Welcome to today's guest, Alison May.
When did you decide to write
your first book and how long did it take?
Well,
it all depends when you count from really. I starting taking writing
semi-seriously in 2002 when I signed up for a part-time creative writing
degree, but at that point I was intending to be a serious playwright. I started
my first novel nearly six years later when the serious play about Lord Nelson
that was supposed to be my degree dissertation turned out to be indescribably
terrible. I wrote the first three chapters of what eventually turned into Sweet
Nothing in a blind panic so that I’d have something to submit for my degree.
And lo, a novelist is born. That was in 2008. Sweet
Nothing was published by Choc Lit at
the end of 2013.
So you wanted to be a playwright?
No.
When I was younger I mainly wanted to be Queen. To be honest, I sort of still
do – I’d model my ruling style on Queenie from Blackadder II. Having said that,
my mum recently reminded me that I wanted to be a journalist when I was
younger. I think I was picturing myself as some sort of terribly daring Kate
Adie type war correspondent. It turns out though that people like that tend to
get shot at a lot, so I think I’m much better off staying home where it’s safe
and making the stories up.
How do you fit your writing
around your home life?
By
being terribly organised, and getting up bright and early every morning and
whipping off 2000 words before breakfast.
Not
really. I fit writing around home life in two ways.
Firstly,
I have a very minimalist home life. No kids. No pets, and a delightfully
self-sufficient husband who is very relaxed about the length of time that
elapses between clothes being put in the washing basket and clothes re-emerging
from the great laundry black hole.
Secondly,
I decided some time ago to embrace my own disorganisation. So I do have phases
where I dedicatedly write 2000 words a day, but I also have phases where I
watch a lot of Millionaire Matchmaker and write nothing, and phases where I
don’t really wash or eat hot food and write 5000 words a day. It all balances
out in the end.
Christmas is fast
approaching and it seems a good time to ask you how you plan to promote your
new released book, Cora’s
Christmas Kiss ?
I’m
supposed to have a plan? I’m not actually very good at promo. I come over all
English and awkward when it comes to bigging up stuff I’ve written. I am
writing a few guest blog posts for different sites, but when I write those I
generally get carried away writing the post, and forget to mention how awesome
the book is. Even on my own website I get very distracted when I’m supposed to
be blogging about my books and almost always digress into a rant about whatever
random thing has scuttled to the front of my brain at that moment. All of which
reminds me - while I’m here, I probably ought to mention that Cora’s Christmas
Kiss is awesome. It’s Christmassy, and romantic, and it has Father Christmas,
and a mishap with a turkey, and a scene at the end that made me cry when I
wrote it, and still made me cry when I read it at the proof-reading stage. You
should probably all read it. If you want to. Or not. It’s up to you really. One
wouldn’t want to impose.
See
what I mean? Hopeless at promo.
You are also a short story
writer. Do you find it difficult to ‘jump’ between novels and shorts?
Not
really. I enjoy the completeness of short story writing – the fact that you can
sit down with nothing and, one writing session later, have a complete draft
with a beginning and an end, and if you’re lucky some semblance of a middle. I
also think it’s really good practice for novel writing – all the skills of
concision, and making every line and every scene work really hard that you hone
in short story writing, you should be using in longer pieces too.
How good are you at planning
your work? Do you prefer to wing it?
It
varies from book to book. Cora’s Christmas Kiss was planned quite carefully
because it has quite a complicated plot and some wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey
business thrown in for good measure. In contrast, the book I’m writing at the
moment, which is about a professional psychic, is much more of a
seat-of-my-pants endeavour. It’s different again if I’m writing an adaptation,
like Sweet Nothing which was based on Much Ado About Nothing, because then I
have to try to find a balance between planning how to interpret the original
play but still leaving myself the freedom to put my own stamp on it.
Do you enjoy research?
Not
even slightly. My wish to avoid research largely explains why I mainly write
contemporary stories about British thirty-somethings getting drunk and making
poor decisions.
What did you enjoy most about
writing your latest book?
I
had the most fun writing Liam’s storyline I think. Liam is a jobbing actor, and
all-around nice guy, whose life is trundling along perfectly pleasantly, until…
well I’m not going to tell you what happens, but it includes some very silly
scenes indeed, and was a lot of fun to write.
How
do relax when not working?
I
do Zumba and Bokwa. Sometimes I even do yoga, but then I remember that I am not
bendy and I basically hate yoga, so I stop again, and go and drink hot
chocolate instead.
What
is next for Alison May?
Well, I’m just finishing the first
draft of my first non-romance novel. After that I’ll be writing part 3 of the Christmas
Kisses series all ready for next year, and then, who knows? I’ve got a little
notebook of novel ideas, and there are two that are really calling to me at the
moment. The first is another Shakespeare adaptation, and the second involves a
terribly well-mannered ghost. I might spend a bit of time writing odd scenes on
both and see which one most grabs my attention.
Alison May is a novelist and short story writer, who writes
romantic comedies for Choc Lit. Her debut novel, Sweet
Nothing, was published in
2013, closely followed by Holly’s
Christmas Kiss Alison lives in Worcester with her husband, but still no
pets, on account of what happened to the goldfish.
Links:
Twitter @MsAlisonMay
About Cora’s Christmas Kiss:
Can you expect a perfect Christmas after the year from hell?
Can you expect a perfect Christmas after the year from hell?
Cora and Liam have both experienced
horrible years that have led them to the same unlikely place – spending
December working in the Grotto at Golding’s department store.
Under the cover of a Father
Christmas fat suit and an extremely unflattering reindeer costume, they find
comfort in sharing their tales of woe during their bleak staffroom lunch
breaks. But is their new-found friendship just for Christmas? Or have they
created something deeper, something that could carry them through to a hopeful
new year?
Plus,
keep your eyes peeled for characters you may recognise from Alison’s previous
novella, Holly’s Christmas Kiss.
We are not even going to ask about the
goldfish, Alison. Thank you for joining us today.
The RNA Blog is
brought to you by
Elaine
Everest & Natalie Kleinman
If you would like
to write about the craft of writing or perhaps be interviewed about your
writing life please contact us at elaineeverest@aol.com
5 comments:
Alison, hurrah for your ad hoc writing process, it makes me feel a lot better that not everyone has a rigid word count every day and goes with the flow. I'm not bendy either. Have a very happy Christmas and 2015.
I'm fundamentally slightly suspicious of bendy people Phillipa. I fear they may be up to something...
I am fairly bendy and love yoga, but too didorganised to get to a yoga class. So I bypass the guilt and go straight to the hot chocolate.
looking forward to Cora's book as I really enjoyed Holly's.
Ohhh, I love this; "wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey business". I struggle with that a lot, Alison. A lovely post. You made me smile, as per. I wish you a lovely Christmas and Many Happy Sales!
Very amusing! I too have no pets, no kids left at home (all kicked out of the nest) and a self-sufficient husband and the combination certainly helps with the writing :) I'm looking forward to reading about Cora and Liam over Christmas.
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