Journalists will ask you the secret to writing them (there isn't one) and the reason for their enduring success (people love reading about love).
Accompanying photographers will often ask you to lean on a tower of your own books and smile, winsomely.
And radio hosts will sometimes read out a line from one of your novels which sounds completely bizarre if taken out of context...
This afternoon, I'll be talking on BBC Radio SOLENT and I'll let you know the most interesting question I'm asked.
And in the meantime I couldn't resist capturing these chocs in all their pristine glory, which were given to me by a dear friend last week. The box is made of red velvet and the chocolates are the deliciously moreish Butlers ("purveyors of happiness") and they're Irish. If you haven't yet tried any - do.
In the meantime, I'm planning to keep the box unopened for as long as is humanly possible....
Dear Sharon,
ReplyDeletethose lovely knees of yours can take at least one heart-shaped box of chocs with ease. Good luck with the interview and if it's a man don't make him blush!
I do like that box, you know. Red Velvet, Mmmmm ...!!!
Happy Valentine's Day from L'Aquila, Sharon!
ReplyDeleteI got a beautiful present today... a blue heart filled with famous Italian chocolate (called Baci Perugina) and a note: "The more you kiss the more you love - Happy Valentine's Day my darling..."
So happy and hope to be present for the blog a bit more! xxx
Sharon was on Katie Martin's BBC Radio Solent show at 2:35pm, 14 Feb 2011.
ReplyDeleteThere's a podcast/audio stream available for the next 7 days.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/solent/programmes/schedules
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00dhf4h
Sharon's interview starts around 1:35:00 in, to 1:42:30.
some interesting quotes:
"I wrote a sex scene this morning... I quite like writing sheiks..."
and
"the only male fans of my books would be gay." Thanks, Shaz!
Great interview, but cripes Sharon I can attest that not all your male fans are gay!
ReplyDeleteBest from fair dinkum, straight as a didgerido
Jack x
ps Not sure if you've seen the Aussie film in the link above? ...you'll get my point
Michela - I know those chocolates! And not only are they delicious, but that blue colour is sooo intense! Lovely to hear from you.
ReplyDeleteLloyd, thank you so much for the link to the interview and am chuffed that you listened in. Having said that, it's weird when the things which trip off one's tongue in the studio come back in the form of quotes. I remember being aware of the malevolent eye of the red light, shining behind the presenter's smiley face.
Jack, great link as ever!
Truth is just as strange as filmed fiction...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2004/apr/18/unitedkingdom.generalfiction.observerescapesection
"I'm here for a weekend course on romantic fiction. Our tutor is Gill Sanderson, a successful romantic novelist with no fewer than 30 published books under her belt. Over the next two days Gill will be our guide in a strange new land, a land where men are men and women swoon - the land of Mills and Boon. Refreshingly, Gill does not fit the popular stereotype of the romance writer (feather boa, bouffed hair, lapdog). For a start she is a man. A burly Yorkshireman called Roger, to be more precise. Retired schoolteacher and father of five, Roger took up romantic fiction because he wanted to try something 'different'. Using his wife's name as his pseudonym, he kept his gender a secret until after his first manuscript had been accepted and has never looked back, enjoying the distinction of being Mills & Boon's only male writer."
(Only? Or only admitted?)
annnnd....
"No inter-racial relationships ('though sheikhs are OK')"
Lloyd - you are a veritable treasure trove of information!
ReplyDeleteFascinating facts - please keep 'em coming.....
I'm with Jack on this one...
ReplyDeleteYou do have heterosexual male fans, Sharon.
I enjoy excellent writing no matter the genre.
Very glad to hear that I'm not alone Dan! And yes Lloyd, there are male romance writers out there too ...
ReplyDeleteI would really recommend to everyone Paperback Hero - a really fun Hugh Jackman (any fans here?) film on the subject - trailer in link above
Synopsis:
In a remote outback community, tomboyish Ruby Vale runs the town's only eatery, the Boomerang Cafe. She is engaged to marry a stuffy man named Hamish, but prefers to spend much of her time with her best friend, Jack, a macho train conductor ['road-train driver' - J] who is writing a romance novel on the sly. However it is not until the book becomes a bestseller that Ruby realizes that Jack has published the book under a pen name -- Ruby Vale. When publisher Ziggy Keane demands to meet the rising author, Jack begs Ruby to pose as him at an important meeting with Ziggy in Sydney where she successfully negotiates a follow-up novel deal and encounters a bit of unexpected romance.
Got me wondering if, in a circular kind of way, there are any other rom-coms about writing romance fiction ...?
You mean apart from ROMANCING THE STONE, Jack?
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, lots of my fellow writers are inspired by Hugh Jackman but I'm not among them.
Love the discussion this post has provoked!