Image Credits:-
Many thanks to Ruth Leigh for supplying author pictures and book cover shots. Other photos created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. The image of Jane Austen is taken directly from Pixabay.
It is a joy to welcome Ruth Leigh back to Chandler’s Ford Today. Last week we discussed her forthcoming launch for The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge, the latest in her series involving her wonderfully funny and moving creation. This week, we look at the issues of marketing and how well Ruth needed to know Isabella before writing her stories up.
And now back to Ruth. Welcome back, Ruth.
What do you love about writing novels? What do you dislike most?
I love the fact that someone (thank you, Instant Apostle!) has given me permission to lock myself away and make up an entire world. What a dream come true! I really enjoy the research (what’s the “in” colour this year? Who’s wearing what? What kind of cuisine is on trend?) and I particularly like making up the products Isabella endorses. I’ve never been able to use that creative side of my writerly brain in previous jobs so it’s a delight.
What do I dislike most? Strangely, the thing that drives me. The deadline. If I don’t have a deadline, I find it much harder to get the work done. Sitting in front of a laptop calculating how many days you have left and how many thousand words yet to write is terrifying but necessary.
Million dollar question – do you like marketing? Many authors loathe it. I like the way you can be creative with it. I also see it as part of the writer’s job (partly because every publisher you care to name expects authors to do something here and why wouldn’t you want to? It is your book!). Which camp do you fall into here?
You won’t be surprised to hear that I love it, which I know puts me in the minority. Having spent twenty years running my own business with all that entails, I am used to talking about my product.
I’m already plugged into a number of social networks and events where I am known, and living in a small rural community where everyone knows everything about everybody really helps. I think that having been fortunate enough to have been published, it’s my job to promote those books as much and as creatively as I can.
I appreciate that for many, the very notion of marketing is terrifying, but I do so enjoy giving workshops and talks on the subject and watching as people’s shoulders go down and they start to make copious notes. Once you get going, it’s just about telling people the good news about your book and the more you do it, the easier it gets. I simply love going out to events and book signings and finding creative ways to share Issy Smugge. That in turn helps me with content. It’s a win win.
Allison: One positive thing about marketing is nobody has to do everything at once and there are so many ways to market your book, you can start small and build up. The support of other writers is invaluable here too. I also find it helps to know writers are not alone here in trying to market their books. We all know it has to be done. We all know why other writers are doing it.
I find the best humorous writing emerges naturally from the character who has to be well drawn by the author for that to work. Isabella is a great example of this. How much about Isabella did you need to know before writing the series? Did you interview her? I’ve been known to interview characters of mine before writing their stories up, mainly to make sure I do know them as well as I think I do. (That can be enlightening at times!).
Yes, you’ve mentioned that before and I think it’s a great idea. Isabella was only ever meant to be a two-dimensional joke character I made up for a blog, but when I sat down to write about her life, I found that her voice was already in my head.
My jumping off point was to ask myself a question. “What makes a woman so desperate for love and affirmation that she builds an entire career on it?” And the answer came straight back. “Bad childhood, acrimonious parental split.” Almost immediately, Mummy came strolling into the frame, gin and tonic in one hand and cigarette in the other, and I was off.
Allison: Often it is finding the starting point which can be tricky for writers, which is another reason why I find interviewing characters a great place to get that starting point.
Tell us more about where people can find you online.
My handle is ruthleighwrites right across the socials (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok). I’ve also got a website, www.ruthleighwrites.co.uk.
Can you tell us how you juggle your work/life balance with writing? It is not an easy thing to do. Do you schedule? (I swear by that – and a diary to help me stay on track).
Since I became a full time writer on 1st January this year and writing became my only job, it’s been a lot easier. I’m not great at the work/life balance, to be honest, and my default setting at the moment is writing. Because I also have a portfolio of freelance clients plus critiquing work and speaking engagements at schools and libraries, there is always something to do.
I have whiteboards and as I complete tasks, I erase them which is a wonderful feeling. Since my husband built the Palace (of Creativity, Ruth’s writing studio), I don’t feel so guilty about abandoning the family to write. There is a constant stream of visitors and I am fine with that.
Who are your influences? How do you think they feed into your writing?
Great question. I have so many. Brilliant comic writers such as PG Wodehouse, Barbara Pym, Graeme Simsion, Thurber have informed the way I write humour and I love the way they conceal their art and make it all look so easy.
Is it okay to name check Jane Austen? Like nearly everyone else in the known universe, I love her with a devotion beyond words and her plots and characterisation are second to none. I have read so widely for so many years that I think my influences are too many to mention, but I know that what other writers have taught me about plot, narrative and character are reflected in Isabella.
What are your preferred reading genres? How did you get “into” reading?
It’s probably easier to say what I don’t read. I’m not a massive fan of fantasy (with a few honourable exceptions) or sci-fi. I also don’t enjoy light, fluffy, formulaic writing. If I had to choose my top three genres, they’d be biography, memoir, fiction and travel. Okay, that’s four.
I read very widely, both fiction and non-fiction and have done since I was four. I got into reading because it was one of the few options available to me at home (no TV, very little socialising) and because it afforded an escape from an often difficult and puzzling home environment. I read anything I could get my hands on and became addicted to the feeling of escaping to another world, something I still love to this day.
Which of your characters do you love, other than Isabella herself of course? Which do you loathe? How easy or otherwise did you find getting into the head of a character you dislike? (I can think of a few of mine whom I would not like to meet in life!).
I simply love Liane Bloomfield. I’m not alone in this – readers often name check her as one of their favourites. I’m so desperately polite and eager to please (not as bad as I used to be) and Liane is the exact opposite. I love that she addresses Isabella as “Smug”, she says exactly what she thinks and that under the hard nut exterior there is a heart of gold. Carefully hidden, of course.
Writing the relationship between her and Mummy has been one of my favourite bits in Continued Times, partly because it’s so unlikely. I also love Lauren and the rest of the playground mums and I very much enjoy dropping in bits about the Smugge universe’s very own Maris, Veronica Madingley. I’m pretty sure she will never actually appear, but I do love Mummy’s asides about her life (”that dreadful beige shapewear”).
Johnnie is pretty much universally loathed by all my readers (especially the men) and I don’t like him much myself. I have a sneaking fondness for Mimi and Lavinia Harcourt, even though they are such awful people. I found it incredibly easy to get into their heads. Should I be worried ….?
Allison: This is one of the joys of the writing life, coming up with characters you love and loathe. I think this is normal for writers though…!
And to wrap up the questions, can you share any future plans? Are there more Isabella books in the pipeline?
Always more than happy to share, Allison! I was going to wrap it up with book three, but two plot lines came to me around two major characters and they have only just begun at the end of Continued Times. There will have to be a fourth book, which I am planning to bring out in 2024. As readers will see as they near the end, there are some big things coming up in the future, and it’s only fair to write about them to keep Issy fans in the loop.
Conclusion
Many thanks, Ruth, for a wonderful conversation and good luck with the launch.
Ruth: Thank you so much, Allison.
Related Posts:-
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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Thank you for that entertaining interview.
Many thanks, Mike.