Evoking the world of your novel: A Guest Post by Jessica Ruston

Jessica Ruston’s latest novel, The Lies You Told Me, is a riveting novel about one girl’s search for the truth about her mother…

I’m sure you’re already familiar with the idea that you should use all of the five senses in your writing - describing the smell of a croissant as well as how it looks, the crunch of footsteps as the killer walks up the path towards his victim... All of those kinds of details that can help bring the scene you are writing to life. But it can also be worth thinking about how you can use these different senses, as well as other forms of inspiration, to evoke the world of your novel as you are planning and writing it - and to help bring it to life in the minds of readers once it’s published.

Here’s what I mean. My new novel, The Lies You Told Me, is a psychological thriller of sorts - a family mystery about a woman in her thirties trying to find out the truth about what happened to her mother, who disappeared when she was small. The novel begins when Klara, the daughter, is sent a key in the post, which turns out to belong to a lock up garage containing a box of her mother’s possessions, including her diary. We follow Klara’s search back into her mother’s past as she - and we - read extracts from her mother Sadie’s diary. Sadie isn’t always the most reliable of narrators, so Klara has to piece together the real story using various types of evidence - the diary, her memories of her mother (which of course are unreliable as well), what her father has told her about the woman he loved and who left, others of Sadie’s belongings contained in the trunk...

People always ask where writers get their ideas from, and in this case the original seed of the idea came from a line in one of my favourite poems, Autumn Journal, by Louis MacNeice. The line - ‘All of London littered with remembered kisses,’ had always haunted me, and one day I began to build a story around it. The idea of these memories floating around London, ready and waiting to trap their owners as they went about their business... it caught my imagination (still does - I’m not yet done with the theme of memory and these mental maps that we all carry about with us). As I was writing the book, I kept returning to the line, turning it over in my head. What sort of a love affair might have littered London with these recalled moments? A passionate one, an obsessive one... (another theme I return to again and again). And so, bit by bit, the novel grew from that single line. Of course it grew beyond that original image - but that line, that snag of interest is still at the heart of the story, for me, at least, and as I wrote, I kept on returning to that poem, reading it over and over as I try to hold on to the feeling that the line first gave me, and somehow imbue the writing with it.

I don’t know whether any of you listen to music as you write - in general I don’t. Even lyric-less, classical stuff fills my head too much, distracting me and pulling me towards the world it is trying to evoke, when what I need to be doing is immersing myself in the world I am creating. But sometimes when I’m writing I will hit upon a song that seems to sum up the mood of a scene, or chapter, or even of the whole book. When that happens I’ll listen to it on a loop, over and over again, while writing (do all novelists have a touch of OCD? I suspect maybe so...). With The Lies You Told Me this song was Love Her Madly, by The Doors. The line ‘don’t you love her as she’s walking out the door,’ could have been written about Sadie, or a woman like her, and it filled my head with images and emotions that flowed directly into the novel. Now, post-publication, I’ve put together a playlist of songs that link to the novel somehow, and this is, of course, top of the list. It’s one of those things that can link the fictional world of your book to the real one, tying the two together in a way that I always find interesting, and that I hope others do.

I’ve always been a visual writer, and I often use images as I write, for research and inspiration. The internet has helped with this, of course - it’s easy to find all manner of old photographs and other memorabilia online. So for The Lies You Told Me, I looked at old fashion photography and advertisements from the late 1960s and early 1970s (Sadie was a model in her youth), video footage of London from the same period, newspaper and magazine features, and maps of the city that Sadie fell in love with (and where she fell in love). Youtube is fantastic for this - though it’s easy to spend hours and hours lost in it, calling it ‘work’.

Inspired by some of the images I had used while writing the book, when it was published I created a Pinterest board that gives a teaser of the story using 10 images - it’s here: and tools such as Pinterest are useful while you’re writing and planning as well. I now collect images relating to ideas on themed boards (you can make them private so no one can see them until you’re ready), and refining the spine of your story down to a selection of carefully chosen images can help you clarify where the heart of it lies, if you’re that kind of thinker.

So a poem, music, imagery - inspiration and atmosphere can come from all sorts of places, and by actively surrounding ourselves with them we can help ourselves create a piece of writing that contains something of the spirit of those other works, other worlds. I’m sure there are a multitude of other ways that I haven’t stumbled upon yet - some writers include recipes in their books, and maybe cook their characters’ food as they write?! How do you go about finding and retaining inspiration, and working it into your books? 

