Category Archives: Get published

SISTER SCRIBES: KIRSTEN HESKETH ON WHAT NOBODY TELLS YOU ABOUT BEING PUBLISHED

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I chose life as a writer because I love to write. Right? But I think I also chose it – or it chose me – because I can embrace my inner technophobe, my inner introvert and, frankly, my inner slob (my, I have a lot of ‘inners’!) I can sit in front of my ancient computer – using only the most basic of Word functions of course – wearing tattered old jeans and a dogeared sweatshirt and with a legitimate excuse to avoid talking to anyone for hours – days – on end!

Bliss.

But now the paperback of Another Us has been published and everything has changed. Suddenly I am being invited to appear on more panels and podcasts than you can shake a stick at. Well, at least three! The local WI want me to do a virtual talk, other debuts are inviting me to be interviewed alongside them and my friend’s friend’s book-group would love me to pay them a visit. Which is all lovely, really it is, and I am genuinely very honoured and flattered. But it requires me doing three things that don’t come easily to me – looking presentable, being sociable to order and mastering this brave new world of technology.

Reader, it has not been without its challenges. All this Zooming and the We-Meeting and the House-Party-ing. It’s all very confusing. The first panel I took part in, I hadn’t really thought through the set-up at all, and my face was barely poking above the bottom of the screen.  My lighting was also very gloomy, and I looked exactly like I felt – a startled little mole peering into the headlights. The next time, of course, I overcompensated – I bathed the room in bright light and stuck my laptop on a pile of jigsaw boxes, thus giving the poor viewer a birds eye view of my lockdown roots surrounded by a ring of the red hair dye – still there after I coloured it for the Ebook launch. Worst of all, I hadn’t realised when you’re on Zoom, people can still see you when you’re not talking. I wish I’d known this one in advance. That way, I might not have picked my nose, slurped my tea, checked my text messages and – at one point – vacated my seat entirely whilst I let the cat out and simultaneously  hollered to my husband to bring me a glass of wine ‘because I bloody need it’. Happy days!

Then there was the time that my arm got the shakes from holding my phone in front of me for what felt like hours while I chatted gaily; the bemused viewer probably wondering why I wasn’t seeking urgent medical help instead of wittering on about the inspiration behind Another Us; (yes, I know now you can purchase little tripod things designed for just such occasions.) The time my son and his friends were milling around in the hallway prior to a night out, demonstrating their extensive knowledge of very rude words. The time …

I finally sussed it all out. I got my roots done. I worked out the most flattering camera angles and lighting options. I learned to sit still with a sensible expression on my face. I bribed and blackmailed my family …

Now, of course, no one wants to interview me. The little hubbub of excitement around Another Us’ launch is over and my lovely editor is reminding me, ever so gently, that the edits on Book Two are due …

Happy days!

SISTER SCRIBES: KIRSTEN HESKETH ON REALISING YOU’RE A REAL WRITER

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Much is written about imposter syndrome. When someone asks me what I do, I sometimes stumble over the word ‘writer’ and often followed it with a little self-deprecating giggle or downplay it by saying ‘I’ve only had one book published though.’ And I know I’m not alone.  Most writers I know seem to suffer from it – there are countless Facebook and twitter threads devoted not feeling like a ‘proper writer’ and many times I’ve been at lunch or away with lovely writer friends realise we are all self-deprecating for Britain.

Well, this week something happened which made me realise that nowadays I am very much a ‘proper writer’.

The first blog post I ever wrote was for my lovely friend and fellow Sister Scribe Susanna Bavin’s wonderful blog. This was when I was very much in the querying trenches and getting an agent, let alone a publishing deal, was just a twinkle in my eye and Susanna was kind enough host me for a series of musings on my embryonic writing life. I can remember the gist – if not the words – of the first post I wrote as if it was yesterday. My then-teenage son was having some problems and I explained how difficult, how wrong, how self-indulgent it felt to be ploughing on with polishing my turd of a draft when he was struggling. And, even if I did decide to press on, my creative juices and my writing mojo had totally deserted me, so there was little point in showing up the keyboard anyway.

I didn’t write anything for week. Maybe even months. And it was only when my son was back on an even keel that I could finish editing Another Us and start submitting it to agents.

