Tuesday 16 October 2012

Interview with Nicky Wells - Author of Sophie's Turn

 


Tell me a bit about yourself and what made you get into writing

I am a really chatty person with a very active imagination. I’ve always made up stories, for as long as I can remember. When I was little and couldn’t go to sleep, I used to amuse myself by making up long and complicated adventure stories (featuring, naturally, myself and my best friends). I guess most of us do that! But as soon as I could write, I started to set these stories down on paper. I doubt they were elegant or even remotely eloquent narratives, but I do remember sitting on my window sill after lights-out and scribbling furiously on a small note-pad. A few years later, that enterprise turned into hacking things out on an ancient typewriter I’d been given. So that’s kind of where it all started… there was always this idea that I would write books. In fact, until half-way through secondary school, I would tell any adult who asked very earnestly that I would be a writer when I grew up!

Obviously years passed and this ambition never came to much. As a teenager, I had other things on my mind (rock music and rock musicians, mostly!) and then I had a boyfriend and then I started studying… Life kind of took over. But when I took a work sabbatical prior to the birth of my first child, I promised myself that I would, finally, write that book I’d been thinking of for some time!

How long did it take you to write Sophie’s Turn?

Well, I had four months in which to write (before birth of baby number one) and so that’s how long it took! I spent about a month planning in meticulous detail my characters and my plot, and then I sat down and just…wrote! It was a fabulous experience. Every day, I would re-read the previous day’s work, do some rudimentary proofing and editing (and occasional re-writing) and then write some more. So the first draft seemed to go quite quickly. Then my first baby boy arrived and nothing much happened to the book. It wasn’t until a few years later that I got round to re-reading it and making some substantial changes, especially to the first half. Those changes took me another six months or so. So total working time on Sophie’s Turn was… ten months, give or take. And then of course, I polished it before publication… and most recently, again, before publication by Sapphire Star Polishing. I’d like to think it’s a shining gem now!

Tell us a bit about Sophie’s Turn and your inspiration for the book?

I’ve come to call Sophie’s Turn a ‘rock star romance’… not least because, you guessed it, one of the protagonists is a rock star. Sophie’s Turn tells the story of one young woman and her entanglement with a rock star, the man of her dreams. Unfortunately she is already engaged to somebody else when this romance finally enters her life, and it all gets a bit messy. Sophie is a fundamentally nice person and the presence of two men in her life gives her all manner of emotional nightmares. She sorts it all out eventually, although perhaps not in the way she expected!

The inspiration for the book has its roots in my residual soft spot for all things to do with rock musicians, in particular the long-haired variety with nice voices. There are quite a few of those about! Anyway, I was watching TV one night with my husband and some kind of long-haired male creature came on… I can’t recall who it was, might have been an actor or a rock musician. Anyway, I obviously liked that person because I said something like, “cor, now how would a girl ever turn him down?” My husband teased me about this all evening. And it got me thinking. What would a girl do if she was in a steady, happy relationship… and then suddenly met her teenage idol, and he proposed? There was the core conundrum, and it fascinated me enough to spin a story around it when I couldn’t sleep that night (on account of big baby belly!).

What are your favourite books?

Generally speaking, I read almost anything but I can never resist a good chick lit book, a thriller or a good contemporary literary read. Favourite books of all time include Catherine Alliott’s “The Old-Girl Network,” Stephen Fry’s “Making History” and Katherine Neville’s “The Eight.” I also like books by David Baldacci and John Grisham. Actually, the list is pretty long….

What do you like to do outside of writing?

Ooooh, now there’s a question! When I do get the time, I like to read the paper in a coffee shop with a big latte or a pot of tea. I do like to sit on a rock on the beach just watching the waves come in, and listening to the surf (that’s probably one of my favourite pastimes!). I like travelling and exploring new places. And… actually one thing I do do even at the moment when things are so busy is… knitting. I do like knitting. I’m not a great knitter, I can just about manage my knits and purls but I find it very relaxing, especially when I’m stressed. Oh, and talking of stressed, I do have a Pilates routine that I like doing at least once a day, especially when I’ve been hunched over the laptop writing lots.

