This conversation has a lovely back-story about how a book blogger was discovered by a writer who loves reading ChocLit novels! As you see, when I released my review for Margaret James’s novel The Silver Locket I had the pleasure of interacting with Ms Driscoll via Twitter! I like to check to see who appreciates what I’m tweeting about in the twitterverse, and being that I had such a strong emotional connection to the novel and the story as a whole, it was a joy to find people engaging with my tweets by either re-tweeting them or favouriting them! It’s a small gesture to know someone out there is appreciating what your sharing and more times than naught, I like to take a moment to interact with these tweeters.
As a writer myself, it goes without saying ‘writers are dedicated readers’ because we all came through the gateway of literature inspiring our own literary paths therein. It did not surprise me finding a writer was keen on the Charton Minster series, in other words! What I hadn’t realised is this interaction about my ChocLit readings would lead to a lovely DM convo with the publicist at Bookouture! Ms Nash is a delightfully bookish soul who not only champions interest in the publisher but she knows how to unite readers, book bloggers and authors!
Bookouture is an Indie publisher from England – a digital first publisher (similar to ChocLitUK) who also releases their novels in print (via Print on Demand) with a focus on the quality of their submissions rather than focusing on quantity. This is a trend that I’m finding across the board with the Indie Publishers I’m currently hosting as I shift away from hosting blog tours and working directly with publishers. This is why you’ll be seeing me champion the stories and authors not only from Bookouture but from my continued appreciation of ChocLitUK, Seventh Star Press and World Weaver Press; whilst adding Prometheus Books (and their imprints: Seventh Street Books & Pyr), Impress Books (also from the UK) and Curiosity Quills Press. I will be going into a bit more about all of this on my End of the Year Survey 2015 which I’m releasing on my 3rd Blogoversary 31st of March, 2016.
If you’d like to check out the founder of Bookouture, I direct you to the introductory page on behalf of Oliver Rhodes.
Meanwhile, I am happily going to be showcasing their authors through bookish conversations which not only directly relate to the author’s new release but will encompass their writerly life as well. Each conversation I bring to Jorie Loves A Story (and on my contributions via steampunkcavaliers.com) have the same focus and concentration: to use dialogue to engage in a conversation everyone will enjoy reading!
I am delighted to bring my conversation with Ms Driscoll to my readers today on her #pubday as I hadn’t realised I’d have the pleasure of celebrating her new release in coordination with her book birthday whilst beginning my showcases for Bookouture! It’s quite fitting I get to begin with her book, as without her ‘wink of a nod’ on Twitter on behalf of Margaret James’ novel, I might not have discovered her collective works or those of her authorial colleagues at Bookouture!
I stroked the top of my baby’s head and whispered to him gently that I would find a way. I will not let them take you…
Once upon a time Kate’s life was full of love and smiles and laughter. A time where she dared to dream and hope. But then her perfect family unit is shattered in the most unthinkable way. And now Kate is silently and steadily falling apart.
When she meets Martha, Kate recognizes a kindred spirit. Martha is searching for a lost love; tragedy has touched her life too. Why are they so inexplicably drawn to one another? And why are they both keeping secrets about their pasts?
As Kate and Martha are forced to face the painful memories they’d each locked away, can they save each other and learn to live again?
A beautifully written story full of emotion,
hope and the redeeming power of love and friendship.
The back-story of inspiration on behalf of your sophomore release Last Kiss Goodnight has such a powerful impact on the emotional journey of a mother’s soul as she attempts to find peace where ambiguous loss has resided. How did you prepare yourself to dig inside the emotional anguish necessary to convey the emotional eclipse of your characters?
Driscoll responds: This story was inspired by an experience that has haunted me since I was a television reporter years ago. One day I was sent to a campaign launch near the House of Commons to film a group of women releasing balloons. Each one, I was to learn, represented a child who could not be found. The reasons for the estrangements were varied but all the mothers’ stories were heartbreaking. I interviewed a number of the mothers and learned something very important that day…the difference between empathy and sympathy. These women truly understood each other.
So when writing this fictional story, I was determined to do my very best to capture the raw emotion of loss but also the courage and hope and empathy between women who have to deal with what life throws at them. I wanted it to be a story about recovery so I thought often of those balloons…and I went for a lot of long walks to dig deep and to work it all out in my head. And also my heart.
