About author, Elle Field: Elle Field is a twenty-something chick lit author who lives in London with her boyfriend and their cat. She enjoys exploring and photographing new places, watching musicals on the West End, and eating her way around London’s culinary delights.
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INTERVIEW
Describe yourself in five sentences: I’m a twenty-nine year old author who loves nothing more than reading a good book. Originally from Yorkshire, I went to university in St Andrews – yes, with the Prince – and I now live in London with my boyfriend and our cat, Comps. I enjoy exploring and photographing new places, watching musicals on the West End, and eating my way around London’s culinary delights. I’m also a massive fan of The Killers, Milka Daim, giraffes, caipirinhas, Audrey Hepburn movies, balsamic vinegar, Scrabble, gingerbread men and sunshine. Oh, and tea and champagne, too!
Have you always wanted to be an author? Ever since I can remember I’ve scribbled down tales of magical adventures and damsels in distress. When I got a bit older, I moved on to the adult equivalent of these – I’ve definitely always wanted to be an author!
I first started writing chick lit the summer I turned twenty-one. I’d had a bit of a rough time in the months leading up to that birthday and I found it to be quite cathartic making things turn out well for my characters. Even though that book will probably never see the light of day, it was much more fun than working on my dissertation – that’s what I was supposed to be writing that summer!
As you don’t tend to see advertisements for people looking to hire an author, it has taken me a while to make my dream of being an author happen. Kept finally made it out into the big wide world six years after I penned the first draft, which is why the book is set in 2007!
Hard/paperbacks or eBooks? Once upon a time I would have said paperbacks generally and hardbacks for my absolute favourite authors, but a lack of space means eBooks are my format of choice nowadays. (I own about three thousand hard/paperbacks!)
What is the writing/editing/publishing process like for you? My process is constantly evolving; how I wrote and edited my third book was a completely different process than the process for my first book. I no longer write the first draft by hand, which is probably for the best as my once beautiful handwriting has become a horrid scrawl!
Once the first draft is ready, I edit on screen, on paper, and by reading the book out loud. Once I’m happy with the edits, it goes off to my Copy Editor, who will also proof read the manuscript.
It’s at the first edit stage that I commission my book cover and start working on my marketing and promotion for the release of the book. I definitely enjoy editing more than I enjoy writing the first draft!
Coffee or tea? Most definitely tea! I’m partial to English breakfast tea in the mornings, lemon and ginger tea in the afternoons.
Who and/or what motivates you to write? The beauty of the story is a big motivator: I love getting under my character’s skin and giving them a voice so they can share the twists and turns in their lives! But, knowing that people enjoy and identify with what I write is the biggest motivator for me.
If you’re not writing, then you’re probably…: Cooking, sleeping, exploring, reading or binge-watching box-sets!
How do you come up with ideas for your books? Real life is a great place to start to get inspiration for books, but I always make sure to add a heavy fictional twist if I do “borrow”. Arielle, the heroine of Kept and Lost, has a few of my own traits. I think it is inevitable as an author that a few of your own experiences or quirks might make their way into bits of your books!
If you could meet any other author who would it be? I’d love to meet Bill Bryson. He’s one of my favourite authors, and has been for over half of my life now. I’d love to share a cup of tea with him and chat books and Blighty.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given? Never give up. It might take you six months to publish your novel, or it might take you six years… if you give up though, you never will!
Can you tell us about any of your upcoming projects? My third book, Lost, will be out on April 7th (it’s available to pre-order now, and is the second book in the Arielle Lockley series: http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Arielle-Lockley-Book-2-ebook/dp/B00U2X7E4A). Once that is published, I’ll be working on the third book in the series. Found will be out towards the end of 2015.
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Books by Elle Field
Kept (Arielle Lockley Series Book 1) – Amazon
Geli Voyante’s Hot or Not – Amazon
Lost (Arielle Lockley Series Book 2) – Amazon, (pre-order now!)