Author of MOTHER'S ONLY CHILD, reviewed in this issuel

GM. Hi Anne – welcome to Gateway. Can I begin by asking you what did you like to read when you were growing up? Did any particular titles or authors influence your writing career and your desire to one day be a writer?

AB Hi Paul.  It’s good to be here.  We didn’t have that many books at home, but I used to visit the library regularly. I loved Enid Blyton and I would read the Secret Seven and Famous Five stories and then act them out at school and in the streets with my friends, who also enjoyed them.  I also loved the Chalet School Series and any stories about boarding school. because I didn’t go to one.  I adored “Black Beauty”, by Anna Sewell, which I read in one evening at the age of seven. E Nesbit was another favourite author and I read and re-read “The Treasure Seekers” and other stories about the Bastable children and of course the famous one, “The Railway Children”.  I also used to look up Noel Streatfield and loved her famed “Ballet Shoes” and others in that ilk. Last but by no means least I was captivated by “The Secret Garden”, though I have forgotten the author.  It is something like Frances Hodgkins  I believe.  Did they influence me?  Yes of course they did.  I was scribbling stories from a very early age.

GM. Your injury led to you finally taking up writing for a living – were you disappointed at having to give up teaching?

AB No Paul I was devastated.  Teaching was my dream, my goal in life, because I never thought to make a living from writing books.  That sort of thing does not happen to working class kids. There was no way my parents could have financed my way through college to train to teach either, so I married and had children before I did the course. I considered it a joy and privilege to be in charge of those young lives.  Teachers have immense power over children’s minds and this must be used wisely and no one should ever go into teaching because they can’t think of anything else to do.  It is far more important than that.

GM. Your knowledge of wartime and post-war Britain is studded with pin-point accuracy. Is this because you've read widely on the subject, or mainly from conversations with your parents and older relatives? Or maybe a mixture of both?

AB.  I use every means at my disposal, including the internet of course.  I find people’s memories often play tricks on them and facts must be checked as much as possible.  My dear mother in law, who died last year, swore that Mrs Dale’s Diary was broadcast during the war, when in fact it began in 1947.  I spend hours on research.  It is particularly important as I write within the living memory of many and you owe it to them to get it as accurate as you can.

GM. Did you send your first novel to an agent? How long did you have to wait before it was accepted? 

AB  There I was extremely lucky.  I used to take a monthly writing magazine and entered a short story competition to write a love story for a Valentine’s day.  As I don’t write predominately love stories, I wrote a spoof and though the heroine’s flatmate thought she was describing a new man in her life, she was off men and was talking instead about a dog.  It was great fun to write, literally took a few hours in the afternoon to complete and I came second. However, the second prize was a year’s subscription to the Romanic Novelists’ Association (RNA) and I didn’t want to know and so didn’t take up my prize..  How I could have kicked myself when a little later my magazine did an article on the RNA and I realised that they are a unique organisation in that they operate a critique service, the very thing an aspiring writer needs and as long as there is emotional content in your books, they are eligible for the New Writers’ Scheme.  You may be sure I lost no time in entering and submitting my first manuscript and though they were kind they said it wasn’t publishable, but more importantly said why it wasn’t.  With that crit beside me, I wrote another and this time they told me to edit it, for it was far too long, and send it to Headline.  They liked it, offered me a two book contract and I was on my way.  I had no agent at the time and Headline advised me to get one and knowing nothing about the writing game then, I got a copy of the “Author and Writers’ Year Book” from the library and just picked one. After I had published four books with Headline we parted company in the spring of 2001 and I signed with Harper Collins in the autumn of the same year and I also changed my agent. 

GM. The graphic violence you describe in MOTHER'S ONLY CHILD is handled with care, the sex scenes are erotically charged yet handled with great sensitivity. Reading about you, it's clear you had a relatively happy childhood – so what you write comes largely from your imagination, and what we all know goes on in unhappy homes, particularly at a time when men could do virtually nothing wrong in the eyes of the law. Sadly, this sort of thing still occurs – did you write the story hoping that readers with such experiences of their own might be inspired to seek assistance or shelter?

AB  No I write to entertain, to tell a story.   I hope my readers see many of the characters who people my books as friends and they are inside my head when I am writing about them.  Keeping other thoughts in my head too, would just get in the way.  On the other hand if it does help any one suffering abuse or whatever to seek help then I would be pleased.  As you said things were different then anyway.  I write about a period where domestic violence, while not exactly condoned was accepted and it was not even considered a police matter, or taken terribly seriously by society as a whole.  I call it monstrous and I hope things are better today. Yes I did have a happy and untroubled childhood

GM. Barney is a particularly nasty character, and it's signposted fairly early on how he's going to turn out. The character is to all intents and purposes a real person – is he based on someone you or your family knew – or know? It's just that he's so real! And, unfortunately, only too believable…..

AB  Every writer brings something of themselves and their lives into their work.  That is inevitable, but my people in the book are based on a conglomeration of personalities worked into characters by imagination.  I have never based a character on a person or persons I know and I doubt I ever will.

GM. Can you give us a sneak peek inside your next book, the one you're working on now? Or do you prefer to keep it to yourself until nearer publication date?

