Featured Author - Linda Gillard

[Inver]

Have you given up with Transita now then? Also, do you give your self a time scale for writing a book?

[~Andrea~]

Are you a writer yourself, Andrea?

 

I don't recommend many books on writing but the most useful and accessible one I've found is ON WRITING by Stephen King which IMO says it all. I really rate it. Down to earth, practical advice that works. I quote him in my creative writing workshops and have him on the reading list.

 

Linda

 

Yes (well trying to be ) I have read On Writing and found it very good, as you say.

[Linda Gillard]

Answering Inver's Qs...

 

I moved on from Transita with STAR GAZING which was bought by Piatkus. I'm contracted to deliver another manuscript to them by the end of August. I've just finished the draft of that and it's scheduled for publication in May 2009, working title FAMILY SHADOWS.

 

Publishers expect a book a year. It's a treadmill, but that's what they want and anyone thinking of trying to get published needs to bear in mind that they will be asked to produce a book a year. (This is why there are so many sequels and series - you don't have to start from scratch each time!)

 

I write fulltime so a book in a year is feasible for me, just about, but if I had another job I don't know how I'd manage. In an ideal world I would like to produce a book every two years, but publishers like one a year so they can build you up into a "brand".

 

Linda

[Michelle]

Linda, I have to ask.. how do you feel about people buying / swapping second hand books? I believe that you get involved with bookcrossing (?), and I also know some of your books are going round as 'book circles'.

 

Obviously sales are very important to you, but do you also find it important that people discover your books?

 

(I hope you don't mind, because I'm currently offering Emotional Geology as a book ring on here!)

[LyzzyBee]

Hello Linda! And INVER! Hi!!!

 

I can answer the question about Linda and her books being passed around myself, although obviously I won't claim to have the final say on the matter! I "met" Linda first through reading Emotional Geology via my involvement with Transita - and I helped get Transita and BookCrossing involved with each other right from the start.

 

Linda has been hugely supportive of BookCrossing. She has travelled across the country to give readings and creative writing workshops at BookCrossing events. And the members of my bookrings and rays of her books are always absolutely THRILLED to hear from Linda when they review them! I get so many messages "ohh, I heard from the author, how marvellous"!

 

Of course, BookCrossing doesn't stop sales. I just bought a copy of Star Gazing myself, even though I have a signed copy from Linda, so I could double my bookring and get 2 people reading it at a time. I have also bought numerous copies of EG for friends. And will be buying at least 2 more Star Gazings around Christmas time.

 

Great to see the conversation here. Can't wait for the next book to come out!!!

 

Liz / LyzzyBee

[Linda Gillard]

Another very good question! Lyzzybee has made most of the points already, so I'll just add a few personal comments, if I may.

 

I have confidence in my "product"! I believe if people read one of my books they are likely to seek out the others. I know from experience that my readers recommend my books to their friends and buy copies for them.

 

Obviously I wish people would buy rather than borrow, but I'm realistic. I didn't become an author to make money! (Did you know the average author's income is about £4000 a year?) The other important point to bear in mind is that if you buy a copy of STAR GAZING in Waterstones, I make about 50p and Waterstones make £3.50! When you buy books in shops, the bookseller is making the money, not the author. So until you get into selling shedloads, sales are not really a big issue financially. If all the BookCrossers who have borrowed copies of my books went and bought one, it wouldn't make me rich.Or even comfortable. The important thing to me is not to be bought, but to be read and discussed. It's about communication and authors want it to be two-way.

 

What I would say is, if you've read a borrowed copy of a book and you liked it, make it a point of honour to tell 5 people that you liked that book and why (and write down the author's name for them!)

 

Linda

Edited June 4, 2008 by Linda Gillard

[Michelle]

What I would say is, if you've read a borrowed copy of a book and you liked it, make it a point of honour to tell 5 people that you liked that book and why (and write down the author's name for them!)

Linda

 

Or come and post on a wonderful book forum!

 

Do you get any more money if you book is bought, say, direct from a publishers website?

[Linda Gillard]

No. The most money you can make selling a book is selling it on yourself after you have bought copies from the publisher using your author discount. But then you don't get a royalty!

 

Buying direct from the author is the best way of benefiting the author financially.

 

Linda

[Michelle]

Linda, Emotional Geology is about a woman with bipolar, something that you yourself have, and talk about on your website. Was it something that you always wanted to write about, because of your own experiences?

[Linda Gillard]

No, it wasn't Michelle, because when I started writing EG I hadn't long had a diagnosis! I cracked up as a teacher and went sick. I was diagnosed as suffering from stress and depression. (I was also suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder but no-one diagnosed that.) I didn't get better and the depression got worse despite medication. I did a lot of reading and started charting mood swings. I came to the conclusion my problem was severe PMS and asked to be referred to a gynaecologist. I hadn't been talking to him for more than 10 mins when he said "You aren't suffering from PMS, you're suffering from bipolar affective disorder." (Manic depression.) I was referred back to a psychiatrist who confirmed a diagnosis that my GP, another psychiatrist and 2 community psychiatric nurses had missed!

