I recently read and reviewed Leonie Mack's latest book Twenty-One nights in Paris, I was lucky enough to be part of the Blog tour too! Now onto the interview!
Intro
I am married with three young kids and a mini poodle and I'm always working on a new book! The work-in-progress I call the 'P' book will be out in spring 2023 and it's a fun return to Italy for me, with a range of very special Italian things starting with P. Any guesses what they could be?
How did you get started with writing books?
I have always written stories. I remember writing on dot-matrix printer paper when I was in year two. When I was in my teens, I discovered romance and I knew I'd found my thing. From that point, I devoured everything from the library and started writing my own stories. I finished my first novel when I was twenty-one, but it was very much a learning experience and not something for publication. After job and kids got in the way and I only wrote every now and then for a hobby, I finally got back into writing seriously thirteen years later and after a few shelved projects that never got anywhere, I finally had a manuscript picked up by Boldwood Books, My Christmas Number One, which was published in 2020. It's been a ride since then, releasing two books a year, trying to build a backlist and find readers.
Would you and your main character get along? And why or why not?
Ha, this is a funny question. On first meeting my main character, Ren, we probably wouldn't get along, but as soon as I got to know her, we'd be friends. She's lived a very different life from me, decked out in exclusive designer gear 24/7 and for goodness' sake, she's never taken public transport in her life! (I don't drive and I don't have a private driver, like she does!) I can't actually tell the difference between Dior and Chanel, so I'm more like the love interest Sacha in that regard.
If your book were made into a movie, which actors would play your characters?
I adore this question. I didn't have anyone in mind while writing my main character Ren, but afterwards, I thought I'd cast Karen Gillan. And for Sacha, I have struggled to choose between Mena Massoud and Soufiane Guerrab.
What is your favorite childhood book?
I was a huge fan of the Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair books and I read them over and over again. I'm now reading my kids the Famous Five (which I weirdly never got into as a kid) and I find so many influences from Enid Blyton on my own writing (although I also notice the older writing style and how things have moved on, now!)
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
I find the artistic process really rewarding and would happily sink into the characters all the time, if I could. The hardest part I find is actually the market side, the idea that people need to buy my books for me to keep spending this amount of time on them. There are so many amazing books out there, so that pressure gets to me sometimes and interferes with the creative side. But of the actual writing, I think the most difficult part is definitely the beginning of a new draft - not the very beginning, but a few scenes in, where I'm still getting to know the characters and trying to work out how they'll get from A to B (from 'not in love' to 'in love', in the case of my books LOL).
What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
My research trips are always money well spent because they involve travel, too! But ultimately, I still have to research most things online, so in terms of value for money, I'd probably say my OneDrive subscription (boring). Although I'd like to try Scrivener one day, I'm quite happy in Word and have worked out my way of using it for the planning process, too, and it's important to me to have all of my stuff in one place in the cloud. I have had one single mishap with a file since using OneDrive (the file got corrupted and overwrote my manuscript on OneDrive) but I managed to restore an older version very easily and only lost 50 words.
What other books have you had published?
Twenty-One Nights in Paris is my fifth book. My debut, My Christmas Number One, about a cross-cultural musical collaboration, came out in September 2020. The follow-up book Italy Ever After, about a divorced mum tagging along on music camp and falling for her daughter's teacher, has been my bestseller so far. A Match Made in Venice and We'll Always Have Venice, a winter and summer duo about two sisters finding love in the floating city, were my third and fourth books.
How do you celebrate when you finish your book?
I like to do something specific to the book, if I can - eating macarons in the case of this book! And then I watch Korean dramas on Netflix to relax!
If you could spend a day with another popular author, whom would you choose?
I would most like to spend a day with my writing buddies, Lucy Keeling and Lucy Morris, because covid interfered with what should have been an epic weekend with them and I feel quite isolated from the writing world, over here in Germany, where I live. But in terms of an author I don't know, I'd love to meet Emily Henry or Mia Sosa.
Do you have a message for your readers?
An enormous THANK YOU! It's an absolute privilege to have thousands of people reading my books and I always love hearing how people interact with the content themselves, which parts spoke to them and which parts reminded them of something from their own lives.
