Linda Gillard

[Michelle]

Linda Gillard

Website (http://lindagillard.co.uk/)

Introduced to me by Inver, Linda is the author of three books, two which I have read, and one I hope to get to very soon!

Emotional Geology - Review (http://bcfreviews.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/emotional-geology-by-linda-gillard/) / Book Ring (http://bookclubforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=5244)
A Lifetime Burning - Review (http://bcfreviews.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/a-lifetime-burning-by-linda-gillard/)
Star Gazing - Review (http://bcfreviews.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/star-gazing-by-linda-gillard/)

Welcome to Linda, who will around during to month to chat to us.

[Michelle]

Let's kick things off by starting at the beginning! :) Is writing something that you've always done? Did you write as a child, or was it something that came later in life?

[Linda Gillard]

Hi Michelle (and everyone in the forum)

Thanks for inviting me to participate.

I suppose I have always written. I've certainly always made up stories in my head! I used to be a big letter writer too. I worked as a freelance journalist and as an actress so words have always been my thing.

I wrote my first novel many years ago when I had 2 small children and was quietly going mad at home (as you do). I tried to get that one published but after 2 years of rejection slips I gave up. I cringe now when I think how awful that novel probably was, but there were some interesting characters in it which I "recycled" in my 2nd novel, A LIFETIME BURNING. I think because I'd lived with those characters for about 18 years, it gave ALB a sense of depth and I was able to write about those lives in some detail. (ALB covers a period of 58 years in one family.)

I didn't try for publication again until I'd turned 50. By then I'd abandoned a career as a primary teacher after a breakdown and long period of illness. I'd taken up writing fiction just as something to do - for pleasure and as a kind of therapy. The novel I began then eventually became EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY, my first published novel. I'd joined a writers' e-group and they encouraged me to try to get an agent. I didn't think I'd stand a chance because EG was such a quirky book and had a 47 year old romantic heroine and this was in the heyday of Chicklit, so I sent off the manuscript with no expectation of success. But I found an agent who loved it (actually I think she loved my hero ;-) ) and then we found a publisher. So I began my 5th career (if you count motherhood) at the age of 53 when my first novel was published. It's never too late for a new start! (Which is one of the "messages" of EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY.)

Linda

[madcow]

Hello and welcome Linda, do you get time to read for pleasure? and if so who are your favourite authors, genres etc?

[FishAndChips]

Linda what an encouraging story. Sounds like perseverance was key for you.

Welcome to BCF :)
My question is: How do you find inspiration to sit down and write? I mean how do you stimulate your creative juices?

[Karen]

Hi Linda, welcome to BCF.

A lot of writers seem to come from either a publishing environment or have worked as a journalist before, do you think your background as a journalist helped when it came to trying to find an agent and publisher?

[Linda Gillard]

Hi Jules

I don't read that much for pleasure for a variety of reasons and this is a source of great regret. I write fulltime and I tend to work long days. I like to watch DVDs to relax. Reading when you're writing can be very distracting stylistically and I tend to read anything but the contemporary fiction I write. If it's good you get depressed, if it's bad you get depressed ("Why is this selling in shedloads and I'm not?!"). So I like to read historical fiction (esp. Dorothy Dunnett whom I re-read all the time) and biography (I loved M Forster's biog. of Daphne du Maurier) because there's no overlap with my own work.

The other kind of reading I do is for research and I will always have a stack of books sitting on a table which I dip into, eg I read 3 autobiographical books written by blind people when I was researching STAR GAZING. For the book I've just finished drafting I read a biography of Enid Blyton. (Fascinating!)

But I do read some contemporary stuff. I recently discovered Sophie Hannah whom I'd recommend if you like psychological thrillers. I really admired Stef Penney's TENDERNESS OF WOLVES. My favourite read so far this year is MR PIP by Lloyd Jones which I thought was brilliant. I also loved the Victorian detective romp, SILENT IN THE GRAVE by Deanna Raybourn.

Linda

[Linda Gillard]

That's a very interesting question, Andrea.

I think my problem is not so much trying to discipline myself to write as trying to make myself do something other than write! I'm a workaholic really and there's nothing I'd rather be doing. But in the early days it was harder, I think because I lacked confidence in what I was doing and thought it was a bit ,well, mad, getting so involved in these made-up stories and falling in love - no, really - with these heroes that I'd created. (My 22 year old son refers to my writing as "playing with my imaginary friends".)

My books are also quite ambitious and I didn't know if I could actually do the things I was trying to do, so I think I often needed a confidence boost and an energy boost. I've always used music for that. (Springsteen is great for making you think you can achieve anything!) I have a kind of playlist for each book. I lot of writers do this. Music will take you directly into the world of the book the way scents allow you to access memories.

The other thing I do which helps me get into the world of the book and get down to work quickly is that I collect pictures - mostly photos of people - which represent places and characters in the work-in-progress. So above my PC there are a lot of photos clipped out of magazines or printed off the internet representing the characters in my current book. A character doesn't really take off for me until I have found a visual real life equivalent. Their personality doesn't have to resemble my character's, just their face.

I teach creative writing occasionally and I find that mostly what stops people writing is fear. Fear that it won't be "good". But if you stop trying to write "well", but just tell the story, the writing flows more easily. You have to get that critic off your shoulder, the one who sneers, "Whatever makes you think you can write?" I don't ever worry about writing well now, I just try to say what I want to say, in the way that I want to say it. For me, that's good writing. :-)

Linda

[Linda Gillard]

Hi Karen

Another good question! You're right - a disproportionate number of authors are ex-journalists. Publishers like journalists. They have a proven track record, a writing CV. They are used to being edited. They understand marketing. They meet deadlines. They are full of ideas. Perhaps most importantly they know people, they listen and research for a living, so their work is likely to have a certain depth.

There is also the factor that journalists are social animals and will have made a lot of contacts and publishing is a small, incestuous, back-scratching world where networking is an essential part of getting on.

None of this applied to me however! I was a freelance living in East Anglia and was never on the London circuit even though I wrote a column for IDEAL HOME for 12 years. And when I was trying to find an agent and a publisher for my first novel I was living on the Isle of Skye, my current home, so there was no London/journalism factor operating in my favour then. But I think being a journalist taught me how to write concisely, how to edit and how to think about marketing myself and my books.

As a journalist you are trying to write so that the casual reader will read to the end of your article and not turn the page in search of something more interesting. You are constantly aware of the need to entertain and inform. I think this training pays off when you come to write fiction. You know that you absolutely must not bore your reader which means you mustn't waste words and you must maintain their interest.

As a writer of fiction I aim to make it almost impossible for you to put my books down. As a journalist I wanted your eye to travel smoothly on till it got to the end of the piece. It's the same aim and you use some of the same techniques.

Linda

[Linda Gillard]

Can I ask a question now?

What makes a book "unputdownable"? What makes you read on? Is it just wanting to know what happens next? Or is it that you don't want to leave the characters? Or that a book is just easy to read?

As an author I'd love to know what this quality is, not least because I've been fortunate enough to have a lot of readers "complain" to me that they were up into the small hours, finishing one of my books because they just couldn't put it down. (Now when I sell books at author events I warn people not to start them late at night. ;-) )

But I don't know what this unputdownable quality is!

A certain fluency of style does it for me. Vintage Margaret Forster (I'm not so keen on the more recent stuff) is just so easy to read because it's beautifully written. (Don't start SHADOW BABY late at night!)