AB  I am actually a third of the way through a completely new one at the moment but this will be the next one out: To Have and To Hold  (hbk summer 2006. pbk autumn  2006)

Carmel Duffy is a child from a violent home, but with the help of a nursing nun that she works with at the hospital in Letterkenny, Donegal, she escapes to Birmingham. where she is able to begin nurse training at on of the city’s hospitals.  She has seen enough of marriage and childbirth to last her a lifetime and vows it is not for her.  She will stay single all her life. However, she hasn’t taking account falling in love and eventually she can deny herself no longer and she succumbs to the charms of the young doctor, Paul Connelly.  Because they are so much in love, Carmel assumes they will live happily ever after, but war clouds are gathering and not long after Paul joins the medical corps of the Royal Warwickshire’s Regiments, Carmel’s life is turned upside down and she is tested almost beyond endurance.  Find out why

GM. When you begin a new book, do you write an outline of the plot first? Or do you simply plunge in and write?

AB  First I write a family tree and beside this, a little bit about people, other than the main family that might be important to the story line and an outline for myself, though I have the whole story in my head.  My publishers like a synopsis though the one I submit to them at this stage. bears little resemblance to the finished article.  This is usual apparently.  Then I collect together all my researched material for that book, my time line and calendars of the relevant years, put it into the file I am using and begin. In my opinion wring is communication between the writer and the reader.  IF I have a picture, or scene in my head and I can describe it so graphically in words that the reader picks it up and has a similar picture that is real writing, real communication and I find it so amazing and it is what I always strive to for every time.

GM. What is your typical writing day? Do you set yourself a target of so many words before teatime? Or do you simply write until the muse leaves you?

AB I start work about 5.30 and work until I take the dog out between 7 and 7.30 in the summer and an hour later in the winter and I am out at least an hour.  After breakfast I work until lunchtime and continue after lunch until about half six.  I also work Saturday and often Sunday, but Wednesday I only work in the morning and then meet friends for lunch.  I don’t set myself a target for each day as some of the time I spend in the study I maybe doing further research or editing previous work, but the barest minimum to produce each week is 2 chapters and these can vary from 4,500- 6,500.  After so many hours spent on writing or writing related tasks, there is little muse left.

GM. Would you say you've changed as a writer since the publication of your first book?

AB  Oh yes.  I always say to people that just as a child learning to read then reads more to improve, the same maxim could be applied to writers.  No writing in the early days should be counted as wasted, but more that it was a way of learning and honing the craft.  Mind you a writer must reach a plateau of sorts or every writer aged over ninety would be phenomenal.

GM. When you're not writing, how do you relax and have fun? I imagine you read a great deal?

AB  With a book to write every nine months and detailed research to do, I have less time to read for pleasure than I would like, though I do read of course.  I love the outdoors especially with my dog and I like exercising and I work out with two friends every week. On the other hand I like going out to lunch or dinner or down the pub with husband Denis or friends.  Our family of four children and four grandchildren are very important to us and we always make time for them. Denis is in to music and runs a folk club which I am also involved in and he is also in a traditional Irish band and sometimes a crowd of us go to hear them play.  I enjoy cinema, especially British films and though we don’t go to many productions at the theatre, we did see Status Quo in concert in November.  Rock On!

GM. There are quite a few people writing "sagas" at the moment, but only a few of them, such as your own, are really good. You've said that most people have a story in them; if you were to advise someone wanting to start out on the saga road, what would you tell them?

AB  Many, many people want to write the story that is inside them as their life story and I always advise them not to.  No one is remotely interested in Joe Bloggs and why should they be?  If your name is Wayne Rooney it is a little different of course.  I tell them always to take their experiences, clothe them with fictional characters and just write.  Writing a novel is a lot harder than people think and if you achieve it, then you should be proud of yourself. However, in the early days it is almost impossible to be objective about one’s own work and you could do worse than join the RNA and send your manuscript in for consideration.  It got me started. Alternatively, send it in to those publishing houses still accepting unsolicited manuscripts (that is not through an agent) and the addresses are in “The Writers and Artists’ Year Book” available in any reference library and there will be agents listed there too if you want to try to get an agent first

GM. Finally, can you please name your five favourite books of all time and say how they might have influenced the way you write?

AB  This is the hardest question and one I will not be able to answer totally truthfully because “of all time,” and just five.  That’s a tall order.  Still here goes, I like all of Maeve Binchy’s books, she is the Queen in my opinion, but the first book I read of hers was “The Lilac Bus”, so I’ll put that first.  I also like Jane Austen, my thesis at college was based on her books, but “Pride and Prejudice” was always my out and out favourite and I’ve laughed aloud at “Bridget Jone’s Diaries”, thought “Captain Correlli’s Mandolin” moving and beautiful and I cried at Celia Ahern’s “PS I Love You.” I also like many of the classics, thought the Tolkien trilogy amazing and like books by Lyn Andrews, Rosamund Pilcher and Joanne Trollope to name but a few.  I don’t whether they have influenced me as such, I have my own style and voice established pretty well now, but when I need to inspire myself to greater things I lose myself in a novel by Maeve Binchy and I am put right straight away.

GM Anne, it's been a fantastic privilege pleasure featuring you in Gateway – keep the books coming!