… of  ‘An A-Z of Possible Worlds’ (Boxed Set) by A.C.Tillyer

is Rachel Green.

Congratulations Rachel (@leatherdykeuk), please do email or DM me your address and the rather nice Faye at Roast Books will send you a copy.

Last Sunday evening Sue Cook phoned me. I was being interviewed for her new radio show, The Write Lines, a programme that I feel will be of interest to so many of us writer folk. Here’s what Sue has to say about it all:

“We’ve all got a novel in us, so the saying goes. I’m not sure all of us have, but certainly there seems to be an incredible amount of interest in the whole business of writing at the moment.

Creative writing courses are oversubscribed, writers’ retreats in the countryside report record bookings. There are local writing groups springing up all over the place, the internet is alive with authors and publishers blogging for each other and the number of books published each year has risen to 115,000.

And of course for every one successfully published book, ten are turned down.

The writer’s journey is a bumpy one. Even when you’re published and your baby is brought alive and kicking into the world, you can’t expect it to SELL necessarily. There’s a complicated relationship between publisher and bookseller working an alchemy of its own there. I should know – I’ve had two books published myself in the last 3 years.

So – it’s a minefield. a lottery. From the first tap of the keyboard to bookshop and beyond. But you can get there. And this series, The Write Lines, aims to help you get there. In the studio over the next four Sundays I’ve got experts from every aspect of the publishing business, all aiming to shine a light and show us the way along the dark and rugged pathway; to make sure we’re on the Write Lines.

This Sunday’s show starts, appropriately enough, with The Blank Sheet of Paper -  and talks about the writing process itself.  Round the table with me this Sunday will be Jacq Burns, former commissioning editor, agent and co-founder of a great resource for writers – the London Writers Club;   Will Atkins, Commissioning Editor MacMillan’s New Writers imprint; Carla MacKay who is one of the book reviewers for the Daily Mail and as such wields an enormous amount of power as far as authors agents and publishers alike are concerned; and -  two cracking authors – crime writer Mark Billingham who has just had his third novel published by Little Brown – called In the Dark and the first one not to feature the country-and-western loving detective Tom Thorne , and Marie Phillips whose first novel, the comic fantasy ‘Gods Behaving Badly’ has been a huge hit since it came out in 2007. She’s busy writing her next book and also runs a creative writing workshop or two in her spare time. We’ll also be hearing from authors Caroline Smailes, Elizabeth Chadwick and Roisin McAuley.”

You can tweet (@the WriteLines) any questions, comments or experiences of your own to the experts in the studio.  So do join Sue Cook and guests, 9 till 10 every Sunday evening for the rest of November on BBC Radio Oxford 95.2 fm.

Editing ‘Like Bees to Honey’ was difficult. I ended up going through the novel three times in ten days.

The first edit felt fresh. I’d not looked at ‘Bees’ since January so it was very much a case of pulling up my sleeves and getting on with it all. I read the whole story and made all of the changes that Scott Pack had suggested. That was quite straight forward (and nice), more about words and inserts than making it all ‘fit’.

The second edit was more complicated. I worked through the whole manuscript again and this time I tried to make it all glue together a bit better. This was all about consistency and my being very anal. One chapter was rewritten and read through at least 57684 times (no I am not exaggerating!) and I stamped my feet several times.

And then the final edit was to look at styles and fonts and textual positioning.  The visual aspect of my writing is so important to me (and I feel my responsibility) and this edit was about writing separate notes and indicating on the manuscript how I visualised key sections ( to help with the typesetting and design). I also found out (from lovely Corinna at TFP) that the typesetter who designed ‘In Search of Adam’ and ‘Black Boxes’ was going to work with me on this book too. I’m thrilled as she ‘gets’ my writing and what I attempt to do visually.