Fast forward four years and everything is different.

I have an agent. I have two publishing deals. Another Us was published in ebook in May and the paperback is out on 20th August (do all rush!!) Reader, my writing dreams came true!

And, this week, the Hesketh household is once again in turmoil. My daughter needs an operation in the middle of the global pandemic and the whole family needs to shield beforehand. (Sad that we need to shield during my son’s 21st and miss our first break away in months, but needs must.) At the moment, it’s all hands on deck sorting out food deliveries and prescription pick-ups and everything else that needs to be done before we hunker down.

This time it is different though. My edits for Book Two are due back with the publisher at the beginning of August which, as I write, is – gulp! – three days away. But this time there is no deciding my writing mojo has deserted me or that my creative juices have decided to go on holiday instead of me. There’s no deciding to do nothing for a couple of months. The edits have to be done. I can – I have to – work fast and efficiently so that I can get them done to the best of my ability – and still be there for my family.

It all feels totally different.

To be fair, I’m sure my lovely editor would be absolutely fine if I was to ask for another week or two to finish the edits. A lot of the pressure to meet the deadline is coming from myself.

But the different to four years ago is stark.

And, in some ways, it reminds me how far I’ve come.

I’m a writer.

 

SISTER SCRIBES GUEST: KIRSTEN INTERVIEWS WRITER AND TUTOR CHRIS MANBY

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Today I ask the questions of Chris Manby.  Chris was the tutor on my very first retreat and we have since become good friends. Over to you, Chris.

  • First off the blocks. Plotter or pantser?

Definitely a plotter! I used to be a pantser but a series of short deadlines meant I had to get a strategy. I use screenplay principles to work out what needs to happen when though of course I often stray from my plan

  • How do you organise your work?

I’m a real geek.  When I get my deadline, I work out a timetable with daily word count based on the average length of a novel.  I make sure I allow myself weekends off (though rarely take them).  Then I just get writing.  I don’t stick to rigid hours but I do stick to daily word counts.

  • What is the hardest part of writing?

Getting through the mid-section of a book without losing pace and enthusiasm. Plotting helps as it means I can write something from the end instead and often that will inform what needs to happen in the middle.

  • And what is the most rewarding?

Most rewarding is returning to a manuscript after a week or so away from it and thinking “that’s actually not so bad”.

  • How has your writing style developed over time?

Photo credit: Michael Pilkington

I’m not sure my style has developed much at all!  I still think the first short story I had published –when I was fourteen – is one of the most elegant things I’ve ever written.  But I do now avoid swearing in my books. American readers in particular don’t like it.

  • What do you see as the greatest success of your writing career?

In the noughties, I had a few top ten bestsellers. That was wonderful.  But what felt like real success was when my sister said she loved one of my novels! It was The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club.

  • And what was the deepest disappointment?

Any book that doesn’t sell is a disappointment but after twenty years I’m learning not to equate sales figures with a book’s intrinsic merits. I know my best-selling books are far from my best work!

  • Talk us through how you develop your characters.

In the same way we get to know a new friend.  The more time you spend with them, the better you know their quirks, their hopes and their dreams. Sometimes characters surprise me.

  • Sister Scribes is all about women writers supporting each other. Do you have a ‘go to’ bunch of fellow female writers you value and rely on?

I met a wonderful bunch of women in 2000 when, together with Fiona Walker and Jessica Adams, I edited an anthology called Girls’ Night In for War Child. Lucy Dillon and Alexandra Potter are two great friends from those days.  They’re always up for a glass of fizz and a chinwag.  More recently, through the Place To Write I’ve made some fantastic new friends, who are always ready with a word of encouragement. I don’t often show writer friends my work in progress though. I’m easily discouraged by faint praise. Better not to risk it.

  • Can you tell us anything about your next project(s)

I’ve just finished a ghost-writing project and now have three months to write a novel.  Fortunately, it’s already planned to the “nth” degree.  It’s called “What the Heart Sees” and the hero is… well, he’s small, dark and very, very hairy.

