Tag Archives: Jane Wenham-Jones

SISTER SCRIBES GUEST: JANE WENHAM-JONES ON THE BIG FIVE O

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Following on from the RNA article in Frost last week I’m delighted to welcome Jane Wenham-Jones – novelist, columnist and presenter  – to Sister Scribes today. Thank you, Jane, for answering our many and varied questions.

 

First off the blocks. Plotter or pantser? Or does it vary by what you are writing (short story, novel, ‘how to’ book etc)?  

I started off as a Pantser, but I am now – through bitter experience ha! – a plotter. I plotted my last novel – The Big Five O – fairly forensically as it follows the stories of four different women and I needed to make sure it was balanced and the timeline worked. When I wrote a weekly column, however,  I would often just begin writing and see what came out… And I tend to write articles with just a vague idea of the content. I am on my tenth book as we speak and I have a one-sentence description for each chapter on a sheet beside me, but whether the novel will end up like that is another matter…

What, for you, is the very hardest part of writing?

Getting started. I am such a procrastinator. My son used to say he could always tell when the novel wasn’t flowing because even HIS shelf of the airing cupboard had been tidied…

And what is the most rewarding?

Writing “The End” (There’s nothing like it!!)

Photo credit Bill Harris

What do you see as the greatest success of your writing career? And what was the deepest disappointment?

One came from the other. When the publishing house that took my first two novels didn’t want the third (“too many serious issues”) it felt like the end of the world. I really thought it was all over. But this led indirectly to my writing Wannabe a Writer?, which in turn has led to many opportunities and has apparently, and gratifyingly, helped lots of writers (many of them now more successful than I am!) get published. I now have a patchwork ‘career’ which I love, and all the interviewing I do – I’ve done events with hundreds of top authors and celebs – which brings me great joy, started from one event for that small publisher who took me on for my third novel. As one door closes etc …

As you know, Sister Scribes is all about women writers supporting each other through their writing journeys. Do you have a ‘go to’ bunch of fellow female writers you value and rely on? If so, how did you meet them and how do you support each other?  

The RNA (Romantic Novelists’ Association) is a wonderful institution and I have made many terrific friends through it, who have been wonderfully supportive. I email often with Katie Fforde, Judy Astley, Janie Millman, and others and it is good to have someone at the end of a screen who knows what it’s like when one is only capable of pairing the socks…

What are your wishes and ambitions for this year and this decade?

My own chat show anyone?

And finally.  I LOVED the Big 50.  So funny and warm. How do you celebrate big birthdays yourself?

Ah thank you so much x It was fun to write. I love a party but I tend to cower when it comes  to  big birthdays. I spent 40 in a darkened room and ran away for my 50th. But now – having lost people far too young and had a life-threatening illness myself, I think how ridiculous that all was. If I haven’t been crushed by a passing bus by the time I’m sixty, I shall have a ball!

 

The Big Five-O by Jane Wenham-Jones is published by Harper Collins in paperback and in e-book formats. www.janewenham-jones.com @JaneWenhamJones

JANE WENHAM-JONES REFLECTS ON TEN YEARS OF PRESENTING THE ROMANTIC FICTION AWARDS

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One of the most anticipated highlights of Romance Reading Month is when the announcement of the shortlistees for the Romantic Novel Awards is made which this year will be on the 3rd Feb. The awards themselves will be held on 2nd March 2020 at The Leonardo Hotel, Tower Hill, with prizes in nine categories of Romantic Fiction as well as the award for Outstanding Achievement.

Jane Wenham-Jones has hosted the RNA awards since 2011. Here she reflects on ten years of sparkly gowns, celebrity guests and Awarding Excellence in Romantic Fiction.

“It is usually around this time of year that I start spending an inordinate amount of time looking at frocks. When I first presented the Romantic Novelists’ Association Awards, it was with Tim Bentinck – David from The Archers – and I wore an over-the-top glittery affair in fuchsia, which set the pattern for the next ten years. In that time, I have got stuck in a dress, had to involve a veritable team to zip me up, and had the formidable Catherine Jones (ex-army) shove an authoritative arm down my front to tape up my cleavage so I didn’t do a Judy Finnegan. Who, as it happens, made the night when she gave out the awards with the lovely Richard Madeley a couple of years later.

Photo credit Marte L Rekaa

The award ceremony is one of the highlights of my year. It is glorious to celebrate the very best in romantic fiction – a massively-selling and important genre that warms hearts worldwide – and uplifting to see the very real joy on the faces of the winners. I usually mispronounce the name of at least one of these and quite often drop my notes, but thanks to our marvellous celebrity guests we laugh on.   I have choked with hilarity with the Reverend Richard Coles, developed a small crush on Barbara Taylor Bradford  and gazed in awe at the beauty and elegance that is Dame Darcey Bussell. Prue Leith, Fern Britton, Alison Weir and Peter James have done the honours too, and were all funny and as hugely supportive as you would expect.