I can see how this would be a difficult story to tackle because of the heavier emotions attached to it being ‘based on truth and living stories of mothers’. It’s such a gutting back-story but carries with it a seed of Hope as those balloons symbolise so much on behalf of the Mums! I love how you took on this subject and wrote the heart out of the story merging fact and fiction together in such a beautiful symbiotic harmony to give every woman a rooting of gravity and depth to the fuller story behind each mother’s loss. I can well imagine the heartache that would go into penning a story like this – the walk of both faith and heart, to honour the real stories but to give grace to the fictional characters, too. Impressive!
Fiction which is rooted and tethered to a real-life event is compelling because there is a cardinal of truth threaded throughout their scope. How did you seek to balance the realism of what happened to the women who never knew what became of their loved ones (as they were simply ‘lost and never found’) with the story-line your heart moved you to tell? What did you want to draw out of the experience and temper it against a fictional landscape?
Driscoll responds: The emotional landscape is always the starting point and absolutely key when I am writing a novel. I often use life experience or observation as a trigger for novels but never use real facts, real stories or real people. To carry strong themes -which have become important to me in my own life and through my journalism – I simply do my very best to create convincing fictional characters. My goal is emotional truth – namely to write stories which, though not true, feel true to life. My characters certainly always feel real to me as I write. If they come to feel real to my readers, that is the ultimate compliment.
This is exactly what I am seeking as a reader of Women’s Fiction and why I am under-read inside the genre today – as I’m trying to noodle out the stories which capture this point you’ve given ‘write stories which though not true, feel true to life’. There are a lot of offerings today, but I’m quite particular about a few of the genre selections I love to read and Women’s Fiction is one where I have an interest in being selective. This is one of the remarkable discoveries I made whilst I was putting these conversations together for Bookouture – as outside of the authors I’m reading via my BookSparks reading challenges (Summer & Fall of 2015) it’s a refreshing moment of discovery to find the heart of Bookouture’s Women’s Fiction is bang-on brilliant in focusing on the type of stories I’m yearning to read!
Writing emotional truth and knitting a character-centred narrative where you can literally intersect with the character’s journey through an emotional anchour is what makes reading such a pleasure; at least to me. It’s a grounding of finding ourselves able to step inside shoes we might not walk inside but can draw out empathy and connection all the same. Stories have a way of enveloping us and expanding our insight into the lives of others.
In your debut novel, you also spoke on hard-hitting subject matters, as it was a retrospective nod towards how a mother and daughter can unite together through time when death stalls a connection too soon to be understood. How did you choose to use the journal as the fluid conversation between mother and daughter, whilst having it act as a time slip between both of their time-lines?
Driscoll responds: The whole idea for my debut came from a dream. I lost my mother to cancer when I was seventeen and so she never knew me as an adult and sadly never met my husband or children. One night I dreamed I was watching my younger son at a swimming lesson when my mother suddenly appeared – right out of the blue. In this dream it was as if we had never been apart – even though I had not seen her for many years. We chatted in a very relaxed way about my children and she shared lots of tips with me…. When I woke up, I was completely overwhelmed as I realised precisely what I missed the most about losing her so young, namely never talking to her …woman to woman. A couple of days later I was looking through recipe books and found one made by a nanny with pictures of my elder son cooking. In a flash I literally got the whole idea for Recipes for Melissa.
I realised that I wanted to write a fictional story that could reconnect a mother and daughter through a journal of recipes and stories. The journal would be the ‘Tardis’ allowing the mother to whisper in her daughter’s ear across time…woman to woman.
Once I had this basic idea and structure, I literally wrote the book in a frenzy. There were a lot of long, emotional walks! It felt like the story I was always meant to write.
As soon as I read the premise behind ‘Recipes for Melissa’ I instinctively wanted to read it – as it was the first synopsis of yours I read when our paths originally crossed earlier this month. Now that I understand the fuller scope of what inspired the novel, I definitely look forward to reading it one day! How kismet how serendipity played a role in the genesis of the idea – I do believe we are granted certain insights and moments which are not fully understood until lateron when the pieces fall together. It’s a beautiful blessing you were granted and what a footnote of love you’ve been given! Your Mum has been with you all along; a bit out of sight but heart-centred and observant.
The journalling acting as a portable Tardis is a lovely way of putting it – I felt too, this might be the reason why the journal was used – to give merit to two time extensions within the story but also, to unite the past with the present in a gesture of goodwill. Love and memories are not limited to time intervals and journals have a way of reaching through time similar to letters!
