Interview with the fabulous author Victoria Connelly

I'm delighted to be joined on my blog today by the fabulous author Victoria Connelly.  I've reviewed a couple of her books.  My review of The Runaway Actress can be found here and my review of The Perfect Hero can be found here.   
Both of these books were brilliant reads and I loved them both as you will find out from my reviews.  Victoria has now launched a fantasy trilogy which is available on Kindle called It's Magic:  'Flights of Angels', 'Unmasking Elena Montella' and 'Three Graces'.

These books were first published in Germany and 'Flights of Angels' was made into a film there which was really exciting for her.   This is the first time the books have all appeared together in the English language in this collection It’s Magic.

I interviewed Victoria recently and asked her a few questions about being a writer and wanted to share my answers with my readers and also want to say a great big thank you to Victoria for being featured on my blog. 

Thanks so much for joining me today Victoria.  I'd like to start by asking you who or what gave you the inspiration to become a writer?

As far as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a writer.  I used to make up my own versions of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five stories and I started writing my first novel when I was fourteen – bashing it out on a manual typewriter, Tipex bottle by my side, and giving it to my friends to read during Maths lessons at school!

If you weren't a writer, what would you like to do?

Go mad!  Seriously, I’d probably like to work in conservation – taking care of animals, the countryside or old historic buildings.  Or something in the film industry.  I’ve always wondered what it would be like to work in Jim Henson’s creature workshop!

Where do you write?

We’ve just moved house and I have my own study at long last!  It’s at the front of our cottage and looks out over a pretty garden to fields full of horses.  It’s lovely and quiet and it’s lined with books and lots of photographs and paintings.  I feel very lucky.  I used to have to share a room with my husband and – er – that didn’t work very well at all!

How do you keep managing to think of new plots/storylines?

It’s impossible not to!  I have so many ideas and there isn’t enough time to write everything I want to but that’s a blessing, I guess.  Ideas come from all sorts of places – usually they start with a subject I’m passionate about like my love of Jane Austen which inspired A Weekend with Mr Darcy, The Perfect Hero and Mr Darcy Forever.

They can also be inspired by events in my life too.  My new e-book collection of three magical rom coms - It’s Magic - contains Flights of Angels about a young widow who has a group of tiny guardian angels to take care of her.  It was inspired by my husband being sent to a war zone as a news cameraman just six weeks after our wedding.  I truly believed I was going to become a widow and that’s what inspired Flights of Angels – my fear of losing my husband. 

Three Graces – also in the collection It’s Magic, began with my obsession for old country houses.  It’s about a young woman who marries a duke and goes to live in his (haunted) ancestral home.  I’ve always wondered what it would be like in a really enormous house.

Can you guide us through your whole process of writing a book from the first idea through to publication?

It’s very messy at first – I make a spider diagram of all my characters’ names on a piece of plain A4 paper and then make loads of random notes and start a very rough outline of the book.  I then start writing – pretty much in chronological order but not always – doing three drafts before sending it to my editor who makes notes on it and sends it back.  Another draft later and it’s just about done. 

Then the exciting bit happens and you get to see your cover and the proofs which is the book all set out neatly, just needing proof-read.  The really magical day is when a box full of your author copies arrives and you see it and hold it for the first time.  That’s always an amazing moment!

What sort of books do you like to read? Do you have a favourite author?

My favourite novel is HE Bates’s The Darling Buds of May – a lovely romantic comedy about a family who live in rural Kent.  I also adore Miss Read’s Fairacre books, anything by Sophie Kinsella, Freya North, Amy Tan and Rosamunde Pilcher.  But I’ll occasionally break from women’s fiction and read a thriller.  I love Scott Mariani’s Ben Hope books!

You've recently moved from London, to the Suffolk countryside?  How are you getting on in your new part of the world?

I absolutely adore being in Suffolk.  London didn’t suit me at all although it was handy for publishers’ parties!  We live in a very quiet village now and have some fantastic walks from our cottage.  We have a beautiful garden full of fruit trees and I’m planting a phenomenal amount of roses!  I was brought up in East Anglia so I feel as if I’ve come home at last.

How do you find the whole social media phenomenon now from an author's point of view.  Is it a help or a hindrance? 

I have to say that I’m a bit of a fan of Facebook and Twitter.  You can find me on both (@VictoriaDarcy on Twitter) and I’m forever posting up photos on FB of our hens and the countryside.  This can, of course, distract you from the actual business of writing but it’s also wonderful to connect with readers this way and it’s great to give them a shout when your new books come out.  Publishers are very happy to encourage this!

I've seen some posts on Facebook about you keeping battery hens - how many do you have and how long have you had them? Are they hard work to look after?

We started off with four ex-battery hens in February 2011.  Alas, only one is still with us – dear old Dotty.  Ex-bats don’t have a long lifespan as they’re worked so hard in the factories for the first eighteen months of their lives. 

We rehomed three more hens back in April (Mariette, Primrose and Little Flo – named after characters in The Darling Buds of May!) so we have four again now but I’d like to get some posh hens too some time. 

Hens are such great characters.  They’re curious and cheeky and never fail to make me smile and they’re very easy to look after.  Ours free-range in the garden and, other than eating my geraniums and chasing our spaniel, they’re no bother at all.

If you could be a pantomime character, who would you be and why?

Anyone who gets to dress up in a big, fancy frock.  I’m such a girl!

To read more about this lovely lady and her fabulous books, her website address is www.victoriaconnelly.com.

You can buy this book via Amazon by clicking here.