Northern Writer ~ Conrad Jones

I am delighted to bring this feature to Jaffareadstoo which showcases

 the work of authors who live and write in the North

 ✧ Here's Northern Writer : Conrad Jones ✧

A very warm welcome to Jaffareadstoo, Conrad. Tell us a little about yourself and how you got started as an author? 

Conrad Jones a 52-year-old Author, living in Holyhead, Anglesey, which I class as my home, before starting a career as a trainee manger with McDonalds Restaurants in 1989. I worked in management at McDonalds Restaurants Ltd from 1989-2002, working my way up to Business Consultant (area manager) working in the corporate and franchised departments. 

In March 1993 I was managing the Restaurant in Warrington`s Bridge St when two Irish Republican Army bombs exploded directly outside the store, resulting in the death of two young boys and many casualties. Along with hundreds of other people there that day I was deeply affected by the attack, which led to a long-term interest in the motivation and mind set of criminal gangs. I began to read anything crime related that I could get my hands on. 

I link this experience with the desire to write books on the subject, which came much later due to an unusual set of circumstances. Because of that experience my early novels follow the adventures of an elite counter terrorist unit, The Terrorist Task Force, and their leader, John Tankersley, or `Tank`and they are the Soft Target Series, which have been described by a reviewer as ‘Reacher on steroids’. 

I had no intentions of writing until 2007, when I set off on an 11-week tour of the USA. The Day before I boarded the plane, Madeleine Mcann disappeared and all through the holiday I followed the American news reports which had little or no information about her. I didn't realise it at the time, but the terrible kidnap would inspire my book, The Child Taker years later. During that trip, I received news that my house had been burgled and my work van and equipment were stolen. That summer was the year when York and Tewksbury were flooded by a deluge and insurance companies were swamped with claims. They informed me that they couldn't do anything for weeks and that returning home would be a wasted journey. Rendered unemployed on a beach in Clearwater, Florida, I decided to begin my first book, Soft Target. I have never stopped writing since. I have recently completed my 20th novel, The Journey, something that never would have happened but for that burglary and my experiences in Warrington. 

As far as my favourite series ever, it has to be James Herbert’s, The Rats trilogy. The first book did for me what school books couldn’t. It fascinated me, triggered my imagination and gave me the hunger to want to read more. I waited years for the second book, The Lair, and Domain, the third book to come out and they were amazing. Domain is one of the best books I have ever read. In later years, Lee Child, especially the early books, has kept me hypnotised on my sunbed on holiday as has Michael Connelley and his Harry Bosch Series.

Would you say that your novels are influenced by your northern background and how have the people and its landscape shaped your stories? 

I like to write about places that I know well, hence I use Liverpool and North Wales. 

In your research for your novels, do you visit any of the places you write about and which have made a lasting impression? 

Yes. I travel to the cities and towns to see how they have changed. It’s important to keep in touch with what is going on. It adds to the realism of the novel. 

If you were pitching the North as an ideal place to live, work and write – how would you sell it and what makes it so special? 

The diversity of the cities, history, mingled with modernism. Each northern city is different to the next yet the people are passionately similar. The diversity of the population adds to the rich mixture of cultures. Then we have the jaw-dropping beauty of Snowdonia, Anglesey and the Lake District. 

As a writer based in the North, does this present any problems in terms of marketing and promoting your books and if so, how do you overcome them? 

I think marketing and promotion are mostly internet based now. 

Writing is a solitary business - how do you interact with other authors? 

I am a member of several online author groups and I try to attend as many festivals as possible. 

How supportive are local communities to your writing, and are there ever any opportunities for book shops, local reading groups, or libraries to be involved in promoting your work? 

The support locally is mixed in my area. The nearest book shop is 80 miles away. My local libraries are very supportive and stock my novels. 

Links to my series: 

The Detective Alec Ramsay Series 

My latest book

The award winning, very emotional, The Journey; 

Huge thanks to Conrad for being my special guest on the blog today

Twitter @ConradJones

Coming next  time : Andrew Rainnie

Northern Writer ~ Fiona Morgan

I am delighted to bring a new feature to Jaffareadstoo which showcases

 the work of authors who live and write in the North

 ✧ Here's Scottish writer : Fiona Morgan ✧

A very warm welcome to Jaffareadstoo, Fiona. Tell us a little about yourself. 

Hi everyone, I am Fiona Morgan and I live in a small town in Scotland called Airdrie, which is near Glasgow. I am married with two kids. During the day I work as a deafblind guide communicator and a British Sign Language Facilitator in a college interpreting classes for our deaf students. 

How long have you been writing and what got you started? 

I have been writing for about 4 years and have two thriller romance novels, Free and What's Mine, published with Pegasus, under their Vanguard imprint. I started writing after my depression started to get a grip of me again. I felt I had stopped pushing myself and was stagnating again, and that was the last thing I wanted to happen. I asked myself what I had always wanted to do, but was too scared to do and writing a book was the one thing that always came to mind. So as a hobby I picked up pen and paper and started to write myself a story. My friend asked if she could read it and once I was finished I emailed it over to her and she pushed me to send it out to publishers, they could only say no. So off I went to look into some publishers and sent my manuscript away. Pegasus agreed to publish my book in a way that suited me, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Pegasus Publishing
Amazon UK

Your latest novel, What's Mine was published earlier this year. What can you tell us about the story that won't give too much away? 

What's Mine is a thriller romance story based in Glasgow. It deals with love, hate, manipulation and control. It shows how someone out for revenge can cause so much destruction and asks the question if can love survive? 

Pegasus Publishing
Amazon UK

Are you a plotter...or ...a start writing and see where it takes you sort of writer? 