The Romantic Novelists’ Association does much to dispel the image of the romantic author floating in a cloud of pink chiffon dreaming of tall, brooding, macho men sweeping small fluttery females off their delicate size threes and the annual awards are a celebration of the reality and diversity of writing about love, as well as a jolly good excuse to drink lots of champagne. The next one is going to be extra special as it falls in the year this brilliant organisation gets its bus pass. We have a famous guest to hand out the gongs, an exciting new award in memory of the late, great Jackie Collins and more on the various short lists than ever before. I’ve got the dress early. Bring it on and Happy Birthday RNA!”

www.janewenham-jones.com

To celebrate 60 years of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, Romance Reading Month will run throughout February #RNA60 #RomanceReadingMonth

Throughout the month the focus will be on different ways that readers can access romantic fiction and will be highlighting different sub-genres and authors as well as supporting libraries during #LoveMyLibraryWeek On Valentine’s Day the RNA will be launching a new Facebook Group, the Romantic Fiction Book Club. The group has been created by a number of RNA members to provide a safe and cosy place for romance lovers to chat about their favourite books. The RNA will also be championing romantic fiction from underrepresented authors. RNA Chairwoman Alison May said, “We have bursaries available for new and mid-career authors from under-represented groups. We invite authors and readers to share their diverse romance novels using the hashtag #RNADiverseRomance.”

If you would like more details about Romance Reading Month or the Romantic Novelists Association then please visit www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org

 

 

The Big Five-0 By Jane Wenham-Jones | Book Review

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the big five O , book, book review, Jane Wenham-Jones

I was very excited to receive this book. It has a great cover and looks like fun. The fact it is about women turning fifty also made me happy. Older women are underrepresented in books in my opinion.

The book itself is fantastic. Every character is well-written and interesting. The story keeps you entertained and guessing. This is an enjoyable read that totally engrosses you into the story. Jane Wenham-Jones is clearly a master of her craft. This book is just perfect. I hope it gets made into a film. 

Four friends are planning a joint 50th party the seaside town of Broadstairs will never forget, but these 49 year olds have far more on their minds than canapés and balloons for their half-century.

Empty-nester Charlotte wants to know what her husband’s up to.

Single mother Roz fears her teenage daughter will discover how she pays the bills.

Tough businesswoman Fay crows about her no-strings toy boy but hides the real story behind her divorce.

Singleton Sherie’s cat is the only male in her life who ever stays around. Or is he?

They’re all keeping secrets but as the big birthday looms, the beans are about to spill. As the shocks come out, one of them is going to need her friends more than ever.

Is fifty the new thirty? Today’s fifty-somethings lead very different lives from fifty-something women even one generation ago. Jane Wenham-Jones writes with insight and humour about the challenges today’s mid-lifers are grappling with – relationship wobbles or break ups, making ends meet, juggling the demands of offspring and elderly parents, health scares and the minefield of finding love.

All of Jane’s books feature issues she has faced – and life has a way of reflecting fiction, too. Several times she has found herself dealing with serious issues soon after she’s started writing about them.

Jane’s characters meet their own problems head-on in this very funny and relatable book.

The Big Five-0 by Jane Wenham-Jones, published 19 September 2019 by HarperImpulse, paperback, £8.99.

Jane Wenham-Jones is a well-known author and journalist who regularly appears on radio and TV. She has written for a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, is a regular columnist for Woman’s Weekly and the agony aunt for Writing Magazine.

She has published six novels: Raising The Roof, Perfect Alibis, One Glass Is Never Enough, Prime Time, Mum in the Middle and The Big Five-0, as well as three non-fiction books – Wannabe a Writer? and Wannabe a Writer We’ve Heard Of? plus a humorous diet book, 100 Ways to Fight the Flab and Still Have Wine and Chocolate.

Jane also works the after-dinner circuit, talks to writers groups and conferences, and has worked as a celebrity speaker for P&O. She has hosted the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Romantic Novel Awards – the annual awards for the best in Romantic Fiction – for the last nine years, and presented hundreds of events at literary and book festivals in the UK and abroad. Jane lives with her family in Broadstairs, Kent, where three of her novels are set.

The Big Five-0 By Jane Wenham-Jones is available here. 

HarperImpulse, 19 September 2019,  paperback, £8.99