YvonneYay! It’s my turn on the Blog Tour for ‘If Only You Knew‘ by Cynthia Clark and joy of joys, I have an author guest post to share for my spotlight!
Thanks of course to Cynthia and the lovely Melanie at Aria Fiction, for making all this possible.
Why not take a few moments to check out some of the other great stops on the tour!
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A wife, a mother, a killer.
One wrong decision, one terrifying night, leaves student Elizabeth with a stark choice – kill or be killed. And the consequences of that choice will shape her whole life.
Now a wife, a mother, and a lawyer, she must find a way to out run her past, protect her family and live with her secret. But is it really possible to live a happy life with such a huge shadow cast by the past? And as it becomes clear that someone else knows her secret and is hunting her down, time is running out for Elizabeth to keep her family safe.
In the bestselling tradition of Clare Mackintosh and Jenny Blackhurst, Cynthia Clark has written a heart-stopping story about the choices we make and how far we’d go to protect our families. Even if it means deceiving the people we love most…
Clicking on the book’s title will link you with its dedicated Goodreads page
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CYNTHIA CLARK
Born and brought up in Malta, Cynthia Clark graduated in Communications before going to work for a daily newspaper.
After following her now husband to New York, she worked as a writer for online business journals, before moving to London, where she started writing her debut novel, If You Only Knew.
She currently spends most of her time running after her one-year-old twin daughters while writing her next book.
Follow Cynthia on Twitter
Perhaps it is my years working as a reporter that has made me appreciate fictional writing even more. There are no constraints, no boundaries, no restrictions. I love the freedom of taking my characters on an exciting journey of my own making.
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As my showcase for both the book and its lovely author, Cynthia has prepared this excellent guest post, which she would like me to share with you.
“THREE SOURCES OF INSPIRATION”
Every time I tell anyone about my first book, If You Only Knew, I’m invariably asked the same question: “Where did you get the inspiration?” The first couple of times I shrugged it off. “Here and there,” I replied. But the question gave me pause, made me want to dig deep for the real answer, one that is true to me. Certainly, I didn’t want to respond with what I believed others wanted to hear.
Inspiration is quite a fickle thing. It can come from anywhere and everywhere. The woman sitting next to me on the bus, a phrase someone says, a scene from a movie, a storyline in a book. Everything can be a trigger to build a new character, a subplot, or even a full story.
The more I thought about it, the more I realised that there are three main sources of inspiration which have helped me write If You Only Knew and are instrumental as I write my next book.
First, and perhaps most important, is the wisdom acquired by everyday life, especially one filled with new experiences. Some people make a decision not to steer too far from where they grew up, where they feel more comfortable. I, on the other hand, have never shied away from pushing the boundaries. And that included leaving wherever home was, the place I was comfortable, and exploring somewhere new. Just last month I moved across the Atlantic for the third time in seven years. Moving to a new place keeps me on my toes, allowing me to see a new city, a new country even, from a different perspective. It doesn’t matter how often one travels, how many new places have been visited, there’s nothing like setting up a home somewhere fresh. Everything is different. You need to learn a new culture, make new friends, get the lay of the land. Even if the language is the same, there are communication subtleties that can make or break new relationships. Moving has allowed me to change old habits and see everyday things from a different perspective. And that has been instrumental in helping me create new characters.
The years I spent working as a journalist have definitely given me fodder for my stories. Being at the frontline of news exposed me to experiences that I would otherwise never have been introduced to. Primarily I was able to meet and talk to different people, delve into their lives, try to understand what made them take certain actions. It was this exposure to some very interesting individuals that helps me create new characters. Although none of the characters in If You Only Knew are based on real people, I have borrowed some traits from people I’ve met while working at a newspaper and used them to build new personalities. Sometimes characters are a jigsaw of different people. After all, one of the best parts of writing is the ability to create the characters that you want, that best fit the story.