Added to my deadline was the fact that the 3 kiddies were on half term, we had lots of visitors popping in and out, G had a publisher-deadline for his latest book and I had paid work to do too. And (I am possibly rambling, but…) the thing I’ve discovered about being a mum and a writer is that when my mind has to be stuck in a fictional world I am utterly distracted and a bit rubbish at hearing. I am sure that I agree to a whole host of things without even realising (do you find that too?). But me and the kiddies and G all muddled together and visitors accepted untidiness and all of the deadlines were met. Now, out of it all and covered in (absolute) relief, I honestly think that the edits were an enjoyable challenge.

So, I emailed the finished manuscript to Mr Pack on Tuesday, knowing that he’d have to read through it all again, and yesterday I received a rather nice message saying that the changes were what was needed and that everything had been sent off to the copy editor. Hooray for passing the first stage of production! That makes ‘Bees’ another step closer to becoming an actual book (squeak!).

Eldest, nearly twelve, shares his thoughts on books recently read:

Fat Boy Swim – Catherine Forde tells the story of a clinically obese boy called Jimmy Kelly. He is bullied because he’s fat, but really he knows loads of stuff about films, books and sport. Jimmy has a secret that will change him forever.

This book is good because of how different it is to other books. For example the chapters were split into parts of a meal like Starter and Main Meal which blends with the theme of the story. I also like how Jimmy starts obese and becomes skinny because as well as him changing size he also becomes more confident.

Weirdo’s War – Michael Coleman is about a boy called Daniel who everyone thinks is a weirdo because he likes homework and being on his own and a boy called Tosh who likes hanging out with friends and is bullying Daniel. When they find that they have to share rooms on a school trip they are not happy. Then, suddenly Daniel and Tosh end up trapped underground and they have to work together if they want to survive.

This book has a strange plot and story idea. I sometimes found this book quite difficult to keep up with and found myself stopping to go over what had just happened. I did read it all though and I like the title of the book which suggests bullying is like a war and it is almost like a battle to overcome it.

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[Comment from me: Eldest read both of these books with ease and quickly. It's refreshing to find books that engage his age group and reading level.  I'd welcome book recommendations that may fit alongide these 2 books]

(Note to reader: I’ve a copy of ‘An A-Z of Possible Worlds’ (Boxed Set) to giveaway and all details can be found at the end of this long (but very interesting) post)

‘An A-Z of Possible Worlds’ is unique and utterly remarkable.

It is a box set of 26 individual short stories, one for each letter of the alphabet. The stories are rather odd, in a good way, in a creative way, in a way that will make you smile and think. Each story describes a possible destination on a journey, within an irregular world that doesn’t quite exist. Some interlink, some don’t quite, but the real beauty comes from the reading of them out of order (I read them spelling out my name). ‘O is for Orbital Road’ was my favourite.

The presentation of ‘An A-Z of Possible Worlds’ is utterly outstanding, striking colours and perfectly packaged. This, without doubt, would be an ideal seasonal gift for any lover of literature, a reasonably priced collectible that would be a ‘little something different’ to cherish. This collection will inspire, will stimulate and will leave you wishing (like me) that you’d thought up the concept and had the skill to achieve it. Published by Roast Books, this collection will make my top 5 reads for 2009.I recommend this to you, unreservedly and truly hope that it reaches a wide audience.

Delectable, unexpected and refreshingly bizarre. A.C Tillyer is a writer to be taken seriously.

Asking A.C.Tillyer:

This collection is utterly fabulous.  Where did you get your inspiration? Well, thank you!  The idea for the first one came from when I used to catch the train to work.  Every morning we would pass a golf course and, whenever I looked at out, the golfers seemed to be doing exactly the same thing, as if they were robots. I thought: what if they are? So that became ‘The Golf Course’. Then I remember seeing  a group of tower blocks and thinking: a big city could easily ‘lose’ an entire tower block. As long as the lights went on and off at various times, who would notice if nobody actually lived in it? And if that was the case, what could it be used for? That grew into ‘X marks the Spot’ and from that, I couldn’t resist wondering why such a city would be built (’The Labyrinth’), and what would happen to it in the future (’The Metropolis’). Then I was off but I’ll spare you a detailed genesis of all twenty-six. At first, I did them for fun but, as I became more engrossed in ‘my countries’ as I called them, they began to seem like destinations on a journey around the brain. Once I had written about ten, I realized it could be an A-Z.  It was good to have a limit, otherwise I’d still be writing them!

