Debut Author Spotlight – 20 Questions
with Elisabeth Carpenter
Elisabeth Carpenter lives in Preston with her family. She completed a BA in English Literature and Language with the Open University in 2011. Elisabeth was awarded a Northern Writers’ New Fiction award, and was longlisted for Yeovil Literary Prize (2015 and 2016) and the MsLexia Women’s Novel award (2015). She loves living in the north of England and sets most of her stories in the area, including the novel she is writing at the moment. She currently works as a book keeper.
1)
Congratulations, IT’S PUBLICATION DAY! Tell us
in three words how you’re feeling right now:
Excited, nervous disbelief!
2)
Describe your novel in ONE sentence:
Two girls go missing, decades apart, and
family secrets are slowly revealed.
3)
How are you celebrating publication day?
Lunch and dinner out with the family – with
a glass of Prosecco, of course!
4)
Why/When did you decide to write your first
novel?
I started writing 99 Red Balloons in 2015,
but this was actually the fifth manuscript I’ve written. With 99, I wanted to
explore the impact of a missing child on the wider family.
5)
How long was it from the first submission of
your completed manuscript to agents, to this day?
I started submitting around the beginning
of June 2016 - so just over a year. It’s been a crazy, but amazing, fourteen
months!
6)
So far, what has been the biggest surprise/shock
about becoming a published author?
Luckily, I have a friend who has been
through it before me (which is you, Sam, haha!). You were always there to
answer my questions, which I really appreciated.
As well as editing the book itself, there
are also a lot interviews for blog posts, which I hadn’t thought about before.
They are really fun to do, as everyone asks different questions – some I’d
never asked myself!
7)
What are you most looking forward to as a
published author?
Seeing my book on shelves next to other
authors – it’ll be a dream come true.
Ok, let’s get down to the writing process
8)
Which authors inspired your writing?
Not
technically an author, but Sally Wainwright is one of my writing heroes. Also,
I loved The Time Traveller’s Wife. This book was so different to anything I’d
read before. I wasn’t a big fan of pure science fiction as I felt it was too
descriptive. Previously, I read lots of women’s fiction, which I still love,
but this book mixed genres so seamlessly it was inspirational to me. The depth
of the characters that Niffeneger created meant I was in floods of tears by the
end of the book.
9)
How long did it take you to write ’99 Red
Balloons’?
About a year, on and off.
10)
What was your first draft like?
I like to get the story down first or I
might not finish it. I tend to write quite detailed anyway as things pop into
my head.
11)
How did you find the editing process a - before you had an editor?
I
go through my work again and again.
b - and now you do?
...and again! It’s much the same, but a lot more detailed. It’s great having a
professional suggest ways to improve the book. I have a brilliant editor, which
helps!
12)
When you
write do you need music, or silence?
Having a six-year-old in the summer
holidays means I rarely have the luxury of silence during the day, but I
wouldn’t change it! (School starts back in a few weeks haha!)
13)
What is
your guilty pleasure when writing?
Lots of coffee (morning) and tea
(afternoon)
14)
What is
your favourite part of the writing process? Least
favourite?
I love and hate first drafts, and I love
and hate editing. It’s a mixed bag!
15)
Did you
need to conduct any research for your novel? How did you approach it?
The book I’m writing now is part-set in
1986. Luckily, I remember quite a bit, but I’ve read books of the time, bought
newspapers and magazines from that year. I also got a Freemans catalogue on
disc, which was really fun to go through.
16)
Now you
have a book deal – with deadlines (!) – how has that affected your writing process?
Not much as a process, but it is daunting
writing book two knowing it’s going to be published. I suppose it makes me work
harder to get it right.
17)
What do you do in your ‘spare’ time?
I go to an art class once a week in term
time; I like reading, going out with friends, seeing new places, visiting
museums. And sometimes I like doing nothing.
18)
What’s coming next?
Book two is written and I’m just putting the final
tweaks to it. It’s about a mother who goes missing in 1986 from a Spanish
Island. Her family receives an email from someone claiming to be her. The
narrative follows her daughter in the present, and the mother in the past, in
the lead-up to her disappearance.
19)
Where can readers find you?
On Twitter - @libbycpt and on Facebook - Elisabeth Carpenter Author
My website is: www.elisabethcarpenter.co.uk
20)
All importantly, where can readers buy your
fabulous debut novel?
Here's the blurb for 99 Red Balloons:
Two girls go missing, decades apart. What would you do if one was your daughter?
When eight-year-old Grace goes missing from a sweetshop on the way home from school, her mother Emma is plunged into a nightmare. Her family rallies around, but as the police hunt begins, cracks begin to emerge.What are the secret emails sent between Emma’s husband and her sister? Why does her mother take so long to join the search? And is Emma really as innocent as she seems?
Meanwhile, ageing widow Maggie Taylor sees Grace’s picture in the newspaper. It’s a photograph that jolts her from the pain of her existence into a spiralling obsession with another girl – the first girl who disappeared…
Huge thanks for joining me on your publication day, Elisabeth! Hope you have a fantastic day and enjoy your prosecco later!
You can pop along to see Elisabeth at Waterstones, Preston on 12th September - for details click HERE
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