Author: Amanda Brooke

Why I’m Supporting “Stand Up To Cancer”

Amanda Brooke 3 Comments
autumn

First signs of autumn

It’s a lovely autumn day and as I drive home through Liverpool, the trees are starting to turn and the yellows and golds sparkle in the afternoon sunshine.  This year I’m more aware than ever of the change of season and the reason for that is the book I’ve spent the last twelve months writing and rewriting.Another Way to Fall has been a labour of love and I’ve invested so much in the story emotionally, even more so than with Yesterday’s Sun.  It’s the story of a young woman called Emma who discovers that the cancer she thought she had beaten has returned and the seasons are a very strong theme running through the book.  In many ways Emma sees autumn through my eyes, not as a time to marvel in the glory of nature but to mourn this last flash of colour before winter descends and life is snuffed out.  The inspiration for the story came from a poem I had written about my son Nathan which was called Autumn Child and for a while it was the book’s working title too.

For the last six years I’ve dreaded the approach of autumn because it marks the run up to the anniversary of my son’s death.  This year is no different but I do think that writing Another Way to Fall has allowed me to shift my mindset.  I can now catch a glimpse of the beauty in the turning leaves that shine their brightest just before they fall, leaving a burning impression as well as bare branches.

Nathan’s memory still burns brightly in my mind but I wish he was still here and I hope that other parents can be saved the pain of losing a child…and that is why I’m supporting the Stand Up To Cancer campaign.

Today I am mostly being…Amanda Brooke

Amanda Brooke Leave a comment

At 9.48am, I board the London train at Lime Street Station, Liverpool.  I had to drive through torrential rain to get here but the sun is out now and I’m scanning the skies.  No rainbows.  Normally at this time of day I’d be at my desk at work but as the train pulls out of the station, I’m leaving my normal life behind me, for a while at least.  Today I’m not in the office where I’ve worked for the same employer for the last twenty seven years, I’m an author off to meet my agent and my editor for lunch in Chelsea.   I signed the first book deal almost eighteen months ago and my first book was published six months ago but being an author is still new to me and I’m having one of those moments where I have to pinch myself.  I suppose it’s a good thing that I write under a different name, it gives me a clear separation between my normal life and my ‘alter ego’.  So yes, today I am mostly being Amanda Brooke.

With two lives to lead, it’s busy fitting everything in so even on a two hour train journey I need to make the most of my time and so I set to work writing this blog.  Just as I reach London the sun is shining when my friend Karen texts me to say there’s a rainbow over Liverpool.  Rainbows have a strong significance in my life.  I searched for rainbows after my son died, convinced it would be a sign from him to let me know that he was alright.  The first arrived one week after I lost him, to the exact minute in fact, just as I was struggling to work out how I was ever going survive without him.  The next rainbow arrived the following day at his funeral just as I was sitting in the funeral car telling my sister about the one I’d seen the day before and there have been a fair few since then.  So if nothing else, the rainbow in Liverpool reminds me that this journey I’m on started with Nathan and he’s never far from my mind.

A quick race across London and I arrive on time for lunch with Luigi and Sarah.  I am most definitely Amanda Brooke now and the food is good and the company even better.  The news is that Another Way to Fall is going into production so it won’t be long before it stops looking like a Word document and more like a book.  Of course that also means that the time for playing around with it is over, there will only be minor changes from now on.  Sarah tells me she hasn’t shared it widely yet but those who have read the manuscript have cried but that doesn’t surprise me.  I read through it from start to finish after the copyedit and it made me cry too.  She also tells me that they’re planning to publish in February which is the same month that Yesterday’s Sun is being published in the US so it’s going to be a busy month!  There are no firm decisions on the front cover for Another Way to Fall yet but I can’t wait to see it as a proper book.

We talk a little about book three which I’ve now handed over to both Luigi and Sarah.  Its working title is The Bench but no-one is under any illusions that it will stay that way – I need to think up a proper title for it.  I might muse over that little problem on the way home on the train.  Of course the worst and best news is that Sarah is pregnant (very pregnant!)  so after a year and a half of holding my hand, she’s leaving me.  But of course I’m thrilled for her and she assures me and Luigi that I’m in safe hands with her chosen replacement Kim who is coming over to HarperCollins to cover her maternity leave.  There’ll be a lot of work to do while she’s away and Sarah and Luigi have plenty of ideas of how to promote the new book and me, ‘the author.’  I’m glad I’ve spent the wet and miserable summer writing, it should give me enough free time to put more effort into all the other work that comes with being an author in the coming months.

