Hello,

I'm back. Well, sort of. I've been really busy lately and the reason is that I'm trying to come up with a cracking idea for a fourth book. I thought my struggles would make a good blog and so here I am. Hello. It's nice to see you again, you look fantastic.

Readers only ever get to see the finished product. We see a writer knocking out a book a year and most readers probably assume that it's been a year of sitting around in coffee shops, the words flowing effortlessly onto the page exactly as they're reading them. This couldn't be farther from the truth...and especially at the moment for me. Let me explain.

My third novel was always going to be the sequel to the first. So when I sat down to start writing THIS FAMILY LIFE, I already knew what I was doing. Yes I had to think up a great, gripping plot, make it hilarious and write the bloody thing, but it wasn't the most difficult book to write. I actually for the first time in my life, finished it within a year. Although before I get all carried away, it's currently with my publisher and they might come back with hundreds of changes and it might take another year to get into print. Just to put everything in perspective, I've had two books out in 2013, THIS THIRTYSOMETHING LIFE and HAPPY ENDINGS and so next year I'll probably only have out THIS FAMILY LIFE and I'm hoping to do a Christmas novella. This means my fourth book,the one I'm just getting started on, won't see the light of day until 2015. 2015! That's literally years away. So why is Rance getting all worried about it?

A lot of people ask me about the difference between being self-published and working with an agent and publisher. To be honest, I'm fairly new at this and it's still less than a year since I got the call from Hodder and Stoughton and got my first book deal. So this book, this fourth novel, is in many ways my first book that I'm really working on from scratch with my agent. She knew I was going to write THIS FAMILY LIFE a while ago, so it was always in our plan. But now I have to come up with a new idea. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, I thought. I already had loads of ideas knocking about on my computer. Surely she would love one of them. I quickly put together a few of them for her and one by one she has rejected them all. All of them. And they're good ideas. But here's the thing. She thinks I can do better. I could easily have already started work on a number of books, but she's stopping me because she wants me to do something better. She wants something unique, original and fresh. 

So what is the difference between working alone or with an agent or publisher? If I was alone, I would have taken the easy option and started writing one of the books I already had planned. However, because I have an agent who is pushing me to do better, who wants me to succeed, who wants us to come up with something brilliant, I'm still working through ideas. So what can I tell you? If you're currently self-published or without an agent or publisher, let me tell you this. You're going to have lots of ideas and 99% of them are going to be blah. They're going to be formulaic, unoriginal and probably pretty boring. Don't stop at the first idea that comes along. Push yourself until you're convinced that the idea you have is brilliant and unique. It isn't easy. I'm working in an idea at the moment that I think is pretty cool, definitely original and fresh and hopefully brilliant. I hope my agent agrees with me. We're in no rush though. I could easily put out two books every year. I have twenty books mapped out on my computer, but writing isn't about volume, it's about quality. Be 100% proud of each book you write and know it's the very best book you can write. If it takes two years or five years, that's fine (my agent wouldn't agree with this), but one brilliant book is worth more than ten average ones. 

If you ask any agent what they're looking for, they always say the same thing. Something original. So, if like you, you're trying to write a romantic comedy, you have to really think about it. It's easy to think up the usual plot, boy meets girl, trouble ensues, they're kept apart, she's a bit neurotic and he's a bit of a loser, someone dies and then everyone ends up happy. But what they want is something new. Take this formula and turn it on it's head. Find a new way of telling an old story. Look at it from a new angle. Like I said, it isn't easy, but it isn't supposed to be. I have to get back to my new idea now. It's taking shape and I'm working on a synopsis at the moment, but I probably won't start writing it for another month at least. This is a new record for me, but I hope it will pay dividends. This book is going to be brilliant. My agent will make sure of it.

Until next time.

Hugs,
Jon X

Jon meets...Lynda Renham

Hello,


Another week and another interview with another brilliant author. This week it's the turn of Lynda Renham. Lynda is the very successful author of the romantic comedy novels, Croissants and Jam, Pink Wellies and Flat Caps and Coconuts and Wonderbras, just to name a few. Lynda is a brilliant writer, one very funny lady and in her own words, a little bit mad, but maybe it's this madness that makes her books so well loved. Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls, I give you the delectable Lynda Renham.

