1.
What is your name, where were you born and where do
you live now? Hi, I’m Janet Hurst-Nicholson.
I was born in Cheshire in the UK, but have lived in sub-tropical Durban, South
Africa since 1972
2.
Did you always want to be a writer? If not what did
you want to be? I always liked telling stories and as a child I loved playing
‘libraries’ with my books, but I never considered becoming a writer (I thought
all writers had university degrees in English). However, I knew I wanted to do
something creative and I trained as a bakery technologist.
3.
When did you first consider yourself as a
"writer"? When Cosmopolitan magazine phoned to say they were going to use my
article and asked if I could change the final paragraph.
4.
Did it take a long time to get your first book
published? Yes. My first novel was The
Breadwinners, a family saga, which I wrote over 20 years ago. It had a lot of near misses with
publishers, but I eventually e-published it myself last year, so you could say 20
years was a lengthy birth process. However, my first children’s book, Leon
Chameleon PI and the case of the missing canary eggs did find a trad publisher and I went on to
have several children’s books published.
5.
How long does it usually take you to write a book,
from the original idea to finishing writing it? It depends on the book. I did a lot
of research for The Breadwinners (this was pre-Google and it meant
trips to the library, museums, and interviewing people). It probably took about
18 months as it is 120 000 words. I also do a lot of research for my children’s
books, but because they are much shorter it usually takes about eight months to
finish the first draft.
6.
Which of your books were easier/harder to write than
the others? No book is ‘easy’ to write, but I had fun writing the Leon Chameleon PI books, and being
shorter they take less time, so you can see the finish post much quicker. Something
to Read on the Plane is a compilation of my published humorous articles and short stories,
so it should have been a simple task to put them all together into book form, but
my colleague and I did 14 drafts before we were happy with the format and
illustrations for the printed version. Jake,
a children’s picture book commissioned by Cambridge University Press, is very
short with only one or two sentences per page, but this went through a lengthy
process of workshopping, going first to readers, then to schools to gauge the
children’s reactions, and was discussed in detail before finally being accepted.
7.
What can we expect from you in the future? i.e.
More books of the same genre? Books of a different genre? I have written several
children’s books that still need illustrations, so I’m hoping the new Kindle
will attract buyers of illustrated children’s books and then it will be
worthwhile paying an illustrator and I can e-publish.
8.
What genre would you place your books into? I write in several
genres (a marketing nightmare) - humorous fiction, humour, family saga, YA, and
children’s.
9.
Do you have a favourite out of the books you have
written? If so why is it your favourite? They are all my children, so I can’t
pick a favourite J .
10.
Do you have a favourite character from your books, and
why are they your favourite? I’m very fond of Leon Chameleon.
As I write more books in the series I’m finding I’m getting to know him better.
11.
How long have you been writing, and who or what inspired
you to write? I was
inspired by the ‘back
page’ humour spots in magazines and decided to give it a try. My first attempt
was published, and I was hooked on writing. That was 25 years ago, and I then
took writing courses and studied the craft before moving on to short stories,
children’s books, and then novels.
12.
Where do you get your book plot ideas from? When I arrived in South Africa I
worked in the Research & Development Department of a large bakery. It was
managed by the sons of its founder and had grown from a small family bakery
into a factory operation. There were two other rival bakeries, also run by the
sons of the founders. When I left my job several years later the three bakeries
had amalgamated. This one bakery was finally taken over by a large corporation.
Somebody remarked, “Clogs to clogs in three generations” and this set me
thinking how family dynasties grow and then crumble, and why it happens (the
underlying theme of the story). I was fortunate that all three families
willingly assisted me with background information on the growth of the baking
industry in Durban, and could remember the days when bread was delivered by
horse and cart. This gave me the basis for the plot for The Breadwinners
In But Can You Drink the
Water? I drew (very loosely) on some of my own experiences, and
those of fellow expats. It began as a
sit-com, but when that fell through I turned it into a novel. Immersing into a
new, and often very different culture, can be traumatic, especially for the
spouse left at home to cope on her own while the husband quickly adapts to a
new working life. The theme is: Is home more than where the heart is?
13.
Do you gift books to readers to do reviews? I have done
Giveaway’s of my paperbacks on Goodreads, and I can supply PRC’s of my Leon
books, but the rest I can only supply as PDFs
14.
