Image Credits:-
Many thanks to Ruth Leigh for supplying author pic and book cover images. Images from the British Christian Writing Conference were kindly supplied by Social Shapes. Screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes. Other images were created in Book Brush using Pixabay images and/or book cover shots from Ruth. Some images are directly from Pixabay.
I’m pleased to welcome back Ruth Leigh to Chandler’s Ford Today. Ruth and I are members of the Association of Christian Writers. Last time we talked, Ruth had three books out in her funny and touching Isabella M Smugge series.
Today, 20th September 2024, will see the release of her fourth novel featuring her heroine – The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge. Congratulations, Ruth. Little beats the buzz of being published.
Blurb – The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge
The UK’s premier Instamum Isabella M Smugge has never met a hashtag she doesn’t like. And with her mother’s wedding to organise, blended families to negotiate and her long-awaited house renovation – all while potty training a toddler – there are plenty to choose from. What could possibly go wrong?
Our heroine is also beginning to wonder if something – or maybe even someone – could be missing from her single parent life. But what would the new and slightly improved Issy Smugge be looking for in a man?
As she navigates playground politics, freestyle praying and deepening friendships, Issy’s learning about life in a whole new way. But just as everything begins to look #perfect, her dastardly ex-husband arrives with a shocking idea…
To find out more about Ruth, her social media and website links, and where to buy The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge, check out the sections at the end of the interview. But for now it’s question time.
1. To write a series about one character must mean the author MUST have a great love for that creation. What do you love about Isabella, Ruth? What is it about her which is true to her character but which would drive you crazy if you could meet Isabella in the flesh? Also on that topic, if Isabella was to be played on screen by someone, who would you pick and why?
That’s a great question, Allison. I love her innate kindness and generosity, though she can’t make a comment without mentioning one of her paid partnerships or what she’s wearing. When I’m talking to people about her at events, I always say behind the glitter and perfection there is a nice woman trying to get out. She just needed a bite of a Suffolk reality sandwich!
If I met her, I think I’d feel a bit on edge as she scanned me to check for good skincare routines and noted every aspect of my appearance. I’d also have to splash out on some really good coffee and biscuits if she popped round. Instant and a generic custard cream just wouldn’t cut it, and I’d find that a bit annoying. She would have to be played by Vanessa Kirby (Princess Margaret in series one and two of The Crown). She looks just the way I imagine Issy does.
2. What are your launch plans for The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge? What do you find most helpful for preparing for launches? Please share your three top tips.
Because my publisher Instant Apostle send me the books at least three weeks before they come out in the shops and online, I have the chance to create a buzz on my socials and at events and build up a good pre-order list. I’ve done all that and am now sharing lots of pictures of readers enjoying her latest adventures.
My book launch was on 8th September at a local wine bar with a grazing table, fruity reception drink, and fun games (Snog, Marry, Avoid being one), plus readings and a Q&A. You need to be businesslike with a launch and also put yourself in the shoes of those coming.
My top three tips are:-
A) Have something for people to do when they arrive. They might be shy, unsure or not know many people and if they’re welcomed with a fun game, that gives them something to do and makes them feel part of the event.
B) Think about food. People will be standing up, chatting, with a drink in their hand. Nibbles are best and it’s also vitally important to cater for dietary needs.
C) Don’t spend too long on any one thing. I do two readings, tops, and not at the same time. My fellow author Andy Chamberlain will be asking me some questions, but we’ll include the audience with a Q&A at the end. Keep it fun and fast-moving.
3. Since we last chatted, you have had two other books out – A Great Deal of Ingenuity and The Little Book of Unexpected Poetry. The former is inspired by Jane Austen and her wonderful creations. What led you to write this? What did you find were the challenges and joys of doing this? Also please share what led to the poetry book. Have you also had a love for poetry or was this something which has emerged from your other writing? My flash fiction work arose out of my short story writing so there was an obvious link for me to explore there but there is not so much of one for stories and poetry, I think, so what triggered that? Which poets/poems have inspired you?
I began writing A Great Deal of Ingenuity the month before I published the blog (The Utter Joy of One’s Craft) that introduced Isabella M Smugge to the world. I was sitting in bed in early lockdown reading Pride and Prejudice for the umpteenth time when it suddenly struck me the novel was full of women who don’t get a voice. Mrs Annesley the companion, Sally the maid, Nicholls the cook, Mrs Forster the Colonel’s wife. I wanted to tell their stories, in their voices, and writing the book was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in my career.
