I am delighted to welcome Elaine Spires to the blog today with some great advice for writers. Her novel, The Single Best Thing is released today, on 14th February. The sixth in her Singles series, you can read my reviews of others in the series here: Single All the Way | Singles, Set and Match
First, here is a little about The Single Best Thing:
Almost four years have passed since Melv followed Eve back
to England refusing to throw away their long awaited chance of lasting love and
happiness. Much has happened in that time. No longer a tour manager for Travel
Together, Eve is enjoying unexpected success in her new career. Has she
forgiven him for hurting her so deeply? Was her love for him simply enough? And
what about her own dark secret?
Provoking smiles and tears this glimpse into Eve’s future
brings the Singles’ Series to its final conclusion
Welcome to Books, Life and Everything, Elaine! Now it's over to you!
A piece of advice new writers are often given is
“Write about what you know.”
This advice is sound and has given us some of
the most amazing books and series of novels from people who are specialists or
who have had a career in world they write about in their texts.
The fabulous Tess Gerritsen whose books I devour
is a prime example. Although her first
eight novels were romantic thrillers, she went on to use the expertise she
gained through her degree in anthropology and then in medicine to write medical
thrillers, including the fabulous pairing of homicide detective Jane Rizzoli
with pathologist Dr Maura Isles. Another
firm favourite of mine is Kathy Reichs whose background as a forensic
anthropologist is put to great use in her ‘Bones’ series, featuring Temperance
Brennan her fictional forensic anthropologist.
John Grisham practised Law for some ten years
before publishing his first novel A Time To Kill. Since then his forty novels, all with a
setting in the legal world, have sold more than three hundred million copies
worldwide. Isn’t that amazing?
So, as we can see, writing about what you know
can sometimes prove to be extremely lucrative.
On a far smaller scale when I started out I
wrote about what I knew. My first novel,
What’s Eating Me, based on a stage play I’d performed on the London and
Edinburgh Fringes, was about a compulsive/emotional eater. While I hadn’t experienced being on a TV
weight-loss programme, as a fat girl with an eating disorder I had experienced
everything else that Eileen went through: other people’s prejudices,
assumptions and insults and the difficulties that being a plus size can bring
to everyday actions such as buying clothes.
The Banjo Book One (Book Two will be out in the
autumn) is based on a banjo (a pedestrianised cul-de-sac) in Dagenham during
the 50s and 60s. I grew up in Dagenham;
I had an amazing childhood and I loved the place. It was a working-class town with decent
people who looked out for each other.
There were loads of parks and green spaces and we always felt safe
playing out in the street. So what if
the majority worked at Fords? Why should
being a blue-collar worker of any kind be looked down upon? I have always felt very proud of where I come
from and protective of its reputation, so delving into fabulous childhood
memories gave me the base for this book.
My thirteen years as a tour manager with a UK
singles’ tour operator gave me the initial idea and a ready-made pool of
resources for my Singles’ Series - of which The Single Best Thing is the sixth
and final book - and for another novel Sweet Lady. However, the six books contain many stories
other than the tour manager Eve’s. Each
book tells the back story of most of the group, they are the stories within the
story and this is where the writer’s greatest tool comes into play:
imagination.
A writer needs an imagination.
There are thousands of writers who don’t write
about what they know and yet their words keep us spellbound. I think we can probably take it as read (no
pun intended) that J K Rowling has never ridden a broomstick or walked through
the wall at Kings Cross Station to Platform 9 3/4 for the Hogwarts
Express. Did Agatha Christie actually
murder anyone? I sincerely hope
not. And apparently the holder of the
title of the English Language’s Greatest Playwright William Shakespeare never
left these shores in spite of setting only two of his plays in England.
So, if you’re thinking about writing - a book, a
play, a film script - let your imagination soar! Think about all the amazing experiences
you’ve only ever dreamed about and then get working on bringing them to your
readers.
And a good Google here and there will help you
enormously!
What great advice, Elaine! Thank you so much for coming along today.
About the Author
Elaine Spires is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and
actress. Extensive travelling and a background in education and tourism
perfected Elaine's keen eye for the quirky characteristics of people,
captivating the humorous observations she now affectionately shares with the
readers of her novels. Elaine has written two books of short stories, two
novellas and seven novels, four of which form the Singles Series - Singles’
Holiday, Singles and Spice, Single All The Way and Singles At Sea. Her latest book, Singles, Set and Match is
the fifth and final book in the series.
Her play Stanley Grimshaw Has Left The Building is being staged at the
Bridewell Theatre, London in May 2019.
Her short film Only the Lonely, co-written with Veronique Christie and
featuring Anna Calder Marshall is currently being in shown in film festivals
worldwide and she is currently working on a full length feature film script. Only
the Lonely won the Groucho Club Short Film Festival 2019! Elaine recently returned to UK after living
in Antigua W.I. She lives in East London.
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