I am delighted to announce that J. G. Harlond is the next author in the series.
As you may be aware I asked authors on my facebook page if they would like to appear in a series of *interviews*. I wanted to connect with other writers, find out what they write about, why they write, their thoughts about the writing process, their drives, and learn a little more about them.
Please find the full interview here (also linked to my twitter, tumblr, facebook, Goodreads, and google + account) and do share with your circle of book friends - thank you:
Tell us about your first novel? When did you start writing and why?
I can’t remember exactly when I started writing my first published novel – a good five years before it went to press. I was writing it as an amateur production then realised I could actually try to get it published. After that, there was another year of tidying it up and getting it edited. The irony is that this novel has now gone into a third edition. I have recently added to it and deepened the story for my new publisher, Penmore Press. I try to take heart from the fact that Thomas Hardy was always tinkering with his novels, improving and extending them so I have an excellent role model for the hard labour aspect.
Are you self-published or traditional?
My novels are traditionally published. I am used to having editors telling me what to do (and giving me something to moan about) from my other writing occupation, school books, and I feel more confident knowing there are professionals with some sort of vested interest in what and how I write.
At what point in your writing career did you *secure* a literary agent?
I was taken on by a charming New York agent for my second novel but after six months she came back to me saying she was getting nowhere, despite loving the story, and perhaps I should try for an independent press on my own.
Historical fiction was less glamorous in those days and we were having ‘the genre problem’. After that, I had a disaster with a small press. Fortunately, the British Society of Authors (worth every penny!) saved me with sound advice and I was able to get my rights back. I’m now with another indie and very happy, and the novel that was doing the rounds for six months in New York is now the first of a trilogy. Moral = don’t give up hope, especially if you honestly feel you’ve written a ‘good’ book.
How many books have you written?
I have written five complete novels, not all have been published. Like most fiction authors, I have an MS I love sitting on a shelf waiting to be re-written, and waiting, and waiting, while I get on with meeting other deadlines.
And can I ask what are you working on now?
Work-in-progress is the second part of the The Chosen Man trilogy. The basic story is about a 17th century Genoese silk and spice merchant, Ludo da Portovenere, a charismatic rogue who really shouldn’t be trusted. The first novel sees him involved in a Vatican conspiracy and a financial scandal in the Dutch United Provinces – in what became known as ‘tulipmania’. Having survived this, and stolen a Spanish galleon in the process, Ludo is now in Goa, India, wooing a wealthy widow prior to being caught up in espionage and finance in the royal courts of Spain and England. I’m still at the research stage, though, so the plot may well change depending what I unearth.
Any future projects?
To finish this trilogy and write another crime novel set in World War II.
Who is your favourite character of your books and why?
I have a soft spot for both my wicked heroes, Ludo da Portovenere and Leo Kazan of The Empress Emerald, but I grew very fond of the grumpy old detective in my new Cornish crime story, Local Resistance – due out later this year.
How do you come up with the names for the characters in your stories?
Names come to me in different ways, some because they mean something or because I literally dream them up. Ludo is Ludo because life is a game to him. Leo Kazan, the half-Russian, half-Indian boy walked into my mind fully formed with all his flaws, but the English girl in The Empress Emerald arrived in a dream. I dreamt the whole sequence of her dancing around the aspidistra, woke up and put her into the story. I hadn’t been looking for a female heroine, or planning what happens to her – but I suppose sub-consciously she was hiding behind the sleep curtain.
So where can readers find your books?
The novels are available from all the ebook retailers and book suppliers. Whether they are in high street bookstores, the few that remain, I cannot say.
Which authors have enthralled you?
Enthralled me, in that I have been drawn in and lived their stories - John Le Carre, Dorothy Dunnett, Mary Wesley, Daphne du Maurier, Salman Rushdie, Isabel Allende, Thomas Hardy . . . a curious mix, but they all create compelling, thought-provoking fiction out of human frailty.
What writer or book has had the biggest influence on your work?
Dorothy Dunnett without question because of her complex characters and intricate plots: I go back to her books time and again.
What book are you currently reading?
A thriller, A Foreign Country by Charles Cumming. It won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award and I’m reading it partly for escapism, partly to see how a tight thriller-plot is constructed.
How many books do you read a month, would you say?