Lunch is long but over too soon and I’ve got the rest of the afternoon to myself.  Slowly but surely, I stop being Amanda Brooke.  I’m in Oxford Street shopping, calling in at Forever 21 which is a must when I’m in London with my daughter but today it’s only window shopping.  Eventually, I find myself on the train home.  It’s late and I won’t get home until ten so am in no mood for the two businessmen sitting opposite me who are having a very loud conversation that they really should be having in private.  I suspect their ruthless character assassinations of their colleagues are annoying the whole carriage.  I can’t concentrate on anything else, especially not titles for The Bench but perhaps one day I will exact my revenge…I wonder if I can use these two obnoxious characters in a future project.  I smile, I haven’t stopped being Amanda Brooke quite yet.

An Artist in the Making

Amanda Brooke Leave a comment

my sketchMy love of writing may have had its beginnings in real life when I began to write a journal but as far as my forays into fiction are concerned, I’ve never set out to recreate a character or an event that has been based on real life, not yet at least.  But I can’t deny that there have been small elements of my real life that have managed to creep onto the page.  It’s difficult to describe what’s going on inside a character’s mind without drawing upon some of my own ideas and influences so I suppose I have to accept that there is a little of me in some of my characters.

Take Holly in Yesterday’s Sun for example.  It’s no coincidence that I share her love of art.  I grew up in a household where we all enjoyed drawing and painting, it was a hobby I shared with my brother and sister who continue to create amazing pieces of art while I’ve taken a creative detour into writing.  When I had to decide what kind of career I wanted for my main character, making Holly an artist was a way for me to not only fulfil a lost ambition but to take my limited artistic talents to new, if somewhat imaginary heights.  I had only ever played around with sketching and painting so it was quite liberating to suddenly start creating a huge sculpture if only in my mind’s eye.

But my influences didn’t stop there.  It might have been Holly who had the problem of producing a commission for Mrs Bronson but it was me who had to come up with the ideas on how to express the relationship between a mother and a child.  That was less of a problem than you might imagine because some of those initial ideas she had existed long before I started writing Yesterday’s Sun.  One sketch in particular was based on a drawing that takes pride of place on my living room wall.  It’s a pastel sketch I drew shortly after Nathan was born and was meant to represent me with my two children.  I would have to say that Holly’s sketches are far better than mine but that’s the joy of writing.  I can describe a masterpiece without even picking up a pencil and I can create a magnificent sculpture of swirling figures curling ever upwards without having to take a chainsaw to a block of granite.  And I’m very proud of the sculpture I’ve created, more so than the lump of broken rock I would have produced if I’d tackled it in real life!

Who Loves Book Clubs?

Amanda Brooke 1 Comment

I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to a few book clubs in the last six months and the first thing I asked myself was…where have all these book clubs been hiding??  I think the answer is fairly obvious, they’ve been around forever, I’ve just been embarrassingly ignorant of them.  I could say I’ve been too busy writing to read but that’s no excuse so… shame on me!

OK there are the big ones that even I couldn’t miss and of course the Richard and Judy Book Club is up there with the biggest and I certainly owe an awful lot to them for selecting my first book for their Spring 2012 list.  But it’s the smaller book clubs that we should be shouting about.  The independent ones that have been brought to life because a community, a company or simply a group of friends decided meeting up regularly to talke about books they’ve read and to share their views over the odd glass of wine wasn’t such a bad idea.  It’s easy to skim through a book and then go onto the next without really stopping to think about what you’ve just read.  And of course by listening to other people, you get a different perspective, no two people will read the same book and be moved, intrigued, excited in the same way.

I’ve visited a few book clubs that are run by groups of friends, where everyone takes it in turns to host the evening.  I don’t think it’s just a good thing because it’s encouraging people to read and maybe broaden their horizons on what they read…it’s also a good excuse to set aside time on a regular basis to meet up and catch up…and talk about books of course.

