Emma Davies Sheds Some More Light on Her Writing

At the end of last November, Emma Davies visited my blog to chat about her indie-
published book Letting in Light. I'm delighted to welcome her back again to find out
how she's getting on.

Emma, welcome back! What have you been doing since we last met up? You 
were on the verge of rearranging your work hours so that you have more 
writing time. Did that go ahead?
The start to 2015 has been really encouraging on the writing front. I was a little 
in the doldrums before Christmas to be honest, caught in that one step forward 
and three back syndrome, plus I had a really nasty bout of flu which didn’t help. 
Then, out of the blue I had a string of really positive reviews, and of course was 
accepted into the RNA's New Writers' Scheme (more about that below)and since 
then it's been all really positive. My sales are steadily growing (pleading voice,
please buy me!), but above all I'm am now more determined than ever to get 
where I want to be this year. That in itself is a wonderful feeling. 

It's therefore really frustrating that I haven’t yet been able to resolve my working
hours issues. My job is of the all-consuming type and very stressful, and whilst I 
have been trying to impose my own work life balance on the situation, it's not 
always that easy and I feel now that I am no longer able to give of my best; my 
focus is elsewhere at the moment and this is not a great situation for me or my 
employer. Around May / June time there may be an opportunity to reduce my 
hours from full time, but it's frustrating that this will be half way through the
year. It doesn’t stop me from writing though!

You joined the RNA's NWS this year. What made you do that?
This might be a really long answer, sorry, hope you can bear with me! .... I found 
out about the New writers Scheme too late last year so missed out, but I was
really keen to get a place this year, and as I mentioned it was a real boost. I am 
determined to squeeze everything I can out of this year, and this scheme offers 
such fantastic support for people like me. It’s the biggest opportunity I'm going to 
get to really make a difference to my writing career, and I hope to be able to really
learn from their advice. I'm also looking forward to meeting some of the RNA 
members and to take advantage of the networking opportunities on offer. I 
wouldn’t get this anywhere else.

I've also admitted a few things to myself this year, and although when I was writing
Letting in Light I acknowledged that there was a lot of me in there, the story of Will 
and Helen 'finding' their art is almost autobiographical. I've been writing for years 
but not with any real purpose, it was just for me. I know that I deliberately didn’t
allow myself to make any more of my writing because once I did I would be 
consumed by it, and for various reasons there were things happening in my life 
that meant this was not the right time for this to happen. Now, though, although it 
scares the pants off me, I've let myself be consumed and if I know one thing now, 
it's that I absolutely HAVE to write. Like I said of Will in the book, 'It's in his blood 
now, this thing that he does; it's hardwired to his heart.' That’s me all over. 

So, having said that, I have to acknowledge that I want to go all out, I want to write
for a living, and I don’t want to do anything else. This is such a hard state to 
achieve, I'm realistic that for a while (maybe quite a long while) I will also need 
traditional employment. Working with the RNA may be my best opportunity to get 
the book deal that will start me on the right path, allow me to think of my writing as 
my work, and, .... well let's just see what happens!

And you sent off your NWS book in January!! Anyone who has ever 
experienced the mad scramble as the end of August approaches will be 
madly envious. What can you tell us about it?
It’s a little bit of the Blue Peter, I'm afraid; you know, here's one I made earlier.
Knowing that I couldn’t join last year I used that time to get Letting in Light as good
as I could, but as I may have mentioned somewhere before, it actually had 
different storylines, and a very different ending at one point before it became the 
book it is now. It might be a little bit of a cheat sending this off, but what was
important to me was getting it in early, and getting the critique back so that I could 
learn from these comments as soon as I could and put them to good use. I didn’t 
want to wait until August for this process to happen. Of course I'm also madly 
hoping that they like what they see ...

What else have you written since Letting in Light? Are you still writing in the 
present tense?
I started another work last year, loosely entitled The Amorous Intentions of Amos 
Fry, but for now have put this to one side in order to write the sequel to Letting in 
Light. In truth this came about because nearly every review I read said that they 
wanted another book based on the same characters - and you should always 
listen to your readers! It also means that I get to hang onto my lovely characters 
for a little while longer, which I'm thrilled about. This book is also written in the
present tense, and again mostly from Ellie's POV; I can hear her telling the story 
and now can't seem to write it any other way.

What's next on your writing agenda?
So many things! So little time! Firstly I have set myself a mission to try and have 
at least the first draft of the sequel ready by August. This will, I hope, give me 
some options, depending of course on the outcome of the NWS critique. It will 
either mean that I will have had time to put what I've learned into place with this 
book and then I will be so much further down the line in making it a reality, but of 
course it will also mean that if the RNA feel that my work is of good enough quality 
to look for an agent or publisher, then when I do so, I will almost have book two in 
the bag as well - cunning plan! I'm still quite open minded on the traditional versus 
self-publishing route at the moment. I think I need to feel my way a little on this one.

I also need to market and network like a thing possessed; I have so much to learn,
and so many things I'd like to do in this regard, that I'm not quite sure where to 
start, but I'll keep chipping away. With lovely people like you to support me, it's not 
only fun but very rewarding.

What a kind thing to say, Emma – thank you.

What advice would you give other writers? If you'd known back then what 
you know now, what would you have done differently?
I think I did most things back to front at the start. I was so thrilled that I had actually
managed to write a book that I just wanted it out there, and I didn’t really think 
about marketing, and social media etc and how important this is. I can see from 
looking at others now what I should have done first, so I think I would have told 
myself to slow down a little and be patient. So, fledgling writers, do your homework
first!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing however, and I'm a firm believer that things happen 
for a reason, and that perhaps this was simply a process I personally had to go 
through anyway so that I could learn from it. Every cloud ...

What have you read recently that you'd like to recommend?
I've only just finished all my Christmassy reads, which seems a bit weird, (I was
too ill at Christmas to read them!) but two I really enjoyed were Christmas in the 
Snow by Karen Swan and The Great Christmas Knit Off by Alexandra Brown. I'm 
currently reading Another Night, Another Day, by Sarah Rayner. I've read some of 
her work previously, and I'm really enjoying this too.

Emma, thanks for taking the time to give such thoughtful and honest answers. Best of luck with your writing.

Letting in Light – paperback edition

Letting in Light – Kindle edition

Letting in Light – Amazon review page

Emma's website

Emma's Twitter page

Romantic Novelists Association website