How long did ‘An A-Z of Possible Worlds’ take to create? Around three years, off and on, but I don’t have loads of time to write. Having said that, if I set a whole day aside I get nothing done.  It’s the snatched hours here and there that seem to be much more productive.

Can you tell me your publishing journey? How did you come to be published? I finished it a couple of years ago and did the usual: trawled through the Artist and Writers’ Handbook and sent it off to about a dozen agents. I received some positive responses and three or four said they’d like to see a full-length novel but didn’t want to take a chance on short stories. Several months later an agent contacted me, said she liked them and signed me up, but she couldn’t sell it either. It was the same story everywhere: short stories + unknown writer = no sales. So I pretty much gave up but before I left it to gather dust, I drew the map, printed out each story as a separate booklet and put them all in a box.  I made five or six copies like that, gave a few away and kept the rest. A couple of years later, I saw the Roast Books short fiction competition in the London Review of Books. My collection of stories didn’t really fit the brief but I sent it off anyway. Faye contacted me to say that, although it wasn’t be suitable for the ‘Great Little Reads’ series of novellas, she liked it and wanted to publish it. Then it all started to happen. The box is much nicer now, though.

Is writing a full-time occupation now? Give me a chance! It’s not published until October 31st, so no. Having said that, I’m not sure I’d want to ‘be a writer’. I actually quite like my job and, if I didn’t get out there every day, I’d worry that I’d fester at home. 

Can you offer any tips for people wanting to be published? I wouldn’t think about it too much and get on with your writing. I hate the idea of producing what publishers are looking for, analyzing the plot structures of blockbusters and all that stuff. I suppose it’s fine if you want to change your day job, but if you’re after the sense of freedom and absolute power that you get when you’re writing, I think you have to forget about the market. Having said that, if I hadn’t met Faye, who actually wanted something that was different, my stories would still be lying under my bed, so perhaps the best advice is to keep looking until you find a publisher who does like what you’re doing.  And enjoy it, else why do it?

Who do you feel would be your ideal reader? I guess I have to say myself and, hopefully, anyone who is as much of a bookworm as I am. They’ll be the toughest critics as well, though.

What do you plan to write next? I think it’s better to talk about things once you’ve done them…

What are you currently reading? Right now I’m re-reading The Golovlyov Family by M E Shchedrin.  I’ve read a few ‘disappointments’ recently so I went back to a sure hit.  It has such bleak subject matter that is really ought to be depressing: the emptiness of provincial life, a quarreling family, a loveless home, a plot that repeats itself, characters who are petty, stagnant and cruel, but the book itself is very funny, full of energy and life. I also like reading receipts that I find in the supermarket but that’s probably just because I’m nosy.

And, finally, (with the skilled smoothness of the finest of interviewers) do you in any way know Simon Cowell? Sorry, I don’t. But my best friend wishes he was her dad. He’s 50, she’s 45.  I’m not sure if that’s all right or not. She has a 2010 calendar of him that she bought from Pound Busters in Kentish Town.  He’s wearing different clothes for each month. In some, he smiles with his mouth open and in some, he smiles with his mouth closed.  [Note from Caroline: this is so going on my Christmas list]

You can buy ‘An A-Z of Possible Worlds’ (Boxed Set) HERE.

And, the rather nice people at Roast Books have agreed that I can give away a copy of  ‘An A-Z of Possible Worlds’. All you have to do is leave a ‘please pick me’ comment by 3pm (GMT) November 8, then I’ll pop all names in a mug and ask a small child to select a winner. This competition is open to all.

