Interview With Author Carol Mottershead
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Carol and I’m a mother of three grown-up children and a Nanna to three grandsons. By day, I run an entertainment agency in northeast England, but by night I turn into an author. I’ve written three books so far, plus several part books much like any other author, I suspect. Two are published and my latest is in editing mode and I hope to publish in the near future. It’s the second in a trilogy, and I’m not a fast writer, so I hope my readers don’t mind waiting?
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The latest book is ‘Ships in the Night’ and no, it’s not about a parcel delivery service like one of my twitter followers suggested, ha! It’s the second in the trilogy and began its journey on July 28th 2018. I was watching Good Morning Britain. There was an entertainer of mine on the show, he was a Professor of Punch & Judy and his shows were being cancelled by local authorities. He’d been invited on the show to discuss the censorship. Unfortunately, the presenters and their guest had their own agenda’s. His show was accused of being racist, or promulgating domestic violence. When asked to change his show, he refused. “I don’t see what the problem is, they’re only blocks of wood!” he announced in frustration. ONLY BLOCKS OF WOOD! That phrase resounded in my head for days. In the end I wrote a 3-page rant to send to the press complaining about the censorship, it was illegal to censor theatre these days! I realised a 3-page rant wouldn’t get the attention of the press, I’d make a video to send in. Judy puppet silhouetted behind curtains talking to a TV news presenter should do the trick, but I needed a voice. I asked a local female P&J to be the voice of my Judy. “Do you think you have all the answers if the press collar you like they did Brian?” she asked – I hadn’t! I began researching. After a few days, Judy seemed to come to life. She had a story to tell and I was listening – I had to write her story! For the next 2yrs I had little sleep as I researched the history of P&J, the different characters involved and how to bring them into the life of my character Judy (her real name is Joan, or Dame Joan to be precise!) She’d performed the first show to her baby, it was play therapy between him and his father. Friends and family were added as the years went by, but that was over 400 years ago. How could she still be alive? She’s immortal and living in a beautiful part of the Lake District in England. Her story was meant to be a one-off, but it appeared the other characters weren’t happy about that, they wanted a chance to put their side to the story, so now I’m committed to writing the trilogy (I think, lol!)
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think I have any unusual writing habits unless writing at night is considered unusual. I do tend to talk through my ideas with my family ‘a lot’ so they tell me ha! I sometimes drop into talking like my characters, using words that they would use; my sons will remind me ‘you’re not Joan!’ ha! (She’s quite a pushy character who speaks her mind and doesn’t suffer fools silently.)
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I got the idea for the immortality aspect of my books initially from my son, who reminded me of Nicholas Flamel, so to help with my research he bought me the complete works of Michael Scott’s ‘The immortal Nicholas Flamel’ although I preferred not to read his version of Flamel’s life until I finished my own research into the man himself, Nicholas Flamel that is, not Michael Scott. I like a book with a happy ending, easy to read, so my favourites have been books like Black Beauty, Heidi, but I’ve read all sorts from Graham Masterton to Mills and Boon ha! Influences..? Maybe only in the style of their enjoyability and realistic characters. Characters that I can believe in. The story of Joan and her family hit me out of the blue. I HAD to write it. She drove me mad with her story ’til I put pen to paper. I was ‘driven’ to write the book and for two years I barely slept ha!
What are you working on now?
I’m working on the second booking the series. The writing is complete, it’s now being edited and I’ve jotted bits of ideas already for the third book, but I must get this one published first.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve not found any particular website yet for promoting my books, that’s why I’m hoping Awesome Gang will be the one to become my number one ‘goto’ site – GO AWESOME! Yayy!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you wake up every day wanting to write, you should write. Write from the heart. Write what you know. Write what you love. Then comes the hard part… if you’re lucky, you’ll find a publisher who believes in your stories as much as you do yourself and that would be fantastic! But beware of vanity publishers who will charge you to publish your book. A genuine publisher would be paying YOU to allow them to publish your book, not the other way around. There’s a lot of sharks out there looking for gullible wannabe authors who are looking for fame and recognition for their writing, but competition is higher than ever in the modern world, especially since it’s so easy to publish your own books using KDP. It’s free to publish on KDP. With you getting 70% royalties on ebooks and 60% less print costs on paperbacks and hardcovers, so royalties can be good… but then there’s the catch… you have to be seen to be bought and advertising becomes the expense. Having said that with the help of Bryan Cohen’s Ad School 3-monthly profit challenge, I found a better method for advertising on Amazon that didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. He calls it his zen lemur approach, banking over ranking, and suggests to keep costs down so that you benefit in profit. It’s a slower approach, but he reckons his method works… If you join Ad School the authors can obtain further guidance and advice from 6-figure authors, but if you can’t afford to join he has monthly subscriptions or the 3-monthly 2 weeks FREE challenges, they’re worth doing and I won a place, for life, as a member of Ad School! But you have to be in the challenge to have a chance to win it, but if it’s free, it’s for me – so what have you got to lose? Good luck to all the new authors out there!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice came from Bryan Cohen’s Amazon Ads Profit Challenge. He runs the challenges every 3-months for 2-weeks totally free and his method was a pleasant surprise. I’d recommend the challenges any time.
What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading and re-reading my own book for editing, but I intend to re-start the Penny Dreadfuls collection of stories. I started with Mary Shelley’s original story and her writing style is probably similar to mine… or should that be the other way round ha! She relays her story of Frankenstein through letters between the characters and my book ‘Joan’ used diary entries or regression hypnotherapy sessions to reveal much of her story. Do you know, I hadn’t realised that before I wrote this entry of the interview, ha! Thanks for the revelation, you’re DEFINITELY AWESOME! ha!
What’s next for you as a writer?
The next thing for me as a writer is the plan the next book, the last in the trilogy. I’ve known for a while where I wanted the book to finish, but it always surprises me when it happens. For my first book, I actually had five, yes FIVE endings! ha! Until I sat to type, I had no idea which way Joan wanted me to tell it! But I won’t spoil it for anyone… Happy reading!
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
On a desert island… stranded… hmmm. Would I have time to read when there’d be so much more to do just to survive? ha! But if I had to choose books I could enjoy repeatedly I think they’d be ones that left me with a feel-good ending OR more practical ones on ‘how to do’ stuff. I’ll have to really think on which books they’d be, but if it was fiction only it would have to be… Black Beauty, Harry Potter(the series in one book if that was ever possible), The Golden Compass (the series in one book as I love the ending) and if course The Immortal Nicholas Flamel (series) lol! It’s hard to choose isn’t it, when the full story is spread over several books, ha!
Author Websites and Profiles
Carol Mottershead Amazon Profile
Carol Mottershead’s Social Media Links
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