A Word Please

Meet Louise Wise, author of Eden!
Tell us about yourself, Louise:
I’m married and live with my husband in Northampton (where the late Princess Diana was born), England. We have four boys, the youngest is six and the eldest is nineteen. Two cats and a rabbit with a personality disorder – he thinks he’s a cat also. Professionally I am an on-line editor as well as a writer. I do love editing (I think I’m alone?), I love seeing pieces come alive on the page just by changing the position of a comma.

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About Eden:

JOURNEY TO THE PAST…
A tale of romance and survival as three people travel from 2236 to the beginning of time.

Jennifer Daykin joins the three-man crew to explore the newly discovered planet, Eden.
All was going well until Jenny found herself deserted…

She listened for an answering shout – there was nothing. In the distance, Jenny was transfixed with horror as the space shuttle rose into the blue sky of Eden.

‘No… Don’t leave me here!’
Only the pounding of her heart answered her.

…but not alone

The instant she hit the floor she curled into the foetal position. Finally, the bare feet walked away. A Native American warrior, had been her first thought, but it was his eyes that had alerted her he wasn’t an Indian or even human. They were completely black; black, dry orbs in a battered face.

Ordinary people with ordinary emotions, fears and insecurities.
Only this isn’t Earth, and he isn’t human.
A modern day Adam and Eve.

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A chat with Louise:

Eden is your first book. What prompted you to write this particular story?

Eden is my first published book. I have written nine books previous to Eden but they are so badly written I can’t look at them without grimacing. I’d always liked the idea of being abandoned somewhere remote (yeah, I loved Swiss Family Robinson as a kid), but lost on an island in the Pacific just seemed cliché somehow. So, also having an interest in Astronomy I thought why not use the same concept but on another planet!

Eden is a unique blend of romance and sci-fi. Have you always been a fan of both genres?

I’m a true romantic! I’m not a total fan of sci-fi though, funnily enough, I don’t like trying to fathom out the pronunciation of unfamiliar names or faraway places. I like reality and Eden is based on ordinary human emotions and survival. Fly, the alien, was as human as I could make him. I do love factual books about space, but not fiction.

What type of research, if any, did you do for Eden?

I used the Internet and books for all. It’s true what they say, write what you know, and being interested in all things spacey the research was a pleasure. I used the NASA and ESA website, and I found I also needed to know about farming and medicine (I researched medicine in medieval times for that one).

Do you have a special writing process or routine?

I weave my writing around my homelife and what I call my real-life job (I usually write in the early to late evening).

I tend to have an idea and generally sit on it, turning it over in my mind before jotting down ideas. I then write a couple of chapters, not bothering with spelling or being precise, so going along to see if the story flows.

By doing it this way I can see if it’s an idea that either grows or falters. If it falters I file the chapters away on the computer (I never throw anything away!) and sometimes they come in use for a short story, if it grows hey-presto!

When I read the book, I felt a powerful message woven within the story. Was that intentional on your part?

You felt that? Oh good! I was trying to get the message across that you can’t judge a book by its cover (no pun intended!). Fly, the alien, looked vicious but Jenny fell for him. The other characters couldn’t understand it, and thought she was prostituting herself for survival. Prejudice survives because of a refusal to understand another race, but the minority races can also fuel this lack of understanding. Fly (the minority) realised he’d have to meet the others half way, and tried to fit in. It didn’t work, he got angry, the others scared. and it took a major catastrophe to rethink their ideas.

What’s next in your writing career?

Thank you for calling it a “career”, my family still calls it my hobby! I have a book called A Proper Charlie coming out in September, it’s a chicklit. It sounds completely different from Eden, doesn’t it? But I feel more comfortable writing humour – and of course, the romance is still there. This time I’m using “mistaken identity” as my theme.

If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? (Totally irrelevant to writing, I know. We can’t be all work and no play!)

I think I’d like to be a wolf (not one from my story! Eek!), they have a strong sense of loyalty to one another and are social animals.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with readers?

I’d like to say to aspiring writers reading this, that those “over night” success stories really take years of writing rubbish and hard, hard work learning the craft before they are “discovered”.

Purchasing Info:

Amazon.com: http://bit.ly/dzv9bp
Amazon.uk: www.bit.ly/cEjYqt
Louise’s Blog: http://louisewise.blogspot.com/

I loved Eden! The story was compelling, as well as fun. I hope you’ll all read it!

Thanks for joining us today, Louise! I’m looking forward to your next book!

Tags: Eden, Guest Authors, Louise Wise