Jessica Ruston’s bestselling debut novel, LUXURY, was published in 2009 by Headline Review and was the winner of the Debut of the Year 2009 category at the Elle Magazine Literary Awards. LUXURY was followed by TO TOUCH THE STARS in 2011 and THE DARKER SIDE OF LOVE in 2012. Her fourth novel, THE LIES YOU TOLD ME is now available. She is the author of two non-fiction books as well as a number of screenplays.

Jessica’s journalism includes a weekly fiction serial for The Lady called COME FOR DINNER, features for Grazia, Red, Woman and Home, Scarlet, the Guardian online and Mslexia, as well as book reviews for Mslexia, The Lady and The Spectator.

Luxury is under option to Lex Filmed Entertainment.

Jessica is represented by Simon Trewin at William Morris Endeavor London. Her website is: http://jessicaruston.com/

Literary awards can help unknown authors too

When A M Homes’ May We Be Forgiven was announced as the Women’s Prize for Fiction winner, many were shocked. Surely Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the Bodies would score a hat-trick, having already scooped the Man Booker Prize and Costa Book of the Year award? What a great feat that would have been! But perhaps it’s for the best that someone else was able to steal the limelight; with all the attention Mantel has been getting of late one could be forgiven for thinking she was the only decent female author around. Clearly, that’s not true. Literary awards are designed to be a reward for writing excellence, and for well-established authors the prize money is of less significance compared to the free publicity their book gets if it wins. Homes’ publisher is apparently expecting a large boost in sales, and has reprinted 60,000 copies which are sure to be snapped up fairly quickly.

This type of literary award can be somewhat infuriating for lesser-known authors and certainly for anyone who has successfully self published. The same names tend to appear on the shortlists of each year’s major awards, and more often than not the author is already well-established and widely known. But as we well know, fame is not necessarily an indication of quality or ability. There are plenty of undiscovered writers out there deserving at least a portion of the recognition that the likes of Homes and Mantel are receiving. Luckily, there are awards out there designed to celebrate lesser-known writing talent. Being awarded an accolade of any kind - or even being nominated for an award -can have a tangible impact on a writer’s future success.

The tradition of literary awards is a long-established one, including those for unpublished writers. The quality of self published books in recent years - not to mention all that work that’s being distributed for free by unpublished authors - has clearly proven that there’s much literary worth out there, just waiting to be discovered.

TheAmazon Breakthrough Novel Award is one exciting avenue through which new writers are being found. Each entrant must submit a short pitch about their novel, shortlisted titles will then be read and reviewed by a series of judges and Amazon’s top reviewers. The eventual winner is offered a publishing contract with Amazon Publishing, along with a fairly substantial $50,000 (£32,000) advance.

PEN America is another association fond of fostering fresh talent. The PEN/Phyliss Naylor Working Writer Fellowship is awarded annually to a writer of children’s or young-adult fiction; previous winners include Franny Billingsley and Deborah Wiles. The PEN Emerging Writers Award is one of their more recent prizes. Launched in 2011 it aims to promote up-and-coming authors whose work has featured in literary journals and magazines, but has not yet been published.

Another newly established award is the ParisLiterary Prize. Launched in 2011, it aims to highlight great unpublished novellas and to assist new writers from all over the world with their literary endeavours. This bi-annual prize, open to all genres, carries with it a substantial €10,000 (£8,500 or $13,000) prize. It’s very first winner, Rosa Rankin-Gee, has since secured a publishing deal for her book The Last Kings of Sark, which will be released later this year.

Also new to the literary world is the existence of awards which consider published work alongside unpublished and self published titles. The Historical Novel Society Award, for example, was won by a previously unpublished author this year; the winner, Martin Sutton, was promptly signed up by a literary agent for his book Lost Paradise. The prize money for this award, while a fairly modest £5,000 ($7,500), will certainly help Sutton to focus on his writing and self-promotion for the time being, which is something that many new writers would relish.

Even more prominently positioned - not to mention vaguely controversial - is the newly established Folio Prize which carries with it a top prize of £40,000 ($62,000). Recently the organisers announced that this international prize - which is open to all authors writing in English - will accept self published nominations too. This represents a big step forward for independent authors breaking into the more established side of the literary world. Although there is a downside - each shortlisted publisher is required to contribute £4,000 ($6,000), which represents a substantial obstacle for self published writers who will have to put up this money themselves. Clearly there’s still some way to go before the more elite literary awards are opened up to all authors.