I was also  invited along to Merseytravel who had encouraged their staff to join in the Six Book Challenge and it was great to see so many people being encouraged to read more and also as part of their scheme, to write too so maybe one year they’ll be reading a book from a homegrown author.

My latest foray into book clubs was at the Neighbourhood Cafe in Childwall, Liverpool.  It’s run by Lynne Collins and it has everything that a book club should have.  A warm and welcoming atmosphere, great food and hospitality and because it’s open to anyone, you get a real mix of people.  I went along to talk about Yesterday’s Sun and there were plenty of questions that really got me thinking and my mind was still buzzing when I got home, in fact I couldn’t sleep.  So now I know what I’ve been missing out on I’d love to go back there as a reader rather than a visiting author, I loved it!

Why have I got three and a half books spinning around in my head?

Amanda Brooke Leave a comment

I had thought, rather naively I admit, that writing novels would be a fairly linear process…you write one book, finish that and then onto the next. And if it wasn’t for that wonderful first book deal which is a writer’s dream, I might still be under that illusion.

So here’s how it really happens or at least this is how it happens for me…

My first book, Yesterday’s Sun went through a fair few rewrites but by the summer of 2011while the manuscript was going through the finer detail of copyediting and proof-reads, I knew I had to make a start on the second book. I already had a synopsis which had been agreed with my editor Sarah Ritherdon and my agent Luigi Bonomi so I set to work. Yesterday’s Sun was put to the back of my mind and Another Way to Fall began to take shape.

Early in 2012, Yesterday’s Sun was published so even though I was busily working on my first rewrite of Another Way to Fall, I was now being asked lots and lots about Yesterday’s Sun as part of its promotion. It was an amazing time but eventually things quietened down and by late spring Yesterday’s Sun was on the shelf and Another Way to Fall had gone through a second rewrite which my editor Sarah loved…so I was ready to start on Book 3 which has the working title The Bench.

Just when I thought I only had one book to concentrate on, I heard from Harper in the US who are going to publish an edited version of Yesterday’s Sun for an American audience, so there was more copyediting to go through. Fortunately not much but enough to distract me temporarily from The Bench.

It’s now August and at last the very first draft of The Bench is finished and I can breathe a sigh of relief. Writing isn’t my day job – I work fulltime in local government – so for the first time in a long time I was looking forward to having a weekend or two of pure leisure. What did I used to do with all of that free time? At the back of my mind I know I need to go right back to the beginning of The Bench soon as I’ve only finished a very rough draft but at least I have a complete story and I can mull over some ideas in the meantime. I might even have time to think up some ideas for future books….

I’m still planning what to do when what happens? My weekends (plural) turn into one singular Saturday where I treat myself to a trip to my mum’s caravan in North Wales but I’m already thinking about the emails I’ve just received. Yesterday’s Sun has thrown up a few queries during the proof read in the US that need addressing, Another Way to Fall is back from the copyeditor and I’ve got three weeks to turn it around and The Bench is still demanding my attention.

My head is spinning but I’m really not complaining, I’m loving it. I know how very fortunate I am to be in this position and that’s not something I’ve been able to say in a very long time. I have the publication of Another Way to Fall to look forward to early in 2013, not to mention the publication of Yesterday’s Sun in the US in February by which time The Bench should be coming together and I will need to start thinking about Book 4.

I’ve just remembered what I used to do in my free time…in 2010 I ran the London Marathon and the months of training left no room for anything else…yes I think I prefer the writing!

So How Did I Get Published?

Amanda Brooke Leave a comment

I suppose it all began with that first spark of an idea, the one that led me to developing the storyline for Yesterday’s Sun and oh how I wish I could remember it in perfect detail! All I have is a vague recollection that I had been walking through Liverpool city centre when I started thinking about time travel…as you do…and to be honest, I spend lots of time toying with ideas for my writing and most are completely forgettable but this one persisted. I couldn’t help thinking about what it would be like for me to go back in time and change events so that my son would have survived his battle against cancer or even just to have the chance to hold him again. Yesterday’s Sun allowed my heroine to do the one thing that I couldn’t and the more the ideas began to form in my mind, the more I became determined to get to that scene where Holly could scream at the world: ‘Take me, not my child!’

