Welcome to The Comfy Chair Blog.... Jaimie Admans, author of 'The Little Christmas Shop on Nutcracker Lane.'
Jaimie is a 35-year-old English-sounding Welsh girl with an
awkward-to-spell name. She lives in South Wales and enjoys writing, gardening,
watching horror movies, and drinking tea, although she’s seriously considering
marrying her coffee machine. She loves autumn and winter, and singing songs
from musicals despite the fact she’s got the voice of a dying hyena. She hates
spiders, hot weather, and cheese & onion crisps. She spends far too much
time on Twitter and owns too many pairs of boots. She will never have time to
read all the books she wants to read.
1.
What was your favourite childhood
book/author?
Judy
Blume, no question! I don’t know how old I was when I read my first book by
her, but I’d guess around eight or nine, probably a bit young to be reading
them, but I found that her books really spoke to me and talked about issues
that I had and didn’t realise that other people had them too! My absolute
favourite book of hers is Tiger Eyes, which found me at a tough time when I was
around twelve, and that was the first time I really connected to a character
and felt like the book was written about me.
2.
What inspired you to start writing and
how long has it taken you to get to this point?
I
have no idea what inspired me to start. I grew up wanting to tell stories and
was always playing around with words and starting stories in different genres,
but I think things changed when I started reading romantic comedies and realised
that I loved them and that was the kind of thing I wanted to write. As for
time, I wrote my first whole novel in 2006 (it was beyond dreadful!) and had no
aspirations to get published, I was just doing it because I loved it. I
self-published a few books in 2012, and then got my first ‘proper’ publishing
deal with a novella in an anthology in 2015, and then my first book deal in
2016, and now I’ve got seven books out and two more scheduled for next year!
3.
Describe your writing space - neat and
ordered or creative chaos?
I
actually have two – one is an exercise bike desk in the bedroom, it’s literally
an exercise bike with a desk for a laptop instead of handlebars, and when I’m
feeling lazy (most of the time, to be fair!) I sit in an armchair in the living
room with my little netbook on my lap!
4.
What is the easiest and hardest part
of the writing process?
Easiest
is planning a book when all the ideas come at once and unexpected things slot
together and it all feels fresh and exciting, quickly followed by the first
draft, which is the main thing I absolutely love – just getting to escape into
another world and live a different life for a while. The hardest part is
definitely revisions, when my editor has read the first draft and sends me a
letter detailing everything that’s wrong with it, and gives me a few weeks to
fix it! I don’t mind them in the sense that I know they make the book better
overall, and having someone else look at it and tell you what works and what
doesn’t is invaluable, but the process of having to pull apart a book, add
things and take things away, and then re-stitch it back together in a way that
somehow still makes sense is so daunting for me!
5.
Which other authors are you influenced
by?
All
the other incredible authors who write in my genre, some of whom I’ve been
lucky enough to get to know through social media. To see people struggling
through first drafts and plodding through revisions, and still produce amazing
book after amazing book is inspirational and reminds me that no matter how
challenging something is, I can get there too!
6.
What does literary success “look” like
to you?
That’s
a good one because I think the goalposts move as you move on in your career, if
that makes sense? When I started out, all I wanted was a book in paperback,
when I got that, I wanted the paperback to be in a shop, and then another
paperback in another shop, and so on. Once you get one thing, you always want
more. Amazon Top 100 for one book, but then you want it for the next book as
well. Generally, I think the ultimate success is just finding readers who love
your books, who talk about your books, who wait for your new releases, who
really ‘get’ what you’re trying to say and love your characters as much as you
do!
7.
How do you select the names of your
characters?
Baby
name websites are brilliant! Sometimes characters appear in my head with their
names in tow and I know what their
names will be before anything else, but more often than not, I end up trawling
baby name websites trying to find something that fits (and that I haven’t used
before!) Also, whenever I hear a name I like, I write it down in the hopes that
it will fit a character at some point in the future!
8.
Do you hide any secret ‘messages’ in
your book that only a few people will understand?
I
do! There are a couple of certain phrases that I try to sneak into each book in
one way or another, and I also try to shoehorn in references to my previous
books, usually in the most vague way possible, but I love knowing readers
who’ve read them both will get the references!
9.
If your book was to be made into a
film/TV programme, which actors would play which role?
James
is easy because I pictured an actor while I was writing, and that’s Peter Porte
– he’s a gorgeous actor who does the Hallmark-type made-for-TV movies, and
Nia’s a bit more difficult because I pictured a real person when I was writing,
but I’d like Nia to be played by someone a bit quirky, I think Zooey Deschanel
would be the perfect fit for her!
10.
What do you hope your readers take
away from your book?
That
you’re never too old to believe in the magic of Christmas! And that nutcrackers
are awesome and everyone should have one!
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?
Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! I’m going to say Peppermint Bark seeing as it’s mentioned a lot in the book, and I made a lot of batches of it while writing for ‘research purposes’!
After making a wish to finally find Prince Charming,
Nia accidentally knocks over and breaks a human-sized nutcracker and runs away.
When she returns to pay for the damage, she stumbles across a man in exactly
the spot where she left the broken nutcracker. A very gorgeous, very charming
man. But he couldn't actually be the
nutcracker... Could he?
Available HERE
For more information check out:
jaimieadmans.com