Linda

[Michelle]

Hmm.. for me it used to be the storyline, because I read a lot of horror, and then thrillers/crime. If it was particularly scary/mysterious/interesting, I'd want to keep going.

More recently though, it's been the characters, and the lives they lead. With the books that I find hard to put down, if often because I've 'clicked' with one or more of the characters.. I may really like them, or it might be dislike, or it may even be that I see something of myself in them, or someone I know. The key, however, is that I start to care about them, and NEED to know what happens next.

That was especially true of A Lifetime Burning - those characters came alive for me (if that doesn't sound too clichéd!), and they lead amazing lives.. I just had to keep reading, to know what was going to happen next, and how they were going to deal with it! :)

[Linda Gillard]

Some of those characters really did have a mind of their own! That was the first book I wrote where I had a distinct and weird sense of taking dictation. I might plan a certain scene and then the characters would say "No, that's wrong, it was like this" and I'd write it differently from how I'd planned.

In the creative writing How To books they tell you to plan your books chapter by chapter and that you should be in control of the characters and know everything about them. That's certainly not the way I work. I think a character has taken off if s/he starts arguing with me and doing surprising things. For me that's like a real live person.

One of the tips I give students is that if you're a bit stuck with a character, if they are seeming a bit dull, make them act out of character. People do it all the time! I think some of the most gripping moments in fiction are when people suddenly act out of character.

Something I say to my students (and myself) is "Never give in to the temptation to simplify." Life isn't simple. People aren't. And characters shouldn't be.

Linda

[Michelle]

I think youhave a point there.. people acting just as you expect would make a boring book. ;)

It's an interesting question, and I'm looking forward to finding out if others agree with me, or if there's something else that makes them read into the night...

[Icecream]

Michelle, I am just like that. I used to love books for the stories, for example, I read Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban in one night because it was scary and mysterious and I had to get to the end of the story to find out what happened. Now though, I am wanting to read books to find out what happens with characters, how characters are formed, and how they interact with each other and grow through time. I NEED to know what happens with them, because I often relate with them in some way and have to know how they handle things or how they evolve.

[Linda Gillard]

I mentioned Dorothy Dunnett earlier. The sequence of books I've been re-reading for more than 20 years now is The Lymond Chronicles, 6 long books about one man, Francis Crawford, a gorgeous 16thC Scottish (anti-)hero who develops in the most complex way over the course of the six books. The books are full of action, complex plotting and a host of vivid characters, but the real hook is Francis, what happens to him, wondering what he is going to do next. I don't know of a more complex, fully developed or satisfying hero in British literature. He surpasses both Darcy and Mr. Rochester for me - by a wide margin!

The first book in the series is called THE GAME OF KINGS. I wrote an article for a blog about Dunnett (now dead sadly and much missed by her fans) and I then put it on my website. If you're interested in reading more about her (and Francis) see http://www.lindagillard.co.uk/further-reading.php

I think believable characters must be the key to a good book - characters you can get involved with. I think plot is of secondary importance. (Although I also think character is plot.)

Do you have favourite book heroes? I adore Heathcliff, although I know a lot of people think he's loathsome! WUTHERING HEIGHTS fascinates me and my 2nd novel, A LIFETIME BURNING was an attempt to write something like a 21stC version of it. I've no idea if I succeeded but the anti-hero Rory certainly divided readers. Some loved him, but mostly they disliked him. (I loved him, despite his appalling faults.)

Linda

[Linda Gillard]

When it comes to female characters, do you always need to like them?

Some editors drive authors crazy by insisting that female protagonists must be instantly likeable. They also don't like them doing things that readers won't approve of. I had arguments with an editor over a heroine of mine who drinks - not to excess - when pregnant. We both acknowledged that some women do drink during pregnancy, but for some reason my heroine had to be better behaved than average. Editors worry a lot about readers not liking central female characters.

I don't like goody-two-shoes heroines! I think intelligent readers will forgive a lot, so long as the character isn't boring. Jane Eyre isn't instantly likeable. Nowadays we'd describe her as spikey I suppose.

My author friends all say the same thing: that they have met strong resistance from editors if their heroines are difficult, unattractive or behave in an immoral way. (It's a genre issue. You can get away with this in literary fiction, but not popular fiction!) So you can see why I never expected to find a publisher for EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY which features as its heroine a 47 year-old manic depressive with a colourful sexual history. ;-)

Linda

[Inver]

Hello Linda.....remember me:D Lovely to see you featuring on here (big boss lady did listen to me and got you here....lol.:D)

Looking forward to reading Star Gazing via a bookring on Bookcrossing. How much research did you manage to get while you visited Aberdeen (when I didn't manage to meet up with you)?:D Have you visited anywhere else interesting when doing your research?

To answer your what make a book unputdownable. For me it is something that makes you imagine where the story is taking place and if it has a feel good feeling about the story I just want it to last a lot longer than the last page. Obviously likeable characters and not ones that irritate.

Diane

[Icecream]

Well Linda, Emotional Geology sounds great to me, when you put it like that!:mrgreen: If females characters were all great looking stereotypes with no depth, they would be very boring in deed. Who is like that in real life? And show me a woman who has not drunk any alcohol whatsoever in pregnancy. OK, so maybe there are a few who have managed it, but what I am trying to say is that life is never so perfect that anyone can be goodytwoshoes all the time, and books are supposed to be an escape, but not dull. It is these things that make characters. I don't like characters that don't do anything but what is expected. I'm sorry if this response seems cut a little short. The baby is crying and I can't think, so I must go and see what the children are doing to each other.

[Linda Gillard]

Hi Inver! Thanks for recommending me to BCF!

When I was in Aberdeen I talked to some BookCrossers about the Piper Alpha disaster and I went to Hazlehead Park to visit the memorial. (That's where a key scene in STAR GAZING is set.) I spent a lot of time there taking photos and sitting on a bench, trying to absorb the atmosphere, the sounds and scents (because I was going to have to write about it from a blind "point of view".) I hope the experience of being there and noting those details will give readers an idea of what the garden and the memorial are like and I hope the gravity of the setting lends an extra poignancy to the final scene in STAR GAZING. (Can't really say any more for fear of spoilers!)

I don't travel a lot for research as I live on Skye and it's a bit of a mission getting anywhere. I tend to make stuff up and then research afterwards to see if I've got it right. ;-) Research can sometimes inhibit you, stunt your imaginative thinking. A treehouse features prominently in STAR GAZING. I'd never been in one before and I had to write about being in a treehouse in the depths of winter - and from a blind point of view. Difficult to research that! But recently when I was visiting Alnwick Garden where there is a famous treehouse, I realised that what I had imagined was pretty much how it was. I didn't think I'd missed anything. In fact I thought I might have written about the treehouse more vividly because I'd had to imagine it.

Linda

[Michelle]

I don't necessarily think that characters have to be likeable, but they do have to be believable. If a character does something that I personally disagree with, I need to be able to see why they did it.. if that makes sense?

I would actually imagine that a likeable female character makes writing a little easier.. is it more of a challenge to write character that won't necessarily be liked, because you have to make them believable in the way they act?

Also Linda, do the editors only get that way about the females? Are they quite happy to have the men misbehave? (I'm quite sure the answer to that will be yes! lol)

[Linda Gillard]

I think it's a genre issue again, Michelle. In popular fiction heroes need to be wearing white hats too. Publishers don't seem to like ambiguity.

