YvonneAt ‘Meet The Authors’ this time, I am once again joined by author Carys Jones, on the last but one stop of a pretty exhausting Blog Tour promoting her latest release, ‘Dead Girls Can’t Lie’
There have been a wide assortment of excerpts, reviews and articles, promoted by a great circle of bloggers, so why not use the Blog Tour guide below to check a few of them out!
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Best friends tell each other the truth – don’t they?
When North Stone’s best friend Kelly Orton is found hanging lifeless in a tree, North knows for certain it wasn’t suicide. Kelly had everything to live for – a loving boyfriend, a happy life, and most importantly of all, Kelly would never leave North all by herself.
The girls have been friends since childhood, devoted to each other, soul sisters, or at least that’s what North has always believed. But did Kelly feel the same way, or was she keeping secrets from her ‘best friend’ – deadly secrets…
When the police refuse to take North’s suspicions seriously, she sets out to investigate for herself. But her search soon takes her to a glamorous world with a seedy underbelly, and before long North is out of her depth and getting ever closer to danger. Determined to find the truth, she soon wishes that dead girls could lie, because the truth is too painful to believe…
Clicking on the book’s title will link you directly to its Goodreads page.
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Hi! I’m CARYS JONES
I hail from Shropshire, England, where I
John Green, Jodi Picoult and Virginia Andrews are among my favourite authors and when I am not writing, I like to indulge my inner geek by watching science- fiction films or playing video games.
I love nothing more than to write and create stories which ignite the reader’s imagination. To me, there is no greater feeling then when you lose yourself in a great story and it is that feeling of ultimate escapism which I try to bring to my books, drawing inspiration from more or less anything and everything.
You can catch up with all the news at my website
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LIVING BY A LIST
One of the questions I’m often asked with regards to my writing is whether I’m a plotter or a panster. I’ll admit that the first time the question was raised I had to google what panster even meant. And I can confirm that it is most definitely not me. I’m a plotter all the way and I live in a constant battle with my list.
At any one time I can have five or six notebooks on the go, each serving a different purpose. One can be to quickly scribble down phrases I like, another for just single words and a separate notebook for keeping track of my dreams. Also, when I’m reading a book I highlight passages and terms that I like and want to look back on for inspiration. My mad medley of scrawled gibberish comes together in my accumulated list.
The list is pretty basic at first glance; a stream of book titles with rough descriptions besides them (more thorough descriptions are stored in a specific notebook). Each time I finish a book I come back to my list and decide which idea I’d like to work on next. The issue I face is that the list is ever growing and there are only so many hours in the day. My lifetime wish is to one day finally beat my list but I’m a long way off that.
Its organised chaos but I’d be lost without my notebooks stuffed full of random annotations and words. Each strange thought or observation is eventually pulled together under the umbrella of a title once I start writing something new.
And lists don’t just dominate my writing life. I keep a schedule of meals for the week, can’t go shopping without a list. I admit that I perhaps have a problem but I like to feel organised, prepared. My list of future books is long which is a daunting but also exciting prospect. Looking at me reminds me of how much further I still need to go as a writer.
I wish I could sit at my laptop and just let the words take me away in a wistful manner but that’s never been my approach to writing. Before I even write the first sentence an entire manuscript is planned out, chapter by chapter, in its designated notebook. My notes are my blueprints and without them I don’t think anything I wrote would stand up on its own for very long.
So, which are you, a plotter or a panster?
I’ll admit I googled “panster”, as well… even though I felt certain of the definition by context.
I’m a plotter in most every area of my life, just like your guest author! I’ve tried to learn spontaneity, but it certainly doesn’t come easily. 🙂
Thanks to you and Carys, Yvonne, for this fun guest post!
Hi Kelly,
I must admit that I am totally OCD when it comes to making lists and keeping them current and up to date. In fact hubbie jokes that somewhere he is sure I have a list of all my lists – as if??
I am not a very spontaneous person and I hate being thrown out of my routine, which often sets me at odds with seemingly just about all of the rest of society – not so good when the rest of my family and extended family take the ‘pantser’ approach to life!!
I am also addicted to stationery and notebooks in particular, so rest assured, there will never be a shortage of notepaper in our house!
Carys has been a great sport in providing material for her second guest post in the space of just a few months, especially considering that despite the organisation which no doubt went into the planning and writing of the article, it really does sound so informal and off the cuff in its presentation and narrative 🙂
I too had to Google ‘panster’… what an odd word… wonder what the origin is. Anyway, I’m not one. I like organisation in my life and lists. Get quite upset if I forget my list when heading to the supermarket for instance. We always have family stay for Christmas and I couldn’t get through it without my list for each day of jobs, meals and so forth. Some might say it’s a bad thing, I don’t agree and actually think the key to having a nice time with visitors is to get yourself organised and ‘plan’. 🙂
Oh and the book sounds really good!
Hi Cath,
I had come across ‘pantser’ before, during ‘Wondrous Words Wednesday’, one of the regular weekly memes in which I participate as often as possible …
“Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love” …
I couldn’t find any kind of origin for the word either, however I am wondering if it has been adapted from the saying “to fly by the seat of one’s pants”, which I remember as being a well used saying when I was a child?
“Decide a course of action as you go along, using your own initiative and perceptions rather than a predetermined plan or mechanical aids”
The definition of both the saying and the word are surely too similar for it to be a coincidence?
This has been a truly fun guest post to host and yes, the book does sound good, doesn’t it 🙂
Loving the cover and intrigued by the whole best friend/deadly secrets thing.
Count me in as someone else who had to look up panster … and, as it turns out, someone who isn’t one.
Sounds like this has been a great book tour, thanks for featuring it.
Hi Tracy,
It sounds as though Kelly has been leading something of a double life, doesn’t it? And not a very pleasant one at that! I’m surprised that she has managed to keep it a total secret from her ‘soul sister’, Nancy. I suspect that suicide is going to fast become murder in this tense sounding story!
I am amazed that there are so many ‘plotters’ out there, given that just about everyone I know is a ‘pantser’ to one degree or another. At work and socially with family, I am constantly being berated for being too organised and schedule driven. Mind you, I am also quite a pessimist, which doesn’t help the situation!
I hope that things are okay with you and thanks for taking the time to leave a comment and support Carys’s blog tour 🙂
I know I’ve seen Carys Jones on your blog before and the book sounds good. I didn’t know what a panster was either. I’m a bit of both though, if I plan something, I can veer off the plans and change it up, I don’t mind. There’s been days we have plans to go someplace and my daughter and I will change the plans completely and do something else entirely and it works out fine. I don’t like sticking to a regimented schedule.
At work though, I am definitely a plotter and need organization or I get overwhelmed easily in my line of work.
Hi Naida,
Carys has indeed visited before, with an excellent guest blog as my feature piece for the blog tour of her previous thriller, ‘Last Witness’, which to my shame I have yet to review in full!
Without question, I am a plotter at work, but even at home I hate it if plans are changed, especially at the last minute. Panic and all the ‘but what if?…’ thoughts, can quickly turn me into a nervous wreck. Hubbie says that it is as if I am willing things to go wrong, but I know that isn’t the case; it is just that I feel as though I am losing control of the situation.
Ooops! now I sound like a control freak as well 🙂