GUEST BLOGGER: Linda Bolton - My Writing Journey

LINDA BOLTON - GUEST BLOG POST

Meet Linda, a contemporary romance writer. She's joining Joey today to talk about her writing journey. Read ahead to see what she has to say!

Joey, Thank you so much for having me on your blog.

So, you wanted to know how I got started writing. I’m sure I’m about like everyone else - I have been writing in some way for as far back as I can remember. In high school I was on the school literary magazine and wrote poetry with teen angst - typical high schooler. In college, I wrote research papers which caused me to swear off writing until I was in my thirties. Nothing could dissuade a person more from writing than having to write about topics that are dull.

In my mid-thirties, I adopted an eleven year old girl from CPS when I lived in Georgia.  I started journalling my experiences with her and decided to write a book on adopting older children. There are so many children here in the US that end up aging-out of the system because families are afraid to adopt older kids. 

Life got me side-tracked and the book was put on hold. Twelve years ticked by and one evening I started writing Take 2, my first contemporary romance. I truly enjoyed writing. I suddenly noticed that everything around me gave me ideas for books - my friends, my day job, celebrities. The ideas are never-ending. I’ll eventually finish the adoption story, it is a priority, but until then... Incantation, my second novel,will be out in the late spring and Take 2 is available in ebook and paperback. 

Follow Linda on her Facebook, Blog, Twitter or on Goodreads.

Interview: Questions from Readers

Joey recently asked on her Facebook page for people to send in questions they would like her to answer. This is the first batch received. If you missed your chance, don't worry, Joey will do this again!

-> What's your favourite part of writing a book?

I'd have to say the part after you've set the story and you've started to get knee deep in plot. I do like the beginnings where you're setting everything up and I love the final chapters where you tie up all the loose ends, but I'd have to choose the middle part as my absolute favourite part.

-> Who do you call your "favourite author"?

I do a lot of reading, I like to find authors, who like me, are generally unknown and give their work a try. Having a kindle allows me to do that and sometimes I find a gem that I'd previously not known about and sometimes I don't. If I had to choose from my favourite short list of authors, it would be down to Harlan Coben and Sue Grafton. Both are great writers, both tell great stories. I love them both for different reasons, Harlan Coben for the way he keeps you guessing and draws you into the story and Sue Grafton for her character Kinsey Millhone who is a strong, female private eye, solving crimes and sometimes getting herself into sticky situations. I don't think I can pick between the two of them.

-> What do you prefer writing, your standalones or the Dying Thoughts Series?

I love both, which is why I've chosen to split my books between the two. I love writing the standalones, such as Blackout because it's a whole new bunch of characters to fall in love with and go through their story with. I do find it hard sometimes to say goodbye to those characters after the story is through though. That's also one of the reasons why I love the Dying Thoughts Series, it's a bunch of characters that I know and love, and yet they still continue to surprise me as I take them on their adventures, I'm still learning to know things about them and it's also one of the reasons I write two books at once, I like to have the best of both worlds. On one hand, the characters I will take through one story and on the other, characters that are like old friends.

-> Why don't Kaolin and Tara have Facebook and other social media?

The problem with writing a series and writing so far in advance is that although time moves forward for you, it doesn't once the book is done. I started writing the Dying Thoughts Series when I was about 20, I'm now 30, so ten years have passed since then and when I first put pen to paper, there was no Facebook or Twitter. There were other types of what we now call "social media", but I never saw the need for them to have that. Due to the fact that the books themselves happen over a period of (at the moment) eighteen months, Tara and Kaolin are still stuck in the past. They're still in 2003 and Facebook has yet to hit the internet. I can't bring them this far forward in time without losing some of the book content, so for now, they will stay in 2003/2004. Maybe towards the end, they'll finally get Facebook!

->What's the worst part of writing?

Writer's Block! No, I mean that's one part of it I don't like, but it comes hand in hand with the job really, the thing I really don't like are those chapters that just exist to move the story along with everyday things - like for a teenager going to school and having a normal day, before a piece of plot happens. Those kind of things. I call them "filler chapters", but I've been told that they don't always exist, they seem to in my books.

->What made you start writing?

I had just been retired from my job on medical grounds and the thought of being 19 and never being able to hold down a 9 to 5 job or having to watch daytime TV from then until the end of time just depressed me. I'd tried my hand at writing before and decided that I would finish what I had started a few years previously which was taking apart The Friendship Triangle and turn it into a proper book. I was well and truly "bitten" by the bug after that and although sometimes things like university have gotten in the way, I haven't stopped writing since.

->Where do you get your character names? 

