Welcome to The Comfy Chair blog... Sandy Barker, author of 'The Christmas Swap.'
About Sandy:
I call myself a hopeful romantic. I’m also a lifelong
traveller, self-confessed coffee snob, and devourer of cooking shows,
especially The Great British Bakeoff.
For more visit: https://sandybarker.com/
1. What did you read as a child?
I was obsessed with reading as a child and at ten or eleven,
I precociously devoured Mills & Boon books. By the time I was twelve, I’d
move onto Shirley Conran and Jackie Collins. But I also had more ‘age
appropriate’ tastes and loved the Sweet Dreams and Sweet Valley High books too.
2.
What inspired you to start
writing and how long has it taken you to get to this point?
I started writing a travel biography in 2001 about my year
spent as a Contiki Tour Manager. I tried to fictionalise it in 2012-2013. An
agent, who liked my pitch, read it and said, ‘It’s not your first novel. Too
many characters, multi narratives. You’re not Liane Moriarty (yet). Go away and
write a simple, linear story.”
And I did. I wrote what became One Summer in Santorini.
I self-published that and (what is now) A Sunset in Sydney, and wrote
(what is now) That Night in Paris. Before I could self-publish my third
book, I heard from Avon Books and they wanted to publish me! That was early
2019 and I have had four books published since then (I’m now with One More
Chapter, another imprint of HarperCollins UK).
3.
Describe your writing space -
neat and ordered or creative chaos?
I’m a neat freak and I have also been working from home for
nine months, so my writing space is dual purpose, and everything is in its
place. I do the official ‘switch over’ twice a day. I write in the mornings,
then ‘go to work’, then switch back to author mode in the evenings – different
laptops, different notebooks…
4. What is the
easiest and hardest part of the writing process?
The easiest part is when I am in the flow of a story and it
is pouring out of me. The ideas are coming fast and thick (I only plan a loose
outline and character arcs) and I end up writing whole chapters in a single sitting
– I love that.
Copy edits are the hardest because it is not just about
tweaking small sections. You then need to go back through the whole manuscript
to make sure you haven’t ‘upset’ the rest of the story – or even its flow –
with the edits.
5. Which other
authors are you influenced by?
I read widely in my genre, and there are some incredible
authors out there writing the most clever/beautiful/hilarious stories. But the
author whose career I most aspire to emulate is Lindsey Kelk. She is so
brilliantly funny and her characters live and breathe in your mind. She’s also
written two series as well as standalones and I am planning to do the same.
I’ve already written the next in the Holiday Romance series and I am now
writing book 6, a standalone, which may become a series!
6. What does
literary success “look” like to you?
When I can stop working in a ‘day job’ and just write
fulltime. I have SO MANY stories inside me – most romantic comedies, some darker
contemporary fiction, a thriller, a fairy tale. I just want to write fulltime.
7.
How do you select the names
of your characters?
Maybe this is the hardest part of writing. I have a
list of names I like, and I’ll draw from that, or I (lazily) borrow from
friends and family. If I am writing the antagonist, I’ll go to my other
list – names I don’t like, or I think of people who have irked me. And I use
Google! ‘Popular girls’ names from 1990’ – searches of that nature are very
helpful. But a name has to fit the character and sometimes, my characters get
renamed as I write.
8. Do you hide
any secret ‘messages’ in your book that only a few people will
understand?
Not so much messages, but I will give my close friends
‘cameos’ where I’ve named a minor character after them. I also have ‘stolen’ a
few travel stories/anecdotes that some people will recognise.
9. If your
book was to be made into a film/TV programme, which actors would play which
role?
I typically do an ‘inspiration image search’ when I am
writing something new, so I usually know what my characters look like and often
their appearance is based on specific actors. For Lucy in The Christmas Swap,
I’d love Eleanor Tomlinson – she’d be perfect – and for her love interest,
Will, Ansel Elgort.
10. What do you
hope your readers take away from your book?
That you can choose your family – those
lifelong friends we have – they are our family as much as our parents,
siblings, cousins, etc. Family is love, acceptance, honesty, generosity, and
support.
Lastly, Jenn (The Comfy Chair)
likes to enjoy a good read snuggled up with a cup of tea and piece of cake...
what cake or sweet treat would you suggest to accompany your book?
Christmas cake (drowning in
sherry), hot chocolate, bubbly – anything that you associate with Christmas.
Ebook is out now on all platforms, and the print book will be available from the end of November.
Christmas is coming and best friends Chloe, Jules, and Lucy are needing change… so swapping homes for the holidays could be the perfect present for all of them! Join them in snowy Colorado, sunny Melbourne and cosy Oxfordshire for love, laughter, friendship and romance.
Amazon:
AU https://amzn.to/3kx7xEO
US https://amzn.to/2PBrtbH
UK https://amzn.to/2RrbmhP
CA https://amzn.to/2HzrUCk
Apple: https://apple.co/3cCVRgy
GooglePlay: https://bit.ly/3cAJhhI
Sandy Barker's Social
media:
https://twitter.com/sandybarker
Thank you so much for having me Jenn!
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