In STAR GAZING I was asked to cut a ref to my single, commitment-phobe hero (a 42 year old oil worker who travels a lot for his job) having had an aids test. They thought this made him seem promiscuous. I argued that he was a responsible single male! In the end I found a way to cut the ref, but I wasn't too happy about it.

Likeable characters probably are easier to write but bad boys and girls are much more fun! ;) EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY was very much a feel-good book where most of the characters were nice to each other and looked out for each other, as people do in remote communities. When it came to planning my 2nd novel, A LIFETIME BURNING, I felt I wanted to write something less clear-cut with more moral ambiguity. I also wanted to write about a "mad, bad & sad" woman - Flora, the black sheep of the family who was misunderstood.

This was challenging but I discovered that I love my bad characters just as much as my good characters. You love the sinner not the sin.

Linda

[FishAndChips]

Thanks for your response to my 'inspiration' question Linda. That was really interesting and helpful.

[Linda Gillard]

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

[Inver]

How long did it take you to get pulished and how did you end up at Transita? Did you find them or did they find you?

[Linda Gillard]

The 2nd part of your Q is easier to answer than the the first, Inver.

I met the editorial director of Transita at a writers' conference and told them about EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY. They were actively looking for manuscripts then with mature female protagonists (they aren't any more) and they asked me to send them a few chapters. Then when they'd read those, they asked to see the whole thing. Then they offered to publish it and I was on my way.

How long did it take to get published? It took me years to write EG because there was a long break in the middle when I moved house twice - to Inverness and then to Skye. But once I had finished the book it only took me a few months to find an agent and then a few months more to find a publisher. I had a few rejections for EG along the way, but some of them were encouraging and told me not to give up.

My story is not at all typical! You can be rejected for years. (Mark Haddon's agent took 4 years to sell CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME because publishers weren't sure how to market it. Was it children's fiction or adult?) More typical perhaps is the story of my latest book, STAR GAZING which did the rounds and was turned down by 7 publishers before it was enthusiastically taken up by Piatkus.

You have to just ignore rejection and keep going. You also have to accept that even if your book is good, it might not be commercial. And if publishers don't think they can sell it, they won't consider publishing it. (There's writing... and then there's publishing. It's best not to get the 2 confused. ;) )

The important thing is to find an agent who believes in you, who loves your work. Publishers won't normally look at work unless it is submitted by an agent.

Linda

[Inver]

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

[FishAndChips]

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 :mrgreen:) 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

[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! :mrgreen:

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. :lol: )

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

[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!)

[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?

[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 (http://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 (http://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 (http://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 :D And I would never have found out about it had I not joined Lyzzybee's bookrings :D

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.

[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. :lol: )

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!

[Inver]

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

Not at all :D


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

I have no idea, just came to me. :lol: 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.

[Michelle]

Linda, what kind of research did you do to write from a blind person's perspective?

[Linda Gillard]

I didn’t do a lot of research, Michelle. I read some books written by blind people that were very helpful (though none of them was written by anyone congenitally blind which was what I'd decided to make my heroine.) I researched on the internet, but mostly I relied on my imagination. It was just a question of removing any visual element from my thinking and allowing the other senses to come to the fore. I did do a certain amount of walking around in the dark or with my eyes closed. (I even tried that in the streets when there was no one around I would bump into!)

Once I’d got my brain in gear it was actually quite easy to write like this and very interesting. I enjoyed the challenge of depicting a hero according to what he sounds/feels/smells like!

I think writing in this way has changed the way I write now, even the way I think. I’ve realised how limited we are by sight. We are a visually fixated culture, but we look without seeing. We rarely bring our other senses fully into play. Writers tend to focus on the visual, to the exclusion of the other senses. Writing STAR GAZING was an artistically enriching experience for me. I realised I'd previously limited myself as a writer by just presenting a visual picture to the reader, instead of engaging all their other senses.

I must say that I never expected readers to be as positive in their response as they have been. I thought they might find the blind "point of view" a bit dull, but in fact they've said they've found it fascinating to experience life in such a different way - one they've never given much thought to.

[Michelle]

I know that most of you haven't read Linda's books (yet!), but do you have general questions for her, about writing or publishing? :)

[angelofboox]

Writing from a blind person's point of view sounds intriguing, I'd like to read Linda's books! (...what are they? :blush:)

I'd be interested to know what your favourite books are, Linda, and if/how they influenced your writing in general at all.]

EDIT: Sorry for the clichéd question! Just went to the first post of this thread and saw the books she'd written. Silly me! Should have looked first.

[Michelle]

Linda's website is here (http://www.lindagillard.co.uk), but I'll let her tell you a little more herself. ;)

[Linda Gillard]

Hi angelofboox!

There's a lot about my books on my website http://www.lindagillard.co.uk (http://www.lindagillard.co.uk/) including the first chapter of each of them, so you can try before you buy. ;)

EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY is a novel about memory, mountains and madness. It's an offbeat love story set on a remote Hebridean island. The heroine, Rose, is a textile artist, a manic depressive, on the run from her life. She's gone to North Uist to re-invent herself and forget the man who wrecked her life. Rose wants to retreat from the world, but life comes crashing in. So does her eventful past.

A LIFETIME BURNING is a big family story that covers 58 years in the life of one extended family, rather in the style of a scrapbook. It concerns a pair of twins, Rory and Flora, and their love-hate relationship. The story's told from Flora's point of view but she's actually dead when the book opens, observing her own funeral and narrating from beyond the grave. Flora died in mysterious circumstances, alienated from her entire family. The book is the story of how and why. It has a cover quote from a Lochcarron Reading Group which says, "Disturbing themes, sensitively explored... an emotional avalanche."

(Michelle has reviewed this one.)

STAR GAZING, my new one, is much lighter. I'd describe this one as a rom-com about coming to terms with bereavement and embracing new love and life. It's unusual in that the 45 year old heroine is blind and much of the book is told from her "point of view". This one is set on the Isle of Skye and in Edinburgh. (I confess I'm madly in love with the hero, Keir, who should be played by Gerard Butler in the film-of-the-book. Please.)

There will be another book, FAMILY SHADOWS out next year.

Enjoy!

[Michelle]

I reviewed both. :) Emotional Geology (http://bcfreviews.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/emotional-geology-by-linda-gillard/) / A Lifetime Burning (http://bcfreviews.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/a-lifetime-burning-by-linda-gillard/).

[Linda Gillard]

Sorry, Michelle! I'd forgotten you reviewed EMO GEO as well.

My favourite books?

THE LYMOND CHRONICLES by Dorothy Dunnett (the first in the series is THE GAME OF KINGS)
BLEAK HOUSE, A CHRISTMAS CAROL and A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens
WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Emily Bronte
Anything by Georgette Heyer (favourites are THE BLACK SHEEP and DEVIL'S CUB)
REBECCA, MY COUSIN RACHEL and THE PARASITES by Daphne du Maurier
The Lord Peter Wimsey novels by Dorothy L Sayers
The Jack Aubrey novels by Patrick O'Brian (the first is MASTER & COMMANDER)
COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier
The romantic suspense novels of Mary Stewart (eg THE MOONSPINNERS, NINE COACHES WAITING)
THE PRESTIGE by Christopher Priest
TOUCHING THE VOID by Joe Simpson (n/f)
AN EQUAL MUSIC by Vikram Seth
LILY JOSEPHINE by Kate Saunders
A WALK IN THE WOODS by Bill Bryson (n/f)
SHADOW BABY by Margaret Forster
WILLIAM - AN ENGLISHMAN by Cicily Hamilton

Influences on me as a writer?

