Hi Elle. It's lovey to have you here. Can you tell us about your book?
Yes, I’d love to! My book is a collection of twelve short stories. I deliberated over the title, Tapestry, for AGES and went through many options before I chose it. Now, looking back, I don’t know why I found it so hard to decide. The stories are a tapestry, exploring the complexities of life and love through what I hope are moving tales, both happy and less so. I wanted to write about love in different guises, whether romantic love, familial love or obsessive love and took the opportunity to explore the darker, sadder sides of the emotion too. Some of the characters appear in more than one story – I wanted to see what happened to them before or after their first story in the collection. I hope anyone who reads it finds they want that too!
In hope, in pain
We lose, we gain,
But always and forever
The human heart braves life
In light and in shade.
A collection of twelve short stories exploring the complexities of life and love.
What was your inspiration behind it?
I had written a few stories that I knew I wanted to include in the collection and love was a common theme, particularly romantic love gone wrong. I didn’t want all the stories to be like that, though, and I wanted to include some happier ones too. I wrote a list of different “types” of love as a starting point and away I went!
When did you decide you wanted to become a writer?
I started to properly pursue writing after my children were born. I’d always wanted to write, and did a bit, but thought I was being silly and should get a “proper” job. I returned to my “proper” job part-time after I had my twins and on my days off, once my boys went to pre-school, I had two hours with no one to answer to! I saw an advert in a newspaper for a Writers’ Bureau course, so I signed up. That course really helped me to figure out what I wanted to write. A bit later I took a short story course by distance learning with the London School of Journalism and joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme, two decisions I’m very, very glad I made.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
I still so new to this that I don’t feel I should be giving advice, but I could share a couple of thoughts about what I’ve learned so far.
If there’s something of this nature that you want to do, don’t think it’s silly, give it a go. Other people are doing it, so why shouldn’t you? As long as you’re meeting your responsibilities at the same time, who are you hurting?
You will learn a TON through making writer buddies online and these connections will stop you feeling that writing is an isolated process. The writing community is very supportive and lovely and I feel very lucky to be a part of it.
What was the first book you ever bought yourself?
Blimey, that’s going back a bit! I think probably one of the Famous Five books. I loved them for years, wanted curly hair like George and spent many a day dying to have some sort of adventure.
What was the last book you read?
I’m a fan and friend of the group of writers The Romaniacs. I’m sure many of your blog readers are too, Jennifer! I decided to make this #RomaniacReads month for me, so the last book I read was The French Retreat by Sue Fortin. I’m currently reading Truth or Dare? by Laura E. James.
Finally, what are you working on at the moment?
I’m about to re-visit the first novel I wrote now that I’ve written another three. I’m hoping I can see ways to improve it as a result of the experience I’ve now gained.
I’d love to have an agent and/or traditional publisher for my novels, so I’m making submissions just now too. Please keep your fingers crossed for me! I enjoyed the experience of self-publishing Tapestry, though, so I’d like to repeat this with other projects in the future.
Lovely chatting to you, Jennifer! Thank you so much again for having me. Very best wishes to you and all your readers. Happy writing!
I had written a few stories that I knew I wanted to include in the collection and love was a common theme, particularly romantic love gone wrong. I didn’t want all the stories to be like that, though, and I wanted to include some happier ones too. I wrote a list of different “types” of love as a starting point and away I went!
When did you decide you wanted to become a writer?
I started to properly pursue writing after my children were born. I’d always wanted to write, and did a bit, but thought I was being silly and should get a “proper” job. I returned to my “proper” job part-time after I had my twins and on my days off, once my boys went to pre-school, I had two hours with no one to answer to! I saw an advert in a newspaper for a Writers’ Bureau course, so I signed up. That course really helped me to figure out what I wanted to write. A bit later I took a short story course by distance learning with the London School of Journalism and joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme, two decisions I’m very, very glad I made.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
I still so new to this that I don’t feel I should be giving advice, but I could share a couple of thoughts about what I’ve learned so far.
If there’s something of this nature that you want to do, don’t think it’s silly, give it a go. Other people are doing it, so why shouldn’t you? As long as you’re meeting your responsibilities at the same time, who are you hurting?
You will learn a TON through making writer buddies online and these connections will stop you feeling that writing is an isolated process. The writing community is very supportive and lovely and I feel very lucky to be a part of it.
What was the first book you ever bought yourself?
Blimey, that’s going back a bit! I think probably one of the Famous Five books. I loved them for years, wanted curly hair like George and spent many a day dying to have some sort of adventure.
What was the last book you read?
I’m a fan and friend of the group of writers The Romaniacs. I’m sure many of your blog readers are too, Jennifer! I decided to make this #RomaniacReads month for me, so the last book I read was The French Retreat by Sue Fortin. I’m currently reading Truth or Dare? by Laura E. James.
Finally, what are you working on at the moment?
I’m about to re-visit the first novel I wrote now that I’ve written another three. I’m hoping I can see ways to improve it as a result of the experience I’ve now gained.
I’d love to have an agent and/or traditional publisher for my novels, so I’m making submissions just now too. Please keep your fingers crossed for me! I enjoyed the experience of self-publishing Tapestry, though, so I’d like to repeat this with other projects in the future.
Lovely chatting to you, Jennifer! Thank you so much again for having me. Very best wishes to you and all your readers. Happy writing!
Tapestry - Available now from Amazon http://hyperurl.co/ymjfs2
Elle Turner writes contemporary women’s fiction and lives in beautiful Scotland with her husband and two children. She loves scones, Coronation Street, all songs by Sara Bareilles and will happily admit to having little or no sense of direction. If you offer her a 50:50 she will ALWAYS get it wrong and, despite living in Scotland, she rarely manages to wear shoes that don’t leak.
If you would like to find out more about Elle or her writing, she’d love to see you at www.elleturnerwriter.com on Twitter @ElleTWriter, Instagram elletwriter or she’s on Facebook as elleturnerwriter
Hi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI very much enjoyed visiting your lovely blog! Thanks again for having me and for your questions.
Elle :-) xx
You're very welcome, Elle. It was lovely to have you on the blog. Come back for another chat any time :)
Delete