The main challenge was doing it well! I am a complete Austen nerd and have read all the scholarly works around the six main novels as well as the books themselves. I knew I wanted to do something different and be true to Austen’s voice and her times. I did huge amounts of research and re-read the novel, Longbourn by Jo Baker and Jane Austen The Secret Radical by Helena Kelly. Immersing myself in that world meant I could write in the correct voice and use 18th century punctuation, spelling and sentence construction.
As to the poetry, that was a surprise. I had been writing poetry on and off since 2017 and never intended to share it. I was invited to an Open Mic in Woodbridge last year and read out a couple. People seemed to be affected by them. Then I read some more at another local event at the wine bar where I work part time and everyone was crying and saying the poems gave them goosebumps. I was surprised, but carried on sharing them and every time someone would say, “You’ve got to publish these, Ruth.”
Now that was a challenge! Many of them are extremely personal and I so nearly pulled the book several times, thinking to myself, “Who on earth wants to read my ramblings?” I’m glad I didn’t, as I’ve had some affecting and touching conversations with readers who say either they don’t like poetry but love mine, or the words somehow helped them through a difficult time. My favourite poets are Brian Bilston, Wendy Cope, Carol Ann Duffy, and Simon Armitage.
4. Returning to Isabella, you have to know a character so well to be able to keep writing for them. Do you keep a detailed biography for her? I know some writers keep spreadsheets and add to them as needed. Others have created a whole biography for major characters before they even write a word of their stories up. Where are you on the spectrum? Have you found you’ve needed to change how you do things here as the series has developed?
The hardest thing about writing Further Adventures was trying to remember what had gone before! A friend gave me a planning journal and that helped. I filled it up with random notes like, “Don’t forget her hair goes lank if not washed daily.” “What year was Mummy married?” and “Could Milo self-toilet train at not quite two years old?” I meant to do a spreadsheet but never got round to it. They’re not really me.
Being a card-carrying pantser, I tend to get writing and let the inspiration flow as it sees fit. Honestly, I haven’t really changed anything as the series has gone along. I do have to open up the pdfs of my final proofs of previous Issy books to check things out like the children’s ages, but I don’t get too hung up on it. So far, I haven’t made any slips and I have my wonderful eagle-eyed editor Sheila Jacobs to keep an eye on things too.
5. Ruth, you’re also involved with Resolute Books, an independent consortium. Can you tell us how that came about, what it offers for the authors involved, and why it was the best route for your A Great Deal of Ingenuity and The Little Book of Unexpected Poetry? What do you love about independent publishing?
A couple of years ago, two authors I know and like got in touch to say they were thinking about starting up a small press run by authors and would I be interested. I was, very, and the result was Resolute Books. This time last year, there was a handful of us. Now there are seventeen!
Resolute is the best of all possible words for a writer. We all agree to pay for a top quality cover, copy edit, and formatting. Each new book is mooted to the group, agreed upon, then peer reviewed by three of us. We all have the opportunity to publish our books, to benefit from everyone supporting us with marketing and advice, and to be part of a warm, supportive and experienced group of writers.
The people who are embarking on their first book can rely on helpful advice and those who are multi published appreciate the degree of freedom which goes with being part of a small press. Joining Resolute opened new doors for me. I didn’t want to pitch to traditional publishers at that stage in my career and I wasn’t confident about doing self-publishing by myself. Resolute Books was the answer. I love it because I have lots of freedom, but also strong parameters around quality and design from my fellow Resolute authors. Membership is by invitation only and it is a wonderful group.
6. You’re also involved with the British Christian Writing Conference with fellow author and ACW member, Andrew Chamberlain. Can you share more about what this is, how it helps writers, and what you have found helpful from it? I’ve found writing events a source of encouragement and inspiration and you make friends. Win-win there! How have you found writing events have helped you and your writing, Ruth?
Andy started it in September 2020, just as we were coming out of lockdown, with the idea of having a day where writers could come together, share, support each other and listen to talks from other industry professionals. It was a tentative step as he didn’t know how it would go, but it was incredibly successful. He asked me to co-run it with him the next year.