 

 

SISTER SCRIBES GUEST: JAN BAYNHAM ON WRITING HER DEBUT NOVEL

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Jan Baynham is a good friend to all the Sister Scribes and here she provides an insight into writing her debut novel, Her Mother’s Secret: The Summer of ’69. Susanna Bavin asks the questions.

You started out as a short story and flash fiction writer. What made you decide to write a full-length novel?

On retirement, I joined a writing group where I wrote my first short story. Very soon, I could see my stories getting longer and longer. After enrolling on a novel-writing course at Cardiff University, I enjoyed being able to explore characters in more depth and delve further into their stories. I still write shorts but now it tends to be when I’m editing or doing research for a novel. When writing a novel, I love getting to know my characters so well that I miss them when I come to the end and I enjoy visiting new locations with them. The length of a novel allows me to create more involved plots and sub-plots for the characters to experience than I’m able to do in a short story or piece of flash fiction.

What was the initial idea behind the story from which it all grew?

The novel started out as a short story. At the time, I’d been reading a novel where the rustling in the trees sounded like whispers and inanimate statues took on the form of the ghosts of people they represented. Combining both ideas, I asked myself what if the whispering could show the presence of a past family member. Always fascinated by family secrets and the bond between mothers and daughters, I knew I had the basis for a story. In both the story and the novel, I leave it to the reader to decide what the whispering represents. In the short story, Alexandra’s search for the truth was resolved quite quickly whereas in the novel there are many more twists and turns, obstacles and setbacks before the story concludes.

Tell us about the places that feature as the backdrops of the story.

Once I’d decided that my main character Elin would be an artist, I chose a setting where the surrounding colours would be more vibrant and intense than in her home country of Wales. Having visited many times and being struck by the wonderful palette of colours seen in every landscape, Greece was my choice of background. The island is not based on one particular place but is an amalgam of areas I’ve visited. Every holiday has contributed to the whole backdrop where I’ve tried to show the climate, the vivid colours of the sea and the flowers as well as the warmth of its people.

How important is the mother-daughter dynamic to the story?

The mother/daughter relationship is central to the novel. Alexandra is grieving after the untimely death of her mother, Elin. She experiences a whole gamut of emotions from deep loss and its accompanying sadness, through to anger that her mother has abandoned her. When she learns there is part of her mother’s life she knew nothing about, Alexandra goes to Greece with the hope of finding answers.

What have you learned about the writing/editing process? Is there a piece of advice you’d like to share?

Everything suggested by my lovely editor at Ruby Fiction was very clear and straight-forward, but one thing stood out. I hadn’t always got the dates or passing of time issues right. Elin’s story is interspersed with diary entries and these didn’t always tally! The way I dealt with these continuity edits was to have a calendar in front of me and highlight the dates as events happened. Although a diary may not feature in another novel, I will definitely use a calendar to check the passing of time in future.

 

SISTER SCRIBES: KIRSTEN HESKETH ON DEVELOPING AN UNHEALTHY AMAZON OBSESSION

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I’m way behind the rest of the Sister Scribes in this publishing lark and my debut novel has just gone up for pre-order. Another Us isn’t being published until May 14th – indeed, it hasn’t even got a cover yet – and yet there it is, sitting pretty on Amazon with one of those big smiley faces where the cover illustration should be.

No one told me it was up there.

In fact, I would have been blissfully ignorant of all this, had a lovely lady in America not tweeted me to let me know she had just pre-ordered my book and how much she was looking forward to reading it.

Well, if she could only know what that has set in motion!

All I can say if that it was a good thing that my publishers didn’t let me know as soon as Another Us went up on Amazon because that would have meant I started the obsessive, frenzied, ridiculous checking of sales rankings even earlier. Does anyone else do this? Several times a day? First thing in the morning? Last thing at night? Or am I am just really, really weird?

But there is so much to check and it is all so really, really exciting (and nerve-wracking and depressing and thrilling depending on what I find.)

