– The Magic of Wor(l)ds is a hobby, reviews and other bookish stuff on this site are done for free.
I’m grateful of receiving a free copy from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review of this book. –
Today I’m delighted to be on the ‘The M Word’ blogtour, organised by Zooloo’s Book Tours.
To promote this book I’ll be sharing an interview between the author and me, but first I have some information
About the Author :
Eileen Wharton is an Oscar winning actress, Olympic gymnast, and Influencer. She also tells lies for a living. Her first novel was published in 2011 to worldwide critical acclaim. And she’s won awards for exaggeration. It did top the Amazon humour chart so she’s officially a best-selling author. She currently has five ‘lively’ offspring ranging from thirty-three to fourteen years of age, and has no plans to procreate further, much to the relief of the local schools and police force. She lives on a council estate in County Durham. She has never eaten kangaroo testicles, is allergic to cats and has a phobia of tinned tuna. She’s retired from arguing with people on the internet.
About the Book :
Roberta Gallbreath is middle-aged and menopausal.
She dislikes her children, detests her ex-husband and despises her colleagues.
When her mother dies, Roberta is left with a pile of letters and a mystery surrounding her son. The letters reveal Roberta’s heritage is not what it seems and she is soon on a mission to become a better person.
Told with humour and emotion, The M Word is the tale of one woman’s journey to find out where she came from. As she looks to the past for answers, more questions are raised. Will Roberta discover who she really is?
And now it’s finally time for the
Hi
First of all thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate it. Here we go! 🙂
The pleasure is all mine.
Can you, for those who don’t know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?
I used to work at the Pentagon until I was discovered by Simon Cowell in a karaoke bar in Virginia. I then spent a few years in Hollywood as a star of stage and screen. The fame all became too much for me when I was stalked by George Clooney, so I retired from public life and became an ordinary middle aged woman from the north of England who tells lies for a living.
I’ve always loved books. My parents used to take us the the library and I loved stamping the front page and handing in the tickets. If I wasn’t an author I think I’d have liked to have been a librarian. My fiancé dreads passing a book shop as he knows he’ll lose me for hours. I used to make up stories and create my own books as a child. I always imagined there being a book on the shelves with my name on it. When I was married I wrote in secret for years on a typewriter I hid at the back of a kitchen cupboard. I started submitting to competitions and came highly commended in one run by writer Wendy Robertson. The success helped encourage me to finish my first novel. I submitted it to agents and publishers, found an awesome publisher and I’ve been writing ever since. I now have no agent and three fabulous publishers. I quit teaching this year to write full time.
Which books did/do you love to read as a child/now as a grown-up?
I loved anything and everything. I loved the Brer Rabbit stories, Tales of Toyland, Mallory Towers and St Clare’s. I loved Judy Blume as a teenager and all American romance books. As an adult I like the classics, modern literary fiction, crime, historical fiction, romance. Anything well written with interesting characters.
Is there a writer whose brain you would love to pick for advice? Who would that be and why?
I do pick the brains of many excellent writers. My good friend Kerry ( K A Richardson) has helped me enormously with police procedure. I’ve had some excellent advice over the years too. I’d love to have a natter with Lynda LaPlante though. She’s a fascinating character.
If you could, which fictional character (from your own book(s) or someone else’s) would you like to invite for tea and why?
I’d invite Oliver twist because he’d be easily pleased with what I fed him and there’s always more in our house.
Do you have some rituals or habits whilst writing?
None really, but the process has changed over the years. I used to write in notebooks and then transfer it to a typewriter (yes I’m old) , a word processor, or a laptop. I now mainly write straight onto the computer because I can type faster than I can write these days. I usually have a cup of tea or six to keep me going through the working day. I quite often team up with friends and we do timed writing, sharing word counts to keep us accountable. I feel extremely lucky to have my own writing room now. I spent years scribbling wherever and whenever I could.
Where do you come up with your idea(s)? Do people in your life need to be worried? 😉
Ideas can come from anywhere. Everyday life, Art, travels. They should definitely be worried. The buggers should sleep with one eye open haha.
Are you a plotter or do you go with the flow, as a pantser?
I’m a pantser who would love to be a plotter. I have tried plotting but it’s not my forte.
Can you give novice writers some tips (do’s/don’ts)?
Don’t listen to anything I say.
Try not to compare yourself to others. It always seems like everyone else is more prolific, more successful, smarter, happier, (insert superlative). Appearances are often deceptive especially on social media.
Be prepared for rejection. It happens to all writers. Try not to take it personally.
Keep going. If you give up, you’ll never know how far you could have gone.
What are your futureplans as an author?
Ooh let’s see: BBC adaptation of The M Word. Netflix series of Shit Happens and a Hollywood blockbuster for my crime novels. Maybe a cameo role alongside Idris Elba and Tom Hardy.
I’d just like to keep writing.
Last, but not least : Can you give my readers one teaser from your book, which is featured here on my blog, please?
#speeddating
We’re parked on bar stools in Wetherspoon’s. Little tables are dotted around with a chair either side. A man with grey hair and sideburns is holding a stopwatch and a bell. We’re given numbers and allocated tables at which to start.
‘Isn’t it exciting,’ Tammy says.
‘About as exciting as dipping my fingernails in petrol and setting them on fire,’ I say.
‘Come on, Roberta, play the game.’
‘I’ve been playing the game. It’s called Frauds, Fruitcakes and Flakes.’
‘It’s three minutes of your life,’ she says.
‘Yes, ten times.’
‘You might meet Mr Right.’
‘And I might meet Mr Self-Righteous and Mr Look What I’ve Got in My Right Hand?’
‘You’re so negative,’ she says. ‘Put your name badge on and take your seat at table number one. When the bell goes, you don’t do anything. The men will come to you. Here’s your card. Remember to tick all those you want to see again.’
The whole process is as painful as kidney stones.
Mark sits in front of me and asks me how old I think he is.
‘I don’t know, how old are you?’
‘Guess,’ he says. Oh great, a three-minute guessing game, ffs.
‘’Bout forty,’ I say.
‘Thirty-nine,’ he says. ‘No one ever guesses right.’ Kill me now.
‘I could be watching The Chase,’ I say in an aside to Tammy. ‘Or even better, waxing my bikini line.’ A bell rings, and the throng moves, and people take a seat at their next table.
Joe sits opposite me. ‘I’m Joe,’ he says. ‘And you are?’ Read the freaking name badge, stupid.
‘Roberta,’ I say.
‘Tell me something interesting about yourself, Roberta,’ he says.
‘I crossed the Atlantic with Amelia Earhart.’
‘Really,’ he says. ‘That’s amazing.’ What a tit.
‘Tell me something interesting about you.’
‘I make drawing pins,’ he says. Great, give me some to stick in my eyes. Ding, ding. Saved by the bell.
Isn’t that a great reason to pick up the book and read it?!
Thanks once again, Eileen Wharton, for this lovely interview!
The Magic of Wor(l)ds
Born and raised in Los Angeles (exactly in Burbank in the San Fernando Valley), I grew up in a multicultural home as my mother is French and my dad is from Italian descent at a very early age I was already speaking and writing English, French and Italian and after obtaining a Master’s degree in Education with specialization in Human Development and Psychology, Social Science and Comparative Education from UCLA I worked several years as a teacher, a humanitarian aid worker for UNICEF and finally a linguist for Apple artificial intelligence system.
A TIME TRAVEL adventure through history and a multiverse
The Magic of Wor(l)ds 