Head’s up: I completed this interview for Stress Free Book Marketing – only to discover their indie author interviews are a thing of the past. (Can you imagine my surprise?! 😅)
After a brief chat with Rick, co-owner of Stress Free Book Marketing, we agreed I could share this interview featuring his questions and my answers, here on my blog. So, without further ado, let’s get stuck in! (Spoiler: I enjoyed answering these questions. So, hopefully, Rick & Lori will bring back this opportunity for indie authors!)
Tell me about your latest book and why you wrote it?
How to Build a Champion is a picaresque story of courage, resilience, quick wit, and joy, which follows Cassandra, a bright, outspoken young woman, through a British summer in a multi-cultural working-class neighbourhood, peopled with personalities, where the inner-city skyline changes in ‘fits and starts’.
Living among artists, musicians, trade-unionists, bohemians, students, writers, and educators defining what it is to live ‘successfully’ in the face of ‘progress’ in their shared city, Cassandra works with her uncle, Bobby, and his partner, ‘Toria, in their community-minded osteria. All is well, until their landlord, Harry, throws their lives into a tail-spin when he considers an offer from speculators, gentrifiers, and property developers who seemingly know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Raising their voices in opposition, Cassandra and her friends, street artists Mc, Pat, and Teddy, band together in a fly-by-night adventure, making mischief in their fight for the osteria, while a cunning lifestyle journalist ‘helps’ their cause.
How to Build a Champion asks readers to question their first impressions; to look twice at what they see, and encourages its readers to live life, fully, whatever their circumstances.
The catalyst for writing How to Build a Champion was learning that a friend was writing a book, too. I thought: “If they can do it – why not me?”
What kind of challenges did you come up against while you were writing?
The usual suspects: self-doubt; fear; you know – the things which fuel anxiety. (Once I got out of my own way – I concentrated on what needed to be done, and I learned what I didn’t know how to do – it was smoother sailing.)
Where can we purchase your book?
You can buy my book at Amazon.
Where do you get the information or ideas for your book from?
I paid attention to the things which interested me. (Community; street art and street artists; blended families; how our lives overlap and intersect; how we can choose to support each other when circumstances beyond our control throw our lives into a tail-spin; gentrification; people with courage, quick-wits, resilience, who fill their lives – and the lives of those around them – with joy.)
I’m a little like a magpie – I’m intrigued by shiny things. (Sometimes, what’s behind a ‘glossy’ façade is what’s the most interesting to uncover.)
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Start over, somewhere new.
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
That I could do most of the things people wanted to charge me for, myself. (I’m talking about proof-reading; formatting a manuscript; book cover design; social media management; creating a website and writing the copy for that website. The list goes on.)
What advice would you give other authors who are just starting out?
To quote an answer I gave on Quora: “Writing a book, and writing the promotional materials to accompany the book, requires you to wear two different hats. It’s great to have an idea in mind for a story you want to tell. However, if it’s a time-sensitive topic, it can be pretty difficult to find the time to write, edit, and do all the due diligence you need to prior to promoting it – or even in tandem with writing the book – so you don’t leave yourself open to any legal troubles further down the track.
What I’m trying to say is: context is key. An author needs to ask themselves: Why are you writing this story – is it because you have a need to get this story written down, for yourself, or are you writing with an audience in mind and so creating a saleable product? (Because the end goal, and so the ‘success markers’ along the way to completing these respective journeys are very different.)
When you know what it is you want to do, and why, you’ll be in a much better space to plot out not only your book, but also the best way to bring it to market (if that’s what you’ve decided to do) and reach your target audience. (That said, even then, ‘success’ isn’t guaranteed. But then, that depends on how you define ‘success’, and how much cash you’re willing to throw at promoting ‘the product’ aka your book.)”
Does writing energize or exhaust you?
This depends, entirely, on the writing’s purpose. (And if I’m writing for myself, or for someone else.)
Do you have any friends who are authors and have they helped you in any way?
Yes. They helped me by being the first reader of the first part of – what I thought at the time was – the final draft. (It was not. Not by a long shot.)
How do you select the names of your characters?
I think about the story I’m telling; what type of ‘personality’ they’d need to be, to give the reader that perspective. Then, I seek out names for that type of ‘character’. For example, Cassandra is the protagonist of my novel, How to Build a Champion. In researching that name – Cassandra – I stumbled across a website, Behind the Name, and I learned that Cassandra means “to excel, to shine”, and that people think that people with this name are “strong, complex, wholesome, natural, mature”. (As an aside: at the time I was reading photographer Cecil Beaton’s Self-Portrait with Friends – it’s a selection of his diaries – and I’d noted in this character’s biography his description of then-socialite, later diplomat and political activist, Pamela Churchill. Beaton’s observations of Churchill clarified the type of ‘character’ I had in mind.)
How many hours a day do you write?
For this book: It took 4 hours a day – every day. I’d write the first version of a ‘scene’ in a morning; take a break for half an hour, then write the ‘scene’ over with any bits I’d noticed were ‘missing’. Then, I’d put it to one side. On the evening, after my mind had worked on other things, I’d write the ‘scene’ over again, then file the sheets of A4 paper into a plastic wallet and put the day’s work out-of-sight. (Not for any superstitious reason; I’d ‘clocked-off’ and I didn’t want to be reminded of work.) I followed the same rhythm – day-in, day-out – for around 6 or 8 weeks, until the first draft was finished.
What is your favorite childhood book?
My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell.
What would you like readers to know about you?
As little as possible; I’d like to keep readers guessing. (That’s why I’m publishing How to Build a Champion under a pen name.)
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