 

Once I got a correct diagnosis I was given the right meds and I started to get better. But I was reeling... What I'd always thought was my personality turned out to be a life-threatening illness. (Bipolar has a very high suicide rate.) And biplar is for life, there is no cure. You just have to manage it.

 

So I educated myself about the subject, did a lot of online research and fortunately found Kay Redfield Jamieson's wonderful memoir AN UNQUIET MIND. (Recommended as a bookclub read - lots to discuss and it's very readable. It's a good companion read with EMO GEO.)

 

So I made my heroine bipolar because all that was uppermost in my mind. I was also desperately trying to convince myself that there was some sort of upside to bipolar. You aren't always conscious of the big themes when you're writing a book, but I can see now that I was exploring the relationship between creativity and - for want of a better word - "madness".

 

By the time I'd finished the book I was aware of the level of ignorance about the illness (not to mention the stigma attached to it) so when I knew it was to be published I had to make the very difficult decision as to whether to be "out" about being bipolar. (Before Stephen Fry, almost nobody was. Not many people are now, but it's estimated that as many as 1 in 20 people are affected by it, so all of you know manic depressives - possibly several.)

 

I decided that I had to be "out", even though I knew that meant readers would assume EG was autobiography (it isn't) and that I was probably a one-book wonder, not a serious writer of fiction. (I dealt with the latter issue by starting my 2nd novel 2 weeks after finishing the first and getting that published a year later. )

 

Sorry this is such a long reply but it's a big issue and I know Michelle is interested and has read several books lately with a bipolar theme.

 

Linda

Edited June 5, 2008 by Linda Gillard

[Icecream]

Don't worry about the long reply. I am interested mental health issues too. I know someone I have a lot of dealings with who is bi-polar, though she is not good at managing it, and my OH has been diagnosed with every condition from manic depression to schizophrenia. The doctors seem to come up with a new word every time they see him. Being his carer, I also have to take time to understand these things, though he tells me most of it himself.

[Michelle]

Don't apologise Linda, it was interesting to read. It's really strange how I've recently read three books covering bipolar.. and they're all very different.

 

Do you think it's the sort of subject that you need to experience to write well? I wonder how well it could be explored, and written, on research alone?

[Linda Gillard]

Well, I think it can be done on research alone, but I would say that, wouldn't I, because I've just published a novel (STAR GAZING) written from a congenitally blind "point of view" - and I don't even know anyone who's blind! (I did get someone who was visually impaired to read it to see if I'd made any gaffes.)

 

Sebastian Faulks didn't fight in WWI (BIRDSONG) and Georgette Heyer wasn't at the battle of Waterloo (AN INFAMOUS ARMY). Stef Penney has never been to Canada. (THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES.) As an ex-actress I'm used to the idea that an actor can be asked to play any sort of role, totally alien to their own life - a paedophile, a prostitute, a serial killer - and they have to find ways of making you believe in them. Of course they do research, but it's really about that imaginative leap that you make to walk a mile in someone else's shoes.

 

You might be interested to know it was far harder for me as a non-musician to imagine what it was like to be a world-class classical pianist (Rory in A LIFETIME BURNING) than to be congenitally blind (Marianne in STAR GAZING)!

 

I think the key issue is you need to write with passion, whatever you are writing about. It's obviously easier to write with passion if you are writing about something close to your heart. (But then it's harder to edit!)

Edited June 5, 2008 by Linda Gillard

[Linda Gillard]

Icecream, I really feel for you. If I had a choice between suffering from a mental illness or caring for someone who suffers from a mental illness, I would choose to have the illness. The carer's role is, I believe, even tougher. (That was one of the things I wrote about in EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY - the toll mental illness takes on relationships.)

 

I hope someone is looking after you. Carers need to be cared for too.

[Icecream]

Thank you. Well I don't know a lot of people, and certainly don't have any friends, but I take solice in the things I can, like my books, or this forum, or now and again in spending time with my family, but the majority of my time is spent looking after my own family (OH and my two baby girls). I think I will have to pick up your book one day soon.

 

I think it would take a lot of research to do a good job on such a book, because mental health conditions are so very complex, however, they are all to do with brain functions and which parts of the brain are working better than others etc, so it is not hard to understand if you look in the right places and do enough reading.

 

Michelle, which are the three books you mentioned?

Edited June 5, 2008 by Icecream

[Linda Gillard]

Icecream, there are forums you can join especially related to manic depression or other mental illnesses. Carers post as often as sufferers and they get support too.

