Author Interview: Introducing Heather Woods

Welcome to my blog, Heather.

Please tell The Important Ones a little about yourself.

Answer:  I’m a mum in her forties with two heavenly, hellish teen girls. Heather Woods is my pen name. I chose the name because when I was thirteen we were given a free lesson in English to read any book we wanted. I happened to choose a Mills & Boon romance. Five minutes into the lesson the teacher prowled past and, with a ruler, flipped my book closed so she could see what I was reading. Her gasp of horror rang through the classroom. Trrrruue Lerve! Everyone else shoved their romances under their jumpers while she spent the remainder of the lesson crucifying me for my execrable taste in literature. I was beyond mortified and that night, as a I lay in the dormitory listening to the snores all around me I plotted revenge. I would write a romance, a trruee lerve, and I would do it in her name.

Of course, revenge is a double edged sword. As it turned out that all my hours of writing and writing and writing stood me good stead. I wrote my first romance at sixteen and grew up to become an author for real. I became utterly it.  In practising writing romance, I read romance and loved it. So instead I use the name to honour her. Which in turn she, no doubt, would find double edged.

They say you write about what you know, and having read Finding Anna and a competition entry of yours, I notice a sailing theme. Is this a hobby of yours or a way of life?

Answer: I’ve worked on yachts for many years, I’ve written books about yachts and my partner has his own yacht. My long term plan is to own a beautiful catamaran and sail all over the world with her, writing to earn my pennies and keep us afloat.

On your website, Writing – for the love of it, you have a wonderful opening book gadget so folks can read a snippet of your novel. Did you design it?

Answer: Yes! I’m so glad you like it. So often excerpts look too long and you put off reading them. This way you can include an excerpt as long as you like and make it far more enjoyable and much less daunting to read. My books sales rose six fold after I started using this method!

What is your writing day like? Do you have to fit it around others in your life?

Answer: Groan. My working day starts at about 8.30 in one of two ways. I freelance with web design so my client’s needs come first and I do all their web design updates etc. If I am not busy with clients my day pans out as follows -  twitter, facebook, google + and blog posts. I try to write a blog post at least four times a week. The hard work is paying off as my site traffic has increased by over 2400% but it’s time consuming. After that it’s goodreads and emails, then it’s more twitter and prowling the internet, learning and learning and learning. Then I write. Through blogs, writing, emails etc I write about 5000 words a day. I usually finish working at around seven or eight pm.

If you could dine with one person who would it be and why?

Answer: My mum died just a few weeks before my daughter was born. I used to think I’d do anything to be able to introduce the two of them but I also know that saying goodbye all over again would be ghastly.
So I’d have to say I’d choose God. (Wonder what He’d think, running second best to my mum!)

You are given one question to ask them, what would your question be?

Answer: Tricky. I have 12 burning questions.

Is there life after death?

Are there ghosts?

Could animals communicate with humans if we could speak their ‘language’?

Are aliens on earth real?

Is there life on other planets?

What is deja-vu?

Why is death so final?

How much of the Bible is true?

Which version of our world is more accurate Buddha’s and The Bible’s?

What really happens in the Bermuda triangle?

What would happen if we had no ego?

Are we reincarnated?

So what I’d have to do is write them all down on cards and spread them on the table before Him and my question would be. ‘Could you answer the question that would benefit me the most to know?’ (He’d better not reply, ‘Yes’ and leave it at that!)

If I had to write a cookery book it would be titled: How To Recreate A Disaster on a Plate. What would yours be called and what sort of foods would you write about?

Answer: Well I qualified as a chef in first career so I’m a pretty good cook. When I can be bothered. Which is not often - one daughter is a vegetarian - the other currently refuses to eat wheat or dairy. My partner is anaemic and needs loads of red meat. Truth to tell, after years of patience and efforts to please them all, frequently failing, I now eat out a lot. Out of tins! I open a tin and tell them all to get on with it! So my recipe book would be inventive things to do with baked beans, tinned spaghetti and tuna that didn’t involve cooking or mess.

Formatting a manuscript is my weak area. I cannot get chapters titles to sit in the right place and appear to have a dead brain when laying out my paragraphs. Do you find this sort of thing easy or is it a frustrating part of your writing. Do you have any tips to pass along.

Answer: I don’t find that tricky at all. Before I start writing I set up my Word with three defined settings for leading paragraph, heading and normal and I don’t have to worry about formatting again. What I can’t do is figure out where apostrophe’s go. Still. After years of writing. That aforementioned English teacher – well…

In a recent discussion it was established that I am not alone with dragging around one handbag (purse), for years until it wears out. Are you a handbag and shoes girl?

Answer: Oh my word. I loathe, loathe buying shoes and handbags. My handbag tends to be a gift from my children which they replace when they feel the current one has reached its sell by date. Shoes tend to be an afterthought.

Do you have any other books up your sleeve?

Answer: I’m currently working on three books, Running Lights, Dateline and The Red Balloon. I’m hoping I will finish The Red Balloon one day which is all about the secrets of losing weight successfully – but as I haven’t properly discovered them yet, it remains to be seen!

Thank you for sharing with us, Heather, please tell The Important Ones where they can find you in Cyberspace. Do you have a Facebook page? Are you on Twitter?

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heather-P-Woods/176943379026392

Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/heather_w66

Website http://www.love-writing.co.uk

Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/103515258452932763804