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About the author: A C Tillyer is a documentary film editor and writer.  She has a BA in English and Philosophy from Manchester University, an HND in Audio Visual Design from Central Manchester College and an MA in Film Studies from the University of Westminster.

She came to London with ambitions to be a director, but soon realized that it is in the edit suite that films are really made and has worked as an documentary editor for nearly ten years.  She has cut a wide variety of programmes, including ‘The Great Nazi Cash Swindle’ for Channel 4, the story of a group of Jewish prisoners who survived the Holocaust by assisting the Nazis in forging British currency, and ‘Darcey Bussell: Britain’s Ballerina’, a bio-documentary for BBC2 that was broadcast on Christmas Day.

‘An A-Z of Possible Worlds’ is her first book.

[Note to reader: The next stop on the 'A-Z' blog tour will be at Stephanie Butland  Bah to Cancer on November 13]

[Apologies and please note that this blog post contains some spoilers for the Disney film 'Up'']

I am writing this blog post in an utterly distressed state. Today I took my kiddies to watch ‘Up’ at the cinema.

Why didn’t someone warn me?

‘Up’ (a Disney film) carries the basic story of childhood sweethearts, outgoing Ellie and shy Carl. They meet with heads full of exploring, it’s sweet and very beautiful. Ellie has a book, full of blank pages that she plans to fill with ‘stuff I’m going to do’ when she goes on her huge adventure and moves her clubhouse to Paradise Falls in South America. Then the years start to pass. Ellie and Carl marry and start to save up, but every time they save, something happens and the money is spent elsewhere. Then just as they seem to have finally saved enough to take their big trip, Ellie goes and dies of old age! Carl, her one true love is left and he’s old and he’s all alone. (sob). Then Carl and a rather cute Wilderness Explorer named Russell fly to South America in Carl’s floating house suspended from helium balloons…

I have never cried so much in a film, not since ‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’ and that took me months before I recovered. Don’t get me wrong, ’Up’ was funny too and much of the ‘sad stuff’ wasn’t picked up by the kiddies. My boys thought it fab, Middlest wants the DS game for his birthday. Dug the dog made them laugh out loud (‘I have just met you, and I love you’) and the obsession with squirrels was amusing.

But, still, I never, not ever, want to watch ‘Up’ again. It has left me feeling raw.

… because we do that, don’t we? We say we’re going to do things, don’t we? We make imaginary plans for that one day when we’ll have spare money, when we’ll have extra time, when we’ll be stronger, healthier, not quite like we are now. And then we wait, we almost expect those occasions to come to us.

I do that. I’m a ‘gonna do’ person. I talk about a family trip to Disneyland in America, one day, when I’ve some spare cash but I’ve not started saving. I’ve a secret writing project that I want to send out, but only when the nagging ‘I’m rubbish’ voices are quiet, but I know they never will be. I want to phone someone, just to say hello, but I’ll wait till Christmas or a birthday, ignoring that they’re on my mind today.

The problem is that if I’m honest, I know that one day I might just wake up and realise that time has taken me into a new place where my dreams and needs are even harder to achieve. The children will leave home and Disneyland won’t have the same appeal, the writing project will be hidden and that element of failing added to who I am, that special someone will continue to deteriorate and conversation will be impossible.  And the ‘gonna do’ will never happen.

There’s a lesson hidden in there. Sometimes I find it so difficult to see through the blackness but maybe every now and then I need to look at those around me and hug them a little bit tighter. Friends and family and making your own fortune, that’s what this post is about.

“You aren’t stupid.
You know there’s no such thing as a perfect mother.
Plenty of other books will tell you there is, but this one won’t lie to you.

I was weak and I cheated and I was punished, but my god I loved my child through all of it.
Love means you never break, and it means you’re stronger than the things they do to you. I know this is true because I have been through fire, and I am the proof that love survives.

