It's always lovely to welcome guests onto my blog who I've met in real life as well as on social media. This week it's author Mandy Baggot's turn to take the hot seat and she'll be talking about her writing process and her new novel, A Perfect Paris Christmas which is out today!
HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY, MANDY!
A Perfect Paris Christmas has just been published. How hard is
it to write a Christmas book when the sun is shining and the birds are singing?
It is so so hard! I find it much harder to write
Christmas in the nice weather than I do to write summer books in the autumn/winter.
My deadlines have moved around a little bit recently though so I have been able
to write slightly more in line with the seasons!
Could you describe your novel in a sentence?
Can two broken hearts heal in Paris at Christmas time?
Have you always wanted to write in the romantic comedy
genre?
I have always written some form of romance since I was
a child. All my stories have been based around that first flash of a connection
and how that grows and develops. Comedy is part of who I am and so that has
naturally come into my romance writing. I always think life is a perfect mix of
love, life and laughs and that’s what I want my stories to reflect.
Are you a plotter or a pantster and how long did it
take you to write A Perfect Paris Christmas?
I am a total pantster. When I submit the premise of my
book to my publisher it’s quite vague because I really don’t exactly know
what’s going to happen yet. My characters really do take me on the journey and
I think if I planned everything out in the finest detail I would be bored
writing it. The getting to know the characters as I write is the bit that I
enjoy the most.
It takes me about 3-4 months to write a book. It was a
challenge writing A Perfect Paris Christmas in lockdown with children being
home schooled and a husband also working from home…
Are any of your characters ever based on real people?
No. You can never truly base characters on real
people. But you can take traits you notice or things that happen in real life
and weave them into stories. Actually though, Bo-Bo in A Perfect Paris
Christmas was based on a dog in my little Greek village…
Most of your novels are set abroad. How has that come
about?
I get asked this a lot. I write two books a year at
the moment. One is a summer book usually set in Greece and the other a
Christmas book usually set in either London, New York or Paris. I feel really
comfortable writing about Greece as I have a house there and spend as much time
in Corfu as I can. I provide the foreign escape people are craving,
particularly during 2020 when travel was very difficult or non-existent for
most people. I like exploring abroad and readers have come to expect me to take
them on a trip somewhere that either they’ve been to and love or somewhere
they’d like to go one day. My love stories are almost as much about the
locations as they are about the characters.
Did you always want to be a writer?
I’ve always written. I never thought I would make it a full-time job. It seemed to be an elite profession that ‘normal’ people would never be able to achieve. But now it is more accessible as a career than ever before. Starting out self-publishing definitely shaped my career in the best of ways. Success had to be achieved on my own – there was no editor, no proof-reader, just me - and I am really proud of how things have developed since those humble beginnings. Were those first books perfect? Of course not! But readers are still loving and enjoying them now. Growing on the job, thrusting my work out onto Amazon and trusting my instincts that the stories would be enjoyed has been the best thing for me. I truly appreciate every stage of publishing now.
Could you describe your typical writing day?
Every day starts with a school run and usually some
exercise and then I get down to social media first. Real writing of words
starts around 11am until 3pm with answering emails in between and doing the mum
stuff of washing and housework too. The pick-up school run starts about 3.15pm
and I don’t usually write again unless I am on a tight deadline or need to edit
or answer more emails. I try and have the weekends off but that depends on
deadlines or if I have a book promotion that needs shouting about. It’s a
really full on job but I love it!
What is the best piece of advice would you give to an
aspiring romantic fiction writer?
Always trust your own writing voice and never try to
emulate anyone else. Seek inspiration be reading and reading some more but
remember your own style and stick to it. Don’t be put off by negative feedback,
take the positives from every criticism, because there will be positives there.
Enjoy your writing, because if you’re not enjoying it then what’s the point?
What next for Mandy Baggot?
Well, I am deep into my next book (my 22nd novel!) for summer 2021. I can’t tell you what it’s called yet, but it is set in Greece…
Mandy is best-known for her laugh-out-loud romantic comedies featuring strong heroines, gorgeous heroes and always that happy-ever-after!
The winner of the Innovation in Romantic Fiction award at the UK's Festival of Romance, her novel, One Wish in Manhattan, was also shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Association Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year award in 2016. Mandy's books have so far been translated into German, Italian, Czech and Hungarian.
Mandy loves the Greek island of Corfu, wine, cheese, Netflix, country music and handbags. Also a singer, she has taken part in ITV1's Who Dares Sings and The X-Factor.
Mandy is a member of the Society of Authors and lives near Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK with her husband and two daughters.
Visit Mandy's website at www.mandybaggot.com or follow her on Twitter @mandybaggot, Instagram @mandybaggot and Facebook @mandybaggotauthor.
Buy A Perfect Paris Christmas:- https://amzn.to/2Ygmf9R
