Well, my goodness! Today, I'm looking forward to sharing a visit with my friend,
Clare Revell
author of
CASSIE'S WEDDING DRESS
Welcome back, Clare! Let's start off with the question I always want to know first… Why do you write?
I write because I have to. That sounds daft, but for me if I don’t write I go insane. I find myself filled with stories all day long. Sometimes the muse goes on strike, but he’s rarely silent for long. Then he comes back with a new set of characters or a plot twist.
Creating characters is such a mysterious process. How, exactly, do you go about doing it?
Usually I start with the name. Then hair colour, eyes etc. Next I hit google and trawl through masses of photos/tv shows, etc until I find someone to play them. Sometimes its easy, sometimes it isn’t.
At that point the character takes over. He or she decides what his personality is like, what they like or don’t like. Quite often mid-story, and that means I have to go back and change things. It’s their story and they insist on it being written the way they want.
Fascinating. A lot like real people, if you ask me. What manuscript do you happen to be working on right now?
It’s called Thursday’s Child. The heroine is called Niamh (pronounced Neeve). She’s a prosecution barrister for the Crown Prosecution Service (think the UK equivalent of the DA). She's married to Jared, a firefighter. Injured in a car accident, Niamh has no memory of the last ten years. Unfortunately this means her husband is a total stranger. As far as she is concerned she’s 26 and single, rather than 36 and married. Jared is determined to woo her and make her fall in love with him all over again.
That sounds gripping. Is there a theme you most like to write about?
I love romance and crime/mystery/drama. Hence I combine them all and write romantic suspense. I also dabble in fantasy and sci-fi.
And why did you write Cassie's Wedding Dress?
It was inspired by the Royal Wedding. Very much a what if the dress was damaged and they asked if they could use mine. Then I was watching the horse racing and a jockey was injured. Several of my books used Pastor Jack and he’d been demanding his own story for a while. So the three things got combined.
And what a great way you combined them, I really enjoyed reading it! Just for fun, what Hollywood director would you most like to work with, if your book were to be made into a movie?
Any! Seriously, it wouldn’t matter who they were, so long as they did the book justice. So many films are nothing like the books.
I agree. Could you tell us where readers might most likely bump into you when you are on vacation?
They’d have to come to the UK. I haven’t had a holiday in about three years, now.
Ah, maybe a picnic by your nearest lake, then. What kind of computer programs do you use when you write?
Usually word. Occasionally ywriter – that’s good for planning and for nanowrimo. Which is coming up way too fast. But draft one is always done by pencil and paper. Narrow feint paper and a propelling pencil.
Finally, where can your readers find you if they want to pop in for a visit, now and again?
Thank you ever so much for sharing a bit of yourself with us, Clare. It's intriguing to hear how a particular author weaves their words into stories. And you always seem to be working on something new, which I'm sure makes your readers happy. I know it does me!