I am not a perfect mother but I will tell you the perfect truth, because this is you and me talking.
This is my story.”

‘Incendiary’ takes the form of an extended letter, beginning ‘Dear Osama’ then revealing how the narrator’s four year old son and ‘copper’ husband were killed in a terrorist attack at Arsenal’s football stadium. While her husband and son were being blown apart, the narrator was involved in ‘something’ that would leave her utterly consumed by guilt.

For me, it is the simplicity of the storytelling that almost startled me into submitting to this remarkable story. The damaged but perceptive female narrator recounts events to Osama, struggling with her all-consuming guilt and grief.  Chris Cleave does not shy away from taking the reader right into the heart of the moment. I was left feeling that I’d witnessed, tasted and experienced the devastation and the pleasure being described.

‘Incendiary’ is an incredibly beautiful story, but not in a clichéd or expected way. The narrative voice is raw, accessible and utterly convincing. I felt my throat grip, being moved by human weakness and despair and then I heard myself chuckling at the witty one-liners and honesty of person. I’ve said it before, but Chris Cleave has such a talent to capture the female voice. He manages it to perfection. His writing is sharp, offering a message to every parent longing and moaning for just one moment to themselves or for any wife longing for just one moment of excitement or pleasure. This woman, Cleave’s narrator, is left with those guilt-filled moments and with little else.

‘Incendiary’ is an utterly and devastatingly brilliant debut. I recommend it to you all.

You can buy ‘Incendiary’ here.

Yesterday I received an email from Scott Pack, containing my edits for ‘Like Bees to Honey’.

I’d been expecting them, but still my stomach turned.  I’ve never worked this closely with Scott and having a new editor is a lot scary. What if I didn’t agree with his changes? What if his comments made me want to sulk or stamp my feet or both? What if his email was really just to say that he’d made a mistake and didn’t want to publish me? Honestly, I felt sick in my stomach.

I clicked open the attached file, took a deep breath and read his notes that were both general and specific. I think I must have been holding my breath because I let out a huge sigh, prompting G to ask what was up.

“Edits,” I said.

“OK?” G said.

“Very much so,” I said.

Because they were. I printed out the notes and found myself nodding. The comments were right and if I could manage the tweaks and changes, then it was clear that the book would be better. I felt excited, as in ‘little girl’ excited. Then Scott phoned to talk through it all and probably to make sure I knew not to rewrite the whole thing, just to tweak the parts indicated. I’m glad that he did.

That’s the thing with me and with most writers. Writing evolves and alters with each novel written. I finished ‘Bees’ over a year ago and my writing style has now changed. Novel 4 has paragraphs and correct grammar (I know, I know!), ‘Bees’ doesn’t always. So the main point of consideration is that during the edit I have to remember to keep ‘Bees’ true to the time that it was written (if that makes sense) otherwise it’ll end up a mish-mash of styles.

So now I’ve two weeks to complete these edit and then ‘Bees’ is booked in to be copyedited. The production process has officially started and some exciting decisions are being made. For me, the best part of production will be seeing the cover for the first time. I have absolutely no idea what to expect, but do know that some exciting options are being considered. It’s agreed that ‘Like Bees to Honey’ is my most commercial novel to date (it’s still a bit wonky, so don’t worry). The ideal readership would be located somewhere between ‘Lovely Bones’ and ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’. Big books, big expectations, little me. I just really and truly hope that I can do what Scott needs me to do.

So, here I go. Wish me luck, please.

[note to reader: I found the rather beautiful photo here]

… of a copy of ‘Heaven Can Wait’ by Cally Taylor

is Katina Wright.

Congratulations Katina (@wrightstory), please do email or DM me your address and the talented Cally will send you a signed copy.

(Note to reader: I’ve a SIGNED, copy of ‘Heaven Can Wait’ by Cally Taylor to giveaway and all details can be found at the end of this rather long (but thoroughly interesting) post)

‘What would I do without you, Lucy Brown?’ he said, and kissed me softly. I held his face in my hands and kissed him back. I felt that life just couldn’t get any more perfect. And I was right, it wouldn’t.

