Q & A with Author Fran Clark
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Tell us a little about yourself and your background?
I'm a singer-songwriter and a vocal coach. I've been performing professionally for well over ten years now. I realeased my second album in September 2013 and that was the first time I'd done a launch party. It was great fun but I was so nervous. I'm married to a musician and we have two sons, one a budding musician the other a budding swimmer.
What draws you to your genre?
I write in the genre of Women's Fiction which encompasses quite a range of styles and storylines. I believe Women's Fiction to be a story with a strong female protagonist, not on a mission to find love but on a journey to make life changing decisions. Although romance will feature it is really my character and plot that carries the story. Choosing subjects that will have an appeal to women readers is what drives me most, and I love to write about relationships.
How do you think you've evolved creatively?
Well writing is something relatively new for me. I am a singer-songwriter and my songs all tell a story but now I'm telling stories that are over 300 pages long! I think I'm more imaginative now, more ready to expand ideas and concepts. What I hope most of all is that my writing is improving as I go.
Tell us about the cover/s and how it/they came about.
The cover for Holding Paradise came from my original idea but it is the publisher's interpretation of that idea that you see on the front. It wasn't hard to agree. I loved the colors they suggested and it sets the mood for the book but there are so many aspects of the story that might surprise the reader if they have judged the entire story by the cover!
What do you think of “trailers” for books?
I never even knew book trailers existed until after I got my publishing deal. I toyed with the idea of having one and then changed my mind. Almost a year later and very close to publication I thought I'd give it a go. I didn't make the type of trailer that most other writers do, I took a chance with something different and I hope people will like it.
Fran Clark was born and currently lives in West London. Her first novel, Holding Paradise, is published in 2014 by Indigo Dreams Publishing. Fran is studying for a Creative Writing MA at Brunel University. A professional-singer songwriter and vocal coach, she recently released her second album of original songs. She is now working towards the completion of her second novel.
On a grey and miserable morning in 2008, London businesswoman, Angelica Ford boards a plane and flies off to the blues and greens of her mother’s island in the Caribbean. Angelica is desperate. She is looking for a way to save her marriage and win back her daughter. A web of lies has torn a hole into her seemingly perfect world and she is convinced that only her mother, Josephine Dennis, can help her turn her life around.Josephine Dennis arrived in England by ship on a cold winter’s morning as a young mother joining her husband. She weathers a lifetime of secrets and betrayal, as she raises her family in 1960s London. A matriarch with strong family values, she told her children colorful stories to guide them through life. It is the wisdom of one of these stories that Angelica seeks. Josephine has one last story to tell – the story that could change both of their lives
