Fab Firsts is my regular Sunday feature, that is going to be highlighting books that are firsts. When interviewing authors, it will be about their first book, as well as other firsts in their lives. When reviewing books for this feature, there will be a mix of debuts, first books in a series, the first time I read an author, and possibly other firsts depending on what I can think of!
If you are an author wanting to take part in Fab Firsts then please do email on gilbster at gmail dot com and I'll whizz the questions over to you.
I hope you enjoy this look at a variety of hopefully fabulous firsts, while making some sort of dent in my review and paperback TBRs which are my current main focus!
Hi everyone,
and thank you so much Rachel for having me on your blog as part of your Fab
Firsts series. It's great to be here :)
If you are an author wanting to take part in Fab Firsts then please do email on gilbster at gmail dot com and I'll whizz the questions over to you.
I hope you enjoy this look at a variety of hopefully fabulous firsts, while making some sort of dent in my review and paperback TBRs which are my current main focus!
I'm Helen
Richardson, and my debut novel Waking is
out on 14th September this year, published by Accent Press.
1) Can you tell us a bit about your
first book?
'Waking' is a
bit of a hybrid, a combination of the tightly-wound, plot-driven energy of a
thriller, wrapped around a softer more literary love story.
Anna Caldwell
has suffered from night terrors for about 15 years. She decides to move from
Brighton to London with her best friend, in the hope that a change of scene
will cause her increasingly bizarre nightmares to settle down.
Instead, they
get worse, and as they do, Anna meets a man called Jack who she is certain
she's seen before somewhere. He recognises her too. Is this how new love feels,
or have they met before?
Waking is about that strange full-body sense
of recognition and tesselation that consumes you when you fall in love with
somebody and they fall in love with you. It's such a real and tangible
sensation when it strikes, but ultimately it's made entirely of air. I wanted
to push that experience, to ask whether it is a concrete thing, or if it always
remains ungraspable.
I think it's
possible to read Waking in a couple
of ways. You could sit down and devour it in one sitting, chasing the plot to
the end, in a relatively quick (and hopefully enjoyable) read. Or you could
digest it more slowly, and I hope that the symbolism and connections between Anna's
state of mind and the artworks she curates is interesting, the relationship
between our dreamworld and our memories, the proximity of insanity to sanity,
and the difference between being responsible and being guilty.
2) What was your original inspiration
to become a writer, and to write your debut?
This is a
really interesting question - possibly two questions. I haven't ever felt
inspired to become a writer, but I have always written. It's more of a need or
a compulsion - I'm sure other writers agree. Writing is the way I translate and
make sense of the world, the way I process things, the way I express myself. I
know people who translate the world through sound and music, dance and
movement, photographry and film; some of us feel the need to write words. I'm
never more at home in my own skin, than when I am writing.
Writing a
debut though, and focussing on getting published, is a slightly different
thing; there are many sublime writers who aren't published. As an avid reader,
literature has held a huge and central place in my life, and that's probably
inspired me to want to get published, to enter into a conversation with an
industry that I love.
3) How long did it take you to write
your first book?
It took
years really, although the bulk of the writing took about two and a half
months. I was writing about Anna and Jack when I was still a teenager, so I
knew them very well as people by the time they worked their way into this
narrative.
The idea for
Waking started brewing when I was at
university, but getting set up as a producer in London and building a life and
a career took about 90% of my mental and creative energy for quite a few years!
I eventually took a few months off in the summer of 2015, and that's when it really
took shape.
4) If you could do anything differently
in retrospect, what would you change about your debut, or how you went about
writing it?
I wouldn't
change anything. There were some rough and difficult times along the way, but
all those moments are so valuable. Those are the bits where you learn. When
you're editing and something just isn't coming together, when you try something
out and it doesn't read the way you want it to, when you get a rejection or some
feedback that you disagree with - I'd advise any writer to cherish those moments
(yes, really) because it's impossible to develop, or evolve, or get anywhere
good without them.
5) Was your first book self or
traditionally published, and how did you go about making that decision?
Well firstly I
should say that self publishing is a really interesting, emerging, and
necessary space. It's entirely valid, and I'm sure that if I hadn't had any
luck with the traditional publishing route I would have considered it.
Waking is traditionally published, and the
reason for that is sort of connected to my answer to your second question. As
an avid and ceaseless devourer of books, I really wanted to engage directly
with the traditional publishing industry. I was quite prepared (though who
knows if I would have been this patient in practice) to try for many decades! I
tried to foster emotional resilience, and a very 'long game' approach that kept
me calm and focussed.
I was also
hungry for advice, guidance, and even criticism - the submission process delivers
that in spades, and at this stage in my writing career, criticism and guidance
is exactly what I need. I don't think I would have got the same brutal but
improving feedback if I'd self-published.
6)
Do you have any tips for other first-time authors?
If you're
already getting your debut published, then I probably can't tell you anything
you don't already know!
But if you're
trying to get to that point, my biggest piece of advice would be: Whatever you
are writing, whatever you're working on now, get it finished.
It's easy to
be seduced by new beginnings, exciting new ideas, shiny new characters, fresh
projects, the crisp blank page of an empty notebook! It's so much more painful
and unenjoyable to wade through the mire of a hefty project you're midway
through.
Ultimately, the
hardest part of the writing process is getting to the end of it, and learning
from it, so that is the most important bit to practice. Otherwise you're just
repeatedly learning how to start something, which is unfortunately the easiest
part.