I am so thankful you led with your heart and allowed your spirit to encourage your journey with this story – it definitely sounded like a novel you were meant to pen and it’s a celebration of your mother’s love, too. My sympathies she left so suddenly but in some ways, as you’ve related to us, she’s never quite left your side.
The tones of your novels are compassionate and realistically in-tune with contemporary hardships that are not readily brought to the surface. How did you find your writerly voice and confidence to pull emotional stories together with the pulse of insight you’ve given them?
Driscoll responds: Thank you so much, Jorie. This kind of feedback means a lot to me! I think it takes any writer a while to find their ‘voice’. I started out experimenting with short stories and was widely published in national magazines but it took me ten years before I secured a publishing deal for my novels. But all that unpublished fiction helped me to grow so I think of it now as an apprenticeship that helped me to find my voice. I now teach creative writing sometimes and I always encourage students to write every day. To keep going. To keep believing. You never stop learning.
You’re welcome! I haven’t had the pleasure of reading your stories yet but it’s how your stories read to me through their synopsis and readerly impressions that lent me the insight I’ve shared. There are certain writers whose stories are readily transparent even through small windows of their novel’s heart and your one of them. No, you never stop learning and the beauty of growth is that it takes on many different avenues and shapes as life progresses forward. Eight years ago I never would have imagined I’d participate in Nanowrimo to overcome my writer’s block and three years ago (this 31st of March) I never suspected I’d become a book blogger!
We each have to listen to our intuition as writers – doors open and inspiration leads us to explore paths we might not foresee to take! The key is to believe in ourselves and the path we’re on! So true about how even unpublished manuscripts are a key component of our publishing endeavours!
Both of your stories deal with ambiguous loss on one level or another, where there is a vacuum of space separating the lead characters from their loved ones; how did you enter into the psychology of drawing out the interior world your characters resided in whilst honouring those who live footsteps inside a composite life mirroring their own?
Driscoll responds: To be honest, I worry that in telling the truth about how I work someone will lock me up! I start with a theme, maybe do some research and then simply wait for my characters to ‘step forward’. I try not to overthink it. I just watch and listen to them and simply tell their story. Their truth. I know deep down that I created these people and their story but it honestly never feels that way. It was Elizabeth Bowen who said: ‘Characters are not created by writers; they pre-exist and have to be found.’ I love this quote because it helps me to feel less odd!
I wish I could be more helpful in analysing method but I just do what works for me. I watch and listen. I feel what my characters feel and search for the right words to share their story.
Hmm… I am thinking this is the first time a writer worried about sharing their process with me! I don’t believe anyone would question the merits of a creative’s process – as writers are artists who paint a story with a palette of words – we each have our own approach, but it’s always a bit curious to me how we alight inside the stories or rather, how the stories alight inside our mind’s eye and it’s up to us to draw out the depth of where that story can lead us. In some ways, it feels like we’re acting as historians for someone else’s story – the truths of the human condition and the journey in which a person curates growth is worth telling, but so too, are the extraordinary journeys people can take out of loss and tragedy. It’s this will to not only survive but to hold fast to the Hope which gives us the most confidence to tackle tomorrow that benefits being heard.
However you find the inspiration to tell your stories is what readers will celebrate because if they find they took a liking to your stories, why wouldn’t they? I know I do this on a frequent basis with the authors who are penning the stories I happily ‘blog the heart out of’ on Jorie Loves A Story! I love championing writers and their stories whilst being a ‘book cheerleader’!!
What do you feel has been the most challenging aspect of writing your novels and what has been the most enjoyable aspect?
Driscoll responds: I find editing the hardest part but I do value input. I have a wonderful and very experienced editor and my novels definitely benefit from her insight. But it is tough to re-write and restructure.
The most enjoyable aspect is just me and the page in the early days of a new novel when the words are really flowing.
I think this will be my most challenging aspect as a writer, too. I can handle the revisions on my own when I find blunders or blindspots that need fleshing out but when I finally get to the point where I’m handing off my manuscripts to an editor – I think it might be a challenge to sort out their notes on how to improve the context whilst keeping my style and vision intact. It’s a balance we all must learn but I agree – editing is not my most favourite part either! It’s the writing down the bones of the story and getting the character’s fully realised against a well-lit world that motivates me most!
