Welcome Kristen!
Tell us a little about your debut novel,
Souper Mum, published by Accent Press on 16th June – love the cover
by the way.
Thank you for having me! Souper Mum is the story of mum-of-four Jools
Campbell and her misadventures in motherhood and minor celebrity after she
becomes embroiled in a feud with TV chef, Tommy McCoy. I hope it's an honest
modern look on family, life and love. With her name being Campbell....that's
pretty much how the title and the cover came to be... thank you for the
comments on the cover art, I love it too!
You have a fabulous blog full of interesting
posts. Can you tell us a little about your inspiration behind this book?
Like my blog posts, my novels always
try to capture aspects of modern day family life and run some humour through
them. I really wanted Souper Mum to be based around the current preoccupation
with celebrity foodie culture as well. As an extraordinarily bad chef, I do
find there is often little out there for us non-foodie/bad cook types to relate
to!
There’s so little free time for a mum, do you
have a daily writing routine and if so, can you tell us a little about it?
I never write in the day – the kids
are far too much of a distraction! So I spend the day plotting, scribbling down
notes and rearranging chapters in my head. Walking the dog is a good way for me
to clear my head and sort out my ideas. Then when everyone is in bed and the
house is quiet, I usually pop on some headphones and can write solidly for
four-five hours of an evening.
Can you tell us about your route to
publication?
Souper Mum has taken about six years
to get to print. It had been bouncing around agents and editors but it never
found a real home and in between having babies and real life, I did neglect her
thinking in the back of my mind that maybe she wasn't meant to be. But then one
day, I entered her into the Accent Writing Competition run in association with
Woman Magazine. To my delight, it placed second and they asked to see the full
manuscript. A few months later, they agreed to sign it – I was over the moon!
They will also publish its sequel later in the year.
Start small. Trying to write a novel
can feel like an epic task so if you’re new to writing, perhaps give short
stories a go? I started out writing these and it was probably the best
education I could have as a writer. I learnt so much about brevity, dialogue
and how to edit my work judiciously. I submitted these to competitions with
varying levels of success but it really set me up for novel writing and gave me
a good insight into how to submit my work professionally and working to
deadlines.
Which is your favourite book?
It is and always has been Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. I just remember it being the first
book that really spoke to me as a child. It was just overloaded with
imagination; lyrical, inventive and completely insane. I read it over and over
again.
What temptation do you wish you could resist?
Probably all the ones that prevent
me from writing in the evenings! So that'd be Jaffa Cakes, a nice gin and tonic
and box sets on Netflix. I'm a terrible binge watcher whether it be Game of
Thrones, House of Cards or Orange is the New Black, I'm very impatient so need
to watch everything in one go!
What is your philosophy on life?
I'm an eternal optimist so I have to
go Monty Python here....always look on the bright side of life. Publishing, motherhood: they can be
especially tough lines of work so it’s always important to smile and keep going
J
Thanks, Kirsten.
To buy Souper Mum, click on this link: Amazon UK
BIO
Mother-of-four, gin-drinker,
binge-watcher, receipt hoarder, hapless dog owner, enthusiastic
but terrible cook. Kristen lives in
Fleet, Hampshire and has had short fiction published in several publications.
She writes a weekly blog about being a modern mother. That and more can be found at her website: www.kristenbaileywrites.com
You can also find her on:
Twitter @baileyforce6 and
Facebook www.facebook.com/kristenbaileywrites
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