New Book Tour Features

Hi all

You may have noticed that Beyond The Moon is on blog tour again, this time with the fabulous Rachel's Random Resources. I’ve done a few interviews/Q&As about my writing process and WW1 medicine, etc.

Here is the first Q&A I did, with Els from the B For Bookreview blog:

– When and where do you prefer to write?

I write during school term times, when my incredibly lively and noisy children are safely out of the way at school and the house is lovely and quiet. I don’t do at all well with noise and distractions. I write in my “office”, a lovely, light room in our old Victorian house in west London. My desk is opposite a large sash window that looks out onto the back garden and swaying trees. I love to sit here and contemplate the changing weather while coming up with story ideas.

– Do you have a certain ritual?

Once I’ve dropped my children at school I head off to the shops and do the shopping for dinner, then I head off to the coffee shop with my rather battered Thermos mug…

– Is there a drink of some food that keeps you company while you write?

…where I buy the largest, strongest white Americano they have, along with a granola yoghurt. I then take these home with me, sit at my desk, and slowly consume them over the next couple of hours. I am a real creature of habit. And I find this little routine sort of ‘meditative’. It definitely relaxes me (despite all the caffeine!) and puts me into a creative and writing frame of mind.

– What is your favourite book?

I’ve loved Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds since the 1980s, when I first read it as a teenager. It was the book that first taught me what an incredibly emotional experience reading fiction could be, and how you can feel personally touched and affected by a story. I remember so many of Colleen McCullough’s beautiful descriptions about the Australian Outback to this day.

– Do you consider writing a different genre in the future?

I would quite like to write a romantic comedy one day, but I must say that the ideas for such a book don’t spring to mind as readily as all the ideas I have for historical fiction

– Do you sometimes base your characters on people you know?

Not entire people, but parts of some characters’ make-up might well be influenced by certain people – either those that I know personally or have read about. But having said that, as an author I think there is something of yourself (more than a little, a lot of the time) in every character you write.

– Do you take a notebook everywhere in order to write down ideas that pop up?

It’s not quite as “authorly” as a notebook, but my mobile phone goes everywhere with me and I usually put any ideas that I have on the fly into an email on that, then send it to myself. I must admit I do like the idea of a notebook (and maybe a beautiful fountain pen or quill to go with it), but my handbag already weighs a ton.

– Which genre do you not like at all?

That’s a really good question. I don’t like the horror genre, either in book or film form. I just see it as a form of “cheap thrills”. That’s very much a personal opinion, though. I also would never choose to read crime or detective fiction. It just doesn’t interest me.

– If you had the chance to co-write a book. Whom would it be with?

How about Lord Byron? That would probably be tremendous fun!

– If you should travel to a foreign country to do research, which one would you chose and why?

I’ve always longed to visit Israel and see all the historical religious sites over there. If I could combine a trip there with research for a novel that would be just perfect.

Here are the links for two more features I did, in case you'd like to look them up.

https://lunaslittlelibrary.wordpress....

https://bookreviewsbyjasmine.blogspot...

Until next time!

Catherine