Finally, a major source of inspiration is social media. Today people share their lives with everyone else, telling total strangers what they’ve had for breakfast, what happened on the train to work, how their boss is driving them crazy. What might seem like mundane updates give me a more colourful portrayal of other people’s lives. Pictures, status updates, even emojis, can help inspiration strike, be the spark needed to create a new plot line, a new twist in a story.
Inspiration can strike anywhere. But it can also be flighty, especially when a thought is starting to be formed. Thankfully my phone is always at arm’s reach, allowing me to jot everything down, make sure that I don’t forget anything.
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I always enjoy guests posts, and all the more so when they address the inspiration behind the author’s work. This is an excellent entry and I found her last point quite interesting. So often you see books/films/TV programs “ripped from the headlines”, but her take on using the mundane details from social media puts a different spin on that.
Thanks to both of you for an interesting post!
Hi Kelly,
Guest Posts are my favourite too, especially when they fill my spot on a blog tour.
I know that we all use social media to one extent or another, however I do try to keep it purely business like and professional, excluding too much personal information. I have to admit that I have neither a private Twitter or Facebook account.
For an author though, the information and ideas they can extraxt from scouring various posts, is probably an invaluable tool in writing to the demands of a modern audience, where authenticity and realism are key to a book’s success!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and taking the time to comment 🙂
What a lovely post. Cynthia, you make me want to read your book. Thanks Yvonne, for showcasing this one.
Thanks for stopping by Bev.
As a debut novel, this book is already earning some impressive ratings and reviews, so all those weeks of watching and studying people, places and events happening around her, have certainly paid dividends for Cynthia.
I do enjoy featuring a good guest post, not only does it make for a more personal piece, but it also shows an author’s willingness to engage with their readers.
Happy Reading 🙂
Hello Cynthia and Yvonne, great guest post. I agree, inspiration can strike anywhere. Social media is definitely a source now as well.
The book sounds good!
Hi Naida,
So often, I don’t even notice what is going on around me or the people I pass in the street, such is the hustle and bustle of my daily routine.
However, if I actually took a bit more time to people watch, I’m sure I could probably pick out several potential characters and storylines for a book.
Also, like yourself, I enjoy checking out quotes and comments, not only from the well publicized rich and famous, but from everyday situations and real-life people. They can also be very inspirational and idea motivational.
I agree, a really interesting and thoughtful guest post and I can’t wait to read the book 🙂
Hello Yvonne, thanks for publishing my blog post. I love people-watching, always have. it’s so great that today we can learn about other people’s lives from what they share online. And as for inspiration, it’s so funny how it strikes at sometimes the most inopportune moment. I was struggling with a plot line for my next book and suddenly I had this idea — in the doctor’s waiting room as I was waiting for my twins to get their immunizations. I had a couple of minutes so I jotted a few notes on my phone. Otherwise, I’d probably have forgotten.
Hi Cynthia,
Thank You so much for submitting such an interesting guest post and for this follow up visit, which I really appreciate.
I’m afraid that I need to confess my slight technophobic tendencies, which includes both my phone and the highlighting and note taking facility on my Kindle. However I am a complete geek when it comes to stationery. I am therefore never really too far away from a notebook and pen, where I either make notes from my reading as I go, or listen out for new to me words, which I can share in one of my regular weekly memes.
My ideal shopping centre would have a book shop, a game shop selling jigsaws, a wool shop to feed my knitting fettish and a stationery store, next door to one another – who needs clothes and food!!
People watching is generally reserved for when hubbie and I are out and about together, spending our very little free time relaxing. He loves to take pictures, which gives me plenty of time to look at what’s going on around me, then perhaps we will just sit in silence outside a street cafe, enjoying a coffee and slice of cake, just watching the world go by..
Your life must be so much hustle and bustle now that you have your lovely twins to take care of, as well as your writing and the million other balls which you are no doubt trying to juggle at once, so thanks for sharing this glimpse into your world 🙂