This depends very much on my writing and how long I stay in front of a computer screen during the day, two or three perhaps, but some nights I’m virtually blind so I listen to the radio instead.
Where do you do your writing?
I sit down to work in my office space; it’s a converted bedroom with very big windows and a view of the Sierra de las Nieves.
How many hours a day do you write?
About four hours of active work, plus all the bits and bobs that go with checking facts and events, and getting side-tracked on fascinating titbits of research.
Do you agree with the statement: write about what you know?
Only to a certain extent. If you are writing a story set in another epoch it’s not possible to know what life was really like then, and every historian is prejudiced to some degree so you have to choose how you use historical detail and that may involve quite a lot of imagining. Curiously, I’ve been criticised for writing precisely what I know from personal experience. The Spanish girl in The Chosen Man arrives in Cornwall without a word of English, I then show how she picks up vocabulary and learns the language as I did when I first went to Italy and then came to Spain without knowing either of the languages. I was told Alina ‘learns too fast’ and ‘it’s not possible to learn a language like that’ – er, yes it is!
What challenges do you face when writing?
The biggest challenge for me is trying not to be influenced by what I read about writing – to do it my way. My novels don’t fall into one specific genre, although they are certainly historical fiction, plus I’m writing for both men and women. My challenge is not to give in and feel depressed because my books don’t fit into a neat category of espionage or crime, romance or adventure. This creates another challenge – trying to find an answer to the dreaded question ‘what do you write’. Current answer is usually something along the lines of: ‘Historical crime fiction – that is stories created around a lot of research – crime, spy stuff, with adventure – oh, and a bit of romance – historical fiction with fictional characters and real people . . .’ You see what I mean? If anyone can help me find a succinct answer, please do!
Are you easily distracted?
No, on the contrary, I zone out of the real world all to well.
As an author are you self-employed or do you have another job?
I took a huge risk some years ago and gave up a good day job, and I have never been so busy in my life. The first year was a bit touch and go – panicky, to say the least. But no regrets.
What has surprised you most about writing?
Good fiction is blooming hard work if you do it properly. Worse if you’re a perfectionist!
What are the best and worst things about being a writer?
The best thing is being in control of what you do and how you write. The worst thing is being in control of what you do and how you write. All the second-guessing and doubts . . .
What is the most exciting experience you've had as a result of writing?
Being on television – missed my vocation there! I’m not the least bit sociable usually, but the moment I was in front of a camera . . . Who is this woman?
What do you like doing when you aren't writing?
I have an ageing horse and a large family – they keep me busy, in that order.
Have you attended any writing workshops? Literary events? Local book fairs?
Living in Spain it is not too easy to attend literary events in Britain, but at one time I was running a holiday course near Malaga with Joan Fallon (Daughters of Spain, The Shining City etc) dedicated to writing about the past – both fact and fiction. That was good fun, and as always when one is ‘teaching’ one learns a lot at the same time. I attended a splendid intensive writing week run by the best seller Sarah Harrison many years ago – it was tremendously motivating, but also a fine introduction into how being a proper author can be jolly hard work.
Do you watch TV? If so, what programmes?
Bit of a tv series addict at present: ‘Game of Thrones’ (although I like the books as well) and ‘Mad Men’.
Your favourite films?
I stopped going to the cinema when they started trying to deafen audiences. Working silently at home in a rural area makes me very susceptible to noise. No favourite movie, although I do watch 1940s cine noir now and again and big epic blockbusters can be heart-warming.
Do you own an e-reader?
Yes, and I use it for some fiction.
What's your favourite season and why?
Living in southern Spain, I miss English autumns. Autumn is a time of reflection, a gathering and consolidating period before bleak winter. Although not anymore; we’ve had almost no winter here this year.
What advice can you give to other writers?
Work hard, get a good copy-editor and listen to their advice, even when you don’t like it. Always get your work proofread and edit, edit, edit. Be aware that there are no short cuts and above all, decide what you consider to be ‘success’. It may be being top of the charts or a private jet . . . Personally, I’ve settled for knowing readers ‘live’ my books and remember the characters after they finish reading this has helped me stop fretting about reviews and ratings. Makes me sounds smug, sorry, but it’s important to decide what you want to achieve I think.
Thank you, Jane, it was an absolute pleasure to have you on here.
To connect with Jane, please click on her website below:
www.jgharlond.com
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