Dunnett, Dickens, the Brontes, Mary Stewart and du Maurier. I don't know how exactly they influenced me as a writer, but I think their stories and style have gone in at a deep level. I've been reading and re-reading them them since I was young. I'm now 56, so I've lived with them for a long time.

[Inver]

How do you go about choosing a publisher to review and hopefully take on your book(s) and what makes you decide to go with them?

[Linda Gillard]

You don't choose them, they (if you're are spectacularly lucky) choose you. If you have a manuscript that you want published, you first try to get an agent. When you have an agent, s/he sends your manuscript round to different publishers and you wait... and you wait... and you collect email rejections. This can go on for months, years, forever.

Your agent knows the business inside-out and s/he decides which editors are likely to respond positively to your work. It's a Q of matching the book to the publisher. The agent needs to know what publishers are looking for.

It's said to be harder to get an agent than to find a publisher. I can believe that. Most agents take on one or two new authors a year.

You might be lucky enough to have a choice where publishers were fighting over you. (But this scenario applies to a statistically insignificant number of new authors!) I imagine most authors and agents would then go for the biggest money, but you also need to bear in mind how/if you would be marketed and if you would be a flash in the pan (as so many new authors are), or if the publisher would try to build up a following for you, help you develop a career.

I left Transita because they were a small new imprint and I had to do all my own PR. (They just didn't have the resources.) That eats into writing time so I wanted to move to a bigger publisher who would take on the marketing side of things for me, leaving me to concentrate on writing. That's what I got with Piatkus who have been tremendously supportive and enthusiastic about my work. They've been a joy to work with. But I'm really grateful to Transita for giving me the break. I think it was really brave of them to publish EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY because it was such an uncommercial book.

[LyzzyBee]

I must say that I never expected readers to be as positive in their response as they have been. I thought they might find the blind "point of view" a bit dull, but in fact they've said they've found it fascinating to experience life in such a different way - one they've never given much thought to.

Gosh - no - it could never have been dull, it was absolutely fascinating - enthralling even!

[Linda Gillard]

Thanks Lyzzybee! :)

[madcow]

Linda just wanted to say I loved Emotional Geology, I couldn't put it down! I even got up early this morning to get a bit more reading in :lol: I'm looking forward to reading more of your work.

[Linda Gillard]

Thank you so much, Jules! :) Getting up early to read more! Wow...

Lots of readers have said they couldn't put EMO GEO down, which surprised me to begin with because very little actually happens! I suppose it's to do with wanting to know what happened in the past?... Dunno. I just write the books ;)

When I'm selling books at author events I often say to people as I hand over a copy, "Don't start it late at night. I've had complaints."

[Michelle]

Jules, if you had trouble putting that one down, try A Lifetime Burning.. that one definitely keeps you turning the pages! :D

[Linda Gillard]

Thanks, Michelle! :)

I sold a copy of ALB at the launch on Skye to a man who went home and started it at 11.00pm and finished at 4.00am, having read it in one sitting. He emailed me to say so!

I wish I knew what this unputdownable quality was. I really don't! Maybe it's caring about the characters? And that comes from characters being believable?...

Over to you, guys.

[madcow]

Jules, if you had trouble putting that one down, try A Lifetime Burning.. that one definitely keeps you turning the pages! :D

Can't wait :D

I wish I knew what this unputdownable quality was. I really don't! Maybe it's caring about the characters? And that comes from characters being believable?...

Over to you, guys.

I think you hit the nail on the head there Linda, when reading Emo Geo I actually felt an affinity towards Rose. I liked her and wanted to know more about her and why she ended up where she was. To me the book made her come alive. Incidently I remember a while back a thread about 'your ideal location' or something similar and I remember putting down that I would love to be in an isolated cottage preferably by the sea, just me and my dogs so for me Rose moved to a perfect place. I'd love to up sticks and do that (just need to find a way to get rid of hubbie and the 2 kids still at home :lol:)

Right now I could throttle him ggrrrhhhhh, he's had a few beers and all I'm getting is Jue Jue cup of tea please, Jue Jue check ebay for me and so on. He's just not quite drunk enough to be asleep!!!!!

[Linda Gillard]

People do seem to care a lot about my characters, even the ones that are a bit dodgy. Some of them are eccentric and loveable like Garth the Goth in STAR GAZING and I always aim to have at least one gorgeous (but believable) hero, usually 2. (There are 4 in A LIFETIME BURNING. Too much is never enough! ;) )

I suppose readers get involved because I get involved. The characters really do seem real to me. Finishing a book is a kind of bereavement. I miss the characters dreadfully, so it's really nice for me to be able to talk about the books to readers. I think the absolute best thing about being published isn't seeing your book in Waterstones, it's being able to talk to readers about your characters. :D

[Inver]

Do you write better at any particular time of year/day and do the seasons influence the seasons in your books?

[Linda Gillard]

I seem to always set my books in winter! Not sure why. (Actually I do know why EMO GEO is set in the winter but I can't say without blowing a bit of plot. I will put a cryptic explanation in the next post with a spoiler alert!)

I don't think it makes any difference to me what the season is. I wrote a lot of EMO GEO late at night but if it's going well, I can write any time, any place. I'm not one of those people who has to sharpen pencils and drink 3 cups of coffee to get going.

(Btw, Inver, there was a big feature about me and STAR GAZING in the Daily Record today. Did you see it?)

[Linda Gillard]

!!! SPOILER ALERT !!! for EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY



EG had to be set in the depths of winter so Rose's body would remain covered up and it would come as a shock to the reader when we discover she's covered in scars.

[FishAndChips]

You can use spoiler tags to hide spoilers. Just highlight the spoiler and click the big yellow S :)

[Linda Gillard]

Sorry. I'm not very used to forums - as you can probably tell.:blush:

[Inver]

(Btw, Inver, there was a big feature about me and STAR GAZING in the Daily Record today. Did you see it?)

Sorry no...we buy the Scotsman so if you had been in that !!!!

[Linda Gillard]

I'm interested to know what makes you buy a book? What do you buy, what do you borrow and why? Which books do you feel you must own? And why?

When you buy books, are you influenced by covers? Cover quotes from authors? Reviews?

Publishers always claim to know what readers want but I've never heard of anyone actually asking us. For example, publishers are convinced that readers like authors to produce similar books. They assume if readers liked something, they want more of the same.

My experience talking to readers of my books is that they don't mind variety at all, but they like to have a sense that the book is by the same author (which IMO boils down to the authorial voice. It sounds as if it's by the same person, but could be about quite a different subject.)

Any thoughts?

[Linda Gillard]

A PS about covers...

The publishing trade uses covers to pigeonhole books so you know what you're getting, eg headless female in costume = historical fiction aimed at women.

What do you think about this? I find it incredibly boring. Even if the books aren't samey, they look it!

The thinking seems to be that readers are so busy (or stupid?) that they have to be told what genre the book is because presumably they can't work it out for themselves. There's now a move afoot to age-band children's books so the reader knows what they are buying. Authors, teachers and parents are signing petitions against this. They think it is anti-reading. So do I and I can't imagine what the thinking is behind it. But you can bet your boots, someone thinks it will lead to more sales.