By the end of the next day, I’d be dead.

It’s the night before Lucy’s wedding. She’s marrying the man of her dreams; kind, handsome, funny Dan. Everything’s going to plan and she’ll next see Dan as she walks up the aisle, but then Lucy falls from a ladder and breaks her neck. And, as is the way when people die, Lucy wakes to find herself in Limbo (halfway between Heaven and Earth) and with a decision to make. She can go to Heaven and wait for Dan to die or she can attempt to pass a task which will enable her to live as a ghost on Earth. Unable to accept a lifetime’s separation from her soul mate, Lucy decides that she’ll face the task. But, there’s a problem. Becoming a ghost isn’t as straight forward as Lucy had hoped and she finds herself living in the House of Wannabe Ghosts, which is grotty student-style accommodation in North London. Lucy has only three weeks to complete her almost impossible task. Things are ridiculously hard. And then when Lucy discovers that her so-called friend Anna is determined to make a move on the heart-broken, vulnerable Dan, the pressure is truly on…

Supernatural meets geek meets romance and within ‘Heaven Can Wait’ Cally Taylor offers a new voice to romantic fiction. The writing is sharp, fresh, quirky and emotionally rewarding. I have no doubt that Cally Taylor’s original style and voice will have modern readers connecting with the refreshingly current characters. This debut has already been sold to a number of countries and this author, I’m convinced, is ‘one to watch’.

Asking Cally Taylor:

Your journey into publication is inspirational. Can you tell that story again, for those who read this blog and don’t know you? I’ve always written but it wasn’t until 2005, when I came to the end of a one year creative writing evening class in Brighton, that I decided to start writing ‘seriously’ and try and get some short stories published.

One of the first things I did was join an online short story critique group that I’ll call “Kickarse” for the sake of this interview. Kickarse had a fantastic reputation – especially for its members winning or placing in competitions – but its leader had a fearsome reputation for being blunt and outspoken. It took me a long time to get up the guts to join but I eventually did it. I learned a lot about the craft of fiction while I was there and had some success in low level literary competitions and magazines but it wasn’t just my arse that was kicked – it was my ego. Over and over again my stories were slated for being too ‘womag’, too commercial or too lightweight. No matter how hard I tried to improve the feedback was always the same and I started to believe that everything I wrote was crap. It wasn’t long before writing stopped being a joy and became something so soul-destroying I seriously considered giving up writing forever…until I received the phone call that gave me my oomph back.

That phone call was the editor of Woman’s Own magazine telling me that my story “Wish You Were Here” was a runner-up in their short story competition – beating thousands of other entrants. That’s when it hit me – I wasn’t a crap writer, I just wasn’t a literary writer. I was a commercial one. That realisation changed everything.

The day “Wish You Were” was published I sent an email to one of my best friends from school (I’ll call her L). L and I hadn’t seen each other for a few years – contact was a card at Christmas or a brief chat at someone’s wedding –  but I really wanted her to read my story because the setting, a bench on the top of the Malvern Hills, was important to us. I thought L would get a kick out of reading a story set on the bench where we’d talked about boys, drunk hot chocolate from the local cafe and scratched out obscene graffiti with a biro, replacing it with something innocuous and silly instead.

Only L never received my email.

Four day after I’d sent it I received a phone call telling me that L had suffered a brain aneurism and died, leaving behind a husband, and two children under the age of three.

Life was short, I realised as L’s dad stood up at her funeral and read out the letter I’d sent him about our magical bench on the Malvern Hills, far too short to keep putting off your dreams ‘until tomorrow’. My dream had always been to write a novel but I’d put it off for years telling myself I had plenty of time. Seven months later, in March 2007, I started writing “Heaven Can Wait”.

