Who is Maddie?

If she doesn’t find out…she’ll die.

Tormented by visions of a woman’s death,

maths student Maddie’s search for answers

 
Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B098F578W2

Amazon US - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098F578W2

Author Interview
1. What would you consider to be your Kryptonite as an author?
If I have a power of any sort, it's an ability  to always be able to write.  I never have writer's block  (crosses fingers, toes, legs etc.) and ideas often flow from my fingers as I type.

2. If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
I wish I'd thought more seriously about writing earlier in my life. I feel I would be more accomplished by now if I had done - although my life has always been exceptionally busy!

3. What book do you feel is under-appreciated? How about overrated?
As an indie author I am very conscious that the big sellers are often celebrities, whose work may not be particularly good, but it's bought because of who they are and the publicity they receive as a result. Having said that, they have usually had to work hard to achieve that status  in the first place.

4. Favorite childhood memory involving books?
In my last year of primary school, my teacher read The Hobbit to the class. It spurred me on to borrow Lord of The Rings from my local library and I read it in the school holidays. I became quite obsessed with it!

5. If you could dine with any literary character, who would it be and why?
I would love to have dinner with Hereward The Wake - from whom many of the Robin Hood stories were said to be derived. He was a handsome young tearaway who became a true but flawed hero.

6. If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?
My kids call me the Crazy Cat Lady!

7. What is your most unusual writing quirk?
I'm not sure whether dyslexia is considered a quirk, but I just throw letters at the screen and hope that Word will sort it out. I frequently write phonetically - such as won instead of one - and sentences often come out face about arse.

8. What is the first book that made you cry?
I howled a lot in  Lord of The Rings

9. How long, on average, does it take you to write a book?
I can write a vomit draft in three or four weeks, but the honing and polishing can take months, even years. I need to leave a long time between each draft to be able to see it with fresh eyes and pick up its many faults.

10. How do you select the names of your characters?
Character names usually come to me quickly.  Often it will be the slightly altered name of someone I've just had dealings with. I have written so many books, I find I do repeat names so I'm having to keep spreadsheets of them  now.

11. What are your top 5 favorite movies?
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

The Exorcist

Airplane

Clockwork Orange

And because I've seen it recently and really enjoyed it Yesterday.

12. If you were the last person on Earth, what would you do?
If I were the last person on earth I would make it my mission to visit as many places as I possibly could before I died. I might write about it all just in case aliens came to visit and found my manuscript!

13. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
I would advise aspiring writers to have a hide like a rhinoceros, to be persistent and to accept and take on board any criticism. I flinch when I read very early versions of some of my books. They're dreadful. But everything is capable of being improved so long as there's a good story within.

14. What book do you wish you had written?
There's no book I wish I had written, but I would like to think one day I could write something which affected my readers the way that Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess affected me.

15. Tell us 10 fun facts about yourself!
1. I can wiggle my eyebrows independently.

2. I equalled the primary school high jump record managing four feet.

3. I was in a choir which performed in the Royal Albert Hall, St Pauls Cathedral as well as on TV and Radio.

4. My friend's father used to call me Jane Bedsocks.

5. I visited Wuhan, China in June 2019 and was taken to a food market there!

6. I won a portable TV in a cat food competition when I was twelve.

7. A telephone pychic told me that even though we had been outbid on our dream house, we would hear in June it would be ours. It happened.

8. I suffer from food phobias, which is not fun, and why I don't do dinner parties!

9. Bond is a family name so in olden days, my computer passwords always involved Bond and 007

10. Two of my great grandfathers were very opposite. One was in the Grenadier Guards and won medals, another was a missionary!

16. When did you write your first book?
My first completed novel was written in 2012 as practice for Nanowrimo - National Novel Writing Month.

17. What sparks your creativity/how do you get your ideas?
Anything and everything can spark off ideas. Sinister Sisterhood emerged from a short story about a blackmailing bookkeeper and progressed when Cecil the Lion was killed by a trophy hunter. Comatose came about after a near car collision. The Ice Maiden was inspired by a dream

18. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
I spend a great deal of time in the garden and I paint pictures - in addition to woodwork and walls

19. Would you ever write under a pseudonym?
I've thought about writing under a pseudonym and I know that there are unconscious - or even conscious biases against female writers but I decided to stick with my own name and see what happens - or not.

20. Do you have a favorite food/snack/drink when writing (or anytime)?
I sometimes get incredible energy dips when writing and then I reach for the almonds or dark chocolate chip oat biscuits

21. How do you choose your book covers?
I normally have a rough idea about what I want to see on the cover. I make a mockup version then send it to professional designers to bring it to life.

22. What’s one thing you’d like to say to your readers?
A very big thank you - especially when they really like my work (and tell me). It gives me such a thrill. And anyone who takes a chance on a newbie indie author is a hero!

Amazon : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jane-Badrock/e/B07HZ2HD3Q

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18510015.Jane_Badrock