We welcome back regular guest author and friend, Elaine Everest, to talk about A Gift from Woolworths
Hello Elaine, and welcome back to the blog.
Thank you so much for inviting me to your blog again. I’m looking forward to answering your questions and hope you’ve been gentle with me?
Of course we have.
First of all, Fred, and particularly Cynthia, are among some of the more ‘colourful’ characters in your book. Are you ever inspired by real people?
I love writing colourful characters especially if they are transient people who will not be around for long. They can be as horrid or deceitful as I wish, as I don’t have to keep up the ‘harshness’ of the character. As for them being real people I wouldn’t say I’ve ever lifted a real person and plonked them into my books but I’d be lying if I didn’t confess to pinching certain traits. It is one of the joys of being a writer…
Ah yes, we know just what you mean!
The dialogue in your World War 2 novels are of its time. Do you find it difficult to keep each character individual when they speak?
I can see my characters and they perform as if they were in a soap opera. I’m never comfortable writing a story or book until I can see each person move and speak. I like to get under their skins and know how they think. Then, when they come to speak I can feel how the words leave their mouths and whether they speak slowly, fast or stumble over each word.
Have any historical events, with the exception of WW2, given you ideas for a plot or setting for your novels?
Most certainly! A few snippets of information about a great grandmother perishing in the 1918 flue epidemic and leaving behind a young family had me taking them off on an adventure. Most recently I came across information of a grandmother who listed herself as working in munitions in 1920 when she had her first child. I’d grown up knowing about the local disaster of young women being killed in a munitions accident in the early 1920s and knowing my grandmother had been there has made me wish to write a story around what happened. I only have to read something about an historical event and my mind starts to plan a story…
You run a writing school, The Write Place, so what advice can you offer new writers, and is it different for a budding historical writer?
To new writers I would say just keep writing and try to write something every day. Don’t think about publication but just get into the habit of sitting down and creating a few paragraphs. You need to read – all the time. Absorb the area of history that interests you most and then start to think about how your characters would live in that time. I would also say you have to love history and enjoy writing and researching as most historical books are around one hundred thousands words in length. Finally, remember to see what is selling in the bookshops. You can write the best book going but if it isn’t fashionable no publisher will touch it. However, as a new writer just enjoy creating words.
That’s very sound advice. What do you consider to be the most important aspect of writing a novel?
The most important aspect is to be able to tell a good story and to have the kind or characters that readers will take to their hearts. Not all characters are good people and not all are a hundred percent bad. Someone in the industry told me once that even the Kray twins loved their mother…
As I mentioned before, an author needs to read all the time and that means reading books in the genre they write – and read newly published books, as this will show us what publishers are looking for. This won’t affect our writing style. One of my editors told me that they saw me as being their xxx author and named an extremely revered long published writer. I did my best not to look too shocked and muttered ‘no pressure there then!’ However, it made me read many of this person’s books to see how they wrote and why there was a comparison, the bonus being I got to read some very good books.
We love the way the war has been bookended with weddings (we’re saying no more!). But is this the end of the road for the Woolies Girls?
Haha well spotted! No, it’s not the end of the girls from Woolies. My publisher has an outline for another book and a suggestion for one after that. I’m really keen to write more so fingers crossed!
What can your readers look forward to next?
I’m at the editing stage of my book for May 2019, which is called The Teashop Girls. I’m still in WW2 but this time the story is set in Ramsgate and Margate on the Kent coast in the Lyons Teashops where my three girls, Rose, Lily and Katie are Nippies. I’ve had fun creating these new characters along with their friends and families. This part of Kent played a big part in the evacuation of Dunkirk, which has been weaved into the story. I hope readers enjoy it as much as they did my girls from Woolworths and Butlins.
That sounds like another good read to look forward to. Thank you, Elaine, for your insights and your writing advice. We wish you all the best with A Gift from Woolworths.
Thank you so much for inviting me to visit your blog xxx
A Gift from Woolworths…
Will the war be over by Christmas?
As the war moves into 1945 the lives of the women of Woolworths continue. When store manager, Betty Billington, announces she is expecting Douglas’s baby her future life is about to change more than she expects.
Freda has fallen in love with the handsome Scottish engineer but will it end happily?
Maisie loves being a mother and also caring for her two nieces although she still has her own dreams. When her brother appears on the scene he brings unexpected danger to the family.
Meanwhile Sarah dreams of her husband’s return and a cottage with roses around the door but Woolworths beckons.
Will our girls sail into times of peace, or will they experience more heartache and sorrow? With a wedding on the horizon, surely only happiness lies ahead – or does it?
A Gift from Woolworths is the next instalment in Elaine Everest’s much-loved Woolworths series. Available on Amazon
About Elaine Everest
Elaine Everest, author of Bestselling novels The Woolworths Girls, The Butlins Girls, Christmas at Woolworths, and Wartime at Woolworths was born and brought up in North West Kent, where many of her books are set. She has been a freelance writer for twenty years and has written widely for women’s magazines and national newspapers, with both short stories and features. Her non-fiction books for dog owners have been very popular and led to broadcasting on radio about our four legged friends. Elaine has been heard discussing many topics on radio from canine subjects to living with a husband under her feet when redundancy looms.
When she isn’t writing, Elaine runs The Write Place creative writing school at The Howard Venue in Hextable, Kent and has a long list of published students.
Elaine lives with her husband, Michael, and their Polish Lowland Sheepdog, Henry, in Swanley, Kent and is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, The Crime Writers Association, The Society of Women Writers & Journalists and The Society of Authors.
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