Book info:
Title: The Angelica Touch
Author: L.J. Sedgwick
Genre: YA contemporary
Release Date: November 25th, 2017
Synopsis:
Angelica, 14, has reached three conclusions. Firstly, her mother Molly,
who manages a rundown hotel on the wild Drisogue peninsula in Donegal,
is desperately lonely. (She's not.) Secondly, it’s entirely her fault
that Molly is still single. (It might be.) Thirdly, since she can hardly
have a boyfriend of her own if Number Two is true, it’s up to her to
find her mother a man. (It really isn't.)
Given her natural gift for
matchmaking, Angelica’s solution is to develop a dating website for her
mum. With the questions devised by Angelica and best friend, Grace,
what could possibly go wrong?
A romantic comedy of errors, set in 2010.
Author Interview:
-->
1. What does your
writing process look like? Do you know the whole story when you start? Or
do you just start writing and go with it (seat of the pants writing)? If
you plan it out, how do you do that? Outline, notecards, post-it-notes,
etc.?
I tend to get a draft written and then step
back, do a full outline of what happens in each scene and separate the stories
to make sure they all work. Dad’s Red Dress, my first book, was a
screenplay first so the ‘form’ of it was there when I wanted to write the book.
Although the ending did change and now there’s a sequel brewing away! Writing
that is more organic. I’ve brainstormed every character, looking from their
points of view, their issues and personalities to see what stories or events
could come from them. I’ll sit down in the new year and dive back into Jessie’s
world; for now I have a beginning, lots of really fun stuff for the middle and an
ending, (a lovely ending!) but no real
structure.
My new novel, The Angelica Touch was tightly
plotted but then it lost momentum and I had to outline it again, to work out
where I could compress the storyline but also allow the characters to breathe. Candlemist, my first fantasy book, was initially
written in a notebook my father gave me after my mother died. I wasn’t capable
of writing so I made myself write ten pages in it each night. The deal I did
with myself was not to worry about what popped up or the logic or the story and
see where it led. That became ‘A Sort of Something’ and I returned to it
several times over the years in between only to be a bit overwhelmed by the
scale of it. The first draft was a glorious muddle of material. I know the
structure is in there, if I can just pull it free and that’s heavy work! The
current draft is 110,000 words long and I’m outlining it again because there is
so much going on and I need to make sure it all works.
I do use post-its to remind myself of things I
need to check or add; scraps of paper and the ‘notes’ app in my phone. I have
written plays without knowing where they were going because it’s more fun – it
does mean you end up cutting material you love but it also means you come up
with material you’d never have logically dreamt up.
2. How do you come up with your ideas for
your stories?
All sorts of places. Dad’s Red Dress was
inspired by someone my family knew who was transitioning. I was fascinated as a
kid by how her children coped. From that came a feature script in 2002 that was
almost made in 2005. I wanted to tell this story and so the book came about. The
Angelica Touch, my new book came from a story I was told about another single
mum whose child would bring stray men to her at the playground and introduce
them as, ‘My mum needs a husband and I need a dad’. But I’d also worked in an
introduction agency in the 80s in Australia.
I have a comedy stage play about a woman who
steals a thumb from a lab and grows a man – that probably came from being
terrified of a film I saw when I was five or six and that I recently discovered
was Carry on Laughing. Another came from my fascination with multiple
personalities, another from a cutting in a paper about a policeman arrested for
attacking women and stealing their shoes. (He was addicted to the glue used in
the soles.) Others, Candlemist came
purely from some strange place in my mind while another semi-fiction book,
SnapShots came from finding holiday snaps of my parents from the 50s that my
brother threw out after my father died.
Once I have the germ of an idea, I need a
character whose perspective interests me and I explore that. Once they start
talking, I have no choice but to write the book or script!
3. How long have you been writing?
Always. I wrote books of poems for my
mother when I was in primary school, my first novel at nine. Words fascinated
me. Behaviours. I was always an observer and I loved what I could do with
words. It felt magical.
4. What tips do you have for aspiring
writers?