The prestige that comes with winning a literary award is one thing, but the importance of prize money cannot be overstated. One common problem for new authors, most of whom also have a day job, is finding the time to actually write. Once they’ve written a book, finding an agent or publisher, connecting with potential readers, and engaging in self promotion can be very difficult and very time consuming. Even a small monetary gift can buy authors the time they desperately need to really get their writing careers off the ground. In this respect, there are more awards and funds available than one might think. Many of these are much more localised or specialised than those mentioned here, so it’s worth having a look at what is available to you regionally or in your genre of writing. Plenty of unpublished writers won’t have considered a literary prize as one potential way to further their writing ambition, but it’s certainly a route that’s well-worth exploring.

This blog is brought to you by authoright.

Scott's Blog - June

Hello. This is just a short blog post to update you on a few things authonomy related. As always, I will do my best to answer any questions you leave in the comments section.

Authonomy Revamp
Everything is still on target for a new look authonomy by the end of the year. The pitches from developers have all been made and we working through our shortlist. Many of the ideas and proposals that have been presented so far would really help to take authonomy forward and we are very excited about what is to come. Once the final selection is made we will enter what all the developers have called a ‘discovery phase’ and during this time the views of authonomy members will be sought to ensure that the end result is something most of you will find an improvement and a much better way to showcase and improve your work.

One note of caution: in my experience, and probably yours, change is never universally welcomed. Whatever we do with authonomy there will be some people who do not like it. This is unavoidable but we want to make sure we bring as many of you along with us as we can, as well as finding lots of new writers and readers who want to engage with the site and community.

Writer’s Hub
I recently gave an interview to the Writers’ Hub website, you can see it here. It may be of interest to some of you as I talk a bit about authonomy and what we look for in the books we publish.

Crimson River
At both authonomy and The Friday Project, we have teamed up with Crimson River, an exciting new multimedia agency, to provide additional content for our books. They already produced a trailer for Where the Devil Can’t Go by Anya Lipska:



as well as an amazing interactive cover. They are now working on a series of author interviews for us that will allow readers to scan a page of the book and be taken to YouTube video with the author. We really like what they are doing and we have invited them to write some guest blog posts for us. You may also spot banner ads on here linking to their site. They offer special discounted rates for self-published authors and we very much like what they do. Don’t feel obliged to pay them a visit but you may find their blog posts here useful.

Other Stuff
It is great to see Undertaking Love going from strength to strength on ebook and we have interest from within HarperCollins to take the print edition off our hands. More news as we have it.

The publication of Sixteen, Sixty-One has been a legal nightmare (so many conversations with lawyers about what we can or can’t say within the book) but I am delighted that it will finally see the light of day this week and is receiving lots of press and media interest. It really is a remarkable and compelling story; I hope many of you check it out.

Scott

Covers galore!

A bit of visual splendour for a Monday! We’re very excited to reveal the covers for two upcoming authonomy ebooks: Nichola Hunter’s remarkable novella, Ramadan Sky, and Kevin Bergeron’s mystery with a twist, In a Cat’s Eye. Both books were discovered on authonomy, and will publish as ebook originals later this year. If you can’t wait till then, the original manuscripts are still available for previews on authonomy, click on the titles to get a sneak peek at some hot late-summer reads.

SIXTEEN, SIXTY-ONE makes the paper!

Earlier this week, Natalie Lucas, author of authonomy memoir Sixteen, Sixty-One, was interviewed by celebrated-journalist Carol Midgley in the Times. We’re so proud to have Natalie on our list, not only for her incredible gift for story-telling but for her courage.

Sixteen, Sixty-One tells the true story of a young girl who at the age of just sixteen began an intense erotic affair with a family friend, aged 61. But it is also so much more than an account of suburban grooming; written with remarkable candour and grace, Sixteen, Sixty-one is a gripping and eye-opening memoir about the worries of being a teenager and the pressures of coming to terms with one’s sexuality.

In the double-page feature in Tuesday’s Times2, Carol described Natalie as ‘ferociously intelligent’, claiming that ‘the most striking thing about the book – apart from the fact that a man could seduce a child with no one realising – is how well-written it is’. (If you subscribe to The Times, you can read the full article here.)

Sixteen, Sixty-One publishes next week; it was discovered on authonomy, and is the first book to be published in paperback from the authonomy list. And, we’ve got 2 copies to giveaway to the authonomy community. All you have to do is tell us the name of the author of another brilliant memoir, which in 2009 was turned into a film starring Carey Mulligan in the lead role. 

Send your answers to your.authonomy@harpercollins.co.uk, with the answer in the subject line and your name and address in the body of the email. Winners will be picked at random on the publication date of Sixteen, Sixty-One, June 6th.

