CONFERENCE TIME: Memorable Moments with...Anna Jacobs

Conference season has started! Woohoo! No more counting down the days until I meet up with friends I usually only see once a year.

So much gets packed into 3-4 days and everyone's experiences are different. We go away with a variety of highlights or "a-ha" moments.

I thought I'd poll some of my RWAustralia & RW New Zealand friends and ask them to recall their most memorable moments of the conferences they've been to.

I hope you've been enjoying the snippets I've been featuring. For any first timers out there, don't be nervous or afraid of going to conference. More often than not you're going to find yourself welcomed VERY warmly and will probably go away with a host of friends whom you can't wait to meet next year at conference.

Short & sweet this week - enjoy!


Anna's Memories: Kylie, my most memorable moment from a conference is someone peering closely at my hair and saying in surprise, ‘You don’t colour your hair, do you?’ Just because I’m older, I suppose.

Anna Jacobs

I come from a baby-faced family and my father’s hair was still ‘salt and pepper’ when he died at 87.

The comment wasn’t meant at all nastily, I hasten to add. I think the person was just surprised. I’ve never met a nasty person at a conference.

HISTORICAL AUTHORS: Anna Jacobs

Anna Jacobs was born in Lancashire, moved to Australia and now lives part of the year in each country. She’s totally addicted to writing, and produces three novels a year. As of October 2012, she has 59 novels published.

At the moment Anna is writing historical novels for two UK publishers and modern novels for another.

She has been married to her own hero for many happy years, and they have two daughters and one grandson. 

Published works: 59 novels, two how-to books, 9 French textbooks, assorted short stories and about 20 poems. 
Publisher/s: Hodder & Stoughton UK and Australia, Severn House, Allison & Busby.

What is historical romance and which era intrigues you the most?
Historical romance is like any romance in one sense, two people meeting and falling in love, facing problems about getting together. But if it’s done properly, if it’s truly historical, the period background is integral to the plot and the story couldn’t have happened in any other era. In other words, it isn’t modern characters dressing up in fancy frocks, brandishing swords, but characters from the past falling in love, characters with perhaps a slightly different attitude to the world, since they ‘live’ in a different world.

I like writing stories from 1730 to the present day. I find the Tudor and Medieval periods too brutal. I’m a sucker for happy endings.

What's the most fascinating aspect about writing in this genre for you?
I write in several genres and it’s always about trying to tell a good story. So I have to find the best possible story to tell. I do that through research and finding historical settings that haven’t been done to death.

I particularly like researching how ordinary people lived in the past. I’m not interested in politics and murder, or in the nobility. I read a lot of research books. You can find a certain amount of information on line, and yes, it’s very useful, but that’s usually the past seen through other people’s or historians’ eyes.

I like to hunt out old autobiographies, diaries or journals, especially amateur publications. That way I can hear the voices of people from that era. I keep my eyes open every time I visit a tourist spot, or country bookshop and pick up little gems of floppy paper booklets, amateur publications, that tell me about things I’d never even heard of in my formal history studies.

I also like to find old photographs, because they too are directly from the era. For THE TRADER'S WIFE which is set partly in Singapore in the 1860s, my local library got in some rare books from the central library’s reserve collection. I wasn’t allowed to take them home, but had to read them in the library. But I could photocopy them. Photos of Singapore in the 1860s. Wonderful stuff!

I also have my own family photos from the 1860s onwards, so I’ve used those too to find out what real people were actually wearing. As we all know, very few women of today wear the sort of clothes shown in the high fashion shows – most didn’t wear high fashion in the past, either. So a history of fashion doesn’t always tell me what I need, but a family photo does. 

What challenges did you face publishing in this genre?
The same challenges you face getting published in any genre. Firstly, bringing my own skills up to scratch. Secondly learning how to use the historical background to best advantage, trying to fascinate the reader. Thirdly, learning what to include so that the reader would understand the subtleties of the past and relate to my characters’ situations.

And then, finding a publisher isn’t easy in any genre. In the end I finalled in a big Australian competition and that got my first historical romance published.