Write every day – it’s a boring one but
writing is a muscle and even if it’s a factual account or three lines on the back
of a bus ticket to remind you of something you’ve just seen, it counts. But the
important second part of this is to expect to write rubbish. Regularly. There’s
a lot of rubbish in our heads that we need to get out so the good stuff can
flow and if you’re afraid to write bad material, you’ll never keep writing.
My second tip, if you set out to finish a
script, a novel, a play, finish it. You’ll feel so much better. Unfinished
projects stifle creativity and depress writers.
Thirdly, brainstorm everything, to do
mindmapping as a regular technique to improve your visual storytelling skills
and make sure that you don’t come up with the most obvious next image, setting,
line, way to reveal information or character... And use different coloured pens
to do it with on the largest sheet of paper you can find. Put a word at the
centre of the page. Write down everything that word connects you to without
thinking about whether it’s logical. Think sounds, colours, people, memories,
other words, tastes, objects. When one of those resonates, do the same for that
word. The daily grind can put shackles on our imagination and to write, to keep
writing, you need to be able to open your mind up again.
5. How important are names in your books?
Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds, or the
meaning? Do you have any name choosing resources you recommend?
Very important. If you choose the wrong
name, you can be stuck with it. I’ve had to change a character’s surname
because someone famous has the same name but usually, if I need to change a
name, I struggle with it.
I only realised that I had used the same
first name for the lead character in two books when I stood up to read aloud
from them at a reading. I had to rename the character in the unpublished book
on the spot and, fortunately, the new name is even better. You can get lazy and
revert to names you know.I got a book of baby names I got thirty years ago and
I use it to find names that have an interesting meaning or mythological
connotations. Nicknames are handy too, especially for the hint they can give to
something in the character’s past.
6. What are your favorite:
Books/authors/genres
I’ll read just about anything. Currently
reading Eleanor Oliphant is Fine by Gail Honeyman, several books on illustrating
picture books and Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ which is excellent.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez blew me away the first
time I discovered 100 Years of Solitude. But so did Midnight’s Children by
Salman Rushdie.
I love historical fiction for relaxing to but
really I love any book that has characters I believe in and want to know more
about. I get depressed by books that have characters I can’t care about!
Movies/TV Shows
Tv? The Handmaid’s Tale. Dr Who. Howard’s End.
Stranger Things. The Good Wife. West Wing. Love sci-fi on TV.
Films? The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Juno.
Little Miss Sunshine. Witness.
Music
I’ve been listening to the soundtrack of The
Wire at the moment, almost on a loop, while I edit The Angelica Touch. A
recent discover was My Fellow Sponges, an Irish indie band but I love
PostModern Jukebox too. I have pretty eclectic taste. Prokopiev’s Romeo and
Juliet – there’s one track (Dance of the Knights) I can play over and over and
it will make me feel like doing just about anything with strong lyrics..
Food/Writing snack
Crisps (King, Cheese n Onion). Chocolate
(almost anything). I don’t need a lot of either, but I need to know I have
supplies in the house somewhere! (Usually hidden from my husband!)
About the Author:
A former journalist, Lindsay Jane Sedgwick is a versatile
and imaginative award-winning screenwriter and playwright. Her first novel,
Dad’s Red Dress was published in March 2017 and her second, The Angelica Touch
is out in December 2017.
Her nine hours of TV and film credits include the
internationally acclaimed animation series, PUNKY, two series of which have
sold globally. A screenwriting tutor since 1995, Lindsay was Screenwriter in Residence at Maynooth University and Kildare
County Council Arts & Libraries Service 2016-7. She is a graduate of Moonstone ScreenLabs
(2002), was a New York University ‘Gregory Peck Scriptwriting Course’ scholar,
(1993) and has an MA Screenwriting from Leeds Metropolitan University (1999 and
was ). In 2012, she founded the Creatives in Animation Network (CAN) to
facilitate collaboration between writers and animators. She is a script and creative consultant whose current projects
include the sequel to Dad’s Red Dress, a fantasy novel, Candlemist, several animation projects and Write That Script!,
a book designed to help writers get their first screenplay written.
Twitter: @LJSedgwick
Instagram: lindsayjsedgwick
Website:
