Q&A with author Gail Jones

A very warm welcome today to YA author and fellow Yorkshire lass (we are actually from the same small town, Rotherham!), Gail Jones...

Name one book that made you think 'wow'? Why did it have such an effect on you? There’s been so many of these and to select one is really difficult. I think I would have to choose ‘The Lord of the Rings’. I never imagined enjoying fantasy fiction like this, especially such a long book! However, the way Tolkien creates Middle Earth, his descriptions which were brief yet so detailed, made Middle Earth seem like a real place. Tolkien is such a skilful writer. I loved the characters too, especially Frodo who was so brave in the book.

Who is your favourite author and why?
Again, how do I choose? Enid Blyton was my childhood favourite, she took me to some wonderful places and I loved her characters, especially Moonface, Silky and the Saucepan Man from the Faraway Tree.
Now I like Anthony Horowitz for the Alex Ryder series as they are fast paced and exciting. They are Young Adult fiction but that’s the genre I write and enjoy reading the most.
My favourite adult author is James Patterson for the Alex Cross books. They are intriguing but also fast paced. Yes, I like excitement in my reads!

Name one of your all-time favourite book covers?
I don’t really have a favourite book cover. The cover draws me to a book but once the pages are open, I forget the cover completely and lose myself in the story.

If you could have a dinner party with any authors from any time in history, who would you choose and why?
I would like to dine with Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. I heard once that they were friends. I don’t know whether that is true, but I’ll love to chat with them. The meaning behind the Narnia series with C. S. Lewis is clear but I’d like to ask Tolkien whether he intentionally put any messages in his books or whether they were pure ‘lose yourself’ fantasy. I think they’d both be fascinating company.

Who, or what, inspires you?
I’m inspired by teenagers and the difficulties they face, also by current events. When I wrote’ Family Secrets’ I chose a subject that I thought about a lot as a teenager, ‘How would I feel if I found out I was adopted? What would I do?’ The sequel ‘Family Fear’ was inspired by news at the time. Lots of old people were being mugged and hurt, mostly by teenagers. I wanted to explore how that would effect the teenage grandchild of a victim.

Where is your favourite place to write?
My favourite place is in my car but not while driving! I like to park up somewhere green where the birds are singing. I wind down the windows, feel the breeze, sit back in my comfy seat and write.

What is your favourite film that was based on a book?
There are two. One is the ‘Lord of the Rings Trilogy’, ’The Return of the King’ is the best and the other is the ‘Narnia’ series, my favourite is ’The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’.

What is your book about?

'Family Secrets’ is about fifteen- year-old Rachel Brooks who moves to Rotherham in South Yorkshire. Within weeks she falls in love; a new friend becomes a vicious enemy and she discovers she was abandoned at birth and adopted. Rachel’s world is shattered as she realises her parents are hiding even more from her. Determined to find the truth about her past she begins her own search against her parents’ wishes. Everyone she meets seems determined to stop her, but she does not give in. But when the barriers do begin to fall, nothing could prepare her for what she finds out.

‘Family Fear’ continues the story of Rachel as she returns to Scarborough for the holidays. She stays with her gran and spends time with her old friends. While there her grandma is mugged. The old lady’s physical wounds are only slight but her confidence is gone. Rachel determines to find the culprit and bring him to justice so that her gran can feel safe again. With a mysterious female stalker and an illusive mugger, Rachel has her hands full, but even then she has no idea that her quest could cost her life.

If your book was made into a film, who would you like to play the main characters?

Rachel would be: Amanda Bynes
Luke: Justin Bieber
Emma: Anyone nasty from Mean Girls

Tell us a random fact about yourself.
I’m a Christian and work with kids at church. I love to join in with the games, especially the running and skipping ones.

Tell us something interesting about the area where you live.
Mexborough used to be a pit village and my house was one of the terraced pit houses. Now much of the old pit land is being turned into nature walks and included in the Pennine Way.

Winter or summer? Summer – I like to get outside, admire the flowers and hear the birds sing.
Ebook or paperback? Paperback. Although my books are also available in ebook format, I love paper and feel thrilled when I pick up a new book. There’s just something about turning those pages …
Favourite food? It’s a hard choice between KFC and Sunday dinner with beef, plenty of veg and loads of potatoes.
Sporty or couch potato? Couch potato. I do enjoy sporty things but I’m a carer for my mum and get very little sleep. As a result I tend to be devoid of energy and am happiest sitting down with my writing.