[Michelle]

I'm surprised you haven't had answers to this one yet, there's some interesting points. :) Just to pick up on one point, I certainly don't want the authors I like to write a similar book each time - usually it's their style that I enjoy, rather then the actual storyline (there are exceptions, of course), and I like to see how they use that style with different stories, and even possibly different genres.

Maggie O'Farrell, for example.. in my opinion, she has written two books which were similar, one which used certain elements, but was a different type of story, plus one book which has a very different feel.. and I enjoyed everyone for it's own merits.

[FishAndChips]

I agree, it's the authorial voice that I like to be similar, rather than the subject matter. I have fairly varied reading tastes and don't particularly stick to one genre.

[LyzzyBee]

I agree too - for example Jane Smiley has written a book in each of many genres (historical, romance, family saga, Shakespeare-update, campus novel....) and I always pick up the latest one, knowing that whatever genre she's in, it'll be well written and well plotted.

I do look out for reviews, eg in the Guardian at the w/e I found out about a book about Bloomsbury marriages that I'll want to get. Also word of mouth from friends and other BookCrossers, particularly. Or just wandering around in a bookshop - and I try to go beyond a cursory look at the covers, though I *will* avoid anything that looks chick-litty and have read some that I wouldn't have picked up in a shop because of that!

Liz

[Linda Gillard]

Yes, you're all saying what I thought you'd say! (And very sensible too.)

So why do editors pressurise authors to write more-of-same?... Where are publishers getting their information from?

The 2nd hardest thing to do in publishing (the first being get a 1st novel published) is to change genres. As you know, authors are often expected to change their name if they change genres (eg Nora Roberts/J D Robb). I know authors who are desperate to change genres after years writing the same sort of book, but their publisher won't take the new manuscript.

I'm lucky in that I write genre-busting novels, so I haven't pigeon-holed myself yet. I asked the editor who dealt with STAR GAZING what genre she thought it was. She said "Linda-Gillard-genre". I think she meant it as a compliment, but publishing likes pigeonholes and so do booksellers. I have heard - and I do hope it's not true - that if booksellers don't know where to shelve a book it stays in the box, unpacked. I supose you've all heard the story about A SHORT HISTORY OF UKRAINIAN TRACTORS? It was shelved under agriculture until booksellers caught on.

[madcow]

Jules, if you had trouble putting that one down, try A Lifetime Burning.. that one definitely keeps you turning the pages! :D

Just this minute reserved a copy from my local library, can't wait to read it :)

[Linda Gillard]

Thanks Jules!

I love your Bette Midler quote in your sig. My favourite Midler quotes:

"I love Nature. Despite what it did to me."

And dealing with a heckler in the audience during a live show she yelled, "Shut your hole, honey. Mine's making money."

:lol:

[Michelle]

When you buy books, are you influenced by covers? Cover quotes from authors? Reviews?

This has all been discussed here at various times. Personally speaking, if I'm just browsing, covers can make a difference.. probably in the fact that they will attract me, and make me pick it up in the first place. Then, I will move on to the blurb on the back.

Saying that, if someone suggests a particular book or author (generally people on here), I wouldn't be put off by a cover or blurb that I don't like.

Reviews is something we're discussing right now.. I used to rely quite heavily on them, but I'm starting to realise that they're not always that reliable. Cover quotes from other authors, I take no notice of - I can never be sure if they know each other, or if it's a 'deal' between publishers.. etc.

[madcow]

I tend to go for the blurb on the back if I'm buying or browsing, I don't really pay any attention to the covers. I currently own all of both Lesley Pearse's and Martina Cole's books as they are 2 authors I really enjoy. The reviews from members on here also influence both my reading and buying of books, I can honestly say that being here has broadened my horizons widely and some of the books which have been recommended I have gone on to buy to re-read in the future.

[Linda Gillard]

Writing blurbs is incredibly hard! I think most authors have a hand in their cover blurbs and some actually write them. (I wrote all of mine.) Blurb-writing is a real art. You have to entice the reader and give a clear idea of what the book is about and what the book is like, but obviously you don't want to give the story away. When I lent Stephenie Meyer's TWILIGHT to my daughter I said, "Don't read the back cover!"

That book is a case where an author has gone to a lot of trouble to skilfully set up a big surprise that is blown by the blurb. True, the surprise comes not too far into the book, but if you read the book not having read the blurb, it's a different book to begin with. If you read the blurb you know straight away you are reading a book about vampires.

[Michelle]

What choice do you get with your covers?

[Linda Gillard]

None at all at Piatkus. (STAR GAZING.) We are shown them as a courtesy only, but that is normal in publishing.

Transita were much more open to the idea of author input, but they were untypical. I chose the photo that became the cover of EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY from a website Transita referred me to.

For A LIFETIME BURNING I was shown several covers which I rejected, then it was down to 2, both of which I liked, although they were very different. I expressed a preference and that was the cover I got, but I don't know if they would have gone with my choice if they'd preferred the other one. I doubt it. Covers are all about marketing and the author doesn't have any say, which is probably fair in as much as authors are writers not sales people.

But it is dispiriting to say the least to be landed with a cover you don't like, and many authors are. It's one of the things authors tend to moan about!

The German edition of STAR GAZING has the sort of cover I'd envisaged - a windswept seascape and a lonely-looking house... See http://tinyurl.com/58fgkk

But Piatkus saw the book as more of a love story so they went with this... See http://www.lindagillard.co.uk/star-gazing.php

[Inver]

Have to say I prefer the German edition cover, but then I ask myself why!:roll: Maybe because I loved the cover on Emotional Geology and the link is there with the island or something.

[Michelle]

Is that meant to be Keir's house though, because that's what I'm picturing whilst reading. I do agree that a landscape one would suit better, but I guess the publishers do know more about marketing. I'd like to know how they make their decisions though.. do they go by what is already selling, or do they actually talk to readers?

[Linda Gillard]

Sorry for the delay in replying to your Q, Michelle. I've been away in Aberdeenshire teaching a one-day workshop.

Yes, I think the German cover is meant to represent Keir's house by the sea on Skye and I do think that will be the predominant image of the book for a reader.

I've never heard of publishers consulting readers about anything! I think they just look at sales figures and assume if something sells, it's what people want. I read an article today in which a major publisher was claiming that what bookbuyers want is more celeb biogs and more cook books (and presumably more celeb cook books?) because these sell in very large numbers.

Hmmmm... I'm not quite sure of the logic of this... I remember when they used to justify rubbishy reality tv shows by claiming that viewing figures showed that this was what people wanted. Then they serialised BLEAK HOUSE in soap format and - surprise! - people watched in their millions.

[Michelle]

That was actually typed wrong, and I meant to say.. "Is that meant to be Keir's house though, because that's not what I'm picturing whilst reading." In other words, I meant that the cover was of a fairly modern house, and I don't picture Keir's house like that.

Anyway.. how did the workshop go? Did you enjoy teaching? :)

[Linda Gillard]

No, you're right, the picture is architecturally wrong. That's not the vernacular architecture of Skye and Keir's house is very old. But the picture's also geographically wrong in that you don't have that sort of terrain on the Skye coast and Keir's house is actually facing a mountain range, but, hey, this is a book cover! Designers don't read the books they design, they are briefed by editors. (At least in the UK. I can't speak for Germany.)