From a lot of places, I brought a baby name book at one point and used to just look through it for inspiration. Other names are inspired by people I know or knew, and sometimes places and things. It's amazing to me how many names you need to come up with for just a standalone book, never mind a series!

->What inspires your stories?

A lot of things do, I'd had the idea for Blackout in my head from about the age of 14, it took until I was 19 to write it down. I got the idea for the Dying Thoughts Series whilst shopping in ASDA! Other books have been inspired by events in my life, such as internet romances, and other times it's places I've been or people I've met. I can't pin it down to just one thing - Life inspires me!

-> How long does a book take - from idea, to start, to finish?

It depends really. Take Blackout for example, the idea formed at 14, I began writing it when I was 19 and ten days later it was finished. It's the only book I've ever written that fast. I generally keep a note of the date I start the book and they usually take anywhere from 18 months to a few years to finish. Especially now that I am juggling writing with a part time degree. Thankfully, I have the summer, autumn and half of winter off this year before my next course starts in February 2013 so I plan to spend that writing.

That's all the questions for now! Thanks to those who submitted them and keep an eye on this blog and Joey's Facebook page to take part next time and for any updates! 

Introduction

Name: Joey Paul

Age: 30

Date of Birth: 6^th January 1982

Home Town: Swindon, UK

Siblings: Brother, Daniel (31)

Significant Other: Scott (33)

Pets: Penne (cat) & Spaghetti (cat) 

When did you start writing?

I started writing when I was thirteen, but schoolwork kinda got in the way – doesn’t it always? I wanted to be published since then, but well I never had the time because after school came college and then work and there just weren’t enough hours in the day to do everything. So I stuck to the important things, like paying my rent and putting food on the table. I was retired when I was nineteen and since then, I’ve had all the time in the world to write.

Why were you retired?

*deep sigh* The short answer to that is, I got sick. The longer answer is that I got sicker and the honest answer is, I couldn’t work anymore doing the job I did. Yes, I wish it hadn’t happened, but if it hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been writing and that is honestly what I love doing.

Is it true you share a sickness with ‘Lisa’ in Blackout?

Yes, it’s where I got the idea from, and where most of my medical knowledge comes from. I suffer from a form of brittle asthma, as well as M.E., Fibromyalgia and vocal cord dysfunction – which sounds like a lot of stuff and also sounds confusing and scary – but honestly, it isn’t. It makes my life more difficult, but it also means I now have the time to write and create characters like Tara and Tally.

Where do you get the ideas for your books?

Now, that’s a hard one because everyone finds inspiration from different places. I had the idea for ‘Blackout’ in my head for a very long time, we’re talking from when I was about fourteen and considering it didn’t get written until 2003, that’s a while! The ‘Dying Thoughts’ series actually came to me whilst shopping in Asda. ‘The Friendship Triangle’ was a book I started writing and then pulled apart and re-wrote several times until it was just the way I wanted it. The ideas form in my head and when they’re ready to go onto paper they get typed or written out as soon as possible.

How long does it take you to write a book?

That depends, purely on how long the idea has been brewing, how much research I need to do, whether or not I feel the need to write it first and then type it up or whether the idea is fresh enough for me to just sit and write it on my laptop or main computer. ‘Blackout’ was written in ten days, whereas ‘The Friendship Triangle’ took me *counts* eight years to finish!

Do you work set hours?

No, I work when I want to, sometimes I work a nine to five day, other times I’ll work for just an afternoon and I have been known to work all day and all night – it depends on how I am and what part of the book I am working on.

Who designs your front covers?

All my illustrations and front covers are drawn, scanned and designed by my best friend, B. She does it all for me and I love every one of them.

Where do you get the character names from?

*laughs* Believe it or not some of them are the names of flowers, gems, places, alcohol, I even named one character after B’s ‘Miffy’ pencil case that was on the desk when I was writing! I usually have the name of the main character in my head before I start writing, but other than that I can get inspiration from anywhere.

How much research do you do?

It depends on what the book is about, things have changed since I was at school so I had to phone round and see how the GCSE choices were being set out and make sure that everything I put was as accurate as I could make it. A lot of the medical information is stuff that I’ve learnt from my own stays in hospital or from doctors and nurses. I think it’s important to put as much research into your book as you can, because people don’t want to read it and know that something just isn’t true.

How does it feel to be finally getting published?

Scary! *laughs* No, seriously, I’m looking forward to people I don’t know having my book on their shelves, I love to hear about other people’s take on each of my books because they very rarely have the same favourite bit and it’s always nice to hear which part they related to the most.