What inspired you to become an author?
My love of reading! I lived in a very small town
with a small library and no bookshops, so I started writing my own stories so
that I would have something to read later. To me reading and writing go hand in
hand. I love both.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I’d say it’s quite a narrative style with lots of
dialogue and not too much description, just enough to set the scene.
How did you come up with the title for your latest
book?
It almost named itself. In the book, a killer is on
the loose targeting long-haired women so Drowning Rapunzel seemed very apt,
especially since Beth is the model for Josh’s Rapunzel painting and she is
being stalked by that same killer.
Do you title the book first or wait until after it’s
complete?
Normally the idea for the story and the title are
around the same time, although sometimes the title might come a bit later. For
Drowning Rapunzel the title and the idea went almost hand in hand.
What books are in your to read pile?
Oh, dear, quite a few! We just went out at the
weekend to buy a new bookshelf as the book pile was getting a bit bigger. I buy
lots of books that interest me then find trouble getting the time to read them.
Up shortly are a fantasy quadrology by Mark Charon Newton starting with City of
Ruin and after that I’ll see. I’m not sure which one on my shelf will take my
fancy on a particular day.
What is your current “work in progress” or upcoming projects?
I’m working on an Male/Male novella called Baked to
Perfection. One of the heroes is a baker who has had little time for romance as
he’s trying to build up his business, which isn’t helped by the fact that there
is a new contender just outside town called The Wedding Warehouse, who have
everything for weddings under one roof and can undercut him on the prices for
cakes. However things might be looking up on the romance front when a handsome
Olympic swimmer goes into his shop to buy a birthday cake for his brother.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging
in your writing?
Not so much the writing, but trying to promote it
once it’s for sale. Writing and promoting seem to take different part of the
brain and I can’t do both on the same day.
Who designed the cover of your latest book?
I had in put with the publisher on what sort of
covers I liked and what I would like to see on mine, and they passed this on to
the designer. The design itself was done by Valerie Tibbs and I loved it as
soon as I saw the mock-up in my inbox, it was gorgeous and gave the right sort
of fairy tale feel for the novel.
Do you have any advice for other writers?
Just two things really : read and write. Read
everything you can get your hands on, read different genres, see what appeals
to you the most. If you don’t like romance, don’t try and write it just because
it’s popular. There are a lot of vampire and shape-shifter type books out at
the moment, it seems to be the in-thing, but I don’t really read those, so I
wouldn’t feel comfortable writing them. I have written a vampire short story once,
but it isn’t a genre I feel very at home in.
Turn off the self-editor in your head and just get
your words down on paper or on your computer screen. You won’t be able to
submit or sell anything if you haven’t written it yet. Just start getting those
words down there and worry about the editing later. If I edited as I went along
I’d never get anything finished.
Do you have a song or playlist (book soundtrack) that
you think represents this book?
While I’m writing, I need complete silence, but I
listen to a lot of music before I write as it seems to free my mind to think
about where I want the story to go next. I’m not sure if this is would actually
be considered a soundtrack to the novel as such, but these are some of the
songs that helped me write it along the way.
Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol
Mountains by Biffy Clyro
Starlight by Muse
I’d Lie for You by Meat Loaf
The Unguarded Moment by The Church
Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls
March 4 Interview
Pembroke Sinclair.
March 5 Guest blog
Fang-tastic Books
March 6 Spotlight
Mila Ramos
March 8 Spotlight and review
Musings From An Addicted Reader
March 8 Spotlight
Share My Destiny
March 9 Guest blog
Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf
March 9 Spotlight and review
Books Books and More Books
March 10 Guest blog and review
Erzabet's Enchantments
March 11 Guest blog
Provocative Pages:
March 12 Interview
Books and Other Spells.
March 13 Interview
Roxanne’s Realm
March 14 Spotlight
Mama Knows Books
March 15 Interview and review
Kari's Crowded Bookshelf
http://karisbookshelf.blogspot.com
kl_photo@hotmail.com
March 15 Interview
Bewitching Book Tours Magazine
March 16 Guest blog
Lunar Haven Reviews & Designs
March 17 Spotlight
March 18 Guest blog and review
Once Upon A Book
Drowning Rapunzel
Annette Gisby
Annette Gisby
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Pink Petal Books
Word Count: 66,000
Cover Artist: Valerie Tibbs
Book Description:
Recently released from a mental institution, Beth Gregory accepts a job as a live-in secretary/PA to the reclusive painter Josh Warrington. Beth's long red hair fascinates him from the first moment he sees her and Josh wants her to be his Rapunzel for a series of fairy tale paintings he's working on.
Beth has two major fears: that she will be sent back to the mental hospital and the visions which landed her there in the first place will return. They do; this time giving her glimpses of murders before they happen. Beth becomes the main suspect in the murder investigation and then she has the most disturbing vision of all: she will become the next victim...
About the Author:
Annette Gisby grew up in a small town in Northern Ireland, moving to London when she was seventeen. She writes in multiple genres and styles, anything from romance to thriller or erotica to horror, even both at the same time. When not writing, she enjoys reading, cinema, theatre and travelling the world despite getting travel sick on most forms of transport., even a bicycle. Sometimes you might find her playing Dragon Quest or The Sims computer games and watching Japanese Anime. She lives in Hampshire with her husband, a collection of porcelain dolls, cuddly toys and enough books to fill a library. It's diminishing gradually since the advent of ebooks, but still has a long way to go.
1 comments:
Thanks for having me :)
Annette
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