Title: The Traveling Man (Traveling, #1)
Author: Jane Harvey – Berrick
Release Date: January 27, 2015
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Blurb
Purchase The Traveling Man today!
JANE
HARVEY - BERRICK
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
- QUESTIONS
1. In 5
words, please describe your ‘Romance Writing Style’
Characters, details, learning
to love
2. Do
your leading men come from any place in particular? Dreams? Movie stars? Your
partner? Past partners?
Real life guys plus a large
dollop of imagination.
3. What
do you do in your down time?
What’s down time? Um, I write,
a lot. I walk my dog on the beach and hope to ogle hot surfers.
4. When
you walk into a book store, where do you head first?
Biography.
5. Why did
you decide to write romance novels?
I started writing FSOG fanfic.
People kept telling me to write my own stories. So I tried it, and fell in love
with writing all over again.
6. Who,
if anyone, has influenced your writing?
Well, EL James, I guess, because
her story unlocked something inside me, making me want to write contemporary
romance, too. But for writing style, I admire the way Jane Austen could put
across a character’s personality with a few, well chosen phrases. Masterful.
7. What
research did you have to perform to back up your story? Any research which
really opened your eyes or gave you new respect for a topic or profession?
I read a lot of blogs about
people working in carnivals – what life on the road is really like. I also
downloaded lists of carnie-speak, but I didn’t use much of that as I would have
spent forever explaining it all.
I’m doing a lot of research on
stuntmen, too, for the sequel.
8. What
is your method for writing a book? A certain amount of hours every day? A
certain routine? Are you character/story builder or an outliner or some other
method?
The ideas come from different
places, so sometimes I have just one scene in mind, and have to work out a plot
from that; sometimes the whole story comes to me in one go.
But in terms of writing
discipline, I’ll do a minimum of four hours a day, forcing the words out, but
if it’s really flowing, I’ll be at the computer from 7am to 10pm with breaks to
eat and walk my dog. I can be very single-minded – it drives my husband to
distraction.
9. How
do you get past writers block or distractions like Facebook?
Nothing distracts me when the
writing is flowing. If I feel blocked, I got for a walk with my dog – that
helps incredibly.
10.
Favorite book from childhood.
I used to love to read
Westerns, but one single book? Tricky … ‘The Red Badge of Courage’ had a huge
effect on me. I was about 9 when I read it.
11. What’s on your desk? Can you see your
desk? Describe what you see when you look around.
I keep it pretty tidy. I have
my diary, a dictionary, to-do list, phone, handcream and throat sweets (I’m
getting over a cold).
12.
What's the weirdest thing
you've Googled?
I worry about that. I imagine
the CIA keeping tags on me because of my schizophrenic googling, but really
it’s all for characters in books – honest! Okay, um, here goes: how to rob a
bank, how to make lead look like gold bullion, boys talk in locker rooms, how
to get rid of a boner during a sports massage (for guys, obviously)
13.
What is your favorite line
from any of your books?
“I love you, I have always
loved you, and wherever I go after this world, I will always love you. Sempre e
per sempre” Sebastian in ‘The Education of Caroline’
14.
Do you believe in love at first sight?
Yes.
15.
What
do you do when you are not writing?
Read,
walk, swim, surf.
16. What
has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the
best compliment?
I
was told I was a child abuser. Isn’t that horrible? Because in ‘The Education
of Sebastian’ the relationship is between a 17 year old who’s nearly 18, and a
30 year old woman. What you don’t get until you read it is that emotionally,
it’s the teenaged Sebastian who teaches Caro about love. That comment made me
feel ill, then I decided to ignore it.
The
best compliment – someone had a quote from my book ‘Lifers’ tattooed on them.
That will be with them for the rest of their life. Wow!
And
another was that a woman decided to call her son ‘Sebastian’ because she loved
the character in my books. That moved me to tears.
17. Is
there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either
growing up or as an adult?
Jane
Austen. Always. Still does.
18. Is there a certain type of scene that's
harder for you to write than others? Love? Action? Racy?
I work hard to make sure that
love scenes don’t sound repetitive, but I don’t find them hard to write. I
thought I would, but I don’t!
19. How important are names to you in your
books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the
meaning?
Really important. I can change
them several times before they sound right. Usually not the main characters,
it’s usually minor characters.
20.
What was the hardest part
of writing your book?
Not having enough time to
write everything that I want to write.
21.
What
did you want to be when you grow up?
A
journalist, but I found out I preferred making things up!
22.
Did you learn anything
from writing your book and what was it?
I like to learn new things
when I’m researching a book – that’s part of what makes it interesting for me.
I loved reading about life as a carnie, and I read up all the details of how to
breathe fire and eat fire – that’s a real science to it, which isn’t very
unsurprising!
23.
What made you decide to
sit down and actually start something?
Well, I started writing
fanfiction because I wanted to rewrite FSOG from Jason Taylor’s pov. Ever since
then, stories won’t leave me alone. I have a list of 30 or 40 stories that I
could start writing tomorrow if I had the time.
24. Which actor/actress would
you like to see playing the lead character from your most recent book?
An unknown. I want to be
immersed in the story, not the actor playing them.
25. Do you work to an outline
or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?
99% I have the outline nailed
down before I start. I often write the ending first.
26.
For your own reading, do
you prefer ebooks or traditional paper/hard back books?
Ebooks. Love LOVE my Kindle.
27.
What book/s are you
reading at present?
‘Sempre’ by JM Darhower
28. If you could have been the
original author of any book, what would it have been and why?
‘Persuasion’ by Jane Austen,
because it’s the perfect story of love second time around. But she never got to
polish the way she usually did because she became ill and died before she was
truly happy with it. All the more reason to treasure it.
29.
What advice would you give
to your younger self?
Relax, it’ll happen. And that
hot surfer guy who flirted with you and told you about building his dream home,
don’t let him leave without your phone number!
30.
How
do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
I’m still evolving. I don’t
ever want to stop learning.
About the Author
I lived in London for over 10 years and have a love affair with New York. It's only since I have moved to the countryside, that the words have really begun to flow.
I live in a small village by the ocean and walk my little dog, Pip, every day. It’s on those beachside walks that I have all my best ideas.
Writing has become a way of life – and one that I love to share.
Connect with Jane
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