What are you currently working on? Is a sequel to Sophie’s Turn planned?

The sequel to Sophie’s Turn, Sophie’s Run, is fully written and coming your way from Sapphire Star Publishing on 7 February 2013—not long to go now! With that, at the moment I am actually working on the third and concluding part of the Rock Star Romance Trilogy. This third book is fully planned and I am now in my favourite phase of writing, the actual all-out, full-on writing. I love it! The final part is due for release in early September 2013 so within the year, you’ll be able to hold Sophie and Dan’s entire story in your hands. I can’t wait!

Thanks Nicky!

Sophie's Turn is available to buy now:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sophies-Turn-Rock-Romance-ebook/dp/B00961HXC2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350371209&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sophies-Turn-Nicky-Wells/dp/1938404203/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1350371209&sr=8-2

We have one e-book version of Sophie's Turn to giveaway. To enter, please retweet this post or leave a comment below. Closes 31st October 2012.



13 comments:

  1. Sarah, thank you yet again for hosting me here on your fabulous blog today. I really enjoyed our chat and you asked fantastic questions ~ I hope you enjoyed the answers... :-) Here's wishing good luck to all giveaway entrants: rock on! xx

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  2. I feel I've got to know Nicky reasonably well via her blog, but I love that I learned a whole heap of other things about you in this post. Great interview! Off to tweet it x

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    1. Whooot, Yasmin, it's so lovely to see you here! Thank you for tweeting and I'm glad you found some new nuggets about me... (*Nicky reads back through her interview quickly, trying to figure out what new information she might have divulged that Yasmin didn't already know... oh yes, I see!!!*) Sarah asked great questions!! Thanks for tweeting, I really appreciate your support. xx

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  3. Fab post, ladies! I love Nicky's energy and so enjoy reading about all her news. I'm very much looking forward to reading Sophie's Turn. And there's a sequel too! Now that really has put a smile on my face :) x

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    1. Aw, thanks, Jan, it's so nice of you to say all these kind words. *blush* Did you know, I think of myself as a totally low energy person. I seem to be perennially worn out. Glad it doesn't show, hahaha! Yes, there is a sequel--two, in fact, as it's a Trilogy. Sophie's Run coming up soon, and Sophie's Encore out in September next year. WOW! Happy reading, Jan, and see you soon. :-)

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  4. I read Sophie's Turn and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to the sequel.

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    1. Thank you so much Anneli ~ You know how much this means. Mwah! x

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  5. Yay! Fab interview, Nicky! I banged my first draft out on an ancient typewriter, too - an Olivetti, aged about ten (me, not the typewriter). Then my little brother took the typewriter apart and locked the bits back in the case. Sniffle. Do you think he was trying to tell me something? :) xx

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    1. We have so much in common, Sheryl, do you think we're sort of astral twins or something? Your birthday isn't in December, perchance? LOL.

      I can't recall the make of the typewriter but it was truly ancient, well over twenty years old I think. Some of the keys were prone to getting stuck and I learned to bend them carefully into shape. I think your brother was trying to tell you that there would be easier and more convenient (if just as temperamental) typing devices coming along in future years, ha! Thanks for visiting today, mwah! x

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  6. Lovely interview - can't wait to see Sophie's Run in print!

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    1. Oh, I'm counting the days too! LOL ~ got to do publisher edits first, it's all happening! Thanks for visiting, Sue, you're a rock!

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  7. Wow - another writer who works in the same way! I write then the next day edit before writing some more. Of course the edits continue forever ... but editing as you go does help. I couldn't write a whole MS then begin the first edit - it would be too daunting. My next step is to get 50 pages re-edited, before I write again and I repeat the same process. Only glad we aren't doing it on those old typwriters Nicky, I remember using tippex for every little mistake - nightmare! Great post, as usual and 'Hi' to Sarah!

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    1. Ha, Tippex, my goodness, blast from the past. Thank god for computers, however troublesome they may be. Thank you for visiting and for your lovely comment, Linn. XX

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