I used to hate
that phrase 'done is better than perfect', but it's so true. I speak to a lot
of writers who have got the first few chapters of a number of different
projects on the go. I'd recommend letting go of perfection, and bravely facing
the inevitable discrepancy between the idea you have and the thing you end up
producing. It doesn't have to be put in front of anybody, it can be a lesson
for your eyes only: It's only by getting to the end of a book and viewing it
alongside your original vision for it, that you work out how to bring the two
things closer towards each other.
Tell me about your first...
Memory
My first
memory is of my younger brother being born. I was two weeks away from my second
birthday. I remember going into the hospital and meeting him. He looked like a
little starfish in a purple babygrow and he had black baby hair that later fell
out and went white-blond.
I don't
remember much else from the day, apart from happiness. Mum smiling, Dad
smiling, little baby Mark smiling. He had bought me a present, a plastic doll that
I called Debbie and kept for years. (I'm fairly certain he hadn't had time to
buy it himself, but this is definitely a clever parental ploy to appease
precocious first-borns on the day they get upstaged.)
Album you purchased
I don't think
I purchased this, but the first album I can remember enjoying was the Talking
Heads live album that my Dad and I used to listen to in the car whenever he
drove me around to things at the weekend. I grew up in a house of 99.999999%
classical music, so the sound of amplified guitars and vocals blew my mind, and
I remember thinking how intoxicatingly ordinary and unpoetic the lyrics were.
Whenever I hear Psycho Killer or Once in a Lifetime I can hear my Dad
singing along at the top of his voice, dancing (responsibly) in the driving
seat.
Embarrassing moment you can remember
I remember
this acutely. I was listening to a conversation my mum was having with a friend
we were visiting. My mum was trying to reassure them that they shouldn't worry
about their money problems, shouldn't feel guilty that they couldn't by the
children things, because 'children don't love you more for buying them
presents, just remember that'.
I chipped in
at this point, aged about five or six, and obviously with no ability to read
the conversation. I said 'I do love you more when you buy me presents
actually'. As soon as I'd said it I realised what my mum had been trying to do,
and what a brat I was. I remember my whole face going red and feeling SO
embarrassed.
Time you were in trouble
Probably
flying to Barcelona with a friend when I was seventeen/eighteen and getting my
purse stolen as soon as we got into the city, so that I had no money or bank cards
or anything. I felt very far away from safety at that age. Looking back on it
now it was a completely manageable situation, but definitely an important
lesson on keeping your wits about you when you travel!
...choice of alternative career if you
weren’t an author
I work
full-time as a producer, making commercials and short-films/documentaries, and
it is definitely my dream job next to writing.
I love the
flexibility of being freelance, and the creative intensity of being thrown
together with a group of people who are all united under a shared aim, to make
the film. I love not knowing where I'm going to be travelling next, and I
absolutely LOVE getting to know other countries through a film shoot. Obviously
going on holiday is divine, but getting dropped in Shanghai or Singapore or
India and producing a shoot gets you under the skin of a place and into its
nooks and crannies in a way you never do as a tourist. I've found myself in
some very bizarre situations, in places that you'd never have access to if you
weren't filming, and have met many incredible and inspiring people along the
way, both behind and in front of the camera.
I think the
producing work I do has made me a better writer, because it teaches you how to
muscle your way through the deeper waters of making a finished thing, the bits
where it gets tricky and you wish you could just start again or move onto
something fresh. The feeling when you get to the end and deliver a finished
film is a reminder of just how much of the 'creative process' is actually just
dogged hard work!
It's also taught
me how to collaborate and share ideas. I don't believe that any single
mind/brain can come up with the best version of a thing. If you think you can
do it all on your own, the chances are it isn't going to be as good as it could
be. You never know what somebody else can bring to a project, and it's just as
helpful to work out why you disagree with a suggestion, as it is to take
something on board. It's vital to keep an open mind and be receptive - while
keeping your eyes on the ultimate vision of course.
… time you were really scared
My absolute
earliest, first ever memory of fear, is being inside a bouncy castle at a
birthday party and it collapsing and deflating around me. I thought I was going
to get trapped and die. I think it might be why I was claustrophobic for years!
Thank you so much Helen for this wonderful interview. Have a fabulous publication day later this week.
About Helen
From a young age, Helen devoured books and wrote
stories. Still in single digits, she surrounded herself with contemporary
literature, writing stories or poetry at every available opportunity. This
passion took her to University College London to study English Language &
Literature. There, she discovered and fell in love with the classical,
canonical works that developed her understanding of the more modern writing she
had grown up loving.
Graduating with first class honours, and at the
beginning of a long love affair with London, Helen remained in the city, and
began work in the film and television industry. Now a freelance producer making
films for brands, charities, and channels, Helen has travelled all over the
world with her work, making documentaries about the Mississippi River,
following the McLaren F1 team around the world for Johnnie Walker whisky,
making films for Mazda on the southern coast of Spain, shooting world-class
Hungarian skateboarders in Budapest, and scaling the snowy peaks of the Swiss
alps with Sir Richard Branson for Virgin Media Business.
Throughout this developing career, Helen has continued to write, finding
the combination of writing and producing brilliantly complimentary. Her work as
a producer has helped her to understand the tensions that exist within every
creative process, and to become practised in the long hard slog of execution
that inevitably must follow that initial, seductive, flash of inspiration. Her
writing has helped her flex her creative muscles, become practised in the art
of storytelling, and to trust her instinct when it comes to an idea.
Helen continues to move between producing and writing.
She is currently developing film work for CNN's sponsored content department in
London, CNN Create, and hoping to take some time later this year to begin work
on her next novel. She credits her daily yoga and meditation practice, for her
ability to juggle the two sides of her life. She lives in East London with her
husband.
Purchase link:
Instagram: @helen_richardson_writes
Twitter: @helen_r_writes
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