A Q&A with Joanna Penn: Author-Entrepreneur

Few writers are out there championing the rights of author-entrepreneurs harder than Joanna Penn. The much-loved author of the ARKANE thrillers, Pentecost, Prophecy and Exodus, Joanna self publishes, but she’s also represented by the Irene Goodman Literary Agency in New York; she’s familiar with both sides of the publishing industry and favours a hybrid approach herself. Authoright caught up with Joanna recently and she explained how she transformed from a somewhat dejected office worker into a successful writer in just five short years, and how she manages to balance her creative work with her extensive promotional activity.

How did it all begin? What inspired you to write?

I’ve always been an avid reader and have written journals since I was 15, but I finally decided to write a book when I was completely miserable in my job as a business consultant back in 2007. I thought that by researching how to change my own life and writing about it, I could help others and find my path at the same time. That book originally came out in 2008 and in 2012, I rewrote and republished it under the title Career Change: Stop hating your job, discover what you really want to do and start doing it!

That process helped me understand how to write a book and also launched me into a new sphere of writers and self publishing online. I didn't even consider writing fiction until I heard about NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, and decided to give it a go. I didn't think I was creative at all, but I managed 20,000 words of a story. Two years of writing and editing later, I published Pentecost, became hooked on writing fiction and I’ve just submitted my fourth novel to my agent.

Why did you decide to self publish, and what advice would you give to authors considering that option?

When I originally looked into the realities of the publishing process, I decided I didn’t want to wait for the lengthy process of query to publication, and I didn’t like the begging approach of submission. I had been running my own business for years and had an entrepreneurial streak so I knew how to get things done. I hired professionals and went ahead with self publishing. I now have a NY agent and am considering the hybrid option of having some books with traditional publishing, so self publishing certainly doesn’t prevent you from considering other options later.

In terms of advice, you need to be an entrepreneur to be a successful self publisher and you need to hire professionals for editing and cover design in order to produce the best quality product. If you take it seriously, and learn about the processes of publishing and marketing as well as writing, there’s no reason you can’t be successful. I recommend joining an organisation like the Alliance of Independent Authors as you can learn a great deal from other authors in the same situation.

How do you feel about promotion? Some authors seem to hate it. Is it a necessary evil or just something all authors can enjoy if they put their minds to it?

I believe it’s important to shift your mindset around promotion. Marketing is just sharing what you love with people who will enjoy hearing about it. Be useful or entertaining and people will eventually discover you. I love to write and to learn new things, I also love to travel and have adventures and I love to read. So these are the things that I talk about online, they resonate in my books and if people become interested in me, they might also check out my work. That’s attraction marketing, not scammy hard selling.

So authors can enjoy marketing if they focus on doing what is fun for them and other people, or might become fun over time. I love learning from others so I started The Creative Penn podcast on iTunes. 158 episodes later I have had over 80 hours of conversation with authors and publishing professionals and I have an audience of over 10,000 subscribers. That’s just one example of content marketing. Or, say you enjoy photography, how about posting one photo every day that relates to the world of your book and post it on Pinterest, twitter and Facebook?

How do you make time to write in between all of your promotional activity?

There are two kinds of time. Creative time and down time. I’m a morning person, so mornings are when I get my word count done. When I worked full-time I used to get up at 5am and write before work, now I am a full-time author-entrepreneur, I head to the library and write in the morning. But I don’t think anyone can do more than 4-5 hours of truly creative work a day, so that leaves quite a bit of time for the rest of my life, including the marketing side. I also gave up the TV five years ago, so that leaves ‘downtime’ in the evening for blogging, social and interviews like this.

My main productivity tool is a physical diary where I schedule writing time, and I also track word count on a spreadsheet. I schedule my promotional time around that, plus I’m a professional speaker so I am often doing live events. It helps that I love this life and so a lot of what I do is my hobby and my social life as well as my living these days.

Your first book, Pentecost sold an impressive number of copies for a debut novel, what did you do to keep readers coming back for later instalments of the ARKANE series?

When writing a series, you need a concept that will enable you to write more storylines over time, and characters who will endure. So I invented ARKANE, a secret government agency that investigates supernatural mysteries with a base under Trafalgar Square in London. Dr Morgan Sierra, my protagonist, is an ex-Israeli military psychologist with a specialism in religion and along with the other ARKANE agents, she solves mysteries involving ancient relics, artifacts and international conspiracies. Each book ties into my own detailed research about religion and psychology so people enjoy learning as well as the kick-ass adventure side! There will always be more supernatural mysteries so the series can continue. I also make sure to tie up each book’s story but also to open a question in the reader’s mind at the end that leads into the next sequel.

