed time to get the distance to write about it the way I wanted to.

You've written about pop music, golf, growing up and cats. What's next?
More growing up - in the form of a book about being from the Midlands, or a "A Middle Person". I wrote about the golf stage of my adolescence in Nice Jumper, but I feel there are still a lot of odd stories from my childhood and early twenties that are untold: stuff that I've only now realised is genuinely odd. For example: living in a small town where every boy except you gets his hair cut for 50p in exactly the same style by a man called "Mad George", or imbibing no beverage but Special Brew for your first two years as a consumer of alcohol. I used to think that was run-of-the-mill stuff. The Midlands is an odd place and I'd like to try to capture it. I'm also working on a "very Norfolk" project, in a similar vein. So, all in all: more light, inconsequential stories about provincial British life that might hopefully make a train or plane ride go a little bit more quickly.

Anything else you'd like to say?
Thank you for having me!


You can see all of Tom's books here. Read more about Tom's feline residents at his Under The Paw blog. Also, check out parts one, two and three of the Marathon Diaries that Tom wrote about his dad (which may appear in his next book). Big thanks to Tom for giving this interview! I'm reading Under The Paw at the moment and loving it - it's a brilliantly written, hilarious and very real account of the various moggies Tom has shared his life with. I can thoroughly recommend it!

If you would like to feature in a future Coffee and Roses Writer Spotlight, drop me a line at coffeeandroses@gmail.com and I'll see what I can do!