I started writing Yesterday’s Sun in May 2010 and by November I was ready to face the daunting task of convincing someone to publish my book. I knew I had to find an agent first as publishers rarely take on authors directly so I looked in the Artists and Writers Yearbook and picked three that represented my particular genre and followed their submission guidelines. I didn’t hold out much hope, I don’t think anyone does if you look at the odds of being able to convince an agent to take you on, so while I waited for responses, I was already listing the other agents I’d try next. I was stunned, amazed and beyond excited when Luigi Bonomi took an interest in the manuscript but he suggested some pretty major changes before he’d commit. I would have been mad to ignore the advice of a highly regarded literary agent so Christmas was cancelled and I set about the rewrite. By February 2011 I had another version ready and this time Luigi loved it. My manuscript was ready to be sent to the publishers and essentially my work was over. It was all down to Luigi now and for the most part all I had to do was wait for that call. I might not clearly remember the moment I had the idea for Yesterday’s Sun but I do remember that call from Luigi telling me I had a two book deal with HarperCollins. I was crying when I phoned my daughter to tell her and she actually thought I’d had some bad news.

I now had not only an agent but an absolutely lovely editor, Sarah Ritherdon but of course that meant that more rewrites were in store and it was probably autumn by the time the editing was complete. The original publication date was April 2012 but then I had another one of those never to be forgotten phone calls. I was walking down Matthew Street in Liverpool when Sarah phoned to say that Yesterday’s Sun had been selected for the Richard and Judy Spring Book Club and I had to sit down on a doorstep to take it all in. It wasn’t all good news though…I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone until the official launch in January 2012 and it was still only October but who was I to complain?!!

The week that Yesterday’s Sun was published was surreal. I went down to London the day before to be interviewed by Richard and Judy and the next day…publication day…I was back in the office doing my day job. OK I was surrounded by flowers, balloons and banners from my work mates but it was still back to normality, doing the job I’ve done for the last twenty five years and trying to adjust to my new double life.

Where to begin?

Amanda Brooke Leave a comment

So I decide to start a blog and then what happens?  I spend days wondering what on earth it is I’m supposed to write…and that got me thinking…

In the run up to the publication of my first book I was regularly asked what made me start to write and the answer was quite simple.  Nathan.  He was the reason and if you read the author note in Yesterday’s Sun or some of the articles I’ve linked to this blog then you’ll understand why.  What I’ve never been asked however, is why hadn’t I written before then.  Why had I waited until I was  hmm…let me work this out…forty one before even attempting to tackle a full length manuscript?

To be honest, I don’t know the answer but I’m guessing it’s the same reason I stalled when I first attempted this blog and it’s probably the same reason many, many people toy with the idea of writing a book but never quite get around to it.  Perhaps it was fear or a lack of self-belief.  Maybe it was a reluctance to commit so much time and effort…it’s certainly a daunting prospect to stare at all of those blank pages waiting to be filled.

But in amongst all of that there was another reason.  I had once watched an interview with a successful author, I can’t remember who and I can’t remember when but I do remember what he said.  He was talking about all the countless people who came up to him and told him how they wanted to be a writer and asked him for any tips.  His reply was quite brutal.  He told them that if they had really wanted to be writers then they would have done something about it already, they wouldn’t have been able to stop themselves.  For me it conjured up this idea that authors were born not made and so I suppose it gave me the excuse to stop trying.

It wasn’t until I found myself at a point in my life where I knew I had that overwhelming desire to write that I realised there was perhaps some truth in what that author had said.  But what he’d failed to recognise was that people sometimes change, life can do that to you and when it does then maybe that’s the catalyst that turns those who ponder into those who write.

It’s just a shame I took my time starting this blog.  So much has happened in the last eighteen months!  Everything from getting the first publishing deal, hearing the news that Yesterday’ Sun had been selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club to getting that second deal and so much more in between.  So as well as the (hopefully) regular updates on where my fledging career is taking me I’m going to try to throw in the odd blog to bring together the edited highlights I’ve missed so far.

Phew!  So there it is, my first blog and I’ve made the commitment to write some more so please, please watch this space!!