It's lovely to welcome guest author Nicky Wells to my blog today!
Guest post by Nicky Wells
First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to Lindsay for
hosting me on the Little Reader Library as part of my blog tour for the launch
of my debut novel, Sophie’s Turn. It’s
an honour to be here and to meet your readers, Lindsay: you’re a star!
Begging for time
When do you find the time to write, I get asked. Often.
“Well,” I tend to
reply. “Do you want the short answer or the long answer?”
And answering the question made me think about just when,
and how, I find the time to write these days, because finding the time isn’t
always easy.
Sophie’s Turn,
Part 1 in my Rock Star Romance Trilogy, was written almost seven years ago
now. The sequel was written this past
year over a four months period. As I am
looking back over the two experiences, I can’t help but marvel how different my
life is now, and how changed my writing universe has become.
Sophie’s Turn was
written in a perfect writer’s environment.
I was alone at home during the day, with no worries or chores, or
anything else to do but write. I would
get up at leisure, have breakfast, switch on the computer and get going. Task one would be to re-read the previous
days’ work; and then, I would launch right in.
Most days, I would write for four or five hours, with breaks as required—or
not, as I would often forget to stop for lunch.
By the time my husband came back from work, I would have my days’
labours neatly printed out and ready to be read out to him after dinner,
snuggled up on the sofa, for instant feedback and review. If the fancy took me, or I couldn’t sleep, or
both, I would write some more later in the night because… well, I could sleep
as late as I wanted to in the morning.
This was a blissful, happy and entirely stress-free experience.
Not so for the sequel!
Several things changed in my life to make writing now an exercise in
quasi-military precision, extraordinary self-discipline and perseverance in the
face of many, many interruptions.
First of all, of course, there are two children in the
picture. Gone are the days of leisurely
starts to the morning, or unlimited writing time! Instead, I have to fit writing into school
hours, so that cuts the ‘available’ time in half or less. Of course, I also fire up the computer having
already completed the morning school run marathon of getting two reluctant
children out of bed, dressed, fed and off to school. Most of the time, I feel like having a nap
when I walk into the door, not switching on the computer to write!
And of course, there’s the mad social whirl that is Twitter
and Facebook, not to mention my blog.
Those endeavours didn’t encumber me when I was writing Sophie’s Turn, but it has become an
integral part of my author’s platform and now demands a significant amount of
attention. Thus dwindles the available
writing time… even more.
Where in the past I had ten or so uninterrupted hours at my
disposal every day of the week if I wanted them (except at weekends, of
course!), now I count myself lucky if I can scrounge two or three. Before last Christmas, things got so manic
that I was content if I could manage just half an hour.
And yet… the sequel to Sophie’s
Turn has been written, and the third book is in the works. How, you ask?
Well… as I hinted above: military
precision schedules, rigorous discipline, and, of course, the chief motivator,
the overpowering urge to get the novel written.
So during my writing time, I don’t answer the telephone, or check email
or social networks, or do anything at all:
eat, drink, clean house… all of that had to wait and fit in around the
writing.
In addition, I scrounged a little writing time here and
there in the evenings, perhaps when my lovely husband was away on business
travel, or perhaps just before bed.
And do you know the really surprising thing? The pressure, the time constraints, the
requirement to perform when to schedule, not when I wanted to… all of that
concentrates the mind wonderfully.
Somehow, I discovered an ability to be creative ‘on tap’, and to write
fast and furiously. And shall I tell you
something else? The sense of achievement
is tremendous.
So there you have
it. Idea-rich,
time-poor author writes fast and furiously in small instalments whenever she
gets a chance, produces excellent glamorous and romantic fairy tales. Yup, that’s me… and now is your chance to
sample the fruit of my labour in Sophie’s
Turn.
~~~~~
About Nicky Wells: Romance that Rocks Your World!
Rock
On! Nicky Wells writes fun
and glamorous contemporary romance featuring a rock star and the girl next
door. She recently signed her work with
U.S. publisher, Sapphire
Star Publishing. Nicky loves rock music, dancing, and eating
lobsters. When she’s not writing, Nicky
is a wife, mother, and occasional teaching assistant.
Originally born in Germany, Nicky moved to
the United Kingdom in 1993, and currently lives in Lincoln with her husband and
their two boys. In a previous
professional life, Nicky worked as a researcher and project manager for an
international Human Resources research firm based in London and Washington,
D.C.
About Sophie’s Turn
Slapper.
Slut. Adulteress. These are hardly words that Sophie
Penhalligan would normally use to describe herself. Yet this is exactly how she is behaving, all
things considered, even if she isn’t quite married to Tim yet. And it’s all happening because her past is
coming to tempt her! Nine years ago, she
met her teenage idol and rock star extraordinaire, Dan, up close and
personal. Well, almost. Now Dan has
crash-landed back in her life. How could
Tim ever stand a chance against the charming, handsome singer? How could she?
Sophie, now twenty-eight and a budding
newspaper journalist, is happily embroiled in a relationship with Tim, her
boyfriend of two years. Until recently,
she was confident that Tim would eventually propose—probably as soon as he
could get his act together. But just as
Tim’s persistent inaction is beginning to cast a cloud over their relationship,
Dan’s sudden reappearance turns Sophie’s world upside down. Thus unfolds a roller-coaster of events
including an ill-fated trip to Paris with Tim, a night of unfulfilled romance
with Dan, Sophie and Tim’s engagement party gate-crashed by Dan, and Sophie’s
professional secondment to accompany Dan’s band on their revival tour—at Dan’s
special request and very much against her will.
And then, one fine day in Paris, Sophie
suddenly finds herself engaged to Dan while her erstwhile fiancé Tim is... well, doing whatever it is Tim does back in
London. What is she to do now?
Who wouldn’t give anything to meet their favorite star, let alone marry
him?
Find out how Sophie gets into this
impossible situation, and how she turns it around, in Sophie’s Turn, the honest, funny and sometimes bittersweet story of
one woman’s entanglement with a rock star.
You can read my review of Sophie's Turn here.
Thanks very much for visiting, Nicky!
Visit Nicky's website here - Romance that Rocks your World!
Sophie's Turn is published by Sapphire Star Publishing