Once you’re published, the problem is to stay published. In any genre. You have to attract readers to try your books and keep readers interested so your new books will keep selling. I’m happy to say, my first historical series is still reprinting, the Gibson Family Saga beginning with SALEM STREET.

And my husband has now reissued as ebooks some other historical romances, to which I have the rights back. To my delight, two of my own favourites MISTRESS OF MARYMOOOR and REPLENISH THE EARTH are my bestsellers in historical ebooks. They’re both set in the 18th century. MISTRESS OF MARYMOOOR is a romantic suspense, taking place in an old mansion on the edge of the moors. Wuthering Heights meets happy endings! REPLENISH THE EARTH is a gentle rural romance and is one of my ‘special’ books. I love that tale to pieces.

A new challenge in this area is to publicise and sell ebooks. 

Which authors have inspired you in your own writing? Or which ones do you enjoy reading?
It was Georgette Heyer who inspired me to write in the first place, and I still re-read her books. But now that I spend two-thirds of the year writing historical romances, I don’t read as many. I spend the other third of the year writing modern complex relationships novels, and during that time I’m more likely to read a historical.

I read so many books (three a week) that I ran out of historical authors I liked. I don’t like graphic sex or violence, you see. Then I found cosy mysteries, many of which are historical eg Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series, which it truly wonderful writing. My husband and I have devoured her books. You need to read the series in order.

I get ‘inspired’ in one sense by the best authors I read, because you can always learn something, since writing novels is a complex craft. I’m studying things like plot, period detail, characterisation, credibility, memorable scenes, not mere words.

I don’t need inspiring to write, as I have story ideas welling up all the time. But I do try hard to improve my writing and plotting with each book. It’s a personal challenge, I suppose. 

When you get a chance to relax, what do you like to do?
Most important of all is to spend time with my husband, who is also my best friend. No wonder I write romantic novels. I’ve loved that man for over 50 years, since two days after we met at university.

I like to read, getting through three novels a week. I’m hopeless, aren’t I? A book/story addict.

I also like watching TV: antique shows, house hunting shows, not celebrity stuff or sport. And good drama like Downton Abbey. Or classic comedy like ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ or ‘Dad’s Army’. I also have a weakness for the Mikado, and we watch it on DVD at least once a year, singing along with it. Brilliant music and a silly but fun story.

Also we spend part of the year in the UK, where we also have a house, and that is a pleasure, but takes a great deal of organising. We not only have to transport ourselves, but my business!

Could you share your latest release, or a selected book, and tell us a little bit about it?
I’m deep into writing The Traders series at the moment. (1860s, Australia, Singapore, Ireland) It started off as a trilogy, but has sold well, so has gone to five books. The stories not only please my editor and readers, but it gives me great pleasure to write them. I’m just finishing writing No 4.

I didn’t intend to write this series, but Bram Deagan appeared in DESTINY'S PATH the last of another series, and was such a vivid character I couldn’t get him out of my mind.

He’d been a groom in Ireland but got the idea of becoming a shopkeeper while sailing to Australia, then got bigger ideas, ie to become a trader. He’s of medium height, scrawny, not good looking, but he’s the best romantic hero I’ve ever created. He is such a wonderfully loving man. Or did he walk out of the mists and does he really exist ‘somewhere’? I wonder sometimes.

Bram’s story threads through the series, but he’s not centre stage in the other books, just #1 THE TRADER'S WIFE.

In that book Bram travels to Singapore to set up trading links and there he meets his wife and a Chinese merchant who takes him under his wing. The research was fascinating and I loved writing it. The book was shortlisted for Romantic Book of the Year in 2012 (romantic elements section not ‘pure’ romance).

THE TRADER'S DREAM #3 in the Traders series, is released in October 2012, in hardback, trade paperback and ebook.

It’s a story I’ve been waiting ten years to tell, ever since I found out fascinating details about the opening of the Suez Canal.

Bram Deagan dreams of bringing his family out to Australia. Maura Deagan has no intention of going anywhere as she’s just been promoted to assistant housekeeper. But fate has other ideas and she finds herself obliged to go to Australia.

