FUNKY FRIDAY - with author Jaimie Admans

Happy FUNKY FRIDAY to all.  Please welcome fellow Indie writer and Twitter buddy, Jaimie Admans.

So, Jaimie, can you describe yourself as a writer in five words.

Procrastinator, self-doubting, sarcastic, funny (hopefully!) and romantic (hopefully!)

You've been invited on Big Brother - Writers Special!  Do you accept?

Yes, without a doubt! I love Big Brother, it’s a secret ambition to go on there although I’d be homesick within two hours and begging them to let me leave!

Oooh!  I love it too but I'd never go on it!  OK, it's your dream week as a writer - tell us what happens.

Let’s see... On Monday, an agent takes me on, on Tuesday a publisher loves my book and offers me a ten-book deal, on Wednesday the film rights are sold, on Thursday Hugh Jackman phones to say he’s playing the lead role, and on Friday he takes me out for a slap-up meal to celebrate such a good week and buys me the winning lottery ticket on the way home! Now that would be a good week!

Sounds heavenly!  Ultimate dinner party? You can have anyone dead or alive - who would you have and why?

Judy Blume, her books meant so much to me when I was a teenager, and hopefully she could pass on some advice on writing for teenagers! And Enid Blyton, her books were so magical and imaginative, she would be an amazing person to talk to! Other than that, I’d invite all of my Twitter friends just because they’re awesome!

Yay for Twitter!  How do you deal with the dreaded bad review - are you a sulker or a shrugger?

A shrugger. I think there are always going to be bad reviews, not everyone is going to like your book, and you can’t expect them to. It’s so easy to take the bad reviews to heart, to convince yourself that every good review is ‘just being nice’ and the bad ones are the only ones being honest, but you have to read them, take on board any constructive criticism, and ignore the rest.

If you were offered a squillion pounds to never write again, would you take it?

Honestly, for a squillion pounds, probably! Hell, for that kind of money I could pay someone to write for me! That wouldn’t count as writing, would it? If I sat with my feet up and narrated while some hot, young, shirtless man typed it up for me?

Cheeky!  And a great answer!

QUICK FIRE ROUND

Planner or Winger?

A little bit of both. I can’t start writing without at least a vague idea of where I’m going. I need to know how it ends or I’ll end up meandering around for pages and going nowhere, and I like a little bullet-point list of scenes I’ve thought of in a rough order that they might appear in the book, but I don’t do anything too rigidly. Plots develop so much once I start writing them that outlines become pretty much useless anyway!

Night or Morning?

Night. I don’t really do mornings, if it’s too early I just tend to sit and stare at Twitter in a daze, rather than actually doing anything! I hit my stride late morning after a few cups of tea and can carry on until the early hours then. I get much more done when everyone else has gone to bed anyway!

Doer or procrastinator?

Procrastinator. Oh God, such a procrastinator! No matter how much I want to write something or how excited I am to write a particular scene, I just cannot seem to make myself sit down and actually write it! So many things become vitally important instead, like cleaning! The house is never as clean as it is when I’m supposed to be writing!

Writing/first draft or editing?

First draft, definitely! I love the first draft stage! It’s the best bit of writing for me, when you can just sit back and let the characters take over, throw anything you want in there no matter how outrageous, and just not worry about the editing or the spelling or the sentence structure! I don’t do any editing while I’m writing – I’m a big believer in getting the rubbish first draft done, then making it readable after the story is told!

Tea or coffee?

TEA! There is no comparison! I actually can’t stand coffee, I don’t know why anyone likes it! I can’t start the day without a cup of tea though, and can’t survive a day without multiple cups!

You can find Jaimie's books on her Author Page at Amazon. Her latest book, 'North Pole Reform School', was released in October.

If you'd like to find out more about Jaimie, here are her other links:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

* * * NEWSFLASH * * *

 Big week in the Misfit House!  The first draft of my WIP is done!  Woo-hoo, yee-ha and all that.  Now, the chopping, hacking, tears and tempers start.  I'm on track for a mid June release.