When she isn’t writing, you’ll find Rachel with her head in a book or walking the beautiful English countryside with her family. And in the evening? Well, a well-deserved glass of wine is never, ever refused…
1. If you could ask your readers one question, what would it be?
I would love to know what readers love the most and the least about my books. I think every author is filled with enormous self-doubt at some point (or many points!) throughout the writing of each book, no matter how many they’ve written. To know what my readers think I am getting right and what keeps them coming back for more would give me such a huge boost of confidence to carry on doing what I love.
And for the bits they don’t think work? I will do everything to stop it from happening again, LOL!
2. What do you consider your strengths in terms of your writing?
Dialogue and humor – I love writing dialogue and writing injections of humor into my novels comes very naturally to me. Oh, and I get the impression I write effeminate men quite well judging by the popularity of the butler in my historical The Arrival of Lily Curtis and also Mr. Baxter in The Sharp Points of a Triangle!
3. What do you consider your weakness and what strategies do you use to overcome it?
Plotting, no doubt about it – every book I start is a struggle to get right. Blood, sweat and tears go into all my novels. Figuring out the backstory and why my characters do the things they do always takes up the time I want to really use to tell their stories. More often than not, my characters speak to me about what is happening now rather than their past…but a story won’t work without a past. Frustration!
4. What’s your writing schedule?
Every free minute! I am lucky enough to only work four mornings a week but I do have a young family, a husband and a huge Labrador who needs walking twice a day, so I write around them without neglecting them too much – I hope. Now, the housework is an entirely different matter…
5. What is your favorite word?
Acceptance – and I don’t just mean in the book contract sense! Acceptance encompasses so much good. If we accepted each other as we are, accepted other people’s opinions, beliefs and dreams, the world would be a much nicer place to live in.
6. What other time period besides your own would you like to experience?
Victorian – both in the UK & the US. Everything about the time fascinates me, it was such a huge era of change. From industry, to human rights, the campaign for women’s right to vote began, the American Civil war, slavery, social differences between the rich and the poor. I have written two historicals set in that era and hope to write many more – the scope is vast.
7. Where do you write?
I am lucky enough to have my own office at the bottom of the garden but I only tend to use it from May to November because the rest of the time it’s just too cold or damp (bear in mind I live in the UK!). The rest of the time I am either on the sofa with my laptop and the dog snoozing beside me or at the kitchen table with the dog under the table!
8. What did you enjoy most about writing your latest release, Getting It Right This Time?
This is my first novel involving a child and family situation and that aspect was definitely what I enjoyed writing the most. I have two young daughters and so the heroine’s three-year-old daughter, Jessica was the easiest character ever to write. Her dialogue and actions came so naturally to me, it was lovely. I will definitely write more family-orientated stories in the future.
9. Who is your favorite character in your book?
Kate – the heroine. She has been through a lot before the book opens but she is still kind and considerate as well as being determined, ambitious and ferociously protective of her daughter’s happiness. Her interaction with the hot-shot hero, Mark Johnston is fabulously tense and the sexual tension? Phew-wee!
10. Can you share the blurb & Buy Link with us?
Sure.
She's back, but this time she’s a mother…intent on protecting her young.
Two years after her husband’s death, Kate Marshall returns home seeking security and stability for her three-year-old daughter. But when her path crosses with ‘the one who got away’…her husband’s best friend, she has to fight the desire to be with him for the sake of further heartbreak for her and her daughter.
A tough, straight talking theatrical agent, Mark Johnston is dangerously handsome, exceedingly rich, irresistibly charming – and branded by the tabloids as one of the UK’s most eligible bachelors. So even though Mark lost the girl of his dreams to his best friend, he finds no hardship in being single. Or so he thought.
Determined not to lose her a second time, Mark has to find a way to convince her they can work. But can Kate cope with the media interest and ruthless, money-hungry clients surrounding him, being anywhere near her daughter? Or accept that Mark Johnston is really the family man he claims to be?
http://www.lyricalpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_25&products_id=296
11. Where can my visitors find you?
My website: http://www.rachelbrimble.com/
My blog (where I have guest authors every Tuesday & Thursday): www.rachelbrimble.blogspot.com
My Twitter page (where I share my entire life, LOL!): www.twitter.com/rachelbrimble
3 comments:
Great interview! Getting It Right This Time sounds utterly fab, and I'm with you on the Victorian era, Rachel. They invented the flushing loo, didn't they? I wouldn't want to go any further back in history than that!
Lovely interview, Rachel. I enjoy adding children to my stories, as well. Children have a way of grounding our stories just as they ground us in life. We're more centered with children in our lives. So are our characters. Best of luck to you.
Thanks for dropping by, ladies!
Lovely to hear from my friend, Rachel in the UK and my fellow Blue Ridge Agency author, Vonnie!
Loved writing Getting It Right and will definitely be writing children having just had twin girls turn up in my current WIP that were not entirely planned!
Rachel x
Post a Comment