Author Spotlight – Wendy Unsworth

Welcome! 

Please introduce yourself. 

Hello and thank you so much for inviting me here today.

My name is Wendy Unsworth. I am originally from Lincolnshire in the north east of England but I haven’t lived there since my twenties. A lifelong love and curiosity about travel has taken me and my family to many places and for thirteen years we lived in Central and East  Africa. We returned to England and spent some years in Cornwall and made our home in a cottage that was built in 1750. There are good and bad points in living in such an old property, but mostly good! These days I spend my time between Scotland  and the wilds of Portugal as we have family in both of those countries.

 

1. When did you start writing?

Reading interviews such as these, it’s interesting to note that most authors tend to say that they have dabbled with writing  for as long as they can remember and I’m no different. I always kept diaries and journals as a child and in my early teens wrote a story several notebooks long about a man accused of robbery in eighteenth century  England. He’s forced to flee the country to avoid the hangman’s noose and has several adventures before proving his innocence.

I don’t know what finally happened to those notebooks but suffice to say the historical accuracy was based on old films about pirates and highwaymen and therefore wildly inaccurate! I do so love a well crafted and well researched historical book and admire those who research and capture a particular period so well that they can transport their readers. Mine was not in any way like that,  but it was good writing practice!

 

2. What motivates you to write?

Oh! Tricky. I suppose it’s creativity that needs to find some kind of form. I love to knit and sew, make home furnishings and create lovely and dramatic gardens. Writing books is at the heart of that love, creating with words. The best part of writing though is that you can actually do it in your head, while you’re washing up or driving or knitting or sewing – creative multi-tasking!

 

3. What genre do you write in and what made you choose this particular genre?

I choose to write in the genres I most love to read, for my own pleasure and for reading aloud to children.

The stories I write are about testing my characters, about what they can come up with when the chips are down. They’re about murder and family secrets, good and bad people. They probably cross some lines between murder mystery and psychological thriller and although I know genres are supposed to be a little more fixed than that, my characters don’t seem to be able to comply.

As a complete change, I also have a series of chapter books for children which are both magical and mad cap. 

 

4. What is your goal in writing? Do you have dreams where your writing should take you?

My goal is my next book. My W.I.P. is always my big dream and I can’t wait to finish it. As far as longer term dreams, to write books that can give real pleasure. I hope that others can find genuine enjoyment in the stories I tell. To have someone say, Wow! That is such a good story, I really connected with it; that means a lot.

 

5. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block and if yes, how do you deal with it?

Oh every day! Seriously though, my daily writing sessions seem to stop-start, that is, I find flow and then get stuck, find it again for a while and then get stuck again. It’s just that way with me.

Since discovering Scrivener that problem has been a little easier to overcome. I split my latest project (manuscript) into documents on a cork board.  For my WIP at the moment, Dirty Work, the action is split into days (Day one, Day Two…) and those days are split into action and POV changes.

When I get stuck I try to unstick myself but if some point is really holding me back I just flip to another document and pick up the action elsewhere in the book. It means I can give myself a break from the sticking point and also that I am still getting some words on the page which is good for morale. 

 

6. What advice would you like to give new, hopeful authors?

I would say, keep your chin up!

Do not listen to naysayers who quote impossible odds at you. If you want to write, write.

If you want to sell the books you write, inform yourself. Read the many blog posts and articles out there; authors are generous in sharing what does and does not work for them.

As far as social media is concerned be okay with the fact that you can’t do everything.

Love books and read them. 

 

7. Please, tell us about your work.

Thank you. I would love to tell you a little bit about my work so far.

My Berriwood books are a series based around the fictional community of Berriwood. It’s a small Cornish village where people tend to know one another and nothing much ever happens. It’s ordinary people living ordinary lives, until…

There is always an until’!

 

Here they are with a little bit of blurb about each:

 

The Palaver Tree. (Book 1)

 

Gabriel Cole is a brilliant man. He’s clever; a tireless campaigner for his own charitable foundation. He’s good looking and charming and he takes care of everyone he meets. Ask anyone.

Ask Ellie who travels all the way to Africa to work for him.

Ask Tiffany who plans to marry him.

Ask Promise who loves him or Diane who admires him.

But don’t ask Pax… she knows something.

 

From a quaint Cornish village to the dust and heat of Africa. If good people would talk to one another, the truth could be told.

 

************************************

 

Beneathwood  (Book 2)

This time the action stays close to home:-

 

Beryl Carroll has lived in the Cornish village of Berriwood for so long that it’s easy to forget she wasn’t born there.

It’s easy… and it’s better.

She fled to the village, a young girl, in search of Gordon, her lost love and in an attempt to escape her sister and her mother and the terrible thing they had all done.

She should have told Gordon what happened, he had a right to know. But what if he couldn’t forgive her? What if he sent her away?

Time has healed, it has banished the past to a few, secret memories but when the couple move into to Beneathwood, the rambling old house on the edge of the village, strange things begin to happen and Beryl has the feeling that the truth is back, welcome or not..

 

************************************

 

Dirty Work (Book 3)

 

Appearances can be deceptive.

Take the Duke twins. Pete lost his IT job almost two years ago; he is best known in his native village of Berriwood for his tendency to be found propped up against a bar somewhere… or under it. It has been a tough time for Caroline, Pete’s wife,  but at last, it seems he is turning things around.

Nathan is the success story of the family, the darling of the local amateur dramatic society who gave it all up for his high flying directorship based in London. But his wife, Marcie hates the lonely days while he works  away  and forgetting her birthday is the last straw.

 

When Nathan invites Caroline and Pete to a surprise birthday dinner for Marcie, to make amends, Caroline has her reservations. She knows  if anyone is going to spoil the party it would be Pete; he has done it plenty of times before.  What she doesn’t  anticipate is that her husband  won’t even be there and that one of the four will very soon be dead…

 

This is my newest work in the series, available on Amazon for pre-order from May 17th 2017 and due to be published on June 16^th 2017. 

 

Thank you for being my guest. It was such a pleasure to have you here!!

 

I am so grateful to have been invited to your lovely blog. Thank you for having me

 ________________________________________________________________________________________________

Connect with Wendy:

 

Website – http://wendyunsworth.wordpress.com

Twitter – https://twitter.com/WendyUnsworth

Facebook – www.facebook.com/WendyUnsworthAuthor

 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Wendy’s Books:

 

The Palaver Tree.   http://getBook.at/Palaver

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beneathwood.       http://getBook.at/Beneathwood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dirty work:             AVAILABLE ON PRE-ORDER MAY 15 2017!!