 

DEPRESSION ALLIANCE www.depressionalliance.org is a good place to start. Or if you think your OH is bipolar try the Manic Depression Fellowship www.mdf.org.uk

 

I joined both of these organisations and found them very supportive.

[Icecream]

He is supposed to be schizophrenic, but I don't think he has had any halucinations for a long time. I could be wrong. Thank you for the links. I have been rather lapse in my time spent on this and should look into it more.

[Linda Gillard]

Icecream, www.rethink.org is the organisation that specialises in supporting schizophrenics and their carers. They have a special carers section on their website.

[Inver]

I have bought Emotional Geology on several occasions for people I have recommended to and mostly the feedback has been how much they have enjoyed it And I would never have found out about it had I not joined Lyzzybee's bookrings

What would be your ideal location to sit and write a book if given a choice?

[Linda Gillard]

By the sea. Outdoors if it's not too cold or by a window overlooking the sea. (I write longhand on a pad of lined A4 so I can write anywhere.) I'd like to be in the Hebrides listening to the waves breaking on a sandy beach and the only sounds being seabirds.

 

But I don't have to be anywhere special or even comfortable to write. If it's going well, I can write sitting at a bus stop.

[Icecream]

Thank you. I didn't mean to whinge by the way. I love my life with OH and our family. It is just with you saying how hard it is, well I had to agree. I won't pretend it doesn't get very stressful, but I wouldn't change a thing. The only real support I have at the moment though is OHs Mum, who is wonderful, though I don't see as much of her as I would like.

 

What do you do when you are out of ideas, or some of your writing isn't going so well?

[Linda Gillard]

I'm not sure I really experience those states, Icecream. I don't think I've ever felt I was out of ideas. I've never had writers' block. I sometimes have a plot problem that I need to solve, eg I once felt I had to kill an important character off but felt the reader would never forgive me if I did, so I had to think about that until I found a way to solve the problem.

 

I think I sometimes spend some time "waiting" until the characters tell me what to do next and I sometimes have to spend time psyching myself up to write difficult scenes - difficult emotionally or difficult technically. Then I'll play the music that I associate with the book - my playlist! - and I'll look at photos of the characters and locations to try and stay in the world of the book until I'm ready to write.

 

As for writing not going well: I try not to judge what I write. I just aim to spread the ink, as it were. I try to focus on telling the story, just get it down on paper, then I edit what I've done, over & over. I've been doing this for so long now that I know, even if the draft is absolute rubbish, I will be able to edit it and re-write until it's respectable or better. And I keep going until that's done!

 

If I was too depressed to write - that happens rarely - I would probably re-read my beloved Dorothy Dunnett who is always an inspiration and a comfort.

 

I suspect I don't have too many problems with my writing because of my experience as a journalist. Many years ago I abandoned 2 or 3 novels that were going nowhere, but since I was published, it all seems to be going OK and I've developed work methods that seem to be effective for me.

Edited June 5, 2008 by Linda Gillard

[Inver]

What influences your choice of name for your characters and location?

[Linda Gillard]

Ooh, that's a fun question! Did you somehow guess that I agonise over names, Inver?

 

OK, now I'm going to sound a bit weird... Bear with me. I think the choice of names is terribly important because I think characters grow into their names. Names are destiny. Once a name has taken root I find it impossible to change it. This is literally true because I was asked to change both heroes' names in EMO GEO and I tried and just couldn't do it. I'd lived with those names for years and those names were the guys. (Calum and Gavin, since you asked.)

 

I tend to choose names that are quick and easy to type. You'd soon get fed up typing Sebastian or Araminta. (I will never have a heroine called Barbara. I just cannot type it without an error!)

 

Characters have to have names I like or that are appropriate for their character, so in STAR GAZING there is Garth the Goth, a comic character and because there are lots of refs to Jane Austen and it's a romantic story, my 2 middle-aged sisters who find love late in life are called Marianne and Louisa, which I thought were Austen-ish names.

 

But there's a big problem with me and names... I used to be a teacher. So there are loads of names that I can't bear to use because they will be forever associated with some of the headbangers I used to teach. (No hero of mine will ever be called Adam or Lee. )

 

With the book I've just finished, I spent longer choosing names and agonising over them that I did devising the plot! It concerns a family of a mother and 5 adult siblings. That was a lot of names to get right.

 

Locations are easier. I only write about places I know or have made up (and the places I make up are based on places I know.)

 

I'd love to know why you asked the Q, Inver!

Edited June 5, 2008 by Linda Gillard

[Inver]

Ooh, that's a fun question! Did you somehow guess that I agonise over names, Inver?

 

Not at all

 

 

I'd love to know why you asked the Q, Inver!

 

I have no idea, just came to me. Sometimes when I am reading a book and the names are weird and wonderful I have trouble trying to pronounce them properly in my head. Simple and straightforward names are best...lol.