I wrote like I was possessed and completed my 100,000 word first draft in three months and three weeks. I was ecstatic that I’d managed it – I’d written a novel! – but I didn’t want to stop there. The novel needed editing, a lot, and I was starting to believe that maybe, just maybe I could get it published.

In September 2007 I bought a copy of the Writers and Artists Yearbook and looked through it, ticking the agents that represented women’s fiction and chicklit. I shortlisted half a dozen and sent off six brown envelopes. Three days later I received my first rejection. It was personalised but still a no. A couple of days after that I received a phone call from Darley Anderson. He said he’d liked what he’d read and could I send him the rest of my novel? Could I? I hardly slept for the next three nights as I read through my novel again and made a few more tweaks before I sent it off. I didn’t hear anything for six more weeks – but did receive a couple of other rejections – then finally, in January 2008, my phone rang. It was Darley. I was on tenterhooks as I answered it, so hopeful that this was the phone call I’d dreamed about – the one where I was offered representation – but by the end of the conversation I was in tears. The novel showed a lot of promise, Darley told me but there was no way he could represent me or show it to any publishers in its current state, I’d have to do a lot more work on it.

I was gutted, and certain there was no way I could turn my novel into the book Darley thought it could be. For a few months I did nothing. I was scared that if I edited my book and sent it back I’d get a definite NO but eventually the fear ebbed away and was replaced with a ’sod it, if I don’t try I’ll never know’ attitude and I set to work.

At the end of June 2008 I sent off my complete manuscript for the second time. I heard nothing for three months and just had shortlisted a second set of agents to approach when my phone rang. It was Madeleine Buston, Head of Foreign Rights at the Darley Anderson Agency. She told me Darley had given her my revised manuscript to read on the train up to Scotland from London and it had made her laugh and cry. She’d loved it so much in fact, that she’d asked Darley if she could represent me! As she excitedly told me about her plans for my book and the publishers she wanted to approach I just kept waiting for the ‘but’. There had to be one. As the phone call came to an end I couldn’t bear it anymore and said “So..er…are you my agent then?” and she said “Yes!”. The second she rang off I burst into tears.

One month later I had a two book deal with Orion and Maddie had sold my book to Brazil.  Since then she’s gone on to sell it to Germany, Spain, Russia, Hungary, Taiwan and China. It truly has been the most astonishing year of my life – definitely stressful in places – but pretty damned magical too.

So, what would be your advice to someone who’d just today received a rejection letter from an agent or publisher? Don’t let it stop you. Honestly. Keep getting it out there – you just need to find that one agent that’s right for you and your book.

I’ve got rejection letters from agents telling me that

- they aren’t a fan of novels written in the first person
– my premise is ‘too strange’ 
– that UK publishers won’t take a chance on a supernatural romantic-comedy

but look what happened – my strange, first person, supernatural romantic-comedy novel has just been published! You just need an agent that ‘gets you’ and it’s a matter of sending out your novel again and again until you find them. If I’d sent my novel out to forty-nine agents before I sent it to Darley I might have been rejected forty-nine times before signing with his agency. I just got lucky and he was in the first batch of six.

Saying that, if you get personalised rejections and the agents all comment on the same element of your book (the twist doesn’t work, the characters are weak or whatever) you might want to fix that before sending it on to some more.

Is it true that you work full time and write? Do you ever have any spare time? In many ways I have a lot more time than other authors I know because I don’t have any children but I do have a full time job that involves sitting at the computer a lot. Some days I spend a good 12 hours hour a day staring at the screen (eight hours for work, another four for writing) and there isn’t time for much else. When I wrote “Heaven Can Wait” I wrote nearly every night and basically gave up my social life for four months.

When I started writing my second book I thought that was a bit of an unhealthy way to live so gave myself longer to finish the first draft so I could actually go out every now and then! Unfortunately giving myself more of a social life meant no time to take a break before I started editing it (I was given 12 months to write the second book) and I do feel a bit chained to the computer sometimes. On the plus side I watch less trashy TV now although I do have a bit of a binge on TV boxed sets like Prison Break or The Wire on a rare day off!