  • There’s the overall sales ranking itself – and a helpful little graph of how it changes over time. (My graph resembles a yo-yo on speed and probably correlates neatly with my blood pressure and heart rate.)
  • Then there are the sub-categories. Someone has put my book into the parenting and family humour, parenting and family relationship categories, which I would say is fairly spot on. For one heady moment, presumably when all my friends and family were busy pre-ordering Another Us, my book made it into top ten of a couple of these categories and my squeals of excitement could be heard from here to Timbuktu to be followed by groans of despair when it subsequently went into freefall.
  • As if the above wasn’t enough, within each category there is a ‘hot new release’ section. Doesn’t that sound brilliant – ‘hot new release’?  Another Us – currently the only one without a cover and looking a bit sorry for itself – has featured in the top ten there too and sent me skipping round the kitchen – which meant that when it invariably plummeted, I was handily placed to scoff a couple of soothing Curly Wurlies.
  • And don’t get me started on Amazon USA! That, of course, has all the same categories, which merely serves to double the joy – or pain (delete as appropriate).. Another Us in the ‘motherhood’ category over there as well, and I did have a little chuckle when I discovered it was a ‘hot new release’ – right next to ‘How to have a mindful epidural’! Fun, fun, fun …

Hubbie fails to share my enthusiasm about all this. When I told him I thought I was close to cracking Amazon’s algorithm, I swear I heard him mutter ‘obsessed’ and ‘addicted’ into his pinot noir. In fact, there may well have been ‘words’ after that and I might have told him I that I didn’t want to hear anything about his Fitbit and his 10k personal best ever again!

Marital harmony has since been restored and, my obsession with Amazon has subsequently waned. But heaven help us all when the book is launched!

 

Kirsten Hesketh’s debut novel. Another Us, will be published by Canelo on May 14th and is now available for pre-order.

 

SISTER SCRIBES: CASS GRAFTON ON WHY WRITING IS A NEVER-ENDING ADVENTURE

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For me, pursuing a career as a writer is not just a journey; it’s an expedition into a world I’m still discovering. It’s ‘the world inside my head’ meets ‘the world out there’, and they are only on their third date. It seems fair to say, therefore, that I’m not only a writer but also an explorer.

I’ve been published since 2013, a combination of solo and co-writing across seven novels, some indie published and some with a publisher, Canelo Escape. Everything I’ve written so far has had, at its core, a love story —I love romantic storylines.

So, how is my writing career now on its third ‘date’? It’s to do with the genre of romance and the many categories that further define it. I’ve published in two of these ‘sub’ categories: historical romance (Regency era) and time-travel romance. These were the first two ‘dates’, and they went quite well—I’m certainly going to be seeing them again—but for now I’m rather excited about my upcoming third. This date is with contemporary romance.

When I was young, I dreamed of writing love stories, but always in the present day. No breeches and fluttering fans; no flitting to and fro through the centuries courtesy of a charmed necklace. My dream was of writing modern romances—relatable, believable and with characters doing everyday things, but always, ultimately, falling in love.

I’ve been toying with the idea behind The Cottage in a Cornish Cove since the days when my hair was a box-shaped perm, my shoulder pads needed scaffolding to support them and keeping in touch with non-local friends was done by a landline phone or with good old pen and paper.

Although the story I’ve now written bears little resemblance to those initial ideas other than the inciting incident that sets the plot in motion, I view it with the affection of an old friend, one of those worlds inside my head that simply took a long time to emerge and meet the world outside.

So what’s it about, I pretend to hear you cry?

It’s a heart-warming tale of discovering all you never wanted is exactly what you need.

Much of Anna Redding’s happiness as a child came from the long summer holidays spent with an elderly family friend, Aunt Meg, in the charming village of Polkerran.

With Aunt Meg’s passing, Anna is drawn back to the West Country, relocating to the Cornish cove where she was once so happy. Settling into her new life, and enjoying her work for the older, reclusive and—to be honest—often exasperating Oliver Seymour, Anna is delighted when Alex Tremayne, an old crush of hers, reappears in Polkerran and sweeps her off her feet.

The stars finally seem to be aligned, but just as Anna thinks all she’s ever wished for is within reach, a shock discovery reveals she’s living a dream that isn’t hers…

 

As for those other dates, is the adventure over? Definitely not! They are part of my on-going expedition, my journey as a writer, so I won’t be deserting them. Ada Bright (my co-writing partner) and I still have a third time-travel romance up our sleeves, and I have two Regency romances in the works, which I hope to finish soon.

