Ask the Author: Liz Fielding
Answered Questions (13)
Liz Fielding
Hi Cinthia - sorry I haven't been around. Family stuff.
Publishing is a tough business, but the one thing I can tell you with absolutely confidence is that you have to write the book of your heart. Trying to follow the latest trend is never going to work because those books will have been written up to a year before.
It was easier back when I started. No social media, no endless blogs or tweets about what the latest hot thing. We just wrote what drove us.
Writing is hard enough without trying to write something that doesn't consume you. Just block out the white noise and keep writing, Cinthia. It took me years to get a book published, but everything you write makes your writing stronger. Good luck.
Liz
Publishing is a tough business, but the one thing I can tell you with absolutely confidence is that you have to write the book of your heart. Trying to follow the latest trend is never going to work because those books will have been written up to a year before.
It was easier back when I started. No social media, no endless blogs or tweets about what the latest hot thing. We just wrote what drove us.
Writing is hard enough without trying to write something that doesn't consume you. Just block out the white noise and keep writing, Cinthia. It took me years to get a book published, but everything you write makes your writing stronger. Good luck.
Liz
Liz Fielding
There's not much mystery about my own life. Happy family, parents married for fifty years, married myself for 45 this year. However I know my paternal grandmother was married twice and that my oldest aunt (born 1900 so a Victoria!) was her first husband's child. That only came to light a few years ago when I was digging around on an ancestry website. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to leave a man (with a one year old child) back then. Who was he, why did she leave him and how did she meet my grandfather (who she was with for the rest of her life - they had seven more children, my Dad being the youngest) and only married just before they died (when presumably her first husband died - the working classes couldn't afford a divorce in thsoe days.) which I think is wonderfully romantic. It would make a great story.
Liz Fielding
There's not much mystery about my own life. Happy family, parents married for fifty years, married myself for 45 this year. However I know my paternal grandmother was married twice and that my oldest aunt (born 1900 so a Victoria!) was her first husband's child. That only came to light a few years ago when I was digging around on an ancestry website. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to leave a man (with a one year old child) back then. Who was he, why did she leave him and how did she meet my grandfather (who she was with for the rest of her life - they had seven more children, my Dad being the youngest) and only married just before they died (when presumably her first husband died - the working classes couldn't afford a divorce in thsoe days.) which I think is wonderfully romantic. It would make a great story.
Liz Fielding
I have no information about the book industry in India, but Mills and Boon India do publish local authors. I'm sure they have the details of how to submit on their website. Good luck!
Liz Fielding
Constructive feedback every time, Paula, although if I don't enjoy a book, I prefer not to review it.
Liz Fielding
No. I was a secretary before I became a writer so my typing speed is fast. My first attempt at a romance was typed on an old portable. These days I write direct to the screen and only print off pages when I'm revising. But. Lots of writers do write longhand. Jill Mansell certainly does.
Liz Fielding
Most people are interest, Paula, but some are rude. One woman took a step back - presumably she thought it might be catching! I do read romance in public and never apologise for it. I once nearly fell off my seat on a train reading one of Jennifer Crusie's category romances because I was laughing so much.
Liz Fielding
Stare glassy-eyed at the screen writing one word at time until it gives up and goes away!
Liz Fielding
Writing is what I do for a living. I sit at my desk, turn on my computer and start writing. There is no other way.
Liz Fielding
At this moment I writing a short story spin-off from one of my "ice cream" girl series - Anything But Vanilla. I am desperate to see Ria "unbutton" Graeme. :)
Liz Fielding
You might think it's the conferences, the book signings, the award ceremonies but honestly ... the best part of being a writer are the days when your characters are moving so fast across the page that you can hardly keep up with them. When the words flow. It's just magic.
Liz Fielding
Sometimes finding a way into your story is the most difficult part of writing. It still happens to me even after more than 60 books. It is vital to start the book at the moment of change. Do not get trapped into writing backstory to "explain" how your heroine got to this point. Start with the crisis, get your characters moving, talking, even if they're just shouting "Help!"
Liz Fielding
I was working on ideas for the third in my "ice cream" sisters books. I needed a story for Geli but I wanted to get away from the village and from ice cream. Geli is an artist and when I read an article in Italia magazine about the old artisan quarter of Milan - now a haven for artists and musicians, I knew I'd found her natural home. All I had to do was deliver her there and then pull the rug from under her feet! Vettori's Damsel in Distress will be published in July 2015. :)
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