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Tiktok
Amazon
Thank you for this lovely interview, it's been so great getting to know you!
Intro
I am married with three young kids and a mini poodle and I'm always working on a new book! The work-in-progress I call the 'P' book will be out in spring 2023 and it's a fun return to Italy for me, with a range of very special Italian things starting with P. Any guesses what they could be?
I have always written stories. I remember writing on dot-matrix printer paper when I was in year two. When I was in my teens, I discovered romance and I knew I'd found my thing. From that point, I devoured everything from the library and started writing my own stories. I finished my first novel when I was twenty-one, but it was very much a learning experience and not something for publication. After job and kids got in the way and I only wrote every now and then for a hobby, I finally got back into writing seriously thirteen years later and after a few shelved projects that never got anywhere, I finally had a manuscript picked up by Boldwood Books, My Christmas Number One, which was published in 2020. It's been a ride since then, releasing two books a year, trying to build a backlist and find readers.
Would you and your main character get along? And why or why not?
Ha, this is a funny question. On first meeting my main character, Ren, we probably wouldn't get along, but as soon as I got to know her, we'd be friends. She's lived a very different life from me, decked out in exclusive designer gear 24/7 and for goodness' sake, she's never taken public transport in her life! (I don't drive and I don't have a private driver, like she does!) I can't actually tell the difference between Dior and Chanel, so I'm more like the love interest Sacha in that regard.
If your book were made into a movie, which actors would play your characters?
I adore this question. I didn't have anyone in mind while writing my main character Ren, but afterwards, I thought I'd cast Karen Gillan. And for Sacha, I have struggled to choose between Mena Massoud and Soufiane Guerrab.
What is your favorite childhood book?
I was a huge fan of the Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair books and I read them over and over again. I'm now reading my kids the Famous Five (which I weirdly never got into as a kid) and I find so many influences from Enid Blyton on my own writing (although I also notice the older writing style and how things have moved on, now!)
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
I find the artistic process really rewarding and would happily sink into the characters all the time, if I could. The hardest part I find is actually the market side, the idea that people need to buy my books for me to keep spending this amount of time on them. There are so many amazing books out there, so that pressure gets to me sometimes and interferes with the creative side. But of the actual writing, I think the most difficult part is definitely the beginning of a new draft - not the very beginning, but a few scenes in, where I'm still getting to know the characters and trying to work out how they'll get from A to B (from 'not in love' to 'in love', in the case of my books LOL).
What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
My research trips are always money well spent because they involve travel, too! But ultimately, I still have to research most things online, so in terms of value for money, I'd probably say my OneDrive subscription (boring). Although I'd like to try Scrivener one day, I'm quite happy in Word and have worked out my way of using it for the planning process, too, and it's important to me to have all of my stuff in one place in the cloud. I have had one single mishap with a file since using OneDrive (the file got corrupted and overwrote my manuscript on OneDrive) but I managed to restore an older version very easily and only lost 50 words.
What other books have you had published?
Twenty-One Nights in Paris is my fifth book. My debut, My Christmas Number One, about a cross-cultural musical collaboration, came out in September 2020. The follow-up book Italy Ever After, about a divorced mum tagging along on music camp and falling for her daughter's teacher, has been my bestseller so far. A Match Made in Venice and We'll Always Have Venice, a winter and summer duo about two sisters finding love in the floating city, were my third and fourth books.
How do you celebrate when you finish your book?
I like to do something specific to the book, if I can - eating macarons in the case of this book! And then I watch Korean dramas on Netflix to relax!
If you could spend a day with another popular author, whom would you choose?
I would most like to spend a day with my writing buddies, Lucy Keeling and Lucy Morris, because covid interfered with what should have been an epic weekend with them and I feel quite isolated from the writing world, over here in Germany, where I live. But in terms of an author I don't know, I'd love to meet Emily Henry or Mia Sosa.
Do you have a message for your readers?
An enormous THANK YOU! It's an absolute privilege to have thousands of people reading my books and I always love hearing how people interact with the content themselves, which parts spoke to them and which parts reminded them of something from their own lives.
Tiktok
Amazon
Thank you for this lovely interview, it's been so great getting to know you!
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