Ooh my yes! When you first ‘start!’ a new story – there is such wicked sweet inertia in that moment of creative synergy it’s hard to let it go!
What captures your attention about reading thought-provoking Women’s Fiction which in effect re-inspires your own path to create your own heart-centred narratives? What inspires you as a reader which re-fuells your writing in other words?
Driscoll responds: I read very widely and love anything character-led. I remember as a child weeping when the lion ‘died’ in Narnia and over Maggie Tulliver in the Mill on the Floss. I just love anything strong which is beautifully written and really connects with me. I tend not to worry what ‘category’ it is in. Call it literary, commercial, women’s fiction or whatever. If it has wonderful characters and a strong story, I’m lost. Contemporary favourites include Anne Tyler, Kate Atkinson and Maggie O’Farrell.
I, too, dance through genres – I fully immerse myself inside the literary hallways as much as you do, as it’s such a great way to explore literature by keeping open-minded about the crafting and stylings of how stories are told. I even go through moments where I like tucking inside the historical past and then, opt instead to re-appear in the modern world or snuggle inside a mystery – we each have our heart-points, where stories wink at us from the shelf and the best we can do is read as much as we can whilst we devour characters and worlds as quickly as we can!
You have united a thematic of choosing to focus on love, loss and renewal throughout your novels and short stories – how did you find a unification of these across the mediums you write? Was it organically shaping together or did you plan this?
Driscoll responds: Yes – I do write about loss and recovery a lot. This was never a plan as such, just a theme that really matters to me. I think it stems from losing my mother young and then witnessing so much loss as a journalist. But I am a person who believes in hope and the healing power of love. So I try to make my stories ultimately uplifting…about courage and recovery. I think when they say ‘write about what you know’ they really mean ‘write about what matters to you’.
I love how you’ve changed this mantra around and made it your own! Yes, I do believe we’re meant to write the stories which ignite a strong measure of joy in our own hearts to create because without the joy behind the words we’re penning how could we inspire readers to read the story? I love how your stories are one half cathartic and one half inspiring others to remember how to embrace their own courage as they recover from the harder moments life affords us all.
The title of your second novel Last Kiss Goodnight has a parting effect to it, as if we never quite realise when ‘a last kiss’ might be put upon us and we should take each moment of our lives as the blessing it is to cherish. How do you select your titles and do you hope they have a keen insight into your stories?
Driscoll responds: This title actually came from my editor and I loved it the minute she suggested it. The story is very much about learning to live for the day.
As you have a background in journalism, did you find it hard to switch from expository to creative writing styles? How did you find your niche in fiction after focusing on the other side?
Driscoll responds: Journalism was a wonderful career and great teacher of discipline. It was how I learned to write every day, whatever my mood. I found the transition to fiction very liberating actually. As a journalist I was an absolute stickler for accuracy. Now I love the freedom of working from my imagination.
Yes, journalism does have to be accurate and adhere to it’s own set of rules which are not easily bent nor should be. However, I smiled when you said you found novelling liberating to your spirit! I could well imagine it would be! I look forward to seeing where your imagination continues to guide you!
Is there a story you have percolating for your third novel? If so, can you treat us to a smidge of a glimpse into what its plot might be about?
Driscoll responds: I am actually working on two new novels but I’m afraid I can’t discuss them yet. Let’s just same my writing room is crowded with wonderful characters right now. I’m enjoying myself!
Ooh dear! A bit too insightful here, I see! I jumped the proverbial gun, then! lol Perhaps one day in the near future I can re-approach this when the timing is better!
Is there a story outside your contemporary focus inside Women’s Fiction you might explore at a later date that takes you into a new vein of literature or a different timescape than the modern world? Or have you found the niche you’d like to reside in full-time?
Driscoll responds: It’s funny you should ask this! When I first started writing fiction, a number of literary agents told me I was lucky to have two voices as a writer but that I needed to pick one to go forward. I picked this one and absolutely love it. But I do have this ‘other voice’ which still whispers to me sometimes so we will see if I find the time and the platform to explore that in the future. For now, I am very happy writing the stories that feel important to me.
How champion! I sensed this might be true whilst I was researching what I wanted to ask you in this conversation. I do a lot of background research on the authors I interview and somewhere through what I was reading on you, I picked up on this ‘unspoken’ yearning to write outside Women’s Fiction. My first thought was something ‘historical’ but I was unsure – as there wasn’t anything to go on except this ‘intuitive vibe’ I had. Time will tell, surely!
