Dreamers dream… Writers write.

Earlier today I was visiting a friend, and she was saying about how one day she wanted to be a writer just like me. She seems to think that now that I am on maternity leave, all I am doing is writing my life away until Bump is born. (I wish!) But I’m flattered that I have inspired her dream of writing… and as this post is titled – dreamers dream. My friend is a ‘dreamer’ until she picks up that pen and puts her creativity to paper. Then she will be a writer. Right now – she just aspires to write one day. (I’m actually quite surprised, considering she lived with me for years and saw how ratty I can get if I can’t get my words out on paper!)

I think that first and foremost – I am a dreamer. Then I am a writer. I say this because of the way that I process and dream up new story ideas, plots, twists, and characters. I often dream about my work, literally! Often I am day dreaming, and often I am asleep and dreaming. There are times that I wake and everything is so vivid that I have to write it down into my notebook, so that I can develop it later.

I dream of writing too. I dream of writerly success… of writing thrillers that some movie director will one day pick up and turn into a block buster movie. This is where I am being a complete dreamer, because until I get my backside into gear and get my bigger work actually published, that dream is what it is. A dream. But it’s nice dream to dream.

Then I have the other side of me who is trying to write thrillers that will appeal to a wide range of people out there, so that I am not limiting my marketability.

So there you have it. I dream of one day selling my work for someone to make a movie out of it. I think that this is a dream that many writers share. We all know that once your work is made into a movie and is reaching a much much wider audience, the rest of your books usually snowball out of control with sales. We all want that. We all want the money. Some even want the publicity. (Strangely – I’m not too keen on the publicity stuff… perhaps that is my inner recluse showing itself!) But this is why we have PR people out there in the world. I’m pretty sure JK Rowling wasn’t too keen on it at the start either!

In the meantime though, I’ll just keep writing. Because that is what I am – a writer – and writers write.

 

Tijuana Nights

Since I am currently writing this new thriller… I thought that I would share a little bit about my main character with you. Firstly – I love my new main character, McKenna. She is useless! Well. She’s just not very talented at her chosen careers. There are parts of McKenna that are so naive.

She’s a qualified Historian, and she has been pottering about in that field unsuccessfully for a number of years. But she loves history, and looking deeper into things, so being a historian has always sated her curiosity for the unknown.

McKenna is attracted to idiots. Yes, I know. We all have our moments… however – these guys really do need a bullet. One – she managed to stay in an eight year relationship with, and now he is taking her for all he can, thus forcing McKenna to try a few new career options.

McKenna tried to be a hooker, but never actually managed to sleep with anyone. Now she is trying to be an assassin and still hasn’t managed to kill anyone yet.

And in the meantime – the baddies are running a muck, McKenna is running for her life, and she really has no one left to turn to.

Here is the draft blurb for you guys to have a read over:

McKenna has always been sensible in her life. The only thing she wasn’t sensible with was who she fell in love with. When Luke leaves her after an eight year relationship, he threatens to take half of her assets with him, unless she pays him out. Not something that is easily achieved on the low wage she has been earning as a part time historian. 

This forces McKenna to turn to the darker side of society to try and earn the money to not only save her family home, but also keep her aging aunt in the medical care that she requires.

When a contract Assassin approaches McKenna to be a ‘distraction’ on an operation in Mexico, she readily agrees – thinking only of the money that has been promised in return. With the money she could earn from one job, it would pay off a good proportion of what Luke is asking for.

However, when McKenna completes the ‘distraction’ job, and is on her way home to England, she misses her flight out of Tijuana. The plane explodes not long after take off, and that is when McKenna realises that she is in deeper than she ever imagined.

Thanks to her ‘distraction’ skills, McKenna is now the target interest of a major Mexican operation.

And the only people she can turn to in a foreign country are the same people who put her in danger in the first place.

This is now not a simple game of distraction. It’s now a game of survival.

 

 

What inspires you?

The ‘What inspires you?’ question seems to be the favourite for someone who is not a writer or a creative person, to ask. I cannot explain just how much this question irritates me in polite terms, but I will try.

Firstly, I never know how to answer this. Every single day, my inspirations are different. Sometimes the landscape or environment around me inspires. Other days it is something that someone has said. Then it’s music that I’m listening to. It could even be an advert on the TV that suddenly awakens my muse. Regardless of what day it is, it always changes.

