Guest Post by Gilli Allan — Why I Make My Life Difficult
It’s always a pleasure to hand my blog over to a guest for the day to write about their writing process or something connected with their work. More than anything, it saves me from having to do much at all… Today I hand over to Gilli Allan.
Gilli Allan started to write in childhood, a hobby only abandoned when real life supplanted the fiction. Gilli didn’t go to Oxford or Cambridge but, after just enough exam passes to squeak in, she attended Croydon Art College.
She didn’t work on any of the broadsheets, in publishing or television. Instead she was a shop assistant, a beauty consultant and a barmaid before landing her dream job as an illustrator in advertising. It was only when she was at home with her young son that Gilli began writing seriously. Her first two novels were quickly published but when her publisher ceased to trade, Gilli went independent.
Over the years, Gilli has been a school governor, a contributor to local newspapers, and a driving force behind the community shop in her Gloucestershire village. Still a keen artist, she designs Christmas cards and has begun book illustration. Gilli is particularly delighted to have recently gained a new mainstream publisher – Accent Press. TORN is the first book to be published in the three book deal.
WHY I MAKE MY LIFE DIFFICULT
Or, why do I insist on ripping away the rose-tinted glasses?
Well, I blame my parents – they’re always in the firing line when trying to rationalise failings or problems in life, aren’t they? But I also blame Dostoevsky.
My parents were both artists – father in advertising, mother an amateur painter – and I inherited a facility for art. When I was growing up, despite my main hobby being writing, I knew where I was headed. My writing wasn’t discouraged, but it was disregarded.
Romances, and in particular teenage girls’ comics, were looked down on in my family. They weren’t forbidden, and I did occasionally buy and read one, but not often and I didn’t flaunt them. I’d received the very strong impression that I should be above ‘that sort of thing’, so they remained a secret but rather guilty pleasure. And if proper published romance was silly – however enjoyable – then whatever I wrote as an adolescent, had to be the ultimate in soppy and juvenile.
My older sister was devoted to Georgette Heyer. She even tried to write her own. Her route to Regency Romance was via Jane Austen; consequently it was an acceptable habit. I read them all, of course, and I also read Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, but although I enjoyed them, I was never driven to emulate the classic historical romance. Nor did I want to write a category romance of the time, in which heroes were always rich and powerful (and a touch arrogant), heroines always virginal and beautiful (and a bit sappy), and sex had no consequences.
When I was 15, I read Crime & Punishment and fell in love with Dostoevsky’s ‘hero’, the impoverished student, Rodion Raskolnikov. This was not entirely the start, but it certainly confirmed me in my growing obsession with the flawed and suffering hero. And what greater flaw can a hero have than a Napoleon Complex which drives him to murder two old ladies with a chopper? And following the deed, Raskolnikov certainly suffers – as he should. My own stories were not about murder, but they did depart quite dramatically from the romance clichés of the time, introducing darker themes and more angst-ridden protagonists.
I stopped writing when real life started happening – i.e. Art College, boyfriends, job as an illustrator and marriage. With the birth of my son I began to debate what I could do from home. I lit on the idea of writing a Mills & Boon. I confess and apologise that I still retained that slight prejudice I’d been brought up with; I’d read only a few over the years, and thought it would be easy. It’s not easy. I admire the authors who can do it. But my intention to write a conventional romance was subverted from the first page. Had the experience been less enjoyable I might have tried harder to drag the plot back onto the straight and narrow. Apart from introducing a few ‘piercing glances’, and ‘melting’ moments my first complete novel went its own way. That book was published and the die was cast.
I don’t think it’s possible to be narrow-minded if you’re a writer because you’re always looking for the reasons behind the behaviour. I don’t mean justifying it, just observing and wondering why. I may always have a love story at the heart of my books, but the protagonists are not necessarily drop-dead gorgeous paragons. They are ordinary people with faults and failings, who carry the burden of past mistakes. Modern life can be messy and there are temptations and booby-traps lying in wait for most of us. For me, it’s the mistakes, trip-ups and falling short of your own or others’ expectations, which make the story.
I wish, in a way, that I could write what I’m told the public wants. I’d sell a lot more books. It’s indisputable – light, frothy, amusing, predictable romantic fiction is what is bought and read more than almost anything else. But there’s a bug in me that needs to rip away those rose-tinted glasses.
Unconventional, contemporary fiction, with a grown-up love story at its heart, Gilli’s latest book, TORN, is published by Accent Press and is available on Amazon here.
Jess has made a series of bad life choices and all have let her down.
Escaping London, she sets out to recreate herself in the idyllic countryside, and this time she wants to get it right! She wants to lead a responsible, tranquil life with her young son Rory, but soon discovers stresses which pull her in opposing directions – conflict over a new bypass, between friends, and worst of all, between lovers.
Educated, experienced, and pragmatic, James is a widowed farmer whose opinions differ from, and enrage, Jess. His young shepherd, Danny, is an uneducated and inexperienced idealist. Jess is attracted to them both, and realizes if she wants her idyllic countryside life to survive, she must choose her Mr Right.
To connect with Gilli Allan:
http://twitter.com/gilliallan (@gilliallan)
https://www.facebook.com/GilliAllan.AUTHOR
