I am a married mum of two wonderful daughters and a full-time author. I have published four novels with the assistance of Feed A Read and the Arts Council of England (Excess All Areas, Breaking the Ice, Knowing Me Knowing You and Strings Attached) but in January 2012 I signed with US publishers Sapphire Star Publishing for my latest novel Taking Charge. Following that I became a full member of the Romantic Novelists Association.
I write strong contemporary romance and characters you’ll fall in love with.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since my school days. I always had a keen interest in creating stories and scripts and used to write tales involving my friends and the latest hot pin-ups of the time. Life did get in the way of my writing for a while but after the birth of my first daughter I put pen to paper again and haven’t looked back.
Tell us about TAKING CHARGE. What's the story about?
Taking Charge is Robyn and Cole’s story. Robyn travels back to the US from the UK when her father falls ill. On the plane she meets a hot guy (Cole) and embarks on a journey that involves her running a roadhouse, managing an ice hockey team, dealing with her past and trying to fall in love. It’s a story of love and relationships and how these mould us as people. There’s also a lot of humour in there too!
How did the idea of the story come to you?
My dad lives in Michigan, where Taking Charge is set, and I went to stay with him back in 2010. I think I was there all of a couple of days when the idea for Taking Charge started to form. Once I’d been to see the ice hockey almost everything fell into place! I hope I did the town and the community spirit of the town justice in the novel.
Are you a planner or a pantser?
Pantser! The only plan I have is the beginning and the end. I have my characters, I know where they’re going to end up but how they get there is 99.9% up to them. I just keeping writing and take my direction from them. I recently heard of another writer who not only plans what is going to happen in each chapter but writes that all down, along with who else is going to be in scene etc. I couldn’t imagine doing that, for me that would take the whole element of surprise out of it and my characters do surprise me! They’re the ones in charge, not me!
What’s the hardest part of writing for you?
Never having enough time to actually write as much as I want to write. I am lucky to be able to write full time but there are still not enough hours in the day to actually dedicate to creating something new. As soon as I get into it it’s time to collect the children or perhaps I have a meeting, the day just isn’t long enough.
I totally agree. *sigh* What do you absolutely have to have nearby when writing?
A cup of tea and a glass of water. Once I get into my writing hours can go by and I haven’t moved, or drunk any fluids or anything so I need to have fluids near by to stop me dehydrating! I have to remember to look up and see they are there though!
If you could have any super power, what would it be?
To make time stand still (see above!) or to control the bestsellers chart on Amazon – that would be fun to play with!
LOL, that would be fun. What's the weirdest thing you've googled?
Are artichokes good for you! That’s one I can remember and I also googled ‘does Pitbull have a girlfriend?’. I don’t know why I needed to know but I did and I didn’t really find out. Does anyone know? I google lots of random things!
Quick writing test! Use the following words in a sentence: life support, mediocre, and flabbergasted.
She was flabbergasted that the life support worked, given the worse than mediocre quality of the hospital food.
Here’s the part where you thank the people who are supporting you. Let's hear your shout outs.
I would like to thank everyone at Sapphire Star Publishing for all their help and constant support. I would also like to thank all my fellow authors and associate readers at Loveahappyending.com especially Team Baggot. And last but by no means least I want to thank everyone who buys and reads my books – if you didn’t love them I wouldn’t be writing them and I am so grateful.
And finally, where can people find you and your books online?
You can find out more about me at www.mandybaggot.webs.com. You can follow my on Twitter @mandybaggot or friend me on Facebook or Goodreads:-
http://www.facebook.com/mandy.baggot
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2968625.Mandy_Baggot
You can buy all my books from Amazon:-
http://www.amazon.com/Mandy-Baggot/e/B003MENHL0/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1#/ref=la_B003MENHL0_rf_p_n_feature_browse-b_1?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_82%3AB003MENHL0%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A618073011&bbn=283155&ie=UTF8&qid=1340371099&rnid=618072011
Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Mandy! Much success with your books!
1 comment:
Fabulous interview, Mandy, love finding out more about you (panster???) and adore your writing challenge, well done! Great feature, Dorothy!
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