Cook or be cooked for? Be cooked for, of course! Although that doesn’t happen very often, but just about everybody’s cooking is better than mine!

My website is www.gailjonesbooks.co.uk
My blog is a little neglected at the moment as I’m working hard on ‘Family Missing’ the final part of the Rachel Brooks Trilogy. My twitter feeds to it and that’s always up to date, there’s also a few extracts from ‘Chronicles of a Carer in Chaos’. That’s an ongoing factual story about being a carer and there’s some funny stuff in there: www.myspace.com/gailjonesbooks

My love of writing by Gail Jones

As I child, I loved to write but couldn't think of new themes. I wrote several other adventures for Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree series and came up with the 'Adventures of the Moon Path' which allowed me to have my own characters but basically did the same travel to other lands scenario. My only original story was 'The Sad Donkey' about a seaside donkey who was badly treated and just wanted to be free. I don't know where that came from as I really don't like sad stories! My best writing was an assignment I did for English at school. We’d been studying 'The Price of Coal' and had to write something about the elderly generation. I wrote about my gran and her accidents. She had some amazingly funny accidents and it was so easy to write them down. The teacher loved it and thought I'd been really inventive, even though I entitled it 'A True Story'. Whenever there’s an old lady in my books they are always based in some way on my gran.
After finishing school I continued to read but didn’t give writing any more thought until I worked with children at my local church. They came regularly and soon got to know every bible story. Stuck for something to tell them I made up stories about a young squirrel who was always in trouble. The children loved them and always begged for more. A colleague of mine who was a teacher said they were good enough for publication, but I said ‘no’. The seed was planted, however, and sometime later I sent them off. They were rejected. I decided to find out why and set off on my investigation of the publishing world. I took two writing for children courses, one with the London School of Journalism and the other with The Academy of Children’s Writers. On each course there was one assignment for teen fiction. I panicked. I had only ever written for six to eight-year-olds. I thought about my teen years and the constant wondering – ‘what would I do if I found out I was adopted?’ Why I thought that, I don’t know as I’m so like my mum I even confused a childhood photo of her for myself! But adoption became my theme and ‘Family Secrets’ was born. The reviews for my outline and first chapter were fantastic. I sent it off to a couple of publishers and was rejected but was accepted by YouWriteOn.com. They are a British Arts Council sponsored website who encourage new writers (The Legacy by Katherine Webb began on there). 'Family Secrets' came out in December 2008. 'Family Fear' followed in December 2010. 'Family Missing' is the final part of the trilogy and is now being edited (when I get a spare minute!) and should be out in 2012.
When ‘Family Secrets’ came out I was terrified no one would buy it or even like it! I was able to order copies myself from the publisher and I only ordered eight, thinking that only my friends and family would want it! The book was available from any book selling website, including tescos.com and Amazon and I was amazed that following articles in the local paper it started selling. Northern Maps ordered 50 copies for distribution to WHSmith and other local stores. I visited WHSmith and took photos of my books on their shelves! (I've since visited Waterstones and done the same thing). I tried to hold up my mobile as though reading a text so that no one would see what I was doing! I couldn't believe it when people started crossing the road to speak to me and tell me how much they'd enjoyed it and hadn't been able to put it down.
I was a guest author for Rotherham's Children's literature festival last year and met with fifteen young people aged 11 to 13 who had been asked to read my book before meeting me. I gave them comment cards at the end and said they could fill them in anonymously. I just wanted them to tell me honestly what they thought about the book and if there was anything I needed to improve. I admit to being pretty nervous when it came to reading those cards! But as I read my little heart sped up, skipping happily as every comment was positive. Every one of them had enjoyed it, even the boys!
I love reading and enjoy young adult books and well as adult ones. My criteria is that they have to be interesting, fast paced and exciting, I love the 'Blood Ties' series by Sophie MacKenzie, the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz and the Cherub series by Robert Muchamore and 'The Hunger Games' trilogy. They are excellent and so inventive.
Whenever I go shopping I have to visit the book store and invariably come home with one or two, not to mention the ones I buy off Amazon. I have three boxes of books waiting to be read and some that won’t even fit in the boxes! When I finish a book, I love to go and look at my stock and chose my next book. I get so excited and can’t wait to begin reading. I hope my books give readers that same pleasure.

For more information about Gail and her books, visit http://gailjonesbooks.co.uk/index.html