We now offer a two day experience (guided retreat on the Friday, followed by dinner, then a full day of talks, workshops, prayer and marketing slots) and people can come to one, the other or both. Our vision is to give everyone a chance to network, meet new people, make friends and gain in confidence about their writing wherever they are on the journey.
We have Nicki Copeland of Instant Apostle speaking this year and she will also run an informal session where delegates can ask questions of her and other IA authors. There will also be an opportunity for delegates to pitch their ideas, several workshops and plenty of time for networking and chatting. Writer and ACW member Deborah Jenkins (author of Braver) is speaking in the morning and I’m talking on writing faith.
We’ve had so much amazing feedback from delegates saying how encouraged they were, how much they learned and how the experience inspired them to carry on. It was a writing event run by ACW in Derby that started me off on my career and I simply love them. Each one is a joy. We writers tend to be solitary creatures and to be in a room with people who understand and don’t have to have it all explained to them is wonderful.
7. What are you currently working on? Also, please tell us something about your wonderfully named Palace of Creativity. Is that a nod to Virginia Woolf who said every woman writer needed money and a room of her own to be able to write fiction?! Also, I understand you run writing courses from here. Can you tell us more about those and what your writing courses seek to do to help writers develop their craft?
I’m about halfway through the follow up to A Great Deal of Ingenuity entitled My Own Darling Child. Both are quotes from Austen’s letters to her sister Cassandra about Pride and Prejudice. I’ve also got a couple of “How To” guides for writers on the go.
I suppose there is a nod to Woolf here. Woolf came from a wealthy family, which I don’t, but then she was also battling severe mental illness without medication a hundred years ago, while I have access to the internet, electricity, spell check and nice coffee, all of which helps the writing process. You know me – I like to make a joke wherever possible – and I liked the idea of giving a self-built cabin in my garden a slightly grandiose name. It makes people laugh too, and I do a lot of filming in here with the lovely Jason Smith of Social Shapes (he built my website and helps with my social media). For that, I need a good background.
I love walking out of the house in the morning, up the path and into my studio, because it makes me feel I’m going to work. Yes, I run my creative writing workshops in here. I have five comfy easy chairs where the delegates can relax, we have tea, coffee and yummy biscuits, a goody bag and lunch if they book a full day. It’s a safe, authentic, creative space where people blossom in confidence, learn, and begin to believe their words are worth something. I share helpful quotes and tips with them, teaching them about different kinds of writing, how to analyse words, publishing, marketing etc.
When I started out writing fiction four years ago, other authors were so kind and generous to me, and I want to do the same. I offer a half day and a full day workshop, plus two hour consultations, details of which can be found on my website. As a result of them, one person has published a book and another is in the process.
8. How do you balance writing time and marketing time? Every writer has to find their own way of doing this but what have you found useful to do here? Which social media platforms do you find work best for you and why do you think that is?
I tend to do it all in one fell swoop. Because I work as a freelancer, I’ve always got a pile of articles or blogs to write, plus whatever fiction I’m currently engaged in. I do a lot of events (typically between 50-60 in a year) at which I take pictures and videos and share them to my socials and that helps with marketing my books.
I like Instagram, although I’ve recently joined Threads and that’s good. Facebook and TikTok also work well for me. I think Insta is successful because I do take a lot of pictures in different places and I’ve got lots to say. I suppose too as my heroine is an Instamum, that is my natural home.
9. Will we be seeing more of Isabella in due course? Is she the kind of character who has to have novels to share her stories or could you envisage writing short stories about her?
You will! I had thought Further Adventures would be the last one, but the ending leaves a particular narrative thread wide open and I don’t think I could cope with the feedback from readers if I called it a day with four. Also, the minute I finished number four, ideas for number five started dropping into my head. I’ve got lots and I can see how various much-loved characters could develop further.
I won’t be doing that for a while, though. I’ve got some other fish to fry in the meantime. I’d never thought about that to be honest, but I think she needs a novel. That said, a series of short stories might work. I like that! I’ll let it marinate in my busy little brain.
10. You set up your own online shop via your website (great idea!) but how easy or otherwise was this to do? Have you found it drives traffic to other areas of your website? What three tips would you give an author when it comes to building and running their own website and providing interesting material for it? I count keeping my website up together as part of my marketing time and my blog is updated twice a week to ensure there is fresh material here but what have you found works for you?
