Author Guest Post - Carol E. Wyer

I am very pleased to welcome author Carol E. Wyer to my blog today!

Many thanks to Lindsay for inviting me on her blog today to tell you a little about myself. It is an absolute honour. Being a shy and retiring type of author (I’ve put in a pause there so several of you can have a snort of laughter at that statement) I always find it difficult to write about myself in these rare situations. I am much better at writing about others. I never know what people would like to learn about me. I’m pretty ordinary really. So at the risk of boring all you followers I’d like to just answer a few questions that I am always asked nowadays.

As soon as someone discovers that I write, I get asked the usual question “An author? Oh! What do you write?” My answer will quite possibly change depending on who I am talking to and the occasion. If I am at a party and have had far too much wine (which is quite likely – in fact if you find me at any social event I’ll have probably had too much wine) I might say I wrote ‘Fifty Sheds of Grey’ – that usually stumps them on two levels. If I am talking to a man, I tell him that I write books which help men understand women better – as if that would ever happen! They nod wisely and take note of the title. Actually, that is quite a good answer because several men I know have purchased my first book and not only read it but thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The best male response I had was from a businessman. He emailed me to tell me how much he had enjoyed the book, laughing out loudly as he travelled by air on a trip in LA, but what he enjoyed even more were the looks he attracted from fellow male passengers who saw him sitting in fits of hysterics reading a novel called ‘Mini Skirts and Laughter Lines’. However, I am now digressing from the questions.

Another response is to say that I write humorous literature for those facing ‘Big Birthdays’ and add what a great gift it would make for a friend or (once you ascertain that the person you are talking to is under the age of thirty) their mother. I have to be careful who I suggest the book to you see since it is aimed at middle aged women; women like myself. Of course, women like me don’t wish to be referred to as ‘middle-aged’ so some sense of decorum is required. As it happens, the book has appeal to all age groups from teenagers to octogenarians. I found a great message on Facebook to my son’s girlfriend the other day from one of her friends’ it said:

“Got your Mother in Law’s book 2day – it’s not too shabby so far!”

I guess that is praise indeed from a nineteen year old.

Once people have found out what I write I get asked “Do you earn a lot?” The answer to that is quite simple. “Have you seen my 1981 Vauxhall Cavalier parked outside? The one with the rusty dent in it and the bumper falling off?”  

Finally, I get asked “Do you like writing?”

Of course I do. I don’t just like it - I love it! I get to spend all day in my head with my characters. I eat stacks of wine gums (purely to assist with the concentration, you understand) and get left alone to play on my computer and to cap it all I can live in a pretend world for hours. It’s therapeutic. It’s escapism.

More seriously, and most important of all though, it gives me enormous pleasure to know that when I have completed a novel and sent it off sporting its shiny new jacket to work its magic on the public, I shall be making hundreds of people laugh. I’ll be taking them away from their problems and lives for a while and making them chuckle. I can’t think of anything else I would rather do, other than be a stand up comedienne of course.

So, that’s a little about me. If you would like to learn more about my humorous novels which take a light-hearted look at getting older then please go to www.carolewyer.co.uk

Carol E Wyer is a humorous author and blogger. Her first novel Mini Skirts and Laughter Lines is a #1 best-seller and has won five awards for humour including Readers Views Reviewer’s Choice 2012 Award and Silver Award for the 2012 Indie Book Awards.

Her latest novel Surfing in Stilettos follows the further adventures of Amanda Wilson, a woman determined to grow old disgracefully, and is a Costa Award nominee.

You can purchase Carol’s novels from a number of websites including her publisher’s website www.FeedARead.com and Amazon or order from all good bookshops. The eBook version of Surfing in Stilettos will be published by ThornBerry Publishing and released late September this year.

You can follow Carol on Twitter @carolewyer or find her on Facebook Carol E Wyer