Heeelloooo everyone,
I know its been a
while, but I'm back. I've been up and down trying to promote my action-packed
nuclear thriller: Ionshaker
Desperate published on Amazon 24th September 2013 (please tell a friend). But this post isn't about me.
Its a about friend of mine who is on a journey to complete four books. Today she’ll
tell us how it all started, and how she is able to go to work, be a wife, a
mother and last but not least…BE A WRITER!!!!
Please introduce
yourself and say something about your writing.
Hello there! My name is Tara
Ford, author of the women’s fiction/humour book, Calling All Services. This is the first of four novels about the
different lives of one family. The members of the family reign throughout the
series either directly or indirectly and therefore all four books have a common
beginning to their titles – The Calling
All…series. I have just completed the second book, Calling All Dentists, which is currently with my publishers –
awaiting ‘the verdict’! The third, Calling
All Customers, is a work in progress, which I hope to complete late in
2014. My aim is to then write, Calling
All Neighbours, in 2015.
Wow Tara, I should emulate your determination and
focus on your story. Tell us something, do you also write with other pen names?
I don’t use a pen name…yet. I do
however, have a ridiculous idea for a children’s book and may well write down
my idea at some point and see where it takes me. If the idea does evolve in to
anything, then I have made up a pen name already by using my first name and
maiden name and twisting them around a bit. How does Tessie Hara sound?
Tessie Hara sounds great!!! And now that you
mentioned children…tell us about your childhood, what was it like?
Memories of my childhood are
quite sad ones as my parents divorced when I was about 9 years old. I struggled
to come to terms with it and this affected my schooling for some time.
…Oh sorry to hear that…
However, I also had the best of
both worlds as I grew up – everything was doubled! Two lots of Christmas
presents and birthday presents, double the amount of holidays that my friends
had and a beautiful new brother that I may have never had if my parents hadn’t
split up. All in all, my childhood was filled with books, reading, an over
exaggerated imagination and lots of creativity as I made my own little story
books with bits of paper.
Interesting, so does it mean as a child you knew
you’d be a writer?
Umm…I always knew I wanted to
write but I never imagined for one minute that I would actually be classed as a
writer – but I suppose I am now.
Yes you ARE…and how long have you been writing?
Like I said earlier, I used to
make up little story book with lots of pictures, when I was very young but my
first real experience of writing something creative came when I was 15. I wrote
a long story for my English homework – which was subsequently removed from my
English book and deemed as inappropriate material for school and for my age – Oops,
maybe not quite along the lines of Fifty
Shades of Grey though.
After that, I didn't bother
anymore but I always had a deep-set desire to write something – I just didn't know what.
And what are some of the challenges you had to
overcome when writing your first book?
I think the most obvious
challenge is the decision on how to publish. There have so many different
options out there and it can all be quite confusing and over-bearing to a new
writer. I spent almost about 6 months just researching the different options.
The other challenge for me was believing in myself and having the courage to
put my writing out there for all to see.
Aha…and how do you juggle being a mom, work writing?
I really have no idea how I do
it! I have a family, a full-time job and a naughty Husky to look after.
Luckily, I work in a school so the school holidays come in very handy, when it
comes to writing. My four children are grown up now, so I suppose they take
slightly less of my time to rear and nurture – although I don’t think you ever
stop rearing or nurturing them. We still have two children/young people living
at home and I am relieved that they are still there otherwise I think my dear
husband would go stir-crazy when there’s no one left to talk to. I try hard to
incorporate my marketing efforts into watching the TV with the family, in the
living room, whilst my laptop is on my lap.
I hear you on that. Now, tell us about your latest
book in one or two sentences?
Calling
All Services is a peep into the lives of one family, over the
course of one unusually, eventful week. A rollercoaster of emotions could have
you laughing, crying and cringing as the week unfolds to reveal one disaster
after another. The members of the Frey family may never be the same again.
Now that you’re already published, in your opinion
how can indie authors stand a chance in this competitive writing industry?
I think you must have a strong
desire to succeed and be very determined to put in a lot of hard work. I
remember reading somewhere that writing the book was the easy part and I now
quite agree with that statement. You need to create an internet presence in
order to gain new readers and potential fans.
Very true indeed. How do you spend your free time,
what do you do for fun?
Umm…what’s that? Free time? Fun?
Oh yes, I do remember those times. No, seriously and sadly, the thing that I
like to do for fun (and it’s very sad as far as my family are concerned) is
write! In my free time – I write! I see a clearing in the distant future where
I will have my time for fun and free-time but for now, I love to write. I’ve
got quite a few years of catching up to do, as far as I’m concerned.
You really love writing. Do you have any favorite quote
you’d like to share with us?
‘If life throws you a lemon, make
lemonade’ Joan Collins.
A very positive way of looking at things right? Now I wanna ask you some goofy stuff. Who’s your
favorite actor, actress, book and writer?
My favourite actress would have
been Marilyn Monroe but if you mean one that is still with us, I would choose
Jodie Foster. Favourite actor – Anthony Hopkins.
Favourite book – The Curious
Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time by Mark Haddon (very thought provoking)
Favourite writer – Sophie
Kinsella, Bernadette Strachan and Marian Keyes (sorry I just couldn’t make my
mind up which one to choose)
So I take it you've watched Elysium, (though I liked Matt Demon better than Joddie) Anyways, back to your book. What do you do to promote your books?
Everything I can possibly do! I
like to help to promote other authors and I feel that this, in turn, will help
to promote me. I also love to do interviews like this. I search constantly for
possible book reviews and try to keep my blog up to date and interesting (if
that’s possible). I also use Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis to ensure
that I am networking as much as possible. All in all, it’s very time-consuming
and a lot of hard work but I’m prepared to do it – even if I only gain a couple
(sometimes one – maybe none) of new readers each month.
Okay, lets now shift gears a bit. Have you ever
lived out of U.K?
No, I’ve always lived in the UK but
I did go through a spell where I wanted to move away to somewhere like Spain.
That momentary blip has gone now and I’m quite happy to stay put in the UK for
the rest of my life.
I see. Are there any
New Authors you are interested in for us to watch out for? and Why should we
watch out for them?
I think there are so many good,
new authors out there. It’s hard to say, who to watch out for because I think
it depends on who puts in the most effort to promote themselves.
How about – watch out for me! J
Yes we will
watchout for you. If there is an upcoming write that you’re speaking to, what
would be your advice?
Just keep marketing your product
in any way you can. Design some posters, make some business cards, network on
as many social networking sites as you can handle. Carry a spare copy of your
book around with you – you never know when you might bump in to someone who
might be interested. Get as many reviews as you can.
It has been a pleasure speaking to you Tara, hopefully
we will do this again in the future. Thank you for your time.
Contact details:
Book Links