I am a bit of both. I plot the characters, their appearance, their jobs, their cars, their friends, where they live, but then I allow their characteristics and personalities take on a life of their own. As for the events, I know the main ones I want to happen, major events in the story, but how I get from one to the other I let happen on it's own, that way other events can pop up and the story can flow and change on it's own. I was once letting the writing flow and got a surprise at what my own character did... I love that about writing!

Your books are written in the North. How have the people and the northern landscape shaped your stories?

Both my books are based in Glasgow and surrounding areas, so the landscape in my books is very built up, but I do pick out the well known streets in Glasgow City, like Buchanan Street, Mitchell Lane and Sauchiehall Street.

There are such an amazing spectrum of characters in Glasgow I had a great amount of personalities to help shape my characters, with this in mind, I wrote characters from all walks of life in Glasgow, from the astute, powerful, but dangerous, businessman, or the hard working, hard grafting business owner, to the underground thugs for higher. Due to the vast difference in each character, I used different Glaswegian dialect in my books, including Glasgow slang. I feel this gives the story and the characters a more real life feeling.

If you were pitching the North as an ideal place to live, work and write – how would you sell it and what makes it so special?

I would sell Scotland in two different ways. Firstly on the views and vistas. The scenery, hills and glens are amazing and peaceful to get anybodies creative juices flowing, and not far from any of the main cities. Loch Lomond, Fort William, Glencoe, to name a few.

The second way would be the amazing characters you find. Friendly, funny and real. After hitting the world cclass shopping, sitting in one of the coffee shops or pubs people watching is a great way to see life in its finest.

Do you write the type of books you like to read and which authors influence you? 

I write one of the genres I like, I also like crime, and psychological thrillers. My favourite author at the moment is Stuart MacBride, he mixes gruesome and laughter in a unique way, and I love how he describes characters. 

How do you manage to balance writing with your everyday life and what do you do to relax? 

I write whenever and wherever I can. As I work during the day I try to get some words down before I start or on my breaks, but mostly at night and weekends. There is a Costa Coffee near me which I escape to, to do some writing and people watching, I also try to delegate the housework to my teenagers to give me more writing time, although they rarely take me up on the offer. Who would have thought teenagers didn't want to clean? 

Can you share with us anything about your next writing project? 

My next project is another thriller romance based in Glasgow, but this time it deals with lies and double lives, and of course relationships and love. It is coming on slowly, but surely, as the others did.

You can find out more about Fiona and her writing

Facebook

Twitter @FionaMorgan79

Instagram @f.y.morgan

Pegasus Publishing

Amazon UK

Huge thanks to Fiona for being my special guest on the blog today

Coming next  time : Conrad Jones

Author feature ~ Mary Cavanagh

Calling All Authors

A Seriously Useful Guide to Becoming a Successful Author

by Mary Cavanagh

ISBN 978-1-78507-547-1

Mary Cavanagh

Thank you, Jo, for giving me the opportunity to write about Calling All Authors, and most especially for contributing your article, outlining the enjoyment you get from writing Jaffreadstoo. Although I’m pretty sure that most of your readers are looking for good recommended reads I wonder if any of them have ever wondered what it’s like to be an author in a very competitive publishing world; something they will probably find very interesting and revealing.

Being an author today, even with huge talent, is a terrible struggle, and even though I’ve have a modicum of success with three novels, I’ve also come up against huge disappointments and let-downs. Therefore, my aim with Calling All Authors is to produce a seriously useful guide to professional manuscript production, understanding the jungle of the book industry and selling that book!

So why did I take a year out of my life to write it? The answer is simple; as a novelist I’ve ‘walked the walk and talked the talk’ for nearly twenty years, and I’m rather fed up with similar books being produced by corporate know-alls who (although they are well connected to the publishing industry) have no idea what its actually like to burn the midnight oil whilst juggling work and family life, fighting a way through all the publishing options on offer, and throwing oneself into the hurly burly of the commercial marketing place. Thus, I’ve tried to ‘tell it like it is’ by including not only sound advice, but every caution and alert I can.

Over the last five years, with the advent of self-publishing, on-line booksales platforms (like Amazon) and social media marketing, publication is actually easier, but it’s infinitely more difficult to get a mainstream contract. Even if you do become one of the tiny minority to win that much-prized accolade, publishing houses are doing less and less to help you with marketing and publicity. A serious much-favoured option is self-publishing; a method that actually leaves you without ‘handcuffs’ and (if you are successful) a much better monetary reward. Thus, with so many octopus tentacles being offered you have to have focus, determination, and as much information as possible to survive the book industry. I hope that this is what I have provided in Calling All Authors.

I hope that this ‘in a nutshell’ article gives a flavour of what’s needed to be a published author. I aim to demystify all the necessary processes in a concise, lively, and highly readable way, with some very useful contributions from a wide range of other successful authors and book trade specialists. 

I will be really pleased to hear from anyone who would like to contact me with questions, or suggest any ideas for inclusion in further editions.

Mary Cavanagh, Oxford, 2016

Email: mary.cavanagh20@gmail.com

Website: www.marycavanagh.co.uk

Twitter @MaryCNovelist

Amazon UK




Huge thanks to Mary for taking the time to come and talk about Calling All Authors and for her kind invitation to Jaffareadstoo to feature in this informative and interesting book. I don't consider myself to be a writer, merely a recorder of my thoughts about the books I love to read. However, I found the book to be extremely useful and it really helped me to understand the writing process more and to understand all the ins and outs of the fascinating and competitive world of the both the aspiring  and published author.

~***~