Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in West wales with my husband and rescue dog. I’ve been writing for about fifteen years although I didn’t publish my first book until 2014. My personal writing shelf now contains eight fiction books and a ‘how-to’ book on painting watercolour seascapes, http://mybook.to/WatercolourSeascapes written under the name of Ruth Coulson. Painting the sea and coast near my home is my other passion. I’ve been painting for over thirty years and felt it was time to share my own particular style of capturing the sea. My fiction writing encompasses mystery, historical, and post-apocalyptic novels, and all are inspired by subjects about which I feel strongly – injustice, exploitation, ecology, family history, the sin of war – My first love is historical fiction; history underpins our present and shapes our future.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest fiction book is called Kindred and Affinity. It was inspired by two tiny facts I knew about my father’s family, and having exposed the scandals in my mother’s family, it seemed only fair to dig deeper into my father’s. I knew that my maternal great-grandfather had married sisters, and that my paternal grandfather was a violent alcoholic who died when he fell off a roof drunk. When I discovered that marriage to sisters was forbidden under the law of Kindred and Affinity – well, I just had to write the story, didn’t I?
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Playing Candy Crush Saga and watching TV when I should be writing?
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Dennis Watkins-Pitchford AKA ‘BB’ whose books were read to me by an enlightened teacher when I was a child – Little Grey Men, Down the Bright Stream, and Brendon Chase were some of his books.
Tolkein, of course. Various historical fiction authors read in my teens. Stephen Donaldson and Terry Goodkind – both masters of world building.
What are you working on now?
The Chainmakers’ Daughter. (Still trying to decide whether to hyphenate chain-makers’) It was inspired by an article visiting the Black Country Museum on the TV program, Flog-it. The working conditions and starvation pay of the women chain-makers was something I had to research. It was their terrible conditions that led to one of the first strikes for better pay and paved the way for the equal pay laws we have today. I’m finding the research fascinating and horrifying in equal measure.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
That’s a hard question to answer. Promoting books is time consuming, and I’ve yet to find a really good way. I use social media, and some of the promotion sites do a good job for a price. It’s a matter of trying them and comparing results. Some authors do well at book fairs, but I’m not good at pushing myself.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Listen to criticism. Don’t discard it because you don’t like it. Analyse the reasons behind the comments and you’ll usually find they have a basis. Take notice and correct if possible. The most important part of writing is editing.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Listen to criticism.
What are you reading now?
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James – for some odd reason my heroine is reading it, so I have to as well.
What’s next for you as a writer?
After The Chainmakers’ Daughter? Not sure. I have a few ideas mulling, but it remains to be seen if any of them see the light of day. Something will push to the fore.
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?
The Lord of the Rings, the best story ever; The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, because it kept me sane through difficult times; my own For Their Country’s Good box set, because I love my characters; and Royal Command Family Saga because I’m itching to read the extra new novella, and if I can squeeze just one more After Eight mint in, my Collins English Dictionary, because I love words.
Author Websites and Profiles
Rebecca Bryn Website
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