Her ship goes through the new Suez Canal in the first flotilla. She also ‘just happens’ to meet a man she can love, but there are rather a lot of complications to block their path.

Oh, I am enjoying writing it, the research, the characters, everything!

Interview with ... Anna Jacobs

This is an interview I conducted with Anna Jacobs for a feature article in the Romance Writers of New Zealand's Heart to Heart magazine (May 2010 issue). I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed doing it!

Anna Jacobs

R*BY finalist and multiple Golden Web Award winner, Anna Jacobs writes historical romances and sagas and modern family relationship novels, science fiction/fantasy as Shannah Jay and the occasional book under her own name Sherry-Anne Jacobs.

Born in Lancashire, UK, Sherry-Anne Jacobs emigrated to Western Australia in 1973 where she now lives, south of Perth, with her husband of 30 years, a computer and a library of several thousand books. Kept busy with her writing schedule, Anna also enjoys holding workshops to help fellow writers.

Working with Hodder & Stoughton, UK and Severn House for nearly 20 years, and with almost 50 books to her credit, Anna takes time out from her busy schedule to share her thoughts with us.

Thanks for agreeing to be one of our feature author, Anna!

What inspires you to write?

I don’t think ‘inspire’ is the right word. It’s rather that there’s something inside me welling up and I have to let it out ie the stories. And of course, by now I’m addicted to story-telling, which is how I think of what I do mainly. Has anyone warned you that writing is addictive?  Very. 

You write Lancashire sagas, modern novels and futuristic. Do you have trouble skipping from one genre to another? Do you have a favourite genre you like writing the most?
I love writing all of them, though I’m not at the moment writing futuristic. I had 5 futuristic novels published as Shannah Jay and would love to write more, but just don’t have the time. I alternate between modern novels and sagas. The sagas are not just set in Lancashire now. Quite a few of them are set in Western Australia. Actually, I love writing both sorts of story and I NEED the variety of writing both sorts, too, to keep my mind stimulated and active. It’d be boring to do the same sort of thing all the time. I’ve seen authors grow stale and write same old, same old, and I’m terrified of doing that, which is why I have two ‘wise readers’ who read my stories before I ever send them to my agent or publisher. My wise readers are sworn not to mince words!

What does your writing day consist of?
I get up about 5.20 am, not because I’m being virtuous, but because I wake naturally at that time. When I wake, I’m fully alert, so it’s a waste of time lying in bed. I answer emails, which is part pleasure, part business and part networking. Then I get breakfast and shower, after which I play cards on the computer. For some weird reason, this settles my brain into writing mode. (It’s something to do with left and right sides of the brain. One needs a very relaxing activity to foster the creativity.) I then dive into writing by re-reading and polishing what I wrote yesterday. I love doing that. Polishing is my favourite writing task of all. Afterwards I carry on telling the story and add about 2,000 words in a typical day.

I break at regular intervals to do odd household chores eg the washing but I don’t have a housework gene, so I don’t take it to excess. I do not iron or dust. One has to have standards!  I’d move anyway because it’s very bad for the human body to sit in the same position for hours on end. I never stay still for more than an hour and so far (touch wood) in spite of doing writing and writing-related ‘stuff’ for about 10 hours a day, I’ve not got any repetitive damage to my body.

I also, if I’m lucky, wake regularly in the night and ‘see’ scenes, which is very helpful. It’s as near as I come to plotting.

I don’t think there is any time when I don’t have a story simmering in my mind. My husband is a musician and it’s the same with him about music. It’s always there.

My agent and three publishers (I just added a new one) are in England so they are 7 or 8 hours behind in time difference. Business emails come in overnight or after teatime. So I don’t switch off the computer until 7 or 8, well after teatime. I never know when I’ll get something that’s urgent to reply to, you see.

And then there’s research. That too is always with me, whether it’s for historical or modern stories. And reader emails - I get more than two a day.