Writers often find redrafting and self-editing difficult. Can you offer any words of wisdom? It’s definitely a good idea to give yourself a break between writing the first draft and editing/re-drafting so you’re not as close to your novel when you return to it. It also helps to split editing into different stages so you don’t tie yourself up in knots trying to fix everything at once.

I do an initial edit where I read through my novel and fix any immediate issues – like structure problems, filling in missing text or deleting redundant scenes. In theory the story should flow once I’ve finished that edit but I’ll still go through and check:

- the story arc. – the character arcs. – the balance between active and reactive scenes. – the time line, setting, weather etc. – the dialogue, making sure none of the characters have accidently lost their voice or stolen someone else’s. – that the funny bits are funny – if they don’t make me grin I rewrite them. – that the sad bits are sad – if they don’t move me emotionally I rewrite them. – then I’ll go through and tighten up the prose and make sure all my chapter beginnings pull the reader in and my chapter endings compel them to turn the page.

My final edit is reading the whole novel aloud to hear how it sounds (reading a novel aloud is the closest you can get to ‘hearing’ how a reader would read it). I’ve probably missed out loads of other stages but that’s pretty close to my process.

Who do you feel would be your ideal reader? Someone who’s a romantic at heart, laughs when people trip over in the street and cries at the X-Factor! More seriously, anyone who likes a light, romantic, escapist read that’ll make them laugh and cry (hopefully).

What do you plan to write next? I’m currently editing my second novel (initial edit stage) and don’t have much time left until I have to deliver it to my editor on 1^st December. Like “Heaven Can Wait” it’s a supernatural romantic-comedy but this one is about guardian angels rather than ghosts. I’ve already started thinking about novel 3 but I’m trying to push out of my mind until I’ve completed all the edits for this book.

Can you offer any tips for people wanting to be published? Write what you’re compelled to write. In some ways I took a risk writing a supernatural romantic-comedy because there was no market for supernatural romantic-comedy in the UK at the time (even if it was/is very popular in the States) but it was the only book I wanted to write.

What are you currently reading? I’ve got two books on the go at the moment – well, temporarily abandoned while I try and finish novel 2 – “One Day” by David Nicholls and “The Truth about Melody Browne” by Lisa Jewell.

If you weren’t a (fabulous) writer, what would you like to be (when you grow up)? Marcia Brady from the Brady Bunch. No? Okay, I’d like to be a kick-ass FBI agent or a Criminal Psychologist like Cracker. Seriously. Can I be one?

And, finally, (with the skilful smoothness of the finest of interviewers) do you in any way know Simon Cowell? No but one of my friends who knows a cameraman who works on the X-Factor!

You can buy ‘Heaven Can Wait’ here.

And, the lovely Cally has agreed that I can give away a signed copy of ‘Heaven Can Wait’. All you have to do is leave a ‘please pick me’ comment by 3pm (GMT) October 23, then I’ll pop all names in a mug and ask a small child to select a winner. This competition is open to all.

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About the author: Cally Taylor was born in Worcester, spent her childhood guarded by soldiers in Germany (oh okay, her Dad was in the army) and has lived in Brighton for the last eleven years (the longest she’s ever lived in any city). When she was eight Cally was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. She knew she wanted to be an author but told her teacher she wanted to be Marcia from the Brady Bunch instead. Shortly afterwards Cally received a rejection letter from Penguin Publishers; her book The Evil Weed (complete with illustrations and wool binding) wasn’t quite what they were looking for. Twenty-*cough* years, and several more rejections, later Cally finally became an author, but still doesn’t feel like a proper grown up. In 2006 Cally started blogging about her attempt to get published and regular readers have followed her all the way to the, hopefully, happy ending. Cally also has a website.