My workshop went very well thanks. There were 16 students, all in the process of writing novels. The feedback was very positive. I didn't sell as many books as I'd hoped which meant I had to carry them all the way back to Skye, but apart from that I was very pleased with the day. One woman bought all 3 books for her reading group. I hope they'll decide to read one of them in the group. I emailed her the Reading Group guides I've written.

[Michelle]

Going back to writing characters, Linda.. where do yours come from? Are they ever based on people know, or do you take a combination of traits? Or do they come straight from your imagination?

[Linda Gillard]

I don't think I've ever based a character on anyone I know. I steal physical likenesses in so far as I usually have a visual idea of a character based on a photograph, or a composite of photographs, but I always make up their personality, although bits of my own might be incorporated. (There's a lot of me in Calum, the hero of EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY and there was something of the teenage me in Flora, the heroine of A LIFETIME BURNING. As a devout Anglican, I debated with myself whether my vocation was to be a nun or an actress - a dilemma that young Flora also has to resolve.)

But it's unusual for me to use anything about personality that's taken from real life. Occasionally some situations and events are sometimes taken from life. Rory's accident in A LIFETIME BURNING was taken from life. Just such an accident happened to a pianist.

Generally speaking though, I make the whole thing up - the characters, the story, the setting. The trouble with using real life in novels is, it isn't very believable. You have to tone it down for fiction. ;)

[madcow]

Just popped by to say I'm picking up A Lifetime Burning from the library tomorrow :)
Looking forward to getting started tomorrow night :D

[Linda Gillard]

I hope you enjoy it, Jules. Maybe "enjoy" isn't quite the word... I hope you are gripped! ;)

Readers sometimes find the backwards- and forwards-in-time disconcerting to begin with, but you actually don't need to know where you are on a timeline. What I was playing around with was layers of memory. If you are 50 there's still a part of you that is 10 or 25 and you remember your young self in parallel with your older self. I think as memory is stimulated, we're conscious of many different times of our life, simultaneously. That's what I tried to capture in the book - a sort of kaleidoscope of time and memory.

[Michelle]

Linda, I'm almost at the end of Star Gazing, and I'm intrigued to see which direction you're going to take, and which ending you've settled on. I can see the 'happy ever after one', plus any number of other combinations.. So, I can't ask what I wanted to, which was "do you prefer writing 'happy ever after', or more realistic endings?" because it might just give the end away!

However, I will ask whether there is pressure from editors/publishers etc to go one way or the other? After reading another book this year, I was disappointed because the author suddenly seem to change to the 'happy ever after, romantic' ending, rather than the more realistic, satisfying (in my opinion) ending I thought she was heading for. When I asked her about it, she said she agreed with me, but her editor told her she had to change it, because readers want those happy, romantic endings.

So, Linda, have you noticed any pressure like that? And to the other readers here, what do you prefer?

[Linda Gillard]

Yet again, another really interesting Q! And I think I can answer without giving too much away...

I definitely prefer to write (and find it easier to write) question mark endings, leaving things open so that a reader has to decide how they think things turn out. Even when I give a clear indication of how things stand at the end of a book, as I do in EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY, I'd like the reader to think "Well, OK, that's how things are now, but how will they be in a year's time? In 5 years?..." Those of an optimistic disposition can tell themeselves things will be hunky-dory. Those of a gloomier (more realistic?) persuasion can see a resolved ending as merely temporary and rather tentative.

With STAR GAZING I was asked for an epilogue which would clarify various issues. I declined. I said I didn't want everything resolved and although I was writing a commercial book, I hadn't wanted to write a cosy book.

Happy endings are much harder to write IMO because it's difficult to make them believable. You can make things tidy, but believable? And you want to avoid the yuck factor! A happy ending that's convincing, unsentimental, emotionally and intellectually satisfying - well, that's a challenge for a writer. Tragedy is much easier to write!

If you are writing popular fiction there is indeed a lot of pressure to write clear and happy endings. We are told that's what readers want (although as I've said before, I'm yet to come across any market research anyone has done to establish this.) The novel I've just finished writing could have been very open-ended, a mix of happy & sad, but partly because I anticipated my editor's request, I thought I'd try an epilogue in which I sorted out (almost) everybody's life and showed you how things were a couple of years on.

Rather to my surprise, I thought it worked, so I've left it in. But this epilogue is almost tongue-in-cheek. It's clearly a "tidying up loose ends" addition and self-consciously so. I hope readers (and my editor!) will be happy, but it's borderline "cosy". My justification for this is that the preceding 100 pages have been anything but cosy, so the contrast between the two actually provides a balance.

But who knows? As a writer you're always trying to second-guess readers, who vary enormously anyway. You have to just write for yourself in the end.

I shall be interested to hear what you think of STAR GAZING, Michelle. I can guess where you have got up to! ;) My intention was that the reader would reach a certain point in the book where the massive "shock" occurs and they would experience a great screeching of genre-gears as they move from one kind of book into another. I never knew if readers would buy this. (Apparently some do.) The Q I would be asking if I were reading is, is this a complete change of direction or merely a temporary diversion?...

[Michelle]

The Q I would be asking if I were reading is, is this a complete change of direction or merely a temporary diversion?...

Oh.. that's just what's going through my mind!

[Linda Gillard]

Here's a big clue for those of you who love the classics! A book I adored as a teenager in a smiling-through-the-tears way was Charlotte Bronte's VILLETTE. STAR GAZING is a bit of a take on that.

[Michelle]

Ok, I'm finished! :)
The ending (don't read unless you've read the book!)
Usually, I have a preference for the more unusual endings, but this one did feel right. I did have a feeling that he was alive (because of his body not being found), but I wasn't sure. I was glad he survived, and glad that they both faced up to their feelings for each other.

However, the openness of it all works really well, and is probably why I liked it. At that particular point, all seemed fine, but who knows where they would be in a few months, or years?

What did they ask for in the epilogue, out of interest?

With that said, when is the next book available, Linda? :mrgreen:

[madcow]

Oh Michelle that's is so cruel, I'm itching to read the spoiler...but I won't.
<< Just off to see if I can reserve a copy from the library then I won't have to wait too long to read it :)

[Michelle]

Do you want to borrow?

(Sorry Linda, we're hijacking your thread! ;))

[Linda Gillard]

That's fine! Go ahead.

There are book rings for all my books on BookCrossing.com. I see there are 93 copies of my books registered and many are doing the rounds in rings and book rays.

[Linda Gillard]

I forgot to answer another bit of Michelle's post...

The next book, provisionally titled FAMILY SHADOWS, is out next May so you have a long wait for that one I'm afraid!

This is the blurb I've written for it...

Orphaned by drink, drugs and rock n’ roll, Gwen Rowland is invited to spend Christmas at her actor boyfriend Alfie's family home - a ramshackle Tudor manor in Norfolk. She's excited about the prospect of a proper holiday with a proper family, but soon after she arrives, Gwen notices something isn't quite right. Alfie acts strangely towards his family and is reluctant to talk about the past. There's the enigma of an old family photograph and Alfie's mother, a celebrated children's author, keeps to her room, living in a twilight world between past and present, fact and fiction.

When Gwen discovers fragments of forgotten family letters sewn into an old quilt she starts to piece together the jigsaw of the past and realises there's a lot more to the family history than she's been told.

And a lot more to Alfie.


I've put the opening up on my website under News. Go to http://tinyurl.com/r4d8e and scroll to the bottom of the page.

