Today is my stop on the blog tour for Gilding The Lilly by Justine John. I have an author interview to share with you today and if you like the sound of that, you can click here to order your copy now. Don't forget to check out the other stops on the tour for more exclusive content and reviews.
Here's what it's all about...
A gripping mystery of jealousy, murder and lies.
An invitation to her estranged, wealthy father’s surprise 75th birthday party in New York sees Amelia and her husband, Jack, set off across the pond to meet a whole new world of family politics.
Amelia, now a successful businesswoman, feels guilty about never liking her father’s women, so does her upmost to give his new socialite partner, Evelyn, the benefit of the doubt. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could just all get along? But there’s something very dark, determined and dangerous about her…
When Amelia’s father, Roger, becomes ill, Jack grows suspicious that there is more to it. Amelia understands why, but no one else will believe them. They travel back to America to piece together the puzzle, but when Roger goes missing, the couple are driven to their wits' end. It takes a DEA officer and a secret assassin to bring them answers, but the ruthless truth is something no one expected…
Are you ready for that interview?
First question-bit of a cliche-how did
you get into writing?
Not really sure, I wrote
poetry as a teenager, then later I would take myself off to the
CityLit in London to do various creative writing courses. I joined a
writer’s group in the ‘90s and just wrote for fun, all the time.
I always kept a journal too. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t
write.
Do you write full time & if so,
have you always done this?
No – I’ve always
had real jobs – need to pay the rent/mortgage etc and have to
afford to eat. Could never find a way to do that with writing. I
remember once, before word processing became popular, I tried to find
a job as a PA to an author, but was so hard. It never happened. I’m
still waiting for my big break!
Do you have a particular writing style
or genre that you prefer to write?
The two
books that I have written (well, one and a half as the second isn’t
quite finished) are both phycological thrillers, but I would ever say
I wouldn’t write anything else…
How do you develop your characters as
you write, are any of them based on real people?
Yes,
in the Gilding The Lily, most are based on real people, but once I
put them on a page, I add a picture that isn’t the real person and
then they become their own selves and grow apart from the original
person and end up being people in their own right in my head. In
Beneath the Ceiba Tree, none of them are based on real people, but in
my mind they are. I hope that makes sense!
What was the inspiration behind your
book?
Gilding the Lily is my first book and
it’s about a dysfunctional relationship. In 2010, my father passed
away suddenly. During the process of his illness and death, I found
myself in a set of circumstances that challenged me greatly.
Organising a funeral in a foreign country was one, but because I
wasn’t expecting it, I felt as though I was in a dream and the
things that happened around me were almost fictional. Once I was
back in the real world, ideas kept popping into my head of things
from that time that would make a great story so I mixed everything up
with a whole load of fiction and eventually created the novel.
What is your writing process-do you
plan it out first? Write a bit at a time?
No I
never seem to plan it and if I do, the plan gets left behind. I do
write a bit at a time yes, but it can be all over the place. With
Beneath the Ceiba Tree I’ve gone from Chapter 4 to Chapter 20 and
then back to Chapter 12. With Gilding The Lily, I started at the end
and worked backwards. The Prologue was the almost the last thing I
wrote.
How much of you is reflected in your
writing?
I’m sure in Gilding the Lily quite a
lot of me is in the main character Amelia, because of what inspired
it. But with Beneath the Ceiba Tree, I don’t see me in any of the
characters – but in some of them I see how I’d like to be…
What kind of research did you have to
do before/during writing behind your book?
Masses.
Not only research for the story, but research on how to write a good
novel. There is so much information out there, it’s hard to find
the right resources. I referred to Writer’s & Artists a lot
and they put on some great seminars too which really helped the whole
process.
How much attention do you pay to the
reviews that you get?
A whole load. Good
reviews will sell my book and make it happen. I will question bad
reviews (luckily I don’t have many!). One person said she didn’t
like the blaspheming (there is a little bit!) and I wrote to her
explaining that the character I had created just did that as part of
him expressing himself and without it, he would NOT come alive.
Are friends and family supportive of
your writing?
Yes very.
How do you feel leading up to your
publication day?
Not sure if this question is
relevant as the book is already independently published, but I know
at the time I felt on top of the world and kept having to pinch
myself that this was really happening.
Which other authors inspire you or are
there any you particularly enjoy reading?
This
can change as soon as I’ve read another good book, which is all the
time. I love a good classic (F Scott Fitzgerald, Daphne Du Maurier,
Graham Green, The Brontes, Ernest Hemingway). Right now I’m
reading The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell which is gripping, and my
last book was The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters which I loved.
Finally...what are you working on right
now?
I’m working on a second novel called
‘Beneath the Ceiba Tree’. Here is the blurb: Back Cover info:
©Beneath the
Ceiba Tree by Justine John
Africa 1972. Ed
and Charlie, two successful English confectionary company executives,
are travelling at night along a dirt track towards Accra, the capital
city of Ghana. They have a gun in the car for protection. After a
loud and scary tyre blow-out, they are terrifyingly ambushed by a
robber desperate for money. Both men are panic struck and in the
following seconds a resounding gun shot is heard and the robber
suddenly drops down dead. But which of them killed their attacker?
They are too shocked to talk about it in the dark together – and as
they flee the scene after burying the body under a mystical ceiba
tree – they swear to each other to secrecy, forever, both believing
they are loyally supporting the other, but are they?
England 1995. Ed
and Charlie’s lives have changed dramatically, both with wives,
Judy and Michelle respectively, and children. An unexpected,
additional death reveals unbelievable facts, leading to the two wives
travelling together, to Africa to unearth the unthinkable truth of
what lays beneath the ceiba tree.
A tension-packed,
phycological thriller, with unexpected twists and turns about love,
guilt, honesty and the devastation secrets can bring. A truly
fast-paced, page-turner, which will keep you guessing until the end.
About the Author
After thirty years in corporate life in London, half of which was running a successful events company, I decided to take a chance to write the novel that was ‘in me’ since I was a child. Gilding the Lily is the result of this and is a domestic noir story which I hope will keep you on the edge of your chair/sofa/bed/train/plane-
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