Do you read all the reviews of your book/books? Yes – including the
bad ones.
15.
What was the toughest/best review you have ever had? The review I’m most
proud of is the Publishers Weekly Review for But Can You Drink The
Water? which describes the book as ‘droll, witty and utterly British’ but
ironically only appears on the US Amazon page. It got me to the
semi-finals of the 2010 ABNA award and gave me the confidence to e-publish.
16.
How do you come up with the Title and Cover Designs
for your book/books? Who designed the Cover of your books? The
Breadwinners is about three families of bakers vying to become the
top bakery, so the title works on two levels. But
Can You Drink the Water? is a fairly common phrase used by
British holidaymakers who are often suspicious of foreign food, and also wary
of drinking the water (this was borne out during the 2010 soccer world cup held
in SA when my website had a few hits from people asking ‘can you drink the
water?’). I came up with Something
to Read on the Plane after overhearing bookshop customers asking for
‘something to read on the plane’. The covers designs were basically my idea,
but I had to get help with implementing them. The publisher’s illustrator did
the covers for my children’s books.
17.
How do you market/promote your books? By doing author
interviews
18.
What do you think makes a book a really
good/bestseller? I wish I knew the answer to that one J
19.
Have you ever based characters on people you know or
based events on things that have happened to you? I took great delight in naming one of my least likeable characters after someone who
was mean to me at college. A few of the events in The
Breadwinners were based on things that actually happened. Many of the incidents in But Can You Drink the
Water? were taken from my own experiences and those of fellow
expats (just goes to show how naïve we were).
20.
Is there a certain Author that influenced you in
writing? When I first started writing fiction I was advised, “If you
want to learn about characterisation, read Monica Dickens,”
(great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens). I read The Fancy and was smitten. Even the most insignificant of her
characters hop, skip and jump off the page. She is the only author whose books
I read more than once, just for the sheer joy of the characterisation. I’m also
an admirer of Deric Longden (The Cat Who
Came in From the Cold). Anyone who can anthropomorphise a sultana, name it
Ralph and make it a character in a book, has to be admired. I also enjoyed the
observational humour of Hunter Davies with his ‘Father’s Day’ column in Punch
magazine. Erma Bombeck with her gems of truth inspired me to look for humour in
the mundane and write about it in such a way as to create reader recognition
and so allow readers to laugh at themselves.
21.
What are you currently reading? Are you enjoying it?
What format is it?(ebook, hardback or paperback) I haven’t got an e-reader. I’ve just finished a hardcover of The Miracle at Speedy Motors by
Alexander McCall Smith. Loved it. I’m reading a paperback of It’s The Thought That Counts by Dr David
R Hamilton. I also have TBR pile of paperbacks.
22.
Do you think ebooks will ever totally replace printed
books? I’ve heard that some schools are now using e-readers instead of printed
books. It certainly makes children’s schoolbags lighter!
23.
Do you think children at schools these days are
encouraged enough to read? and/or do Imaginative writing? When I belonged to the Children’s Book Forum authors were often
asked to give talks to the schools, especially during book week, but this seems
to have fallen away. We do have a local publisher who teaches children
imaginative writing and then publishers their work. I think Harry Potter has done wonders for encouraging
children to read.
24.
What piece of advice would you give to a new writer? My advice to
writers would be: learn your craft (if you can master ‘show’ don’t ‘tell’ then
you’ve made a good start); be prepared to take advice; edit and re-edit (be ready
to ‘murder your darlings’); don’t publish until you are quite sure the book is
the best you can make it; persevere – and develop a thick skin in preparation
for rejections and poor reviews.
25.
Do you or would you ever use a pen name? I use Janet
Hurst-Nicholson for my children’s books. But I was told that some men don’t
read books written by women, so when I wrote Something to Read on the
Plane I used the gender-neutral Jan Hurst-Nicholson. I continued to use Jan for
my YA books and novels.
26.
Where
can readers follow you?
Your web site? www.just4kix.jimdo.com
Your Goodreads author page? http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3321900.Jan_Hurst_Nicholson
Your Twitter details? just4kixboooks
Your web site? www.just4kix.jimdo.com
Your Goodreads author page? http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3321900.Jan_Hurst_Nicholson
Your Twitter details? just4kixboooks
Thankyou for taking the time to do this interview!l.....0
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