You mentioned on your website that you read at least 3 novels a week. Do you have an author you like to read? What are you reading right now? How does this help you as a writer?
I have a lot of authors I like to read. I enjoy a variety but not gruesome or nasty stuff. And it has to have a happy ending. Quirky is nice, too. Georgette Heyer is my favourite and I re-read her books every now and then. From today’s authors, I like Nora Roberts (but not her gruesome ones, nor JD Robb), Sherryl Woods, C J Cherryh, Barbara Delinsky, Robyn Carr, and the new Aussie author Bronwyn Parry. Her two books are fabulous. I hope she writes a lot more. At the moment I’m reading a research book about Fremantle and Jill Mansell’s ‘Thinking About You’, but am waiting for ‘Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand’ a quirky English book that my husband got hold of when it arrived and as he’s a slow reader ie.takes a week or so to read a book, I’m waiting impatiently for him to finish it.

As well as entertaining me, reading a lot of books helps feed my imagination, which is essential. It also shows me what’s been done to death as a plot and what sorts of plots are popular now. This is market research. 

You have a number of sagas among your booklist. What methods do you use to research your novels (eg. online, travel, personal experience etc.)?
I did a university unit covering my period in history before I started - there was a particularly good history lecturer here at the time. I buy and read a lot of research books. I have notebooks full of notes eg a file for each century and a page for each year on which I write notes about ‘titbits’ of history that I can follow up if I write a book set then.

Nowadays I research on line a lot, but you have to be careful whose web site it is ie. credibility. I sometimes write to website owners asking for further help. In the book that’s coming out in July in the UK (Beyond the Sunset) I had a cart crash and I did that via the Novelists Inc website. (This is an international organization for multi-published authors.) Someone on Ninc always knows the answer or where to find the answer. My ideas of a cart crash were not at all correct, but with the help of some great people in the US, whom someone on Ninc sent me to, I redid the cart crash. It’s correct now. Took me three days to crash that cart.

I start collecting research material well before I write a book. With modern novels, it’s often pieces from newspapers or articles I’ve found on line. There is always something to check out. I try very hard not to make mistakes. I often get story ideas from my non-focused research. For example, many years ago, I read about a shipload of Lancashire cotton workers being brought out to Western Australia as maids, because the American Civil War had stopped supplies of cotton and therefore there was no work in Lancashire. I filed that away mentally for future reference. Some time later I found a book of memoirs, written in the 1870s by a lady who came to Western Australia on the same ship, so it seemed meant to be that I told the story that begins in FAREWELL TO LANCASHIRE and is continued in BEYOND THE SUNSET.

What themes do you like exploring in your books?
I don’t think about them as ‘themes’ but stories. I write about relationships and families mostly, whether it’s historical or modern or futuristic, and always with a romance included, or even two or three romances, because I don’t like to leave my minor characters lonely. I don’t write ‘pure’ romances, where the romance itself is the plot, but rather ‘romantic’ books where a romance is integral but something else is the plot. They’re complex tales with several sub-plots usually.

And another on the same topic - what influences how many books make up a saga – your fans, your editor, you, a combination of all three?
The editor always has the final word about what will be published. But . . . the story itself is the main decider as to whether I suggest a series or not. I start some stories with the intention of having 2 or 3 books, because there’s a lot of material around. Other stories suddenly seem to beg continuation, so I carry on writing when I hadn’t intended to. I try not to go beyond 3 in a series, but with my first series my agent said I could get two more books out of it, making 5, and I did. Phew! Talk about baptism of fire as a writer!

Nowadays the editor and publisher’s marketing teams combine and have a big influence on what I write. I tend to submit a story idea and discuss it a little - I can’t do outlines because I don’t know what happens after the setup. The book I’m currently writing features a secondary character from DESTINY'S PATH (book 3 and final of my current series).  Bram was so vivid I just had to write his story afterwards.

I don’t tend to do series of books for my modern stories, though I’m thinking about it for a current idea. 
 
From your experience, what conventions have the most potential career impact for writers – conferences, workshops, writing groups, critique partners etc.? Have any of these affected/helped you?
For me, it’s my inner self that has the most impact. I can’t not write. But it’s the readers who make the most difference to a career, and I never forget that. If they don’t like you and your stories, you can go to every conference on earth and it’ll make no difference.