However, I am now starting to write other things. I’ve just finished a crime thriller and also a series of short stories around Dante’s Inferno as part of a Kobo contest for the launch of Dan Brown’s book. So I don’t think you have to tie yourself into one thing as a writer.

One of the positive things about authonomy is the collaboration and support between members. This is a new phenomenon in publishing, getting peer reviews etc. Is this the future of publishing? If not, what is, in your view?

I don’t think collaboration or support are new phenomenons in publishing, as authors have always had a network of other writer friends. But what has changed is that technology has made it more accessible and global. I’ve met most of my writing friends on twitter and that has led to helping each other as beta readers and supporting promotional activities. The spirit of sharing openly online has also changed through blogging and the ease of finding information. Authors can now find out about the opportunities as well as the scams, and many are sharing details of sales figures and promotional campaigns, which can help others. All this helps to tear down the veil of mystery that has surrounded publishing and I believe that helping each other can only be a good thing for all of us.

At what point should one give up on trying to secure a traditional book deal? Is it ever too late to self publish?

As you write more books, you will find that there are different routes for each one, so you might choose to pursue traditional publication for some of your work, and self-publish other books. It’s never too late to self-publish, and indeed, many long-term authors are now self-publishing their backlist e.g. Jackie Collins. It’s also never too late to try and get a traditional deal if that’s best for your book. The main thing is to focus on writing more and pleasing your readers.

What's the best piece of advice you'd give to someone who's waiting to get lucky and get picked up by an agent or a publisher?

Taking charge of your own career as a writer is empowering, and it also tips the balance of power in the publishing arena. Focus on developing your craft but also getting out there and connecting with readers and you are more likely to get approached. There is some luck in the publishing game, as with anything, but you can make your own luck by picking yourself. I recommend reading Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield and The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin for inspiration.

Joanna’s site for writers www.TheCreativePenn.com has been voted one of the Top 10 blogs for writers three years running and offers articles, audio and video on writing, publishing and book marketing. Joanna is also a professional speaker and entrepreneur. Connect with Joanna on twitter @thecreativepenn. You can find out more about her books at www.JFPenn.com.

This blog was brought to you by Authoright.

One to Watch Wednesday: Cypher by Violet Wells

We like a good period drama in this country. Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs, Parade’s End - over the last few years, our screens have been full of dashing young men, often on the brink of, or involved  in, one of the World Wars.

These TV heart-throbs are diverting - but we've also seen a number of significant military anniversaries this year. The 70^th anniversary of the Dambusters Raid, which saw the Lancaster bombers, alongside allied airmen from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and America, fly to destroy three German dams. These ‘magnificent men in their flying machines’ contributed significantly to the war effort, and indeed, it was of WWII pilots that Churchill famously said ‘never was so much owed by so many, to so few’.

Violet Well’s novel ‘Cypher’, fits into this military context beautifully. It tells two stories. The first is of Jack Page, a pilot from a working class background which he is half-proud, half-ashamed of. He flies Spitfires, he fights the enemy, and he falls in love with aristocratic Evie. The second is Evie's story - what must she sacrifice for this man? Can she survive the constant anxiety of loving a man whose life is in the clouds, daily battling - against terrible odds - for their country's future? This captivating and dangerous love affair provides a solid backbone to the story, really driving the narrative forward.

The author brings vividness and vivacity to the airbase, and the range of characters, from the charming Benedict to the abhorrent Angus, all seem very real. There are some issues with over-writing, but nothing which a thorough edit couldn't sort out. At its heart, this is a fascinating story, with class anxieties, young love and the visceral experiences of air warfare all well portrayed. 

We'd encourage you to go and have a read, and to review. This is a book which, with a bit of support and some insightful feedback, could be fantastic.

Violet Well’s pitch is below:

Through the swirl of clouds, their pageantry of metamorphosis, the earth looks like a childhood memory. Something still and finished and remote.

During the Battle of Britain Evie Devereux is a WT operator in the ops room of one of 11 Group’s sector airfields. Here she commences an affair with a Spitfire pilot. As the battle hots up the strain of worrying constantly for his safety becomes too much for her and she ostentatiously betrays him for another man. To push him away. A week later he is shot down and reported missing.

In 1943 she joins SOE and is parachuted into France. Here she meets up with her pilot boyfriend again. Both now have different identities.

The Spitfire pilot is Jack Cave whose working class father was shot as a deserter in the First World War.His heritage is the bane of his life. Never more so than when he falls in love with the aristocratic Evie. When he is forced to take on another man’s identity he feels finally liberated from his past. And then, trailed by the Gestapo, he meets Evie again.