In the meantime, though, if you’re up for a bit of eavesdropping on my third date, come and join us in gorgeous Cornwall, wallow in the quaintness of Polkerran, get to know the locals and fall in love with romance all over again.

The Cottage in a Cornish Cove will be released on 11th February 2020.

 

SISTER SCRIBES: JANE CABLE ON PLANNING FOR CREATIVITY

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It’s the first morning of the decade and I’m making plans. Or rather I’m ordering dreams and prioritising my wish list, licking them into some sort of order. But shouldn’t the magic of creativity just be allowed to flow?

To my mind that’s a ridiculously self indulgent approach when you have chosen writing as a career. Having some sort of plan is so much better than sitting at a crossroads scratching your head. I have so many ideas for books I’ll probably never write them all – but which should I be following up? And what else needs to be done to make them successful?

Over the last few years I’ve developed a plan for planning – an easy ‘to do’ list for January 1st (or thereabouts), which keeps me on track.

  • Scrawl a quick review of the previous year in two sections – what went well, and what didn’t. Coming straight off the top of your head helps focus on what’s been important to you; what you need to do more of and what needs putting right.
  • Consider how you’d like to develop your writing life this year in each and every direction. For me the most important things are to understand more about (and hopefully write!) books with stronger hooks, and to find out more about winning at Amazon. Once you’ve worked out what your priorities are, allow yourself to dream a little – where would you like to be in five years’ time? How will this year’s plans help you to get there?
  • Now you have the basics you can set out your goals for the year. In my business life I had many clients who used the SMART system (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely) and they’re a pretty good rule of thumb for writing too. Except I quibble a little with ‘attainable’ here, because I like to think in writing we continue to grow beyond our current skill sets – and what’s wrong with stretching ourselves anyway?
  • Next write down what you’re not going to do this year. It may sound a bit negative, but most people are prone to a bit (or a lot) of time wasting so cutting the draining tasks from your life is actually one of the most productive things you can do. One of my weaknesses is volunteering for too much so I’ve promised myself nothing new this year.
  • Then write down what you are going to do – the things that will make the biggest difference to your reaching your goals. What works in your writing life? What makes you feel good about it? What do you have to do more of to succeed?
  • The last part of my plan is to break down my goals and put them on a timeline. I do a rough quarterly guide, then an action plan for the first few months of the year. This will develop as projects move on. I also use quite small boxes for each month so I’m not tempted to overfill them and tackle too much too soon. I have a tendency to want everything to happen now, so this is very useful in spreading the workload. And, of course, it leaves room for some all important flexibility. Because even in the most ordered of worlds, real life happens.

So all this comes with a caveat: you can only plan everything when you are in control of everything. And in writing, as with most careers, you’re not. I was expecting my next book to be out by now, but it isn’t. Nobody’s fault – just one of those things. And I suspect when I look back this time next year there will be other things that haven’t happened too. But without any plan at all, I wouldn’t even know where to start.

 

 

A PUBLISHER’S YEAR: DECEMBER – PUBLICATIONS AND PROSPECTS

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Hello and welcome to the final Sapere Books update of 2019! We’ve had a fantastic year and it’s all thanks to the incredible authors who have trusted us to publish their books. We aren’t signing up many new authors at the moment because we already have such a great list we are looking after, but we are leaving our submissions page open in case anything pops up that we just can’t say no to!

We are rounding up the year with the publication of some more brilliant fiction. Over the past few weeks we have reissued three of Alan Williams’ classic espionage novels, published THE OCCUPATION – a brand new Second World War saga by Deborah Swift, launched the last book in David Field’s Tudor series and republished PATERNOSTER – the first book in Kim Fleet’s time slip thriller series. We also reissued THE WARNING BELL – a historical novel by award-winning author Lynne Reid Banks.

All of our authors are busy with new works in progress and we have lots of exciting projects to launch in the new year. As well as our thriving fiction list, we will soon be launching our non-fiction list. Richard Simpson, one of my fellow co-founders is currently looking for military history books, in particular backlist titles, and he is preparing the first few to launch on our second anniversary next March.

Thank you to everyone who has been following these update, and to Frost Magazine for hosting us, and we hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year! We are very excited to see what will happen in 2020. Watch this space!

 

Amy Durant