Things people ask you when you’re an
author!
It’s a funny old world and we are a peculiar species to be sure.
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People have funny reactions when you say you’re an author, that I never heard when I was a teacher, a lecturer, or a tour guide.
For me, it’s what I do every day, its not glamorous, (though there are some cool bits for sure) and as the nuns who taught me used to say, achievement is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, Finally now, I can agree. I’m inspired to write, but the process of writing, the actual words on the screen is mostly just hard graft.
So it’s a job. I love it, I love that I get to connect to people all over the world, I love that my stories entertain, inspire, teach and move readers and I’m so grateful when people write a review or write to tell me how my books made them feel.
People in my day to day life, not online, either do one of two things, they are either intrigued by the whole business, or they ignore it completely. There’s no middle ground.
I expected a vague level of interest, a bit like teaching, from the people I interact with along the lines of ‘How’s school?’ to which I reply, ‘Fine, we’re busy preparing for the school play now, as well as a bit of revision for the exams.’
I might ask how their work is going, and a short while later, the conversation naturally moves on to something else.
So imagine my surprise when I started writing and people started asking me if it pays enough? (nobody asked me that as a teacher but I guess a teacher’s salary is no secret) Then the questions became a source of fascination to me, someone asked me what makes me do it? Does it take discipline? Do I have to make myself write? How can I afford to give up a permanent, pensionable, government job for something so unpredictable? People want to know if I write about my family, do I write about my friends? Are any of my characters autobiographical? Why don’t my books appear in bookshops? If I’m successful enough to give up my job, how come they’ve not heard of me?
So I thought maybe you, my reader friends, wondered the same kinds of things but were too polite to ask? Or maybe not. Probably not, but I’ll answer them anyway.
Yes it does pay enough, thank you.
To write is a compulsion, I can’t say anything more, I need to do it. It doesn’t take discipline, because I want to do it. The best way to explain it is this. I don’t enjoy exercise to be honest, and I am envious of those who do, but I see how people who love it, need to do it. For me, writing is kind of like that.
The loss of the permanent pensionable job is quite bearable, especially on a wet Tuesday morning in November! I do miss the staff and the kids, and I have had the great privilege to teach for many years in a wonderful school, De La Salle College, so I do miss the gang there, but I don’t miss the red tape and the endless marking of student’s work.
Though I don’t believe the main characters I create are based on anyone I know, but I am naturally a keen observer of people and I enjoy analysis of behaviour, so I think the people I write about are amalgams of the people I meet. Funnily enough, on the rare occasion that I write a minor character that is based on someone I know, they never recognise themselves, much to my amazement, we truly do not see ourselves as others see us.
None of my characters are deliberately autobiographical, but then maybe they are? I see writing as a lovely collusion of some unseen creative force and me, working together, and so the bit that’s me could well be autobiographical, but like the people I mentioned above, I can’t see it.
As for the bookshops question, my books are sold exclusively by Amazon. Why do that? Well, many of you are in Kindle Unlimited, and as a result can read my books as part of your subscription. Its a benefit for authors who are exclusive to have their books included in that selection available to KU readers. Amazon rewards exclusivity in other words. So that’s why you can find my books in Barnes and Noble for example, but only when they buy the book originally from Amazon.
Why have people not heard of me? After all, my books have been downloaded well over a million times. (true story) I dunno, not famous enough I suppose? 
 that one always tickles me. The idea that I would be even a tiny bit ‘famous’ is hilarious. I can contemplate my lack of stardom in a while as I take the laundry out to hang on the line and then come in and make dinner. 
The final thing people say to me, and this is also a funny one, is ‘I don’t read anymore, I used to, but I gave it up.’ This is always delivered in such a contrite and apologetic way, as if their choices for leisure activity is going to personally wound me. Of course, I find that sad, but not for me. I just couldn’t imagine not reading. Especially now, it’s such a lovely escape from it all.
There is joy to be had in realising that no matter when or where you live, what gender, nationality or creed, we all love, we all need friends, we all hurt and in that sense, fiction is the conversation of mankind. If your heart is broken, then it feels the same whether you’re in Dublin or Durban, in 1620 or 2020, if you are fifteen or fifty. Reading teaches us that. And it helps us to feel less alone.
The Star and the Shamrock Trilogy is now available as a boxed set by the way, all three bestselling books in one at just $9.99 (they are $6.99 each so that’s a real bargain) Click Star and the Shamrock Trilogy to buy it now.
So that’s it from me for now!
Have a great week, take good care of you and yours,
Le grá agus buiochas,
Jean xx