I might have picked up on this because I write across genres – not surprising as I dance through genres as I read, but sometimes we find like-minded souls without realising it.
How do you renew your spirit when you’re not researching and writing?
Driscoll responds: Spending time with my family is my biggest joy. I live in beautiful Devon and love to walk and enjoy the sea. This summer we are to visit Porthleven, a favourite place in Cornwall which features in my first novel. I have booked a cottage with a glorious view of the sea. You can smell the salt as you breakfast in the garden. Absolute bliss!
Cornwall! How interesting! I fell in love with Cornwall when I originally read “The Shell Seekers” as a teen, as the author captured it to such a level of realism I felt I had travelled there! I agree – family is so very important and I can only wish you many happy memories whilst your at the cottage by the sea! What heavenly bliss, indeed!
Thank you so much for inviting me to chat, Jorie. I have really enjoyed it.
And, thank you Ms Driscoll for interacting with me on Twitter! Had you not, I am unsure when or how I would have stumbled across Bookouture! It’s become such a happy experience for me as not only did I get to help celebrate your new release, but I am about to launch a heap of lovely conversations with your colleagues! It was a true joy of mine to put this together and to discover we have a bit in common as fellow writers, too!
Converse via: #WomensFiction + #LastKissGoodnight
About Teresa Driscoll
For fifteen years Teresa presented the BBC’s nightly TV news programme Spotlight from Devon. She has worked as a reporter and columnist for a wide range of newspapers and her first novel, Recipes for Melissa was published in Spring 2015.
This author interview is courtesy of Bookouture!
Site | Blog | @bookouture
I have a full line-up of engaging conversations by this Indie Pub across the pond who is starting to make a bit of a splash stateside! It’s my honour and pleasure to bring these conversations to my readers, whilst helping to expand our knowledge of wicked awesome writers of Women’s Fiction or Historical Fiction whose stories are full of heart and soul; just the way I love the genres to be! They are focusing on guttingly brilliant dramatic story-lines, whose fusion of realism and the introspective focus on a woman’s journey is not only pro-positive but inspiring to find.
Be sure to return on 30th of March for my conversation with Natalie Meg Evans!
My interviews run straight through til the end of April also featuring a bloke whose writing spell-binding Thrillers which sound as if they leave you breathless for the dramatic climaxes but eager to solve the mystery inside his stories whilst you root for his characters! I’m referring to British Thriller writer Tom Bale – look for his conversation mid-April!
The reason I chose the authors I have to interview is because if their books were readily at hand, I know I’d be lost inside them! I always interview authors (or offer guest posts) of whom I’d genuinely and earnestly want to read; it’s a precursor to the day when I can read their stories and a lovely interlude for my readers to find #newtomeauthors they might not have discovered either!
Let’s celebrate bookish conversations & the stories behind them!
Kindly leave your comments, thoughts and musings about this interview for Ms Driscoll in the comment threads below! I welcome your commentary! Esp if you are a regular reader of Women’s Fiction whose stories give us a well of insight into our contemporary lives!
#NewBook by @TeresaDriscoll inspires #Interview about #LastKissGoodnight; share your comments! Click To Tweet
Similar to blog tours where I feature book reviews, as I choose to highlight an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog. I provide the questions for interviews and topics for the guest posts; wherein I receive the responses back from publicists and authors directly. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them; I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers.
{SOURCES: Book Cover Art for “Last Kiss Goodnight”, author photograph of Teresa Driscoll, author biography and book synopsis were provided by the publisher Bookouture and used with permission. Conversations with the Bookish Banner created by Jorie in Canva. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Comment banner created by Jorie in Canva. Tweets are embedded due to codes via Twitter.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2016.
Comments via Twitter:
.@bookouture#amediting my lovely #interview w/@TeresaDriscoll
Celebrating her #PubDay for #LastKissGoodnight!#WomensFiction w/ heart! :)— Jorie Loves A Story (@joriestory) March 25, 2016
A #PubDay convo w/@TeresaDriscoll
about #LastKissGoodnight via @bookouture#Womensfiction https://t.co/V6C9mVxm76 pic.twitter.com/09kpYecmp0— Jorie Loves A Story (@joriestory) March 26, 2016
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