The Coffee Shop Book Club

The Coffee Shop Book Club

The Coffee Shop Book Club is a fantastic collection of short stories by some of our bestselling authors writing today. They include Fern Britton, Adele Parks, Julia Gregson, Kate Mosse, Jill Mansell, Elizabeth Buchan, Tracy Chevalier, Penny Vincenzi, Cathy Kelly, Katharine Webb, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin and many more. It’s a rich mix of stories of love, mystery and the unexpected – so there’s something for everyone. And £1 from every copy sold is donated to Breast Cancer Care, so it’s published in aid of a very good cause.

What is your story, Letting Go about?

Letting Go is about a widow, Clare, who decides to celebrate what would have been the 25th anniversary of her marriage to Tom by taking their bolshy teenage daughter, Mel, to Spain. There they will remember Tom together, revisit the haunts Clare and he went to on their honeymoon and spend some much-needed time bonding. The only snag is, Mel refuses to go. So Clare, after much indecision, resolves to go alone – with surprising results.

Please can you tell us about your previous three novels?

My novels celebrate women of a certain age, their lives and the issues they face. The first, What Women Want, is about three middle-aged women whose close friendship is threatened when one of them begins an affair with a stranger they know little about. The second, Women of a Dangerous Age is about two very different women who decide it’s not too late to change their lives.

The third, The Secrets Women Keep, which is just out, is about marriage. How often have you wondered what it is that keeps another couple together? How well can we ever know our own partner?

As Rose’s family gather for a summer holiday, her world is overturned by a message she reads on her husband’s mobile. Her faith in him is shaken among fears that the man who lies beside her in bed at night is lying in other ways too. However, before she can get to the truth, tragedy strikes. Both she and her friend and sister-in-law Eve are forced to re-evaluate their lives and marriages in ways they are not expecting.

You worked in publishing for years, so please tell us about this time in your life?

I had a great life as an acquiring and commissioning fiction and non-fiction editor then publishing director for various publishing houses. So basically, I was paid to read, select, work with authors on their books and, working my colleagues in the other departments, help them to be published as successfully as possible. It was a fantastically privileged time during which I met many terrific authors, read some wonderful books and had a hand in a number of success stories.

How much has it helped your writing career to have had that background?

Every writer needs to read as much as they can, so I’ve been fortunate at having spent my working life reading some of the best writers writing today. I’ve learned a great deal from them, both what to do and what not to do so I hope some of that at least may have rubbed off in my own writing.

You are now Women and Home’s Books editor, so please tell us about this role.

Every month I compile the Woman & Home Books page from all the books (mostly fiction) that are coming out in a particular month, working about 3 months ahead. Each morning, the postman delivers proofs from publishers of the new novels that are about to be published. My aim is to choose as broad a range of fiction as possible so there’s something on the page for every one of our readers. When we run writing competitions, short story and memoir so far, I’m on the judging panel with our editor and other guest judges. I also commission our short stories which we publish every month, as well as editing our series of anthologies, of which The Coffee Shop Book Club is the fifth.

How did the collection come about?

I had breast cancer some years ago, and since then have been a keen supporter of Breast Cancer Care. I was running down the list of top notch authors whose short stories Woman & Home have published and wondered whether we couldn’t collect them together and publish them in a book form selling them in order to raise money for the charity. The authors have been extraordinarily generous in donating their stories to the collection, and we’re all hoping this one will sell well and raise lots of funds that we can contribute to such a worthwhile charity.

Who are your favourite reads?

I like reading most kinds of fiction with the exception of science fiction which I’ve never really got to grips with. I look forward to a new Anne Tyler, Alice Munro, Donna Tartt, Kate Atkinson, Sue Gee and Maggie O’Farrell, William Boyd, Ian McEwan to name but a few. I also read a lot of crime fiction including the Scandinavian writers, Ian Rankin, PD James and Ruth Rendell and psychological thrillers from authors such as Gillian Flynn, AS Harris, Sophie Hannah and more. Historical fiction gets a look in too from writers such as Hilary Mantel, Philippa Gregory, Tracy Chevalier and Rose Tremain.

What is your writing process?

I treat writing like a day job, I suppose. After breakfast, I sit down at my desk and just get on with it, breaking at lunch and then stopping around six.  I start by doing my emails or any other bits of work for Woman & Home that I may have to finish, then I switch on Self Control, an app that blocks my connection to the Internet. I’m brilliant at any kind of displacement activity so this at least means I can’t distract myself on the computer!  Then I crack on with my novel. I aim to write about 1,000 words a day. Sometimes I write more and sometimes less, but I always write something – even if I cross it all out the following day! I start by re-reading what I’ve done the day before and knocking it into better shape, then I carry on forwards. I know some authors write scenes in a random order but I can’t do that. I have to start at the beginning and carry on till I get to the end. I always know where I’m going to start, who my principal characters are, what the end will be and some of the key scenes along the way, and then I see what happens.

What is next for you?

I’m just about to put the final full stop to my latest novel The War Between the Women which will be published in 2014. Then I’m going on holiday! But I’ve got various ideas for what I might write next, so I’ll spend some time planning and then I’ll start number five in the new year.

 


by for www.femalefirst.co.uk
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