[Michelle]

The next book, provisionally titled FAMILY SHADOWS, is out next May so you have a long wait for that one I'm afraid!

That's really not fair, you know! :irked:

[Linda Gillard]

Sorry! I'm producing a book a year at the moment. Can't do it any faster! :roll:

[madcow]

Do you want to borrow?

(Sorry Linda, we're hijacking your thread! ;))

Ooh yes please :D

The next book, provisionally titled FAMILY SHADOWS, is out next May so you have a long wait for that one I'm afraid!

Gutted :roll: 11 months to wait!....sounds like another cracking read though :D

Been to the library to collect A Lifetime Burning, off to start this one very very soon :mrgreen:

[Linda Gillard]

I've talked here about pressure from publishers to produce a book a year. There's also a certain amount of reader pressure... :lol:

I suppose this is an instance of where publishers and readers are of one accord.

But it begs the Q... If you could have longer (and probably better) books produced every other year, or a shorter book, maybe somewhat rushed, every year, which would you prefer? Is it about quantity or quality?

For a lot of readers I think it's about quantity because we live in a culture where books are "consumed" and disposed of very readily. Not everyone treats books with the respect that I'm sure readers in this forum demonstrate towards them.

We have fast food, fast everything practically. Do you want fast books?

[Michelle]

The above comment wasn't serious, because I do prefer quality. For example, I loved the In Death Books by J D Robb, but after a while it really felt as if she was churning them out far too quickly.

Anyone else? :)

[madcow]

I'd have to say I prefer quality over quantity, I'm one of those readers who can re-read books I've enjoyed and would be more inclined to keep a book for that reason.

[madcow]

Jules, if you had trouble putting that one down, try A Lifetime Burning.. that one definitely keeps you turning the pages! :D

You weren't wrong there Michelle :) A gripping read from start to finish.

[Michelle]

Wow, that was quick!

[madcow]

Wow, that was quick!

What can I say it was a great read I couldn't put it down :)

[Linda Gillard]

Glad to hear you enjoyed A LIFETIME BURNING, Jules. :D

Some readers haven't liked the backwards and forwards in time narrative, but perhaps you can see how that gave me scope to manipulate the story so that the reader is kept in suspense about certain key events. I couldn't have done that with a chronological narrative. It was technically a very challenging book to write and trying to keep tabs on everything - 58 years of an extended family's lives - wasn't easy!

[madcow]

I don't think it would have had the same effect if it had been a chronological narrative. The way the story read kept me captivated to the very end. It was a great book and one that I will definately re-read at some point :)

Ps How did you come up with the idea for A Lifetime Burning?

[Linda Gillard]

There were two basic ideas that were jumping-off points for A LIFETIME BURNING. One I can mention, the other will have to have a spoiler warning!

The first thing that came to me was Flora's voice: a middle-aged woman, sardonic, blackly comic, very damaged in some way... dead, in fact. I liked the (not very original) idea of opening the book at a family funeral, but decided to have the deceased narrating. I didn't have a story at that point, only a narrator. Once I developed a plot, Flora's voice seemed the obvious one to tell the extraordinary story of the Dunbars.

The other inspiration was a radio interview I heard on John Peel's HOME TRUTHS. A middle-aged woman was speaking and I knew by the end of an interview that her life was a novel. She hadn't talked much about her earlier life, just about how she lived now, but my imagination was able to conjure up a back-story for her and that became Flora's life.

In the interview the woman talked about her life thus: she was a middle-aged, middle-class vagrant, well-spoken and educated, rather genteel. (She could have been a vicar's wife!) She'd ended up living on the streets through a series of unfortunate circumstances, one thing leading to another on the typical downward spiral that leads to homelessness. She clearly felt abandoned by her family and preferred life on the streets.

John Peel asked her how she thought her family would react to her going public on Radio Four about her vagrancy. He said, "Don't you think your family will feel ashamed?" She paused and then replied, quite calmly, "I do hope so."

That was a novel waiting to be written!
__________________

[Linda Gillard]

PS

I think A LIFETIME BURNING is a book that repays re-reading. Once you know all the twists you can read it in a "Ohmygod - look out behind you!" sort of way. ;)

One of the things people like about the book when they re-read is discovering that the whole story is already there in the Prologue (which was extremely difficult to write without blowing the plot!)

If you re-read nothing else, take another look at the Prologue. You might be surprised!

[kb.marsh]

A Lifetime Burning is another on my list to look out for at the library

[Inver]

Your next one sounds good Linda. Must get on with the other two.

Do you manage a holiday in between all your writing or just allow yourself the odd day off?

[Linda Gillard]

No, I don't really have holidays. I travel around the UK quite a bit for author events and writing workshops, so I do get away.

I don't ever stop writing for long. I finished Book 4 a couple of weeks ago and I've already started making notes for Book 5. I'm waiting for a delivery of books so I can start doing some research for it. Usually I have an idea for the next book as I finish writing the previous one. You know how some book lovers worry about being stranded somewhere without anything to read? I worry about not having a book to write. I like to always have one on the go.

I make a point of not working on Christmas Day! :lol: The thing is, I don't really see it as work, because there is nothing I would rather be doing.

[Inver]

Have you ever thought about creating a main character and doing a series of books? Or do you prefer doing something different every time?

[kb.marsh]

I'm sad, I went to the library to get your book and it wasn't there. I'm not happy at all. :motz:

[Michelle]

There's 3 to choose from Kate.. did they not have any?
Two of them are being offered as book rings here.

[kb.marsh]

There were none :irked: I'll have to see if they will let me join the book rings

[Michelle]

Of course you can join them! Have you added your name? :)

[kb.marsh]

I've added my name to one of them :)

[Linda Gillard]

Assuming cost is an issue, Kate, you might like to know that all my books are available "used" (which often means new) on Amazon starting at £1.02.

(This is cheaper than I can buy them from my publisher!)

FYI any library is obliged to order any book that you request if they don't have it in stock. They might just do an inter-library loan but chances are they would actually buy the book if it was only a pb.

Going into libraries and requesting books is a way readers can help authors without having to spend any money themselves.

[Michelle]

Linda, the problem with marketplace books is that you have to add £2.45 to each book for postage. But yes, I gree, even with that added, it can be cheaper than buying direct from amazon.

That is interesting about the libraries. Is it true that you do get a payment whenever a book is taken out.. even though it's TINY?

[Linda Gillard]

Have you ever thought about creating a main character and doing a series of books? Or do you prefer doing something different every time?

I would love to create a character who could sustain a series of books! This would be wonderful for a variety of reasons...

1. I miss my characters dreadfully when I've finished a book. It's a form of bereavement. (Some of them I'm still not over and don't suppose I ever will be, eg Rory and Flora Dunbar in A LIFETIME BURNING.)

2. It would halve the work in creating a new book since character creation is something that takes a lot of thinking time and emotional input.

3. Publishers and readers like series and so do tv production companies, so a book that is part of a series is probably going to be more commercial.

But I suspect it will never happen for me. (If I could manage a sequel, I'd be chuffed! ;) )

I have a suspicion series characters don't on the whole develop very much, they just get older and life happens to them. (Some pretty much stay the same like Lord Peter Wimsey, Jeeves & Wooster, Inspector Rebus.) Series books are mainly about the plot - often a formulaic plot, like a crime novel - less about the central character. My books are always about character and plot is secondary. (This is a gross generalisation I know and you might not agree, but I think it serves for the purposes of discussion.)

