ASHLINN CRAVEN: Keep up...if you can

We are delighted to welcome Ashlinn Craven to the blog today. She was happy to answer a few questions for us:

2014 was a busy year for you with the publication of High Octane: Ignited followed by High Octane: Unleashed. It’s evident from the titles that they are fast paced. Is the excitement of the genre reflected in the speed of your writing? Tell us something about your working day.

Hi Natalie. It’s such a thrill to be on this blog. Yes, the High Octane books are set in the Formula One (F1) racing world, and there’s nothing faster on the planet. I wish I could say the same for my writing speed … I write in snatches, sometimes at 5a.m., sometimes lunchtime, sometimes on a Sunday evening, always tapping away in my three-fingered manner. Not an exact science, but maybe four months later I’ll have that first draft.

Explosive and Kick-ass are just two of the expressions I’ve seen to describe your books. Had you visited the world of Formula One before? I imagine there was a good deal of research involved.

Oh yes, behind all the money and international glamour there’s much to learn, some of it even interesting. The day-to-day routine for an F1 driver is Spartan--they have to be sickeningly fit to survive at their level. An average person has a resting heart rate of 70 bpm but drivers have more like 45-50, which ramps up to 180 during a race. A normal person could survive two, maybe three, laps at F1 speeds before they’d crumble under the g-forces. And as for the mental training … drivers need to enter a meditative state before the race to cope at all. So, to give them relationship issues to deal with at the same time seems almost unfair of me, but, heck, I do it anyway!

What would be your choice of reading? Something in your own genre or a complete change? A favourite author?

My genre choice is very mood dependent. Currently I’m glomming (buying everything of) Rhoda Baxter, Julie Cohen, Jenny Colgan, Rachel Cross, Nick Hornby, and it kills me to leave out a whole bunch of other fantastic authors but I don’t think you’d appreciate a list that goes to the end of the page!

Your characters all have wonderful names. Do your heroes and heroines choose their own or are you allowed some input?

Thanks. They choose their own names. They’re bossy like that. But I get my revenge when it comes to choosing the cover. Aha yes, that keeps them on their toes.

Have you always been a writer?

If we discount academic papers and computer programs, and we probably should, then no, it’s a relatively recent thing for me. I started writing romantic fiction in 2009 when I did a correspondence course with the London School of Journalism, which was brilliant.

When you’re not working what do you do to relax? I’m assuming you’re not a Formula One racing driver but I could be wrong of course.

<Laughs> I’m a useless driver. To relax, I stay as far away from the road as possible, preferably in warm water of some kind, preferably with friends or family, preferably with a glass of chilled Prosecco, and preferably with a view of the Alps (not too hard as I live I Switzerland). This prevents me from reading, which is probably a good thing.

As all members of the RNA know, romance offers a multitude of genres and opportunities to the writer. Are you ever tempted to try something else or is your foot firmly placed on the accelerator pedal?

Situations that engage the mind and the heart battling it out will always grab me, and the romance genre is perfect for exploring those. I’ve eased my foot off the accelerator pedal and with my next novel (Core Attraction out April 27^th  published by Crimson Romance), I’ve stepped into the world of nuclear power where my heroine is a nuclear plant employee who runs up against an environmental activist who’s returned home from Japan not a happy bunny. Set on my native east coast of Ireland, its theme is tolerance in the face of the unknowable.

About Ashlinn:

Ashlinn Craven writes romantic fiction about people who find love, themselves, and each other, in odd circumstances. When she isn't dreaming up stories that engage the mind as well as the heart, she works in the high-tech sector where she sees the future being rewritten daily. Her favourite part of being an author is hearing from her wonderful readers from around the world.

Thank you for joining us today, Ashlinn, and good luck with the new book.

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Author Interview with Rhoda Baxter

A warm welcome today, to Rhoda Baxter, who is a contender for the 2012 Joan Hessayon New Writers' Award.

Many congratulations on being short listed for the award, Rhoda. Do tell us about your novel and how you were inspired to write it.

When I commuted to London, I used to pass a poster that read 'Yorkshire, almost too good to be true', which made me smile (I moved 'down South' from Yorkshire to go to university). So, I decided to write about a Northern girl in London. Patently In Love grew from there.

