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| Jules Wake - Author |
Hello
Jules – Thank you for joining me on Arabella’s Blog and Chit-Chat today. I’m always excited when a Romantic
Novelists’ Association member steps up to the mark and is willing to delve into
their personal and working life in order to share some of their inspirational
experiences with readers. but before we discover more about your latest release - The Saturday Morning Park Run - here are a few questions which will hopefully give your readers and followers an insight into some of the things that matter to you.
Arabella: You’ve got an
idea for a story but it has yet to take shape. Where do you start? Do you
concentrate on the location in the story, or developing the characters
personalities, or are there other key points you might consider?
Jules: For me it’s always the characters and their
journey. I need to understand who they are, what they want and what motivates
them before I can develop the story. I’m
lucky in that characters tend to pop into my head fully formed and then I have
to work the rest out. This sounds handy
but actually it’s really annoying because it means that they don’t always do
want you want them to!
Arabella: In your
latest release The Saturday Morning Park Run what is the overall theme
or premise, and what made you choose this topic?
Jules: This book about people being isolated from life
either by loneliness, depression or anxiety and how they connect with their
local community through running and setting up a parkrun in their local
Victorian park. I’m a huge fan of the parkrun having started taking part in my
local event nearly two years ago and I really wanted to share the sense of
community that is a feature of these events. I’m what you’d call a reluctant
runner, but at the end of the 5K I have a huge sense of achievement and I love
the friendly atmosphere that greets me on a Saturday morning whether its wet
and windy or gloriously sunny. I’ve been inspired by the stories of the people
I’ve met from the lady that has lost twelve stone, the couple who met there and
have now married and the husband who lost his wife who runs with his daughter
every weekend. There are former
Olympians running, plodders like me, children, dogs, mums with buggies, people
in their sixties and seventies, all running together. I really wanted to show
this snapshot of community in this book.
Arabella: You’re stuck
in a lift and it’s a two-hour wait before a pain-free extraction. What
emergency rations would you like to be sent down the lift shaft?
Jules: Definitely a bottle of Prosecco, my full charged
kindle and a packet of Cheddars. I’d be quite happy to have a couple of hours
of uninterrupted reading time.
Arabella: You’ve
arranged to meet up with friends and family for an afternoon of fun. Where do
you go and what do you do?
Jules: At the moment, still in lockdown, I’d be quite happy
for everyone to come to my back garden to share a really good bottle of New
Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and my favourite chilli spiced maple walnuts.
Arabella: The moment we
are published, a career path is usually envisaged. Do you have any aspirations
or ambitions for yourself and any future novels you might write?
Jules: My career path to date has been more of a zig
zagging track up the side of a mountain, no clear direction but somehow more by
luck than planning it’s on the upward trajectory!
When I set out, I hoped I might get a book published
one day, that was as far as my thinking went. I joined the New Writers Scheme
and got two wonderful reports (back in the day when you received a second read,
if the first reader thought it was good enough). I thought I’d got it made … several gazillion
agent rejections later I started on a second book so that I could remain in the
New Writers Scheme. Wind the clock forward and five books later. By this time my first book had just been
accepted by a small independent and I was on the path but in the meantime my
fifth manuscript had just gone through the NWS with a rave report which
suggested I approach agents.
I sent this manuscript out to an agent I’d been
stalking, when I didn’t hear back I sent it to another five … and three came
back to me! After years of rejection I couldn’t believe it. To cut a long story
short my original agent, who I’d been stalking, came back to me and I signed
with her.
At this point I was dumped by the independent
publisher because they don’t allow you to have an agent. I was fairly devastated at the time but I had
to make a choice, three books guaranteed with the independent publisher or take
a chance with an agent and that she could sell my manuscript. Not knowing much about the publishing
industry or how things worked, I sent an email to an RNA member, Lynne Connolly,
who I’d once met at a RNA conference and whom I knew from her posts on what was
then the Romna yahoo group was very knowledgeable about publishing. Thanks to her
sage words and extreme generosity in sharing advice to a complete newbie, I
went with the agent. She didn’t tell me
what to do but she just expanded on my options and how publishing worked. As a result I was able to come to a decision
that I’ve never regretted and I’ll always be grateful to her for taking the
time and trouble to respond to my email in such detail.
That book, my fifth that went through the NWS,
became a digital best seller and since then my career has blossomed. The path
divided into two and I became Julie Caplin as well as Jules Wake, writing travel
based romances which was a suggestion from my editor. These have been hugely
successful, and I’ve sold the foreign rights in a number of countries and am
now a bestseller in the German market, something I could never have envisioned
or planned for.
My first book
was published in 2014 and I’ve just signed a new contract with One More
Chapter, part of HarperCollins for seven books (!) which will take me to my
twentieth book, so I have quite a good idea of what I’ll be writing for the
next eighteen months. I’m very lucky because I have a wonderful relationship
with my publishers, One More Chapter, and they support me in trying out new
directions. Later this year I’ll be
writing a historic novel set in WWII which I’m very excited about and in
December I’ll be publishing a contemporary romance which is a different style
to my usual Jules Wake books.
Despite these changes in direction, I’m a complete
romantic so I can’t imagine I’ll be abandoning the romance any time soon.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine writing
this many books, having two names or even being nominated for a Romantic Novel
of the Year award not once but twice and I know that none of this would have
been possible without the support, advice and amazing friendships that I’ve
made since joining the Romantic Novelist’s Association.
Jules,
it was wonderful to have such an entertaining guest on Arabella’s Blog and Chit-Chat,
and thank you for sharing a fragment of your writing journey with us.
It
seems your publisher certainly has plans for you and your readers – seven novels
are coming our way!
Best
wishes and good luck for your latest release The Saturday Morning Park Run
Arabella
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| Jules Wake - Author |
Jules Wake
announced at the age of ten that she planned to be a writer. Along the way she
was diverted by the glamorous world of PR and worked on many luxury and not so
luxury brands. This proved fabulous training for writing novels as it provided
her with the opportunity to hone her creative writing skills penning copy on a
vast range of subjects from pig farming and watches, sunglasses and skincare
through to beer, wine and stationery, much of which has provided useful
background in her stories.
She writes best-selling
warm-hearted romantic contemporary fiction for One More Chapter as Jules Wake
and under her pen name Julie Caplin, she writes the warm and witty Romantic
Escapes series.
Between them, the two
Js have written fifteen novels, The Saturday Morning Park Run being the
latest. (Released August 29th 2020)
Social Media
Twitter
@Juleswake
Instagram
@juleswakeauthor
facebook.com/juleswakewrites/
facebook.com/JulieCaplinAuthor/
Book Blurb: The
Saturday Morning Park Run
This is the story of two women.
One old, one young.
One looking for new adventures. One looking for a purpose.
Both needing a friend.
One old, one young.
One looking for new adventures. One looking for a purpose.
Both needing a friend.
And this is how, along with two little girls in need of a
family, a gorgeous stranger, and a scruffy dog, they bring the whole community
together every Saturday morning for love, laughter and a little bit of running…
(well, power walking).
Some people come into your life when you need them the
most.
Buy Links: Release date: 29th August 2020
It was interesting to learn about your author journey, Jules.
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