That said I do go to conferences and greatly enjoy networking. I meet some wonderful people - I still remember the conference I went to in NZ with great fondness.

Workshops - well, most conferences don’t have workshops suitable for authors of nearly 50 novels. Novelists Inc does, but they’re in the US and sadly it’s just too far a trip with my bad back. The Romantic Novelists Association of the UK does, as it’s primarily an organization for published authors. I can go to their conferences now, since we’ve just started living part of the year in the UK.

My critique group is very important indeed to me. They’re a wonderful, perceptive bunch of women and I was very lucky that they turned up out of the blue when I was starting up a new group in my home town. We’ve been together for a while now and I value their opinions greatly. The online email lists are very helpful too.

People working towards publication should be aware that it’s quality of writing that counts most of all and focus on that, and what will improve their work. Only they can tell, because everyone has different needs as a writer.

What question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview? How would you answer that question?
Um . . . I can’t think of one. Every interview has its own flavour and I enjoy that. Really, it’s best to let the interviewer ask, as she/he knows what she’s looking for and knows her audience.

What new books are due for release this year?
I have four books coming out in July in the UK, a little later elsewhere unless you buy them (post free) from www.bookdepository.co.uk . Two of them are paperbacks whose hardbacks have been out for a while, the other two are brand new stories, hardbacks:

1. BEYOND THE SUNSET - hardback, new story, historical set in 1860s, second in the Cotton Lasses series, following on 'Farewell to Lancashire'. It’s in NZ shops now in a trade paperback.
2. FAREWELL TO LANCASHIRE – is now a mass-market paperback, book one in the Cotton Lasses series.
3. LICENSE TO DREAM – available in hardback, and is a modern novel, new story, set mainly in Western Australia. Meriel has wanted to become an artist, but her mother forced her to become an accountant. When she wins Lotto she can realise her dream. Ben wants to landscape a big country block next to his - only Meriel owns it now.

4. IN FOCUS – is a trade paperback, modern story, set in the UK. Beth sees a TV show where a computer program regresses people to what they were like as a child. She's shocked to realise the host is her baby brother, who vanished without a trace 38 years ago.

Keeps me out of mischief!

Lastly, what’s next for Anna Jacobs?
Who knows? Hard work, certainly. I’ve got a new publisher, so now have three publishers in the UK. I’m certainly writing faster. Much faster. By the end of April I’ll have written two books since 18 December, long books, though the second one will be only in ‘dirty draft’ and will still need polishing. Maybe I’ll need a new writing name if I continue to speed up?

This will be our third year of living 5 months in the UK, 7 months in Australia, so my UK life/PR/etc is changing. I’m doing more PR over there, making more contacts, am able to do more research and am able to interact personally with my agent and editors. It’s all very exciting.

And of course, we’re all going to be affected by the rapidly expanding sales of ebooks, aren’t we? Life never stands still. Thank goodness or it’d be boring. 

Thanks for this interview, Anna, it’s been a pleasure having you here! 

If you'd like to learn more about Anna you can visit her website. 

Anna’s latest book, BEYOND THE SUNSET, available in hardback, is her new historical set in the 1860’s, the second in the Cotton Lasses series, and follows FAREWELL TO LANCASHIRE.

BEYOND THE SUNSET is also a milestone in Anna's career - it's her 50th published novel! Congratulations!

PROMO: An Interview With...series

As the end of July and August are THE busiest season for romance writers, I have An Interview With...series of posts featuring a swag of Aussie Authors & a ring-in from the USA.

I'll be absent from my blog the last week of July as I'll be winging my way to the Romance Writers of America National Conference, then in August I'm off to Sydney for the Romance Writers of Australia conference, and a week later I'll fly to Auckland for the Romance Writers of New Zealand conference. So these posts are articles I've written for the RWNZ Heart to Heart monthly magazine over the last year.

I hope you enjoy reading them. Here's who's coming up when...(mark them in your diary!)

23rd July - Mel Teshco
29th July - Tracey O'Hara
7th August - Sherrilyn Kenyon
14th August - Keri Arthur
21st August - Anna Jacobs