I think too in a book I'm trying to resolve a character's issues in a way that feels emotionally satisfying, sometimes conclusive. That doesn't lend itself even to a sequel, let alone a series.

There are exceptions to my generalisations above: Dorothy Dunnett's and Patrick O' Brian's historical novels where there are characters of such complexity and depth that they can be explored over a series of books (although it's generally thought that P O'B was spreading his material rather thin by the end. I'm currently reading no. 11 in the series and there's no sign of that yet.)

The only character of my own I've ever felt inclined to write a sequel for is Rory Dunbar in A LIFETIME BURNING. I considered it and then realised it just wouldn't work. There's no doubt in my mind that Rory would have been dead within the year after the conclusion of ALB!

[Linda Gillard]

Is it true that you do get a payment whenever a book is taken out.. even though it's TINY?

Yes. This is known as PLR - Public Lending Rate - and it is a major contributor to the pathetic income that most authors earn. (Average author's income is estimated by the Society of Authors to be £4,000 per annum.) If you have a lot of books in print and if you're popular with library users (mainly the elderly and children) then you will earn a lot of your income from library loans.

Requesting libraries to buy books makes even more money for authors and it costs you nothing but time and a chat with your friendly librarian who will be pleased to hear about a recommended author (especially if it's someone who might appeal to reading groups.)

[Linda Gillard]

Linda, the problem with marketplace books is that you have to add £2.45 to each book for postage.

Yes, I know, I order from them all the time. You resent paying more for the postage than for the book!

The best bet for the impecunious is www.bookcrossing.com (http://www.bookcrossing.com) There are lots of bookrings for my books but some of the queues are long. I occasionally donate books to shorten the waiting time!

I've also heard that by the time a book gets to the end of a bookring it's showing signs of wear and tear and has had to be repaired.

(But that's quite something isn't it? For your book to be read to death? :lol: )

[Michelle]

Ah, but Linda.. the bookrings here have lovely short queues, so they're a much better bet! :mrgreen: (And I think most are registered on bookcrossing too.)

[madcow]

The library will reserve copies of books, I have just done it for A Lifetime Burning, it cost me 60p payable when I picked up the book. I also know that if there are no copies of a particular book (newish ones not out of print ones) the library will purchase it from places like Amazon :) they did this for Hannah when a book she wanted to read wasn't available anywhere in Lancashire.

[Linda Gillard]

the bookrings here have lovely short queues, so they're a much better bet! :mrgreen: (And I think most are registered on bookcrossing too.)

Yes, I wasn't sure about the overlap between the 2 sites - BCF and BC. I've come across Michelle on the BC site.

To be fair to BC, I think it's probably only the queues for STAR GAZING that are loooong and that's because there aren't many copies registered yet.

Thank you, Madcow, for reserving ALB. I hope you'll think it was worth the 60p investment! ;)

[Linda Gillard]

Btw, Michelle, which book of mine isn't offered in a BCF book ring? Twist my arm and I'll donate a copy to the cause. I still have your address somewhere.

[Michelle]

I've offered my copy of EG and SG, but not my copy of ALB, because it's signed, and I treasure those. :mrgreen:

If I could twist your arm (gently of course), that would be lovely. :D

[Linda Gillard]

OK, consider my arm twisted. ;)

Do you want me to send it to you, Michelle, or to the address of someone waiting to read? (You could send me that offlist.)

[Michelle]

If I could start the book ring, and then ask you to send it to the first person, that would be great. :) Thank you Linda, that is very generous.

[madcow]

Thank you, Madcow, for reserving ALB. I hope you'll think it was worth the 60p investment! ;)

Most definately :)

[Inver]

The best bet for the impecunious is www.bookcrossing.com (http://www.bookcrossing.com) There are lots of bookrings for my books but some of the queues are long. I occasionally donate books to shorten the waiting time!

I've also heard that by the time a book gets to the end of a bookring it's showing signs of wear and tear and has had to be repaired.

(But that's quite something isn't it? For your book to be read to death? :lol: )
And if it wasn't for Lyzzybee and her bookrings on there you wouldn't be here....lol....that is how I found you, then recommended you to Michelle.:smile2:

[Linda Gillard]

I couldn't begin to estimate what I owe Lyzzybee and BookCrossing, something I always acknowledge when I speak publicly. There's a photo of some BookCrossers (incl Liz) on my website under the Credits section, and many BookCrossing reviews are quoted in my Reviews sections, alongside those from press and bookblogs.

I was honoured to be asked to speak and teach at the 10th Anniversary BC Convention in London earlier this year which was terrific fun and a wonderful opportunity to meet readers and BC friends.

[Inver]

Still disappointed I didn't get to meet you that time you were in Aberdeen :blush:

[Linda Gillard]

Yes, that was a shame, wasn't it? :cry2:

I've heard rumours that the next BC UnConvention might be in Edinburgh or Glasgow. So maybe there?...

[Linda Gillard]

I'm featured today on my publisher's blog answering Qs about writing. See http://tinyurl.com/5rkuaw

Not sure why they didn't post a photo of me. Maybe they think I'm too old and wrinkly?... :censored:

[Linda Gillard]

Inver, I'm in the Press & Journal today! And they've spelled my surname wrong not once, but twice!

It's a nice feature apart from my name being wrong. (GILLAN instead of GILLARD.) Ho hum...

[kb.marsh]

I received A Lifetime Burning from Linda today - thank you :D

[madcow]

Star Gazing arrived this morning, thanks Michelle :)

[Inver]

Inver, I'm in the Press & Journal today! And they've spelled my surname wrong not once, but twice!

It's a nice feature apart from my name being wrong. (GILLAN instead of GILLARD.) Ho hum...
Numpties:irked: I don't get the P&J must see if my friend still has it.

[Michelle]

Linda, it's been an absolute pleasure having you here, thank you for your time. :D Hopefully we've gotten some more people interested in your writing.. make sure you come along and tell us about your next book when it's released.

Does anyone have any last minute, burning questions? :)

[madcow]

No questions but just to say I've really enjoyed your books Linda, I'm currently a third way through Star Gazing (another page turner :)) I was hoping to have it finished by today but things like the footie and work have got in the way. Look forward to reading your next book when it is out. Good luck with the rest of your writing. :writing:

[Linda Gillard]

Thanks Jules.:D And thanks to Michelle for inviting me to participate. It's been really interesting and so useful to hear how readers choose and respond to books.

I'll check out the site later today in case anyone has any last-minute Qs.

[Icecream]

I am looking forward to reading your books Linda. Thank you very much for talking to us. You are an inspiration.

[Linda Gillard]

Thank you, Icecream! What a compliment!:D

[kb.marsh]

Will you still come on the forum and chat with us?

[Inver]

I'll check out the site later today in case anyone has any last-minute Qs.
Don't be a stranger Linda....pop in and see us again....and if you are ever in Aberdeen....:D

[Linda Gillard]

I might well be up your way Inver because I have friends in the Banchory area and recently did a workshop for Deeside Writers. They seemed keen for me to go back and do another.

I'll pop in now and again I should think, Kate. Now I've mastered The Technology it would seem a shame to waste it. ;)

If anyone wants to contact me you can get to me via my website. Do let me know what you think of my books if you get around to reading them.

In the meantime, 'bye for now, thanks for having me and happy reading!

[Lilywhite]

Thank you very much Linda and on that happy note, we'll close. :D