Secondly, when people ask this question – they expect an immediate answer. Pfft – you must be joking, right? That is a loaded question. It’s like asking God what inspired him to create the world, or the universe. “Gee, let me think…” God says, with a raised bushy eyebrow, “Boredom?”

Yes, well. Like I said – it’s a loaded question. And here is what happened the last time someone asked me this question. Very recently it was asked by our new Finance Manager at my Evil Day Job. Naturally I didn’t know what to say – so I told him that he that inspired me every day. You know what? The dude actually got a kick out of that answer. Then he asked me the same question again. When I refused to answer, saying that it was a tough question, he asked me what it was like to write all that ‘Romancy Mills and Boon stuff’. Purely out of curiosity, I asked what gave the impression that I wrote in that genre. He said, “Because you’re female, and isn’t that most women authors write?”

Now, if I was a physically violent person – that would have been the moment that I would have smacked some reality into him. Instead – I was gobsmacked. There was no witty comeback lurking on my tongue. Instead, there was anger towards half the population of the earth. Oh yes. So what do you think inspired me that day? That’s right – anger, plus a multitude of other things that are far too sexist and inappropriate to write about publicly. I might destroy my esteemed reputation. But there you have it – a little piece of small minded chauvinism at its finest.

So, when I eventually simmered down, and told him that no, I write thrillers. I decided to leave the ‘Young Adult’ genre out of there, fearing that it may be a bit beyond his comprehension. He was shocked. Yes. Shocked. Just like I was shocked at his open chauvinism, he was shocked that a female might actually have the intelligence and the ability to write entertaining fiction. “Like James Patterson?” he asked.

“Yes,” I nodded. “Just like James Patterson.”

Perhaps I should have just told him that porn inspires me to write Mills and Boon books, and just left it at that.

 

Glitz… Glamour… and Literature?

A couple of friends of mine were at my house a few weeks ago on a hot Sunday afternoon.

One of my friends is a sexy, voluptuously curved woman with sensational Turkish colouring. The other friend is a short, lithe woman with teenage dream looks and a mature attitude to boot. In fact, if I am trying to be really accurate about these two – I would call them… ‘Barbies’. They are adorned in exclusive designer jewellery, designer clothing, and their make-up, hair, and nails are buffed to perfection. Both have standing weekly appointments with a sunbed, and they have no problem with wearing high heels on a hot sunny day to the beach. [Madness…!]

While they were in my library chatting to me about sexy men they keep falling in love with and wild parties that they had been to, they are amazed at the colossal number of books that I have lining the walls in there. They sit there, and tell me (a writer) that ‘Oh no, I could never read a novel! I only read magazines!’ But then interestingly, my friend spotted a few novels that are sitting together in their genre on my shelf. She picked one up, looked at the cover, and said – ‘Now this, I could probably read.’

The ultimate Gucci Yacht

When I first started on my writing pathway, I originally wanted to write in this genre, which can only be described as ‘glitz’. Personally, I see that this genre is aimed at the readers of trashy magazines. They are lifestyle novels about the fabulously rich; glamorous fashionistas; scandals of the famous; laced with more than a little bit of deception, and loaded with corruption. 

Now, you might think that these books are poorly written trashy novels. But each of these authors writing in the ‘glitz’ genre are getting your usual ‘cheap and trashy magazine’ readers to pick their novels up and actually devour them in a literary sense.  Not only that, but they are well written, with excellent character development and gripping plotlines. And to top it all off for these authors, their books are hitting the best-seller lists. 

The covers alone generally show women (or models in this case) dressed to perfection sitting in a designer chair, perhaps with a city scape silhouetted in the background, or even of them lounging on the bow of a super-yacht. These are the lifestyles of the rich and powerful that many women dream of having for themselves. When you judge a book by its cover; these are the books that my fabulous ‘Barbie’ friends will pick up and read.

I pose this question to all writers: Now… why wouldn’t you write that? Do you want to write bestseller glitz novels for fame and fortune, like Tasmina Perry, Lauren Weisberger, or Louise Bagshawe? Or do you write for yourself?

I guess it’s about weighing up the odds. Would you rather be branded as a ‘glitz’ novelist (who can actually get busy women to read) or as  ‘snobbish and insanely intelligent’ because you’re a Pulitzer winning literary genius?

Whatever you decide to write – you always have the option to use a nom de plume.