I have to admit it was incredibly easy as Jason did it for me as part of the website! I started off with a basic one with just a couple of tabs and as I wrote more books, we added pages, including the shop. It comes into its own with pre-orders of new books. When I began, I had things written on scraps of paper and the backs of envelopes, requests for books coming in on Facebook, WhatsApp, text and via email and it was all a bit bonkers.
These days, nearly everything comes through the website which deals with payment and postage and gives me the money directly into my bank account a couple of days later. It does drive traffic, but I am not as good as you. I started off blogging and wrote so many of them, but for the last year or so, I haven’t had time.
My top tips for websites would be:-
A) Please, please don’t go with a family member or someone you met in the pub who says they’ll throw something together for you. I’ve winced so many times when seeing lovely authors struggling with a terrible, unprofessional website. It puts potential readers/agents/publishers off.
B) Take your time. Look at other writers’ websites. Speak to a professional. Jason is very good. Just saying.
C) Link your blog and shop to it and keep it updated regularly. I have mine on my business cards and my pull up banner. If someone googles me (and it has happened at an event), it comes up and looks professional. That person had never heard of me but was sitting having a scone and a cuppa listening to a reader talking enthusiastically about Ingenuity. She googled me, checked out the website, and based on that bought not one, but two copies! It really is your shop window.
11. If you could have afternoon tea with any author, past or present, I am guessing you would pick Jane Austen. (I would, too). What would you ask her if you could do so? What do you think she would tell you? Which of her novels is your favourite? (Pride and Prejudice followed by Persuasion for me).
Your guess is entirely correct! I would soften her up with a few cups of tea and some really good cake, then ask about her relationship with her sister in law, Elizabeth.
I’d love to find out more about the Austen family dynamics, but I’d also quiz her on what she thought happened next to the Bennet girls after the end of Pride and Prejudice. I’d hope she would stay for a sleepover so that we could sit in our nightgowns and caps by the light of a candle chatting late into the night, as Lizzy and Jane do after the trip to Derbyshire.
I don’t think she’d tell me much at first, but as the tea flowed, she would open up about her writing process, challenges and struggles and the relationships with the rest of the family. Pride and Prejudice is my absolute favourite and in joint second place would be Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.
12. Last but not least, since we last spoke here, what have you found has proved the most useful writing advice you’ve received? What do you know now as a writer you wish you’d known on starting out?
Show don’t tell. That’s a cliché, but it’s so important. I often quote Chekhov to my workshop delegates: “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
I think I’d probably have liked to be reassured it’s normal to think you’re no good, going nowhere and to compare yourself to all the other writers, to your own detriment. I still do that, but I feel a bit better about it all and have a great writing community to whom I can reach out.
Conclusion
Many thanks, Ruth, for a great interview and huge congratulations on the latest to the Isabella M Smugge series. Once you’ve met Isabella, you don’t forget her. If that’s not a sign of a memorable character I don’t know what is! She is one of those creations you find yourself rooting for especially since, like all of us and our written creations, she’s not perfect but we can understand where she is coming from. I think that matters a lot for characters.
To find out more about Ruth, her works, and her social media links (including the link to her online shop), please do check out the sections below.
About Ruth Leigh
Ruth is a novelist and freelance writer living in beautiful East Suffolk with three children, one husband, and a cat. She’s been writing content and blogs for charities and small Suffolk businesses for the last fifteen years and loves adding value with words.
She published her first novel, The Diary of Isabella M Smugge, in February 2021. The second novel, The Trials of Isabella M Smugge, followed in October 2021; the third, The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge, was published in 2022 and the fourth, The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge, in August 2024.
In 2023, Ruth published the Jane Austen-inspired book A Great Deal of Ingenuity in July and The Little Book of Unexpected Poetry in October.
Ruth learned to read at age four and hasn’t stopped since. Her first piece of fiction was produced on sugar paper and written with crayons back in Class Three at primary school. She was surprised and pleased to be given a gold star for it and has hoped for more of the same ever since.
Ruth’s freelance clients include several Christian charities, a radio station, an estate agent and a trainer. She likes nothing better than taking some raw data and turning it into a polished piece of prose. Her favourite ever compliment from a client is this. “You can throw Ruth a few bones and she’ll produce a delicious bowl of soup.”
Ruth Leigh Social Media, Shop, and Blog Links
Related Posts:-
Ruth Leigh and The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge – Part 1
PART 2 – Ruth Leigh and The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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