A big welcome to Lynda Renham. How the devil are you?

Well, I’m just back from Cambodia and I’m seriously jet lagged. I’m falling asleep everywhere. Mind you I’m normally an insomniac so this is really an insomniac’s dream right? Oh, I’m good, you have to admit. Dream, sleep… Yes well, anyway. Let’s crack on before I send everyone else to sleep.

For those people out there, you know the ones, the ones who might not know who you are, tell us a bit about yourself?

Well, I’m a little bit mad, although I think I am perfectly sane but when most people tell you the opposite I guess that’s proof. I’m a writer (for the ones who don’t know who I am. I mean where have you been?) I write romantic comedy novels but I also write political articles under my full name of Lynda Renham-Cook. I live with my second husband and our cat Bendy, which is short for Bendrix, named after a character from a Graham Green novel. I’ve been on the radio, not that that means much but my publisher always says to mention it.

Your romantic comedy novels, Croissants and Jam, Pink Wellies and Flat Caps and Coconuts and Wonderbra’s have all done incredibly well. What is it about them that people love?

The readers when reviewing the novels say they make them laugh out loud. In fact one reader (a well-known author who I won’t name) said she embarrassed herself often at a spa weekend because she laughed so much in public when reading ‘The Valentine Present and Other Diabolical Liberties’

How did you end up (that sounds bad) being an author?

When I realised selling my body was not an option (that’s a joke, obviously) I’ve always written but stopped for fifteen years during my first marriage, which is a long story and will most certainly send you to sleep. My now husband, Andrew, encouraged me to write again. I did and the rest, as they say, is history.

Where does the inspiration for your novels come from?

People and everyday situations. I am a great people watcher. Mostly though from my own crazy life. I am the woman who walks into the gents loo and wonders why there are so many men in the Ladies. I leave my handbag in supermarket trolleys. I walk across a restaurant from the loo with my skirt tucked into my knickers. I’m the woman who runs for a bus wearing a boob tube and ends up with her boobs hanging out when she gets on the bus. I’m my own novel.

I think one of the hardest things about being an author (apart from the actual writing) is deciding what genre you want to write in. How and why did you decide on romantic comedies?

I’ve always had a good sense of humour. I have written serious novels. There is one available titled ‘The Diary of Rector Byrnes’ which is a contemporary romance. I love that book. It is under the name of Edith Waylen. It’s very gripping. But one day I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to write a feel good book, a book like a feel good movie. So I had a go and haven’t looked back.

What sort of books do you like to read and who are your favourite authors?

I read most things. My favourite author is Iris Murdoch and I was lucky to meet her husband John Bayley and see where Iris wrote her novels. I also like Kimberly Chambers and enjoy reading biographies.

I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but you came to writing a bit later in life (only as opposed to all those young upstarts trying to make it big in their twenties - how dare they!). Do you think having more life experience helps when writing a novel?

I guess at thirty five *little cough* I do have more life experience. It seems like I burst onto the scene quite late, but I have been writing a long time actually. I think life experience can help in writing, absolutely. I wouldn’t want to be a young upstart again, that’s for sure.

How do you write? Are you a planner or do you just jump in and work it out as you go - or somewhere in-between?

A bit of both, I guess. An idea comes. I make notes. Bounce ideas around with my husband and then begin. The novel then kind of writes itself. Writing is weird. I look back at what I’ve written and think I didn’t write that, did I?

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at the moment?

It’s a Romantic Comedy about a woman who loses everything on Christmas Eve but then discovers she has been left a cottage, except all is not what it seems when she arrives at the property…. That’s your bit…

And lastly the most important question for any writer. What biscuits do you prefer with your tea?

Fig rolls.

Her latest novel The Valentine Present and Other Diabolical Liberties

 

 

Thanks so much to Lynda for answering my questions and if you haven't read one of her books, I suggest you do it very soon. I'll be back soon with more authors and hopefully some news of my own!

Until next time.

Hugs,

Jon X