I made the heroine, Jane, a trainee patent attorney because I used to work in a patent practice and felt it was time a patent agent got the chance to be the sexy hero. Jane had moved from Manchester to London to get away from the press, who have been stalking her since she split up with her pop-star ex. At the time of writing, it seemed a little far fetched to have someone who was nervous of being tracked down by the press (in fact, one of my rejection letters said as much!), but having heard various celebrities talking about it at the Leveson enquiry, I feel vindicated.

Is a sense of place important in your writing? How do you set about the research?

I tend to use places I already know so that I don't have to worry about getting the details wrong. I travelled a lot when I was a child and have lived in four countries, so I have a variety of places to choose from. I find the pace and style of my writing changes depending on the country I'm writing about. Scenes set in England are pacy and lightly painted. Anything set in the tropics comes out more langrous and colourful. I lived in Sri Lanka for a number of years. One day, I would like to write a book set there. I'd have to go back and visit again before I attempt it though - for research purposes, of course.

Which do you find the hardest part of the novel to write, and how do you cope when the going gets tough?

The beginning. Working out the central conflict and planning is difficult. I have characters in my head, but they need a problem to go up against. Also, it's hard to know where exactly to start. I usually end up starting somewhere in the right area and ploughing through until the characters 'click' (it's quite easy to spot when this happens - they start to act by themselves, without my pushing them). Once I've finished, I go back and rewrite the first couple of chapters. Or cut them out entirely if I've started too early.

How do I cope when the going gets tough?

Chocolate. It's my answer to everything apart from the problem of having writer's bottom.

Do you enjoy writing sequels or series? If so, what is the special appeal for you?

I don't write sequels as such. I find coming up with a central conflict hard work, so to come up with two conflicts for the same character would be a nightmare. I like writing about secondary characters from the same story. For example, Marsh from Patently in Love has a little sister who was great fun to write, so I decided to write another book (working title 'Having a Ball') where she is the heroine. It also gave me an excuse to catch up on what Marsh is doing.

With the increasing popularity of ebooks, how do you think digitisation might help or change your own career as a writer? Have you self published anything?

Patently In Love is an ebook and the sequel is likely to be one too, so I'm all for digitisation. I've never been tempted to self publish anything because I wanted the editorial input. Jude at Uncial Press did a great job editing this book and I learned a lot from it. I think the next book is going to be about 20% skinnier as a result of what I've learned.

I've recently tried reading on an ebook reader and I found it surprisingly enjoyable. I doubt anything could replace feel and smell of a real book though.

Have you managed to off-load the housework?

No. The house often looks like an explosion in a toy factory. Housework, paid work and generally keeping my little family fed, clothed and happy takes up most of my time. The writing gets squeezed into the little space that's left. Now that I'm getting more serious with the writing, the kids are starting to look a little crumpled. They don't seem to care, so that's okay.

If you could reincarnate yourself as some other author, who would it be?

Enid Blyton. Well, her writing persona anyway. Her books are loved by generation after generation. When I was a little girl, I had a whole shelf of books by her. One day I looked at them and thought ‘Enid Blyton’s dead, but everyone still knows who she is. That’s immortality.’ (I was a precocious little madam). That was the day I knew I wanted to write novels.

If you could know the future, what would you wish for?

I’d like one brilliant idea that I could write up and become an instant bestseller. I had this dream once about a girl who fell in love with a vampire...oh, wait, that's been done already.

Are you a lark or an owl?

I'm a lark. Unfortunately, so is my oldest child. So I end up spending my most creative hours doing painting and going to pretend tea parties in my pyjamas. I try and write or do writing related stuff for 1 hour in the evening and at lunch time at work. I love lunch hours - a whole hour to read, write, tweet and catch up on emails! Unfortunately, I have to waste some of it actually eating...

Are you ever driven to write by hand?

I do write by hand if I have pen and paper and no access to a computer (like when I’m waiting at the dentist or GP). I sometimes resort to pen and paper if I'm finding a scene particularly difficult. My writing voice sounds slightly different on paper and sometimes the change is enough to unblock whatever it was that was wrong. The main problem with writing long hand is that I have to decipher my scrawl before I can type it up.

Thank you for talking to us, Rhoda. We wish you every success with Patently in Love. Good luck with the Joan Hessayon award.

To find out more about Rhoda and her work visit her website at www.Rhodabaxter.com