Author Bio:
I am a writer, a teacher, a mother, a former university lecturer and a National Tour Guide of Ireland. I live in Cork, Ireland with my husband Diarmuid and our four children.
What inspires you to write?
The characters for my stories live inside my head for quite a while, working out their lives. Once they are clear about what happens to them then I have to write it down. I love history, but not all the facts and figures element. what I enjoy is thinking and writing about ordinary people who lived through extraordinary times and did extraordinary things. Those are the stories that inspire me.
Tell us about your writing process.
I have no idea how a story is going to end when I sit down to write it. I often get into bed at four or five in the morning, having written all night, and tell my sleepy husband the amazing thing that has happened to one of the characters. (Much to his delight as you can imagine!)
Another aspect of my writing that my friends and family find funny is that I don’t need peace and quiet, or hours of time to write. I think its because I grew up in a busy house with lots of siblings and friends constantly coming and going, we had to develop the ability to shut out distraction. I can write if I get twenty minutes and immediately be absorbed in the story where I left off.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
For me, my characters are real people who live in my head so while I don’t speak to them as such, I feel like I’m kind of omniscient in their lives. When I finish a story I feel lonely for a few days,as you would when old friends leave to go back wherever they came from.
What advice would you give other writers?
Just write. Get it down on the page. Don’t worry about typos or passive voice or any other mortal sins just get the story down while its in your head and you can fix it up afterwards.
And you NEED and editor. Everyone does. Get the best you can afford. It’s money well spent.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I love what self publishing has done for people like me. I don’t have a sob story about submitting to thousands of agents and rejected by every publishing house in the world, I went to a seminar on self publishing before I had finished my first novel and decided it was the way to go for me. I don’t regret it. My books sell well, and the sales grow steadily month on month. I invest time and money in advertising as you need to do in any business, but I love the control I have.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I love browsing in high-street bookshops but I must admit I rarely buy. I get most books on my kindle and I think I’m fairly representative of readers these days. I know several published authors who experience, like self-published authors, varying degrees of success but I think either way, the future is digital.
What do you use?
Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer
What genres do you write?
General fiction, historical fiction
What formats are your books in?
eBook, Print, Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Jean Grainger Home Page Link
Link To Jean Grainger Page On Amazon
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