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
After
completing a degree in French and English at Keele University, Carol Wyer
became a language teacher in Casablanca, Morocco. She ran the EFL department at
a private UK school (a non-magical Hogwarts), set up Language 2000 Ltd,
teaching a variety of languages, including basic Japanese, and translated documents.
Recurring medical problems forced her to give up teaching and become a fitness
instructor. Thanks to older age, she now writes novels, articles and books that
poke fun at getting older. Known for her light-hearted take on life, Carol has
written two award-winning novels and now also tours giving talks on how to age
disgracefully.
