Meet....Sue Moorcroft

THE NOVEL CAFÉ WELCOMES….SUE MOORCROFT

This evening I have the pleasure in welcoming Sue Moorcroft to the Novel Cafe. I would like to thank Sue for letting us into her world and being part of the blog, so BIG thank you Sue! 

(Interview conducted end of October)

1. Sue, can you tell us a little about yourself and how you came to be an author?

I was late learning to read and write, owing to slightly interrupted education. But once I learned, I was hooked. I couldn’t believe that I could get good marks at school by making things up!

After a half-hearted attempt to get into journalism, I went to work in a bank. After that, when my children were small, I used to find pockets of time where I could fit in a couple of hours of writing and it became my passion. As the children grew, the pockets of time became bigger.

I wrote two novels but they were not good, so I did a course, during which I began to write magazine fiction. I’d read that if you could sell 20 short stories to national newsstand magazines, you might get interest from publishers of novels – I’d sold 87 and a serial by the time I got ‘the call’, but, loosely, the strategy worked.

2. How long did it take you to write your first Novel?

My first published novel was Uphill All the Way, but books that were written before it were published after it (Starting Over and All That Mullarkey). And then there were those early attempts that publishers didn’t care for … whichever you mean, the answer’s the same: I don’t really know. I write about a book a year, now, and it was probably about the same, then, but when you don’t have a deadline or a contract there’s no real reason to keep tabs on how long it’s all taking.

3. If you could pick just one of your books to turn into film which would it be and why?

Instantly, I want to choose two … OK, I’ll settle on Dream a Little Dream because I think the dream sequences and the overlap between dreaming and waking could be fabulous and fascinating. And could we please have Ryan Gosling (without the beard!) to play Dominic Christy? He has the right eyes but he’d have to let his hair grow longer and less tidy. (Good question. I had to really think about that.)

4. Your new book 'Is this love?' is out in paperback on 7th Nov, can you tell us a little about it?

Is This Love? is a book about the different qualities of love. Tamara Rix’s sister, Lyddie, needs more care than most adults, and it’s love for her that keeps Tamara in the village where they grew up.

Jed Cassius was Lyddie’s teenage heartthrob and Tamara had a crush on him, too. He returns to the village to tell the Rixes who was driving the car when Lyddie suffered her hit-and-run accident all those years ago.

Jed’s an interesting character. He dropped out of society for a while yet has a great job. It’s through him that Tamara gets mixed up with millionaires, non-disclosure agreements and alpacas. She’s not at all sure that Jed’s one of the good guys, but she really wants him to be.

Is this Love? is available now:

5. The book has been shortlisted for the Readers Best Romantic Read Award at the Festival of Romance - congratulations and good luck! How did you feel when you found out?

Thank you! I felt euphoric and texted all my family to spread the glad news. Then I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a strong shortlist. Oh, well, I’ve won this award once …’

6. If you could give any award to any book ... which award would you give to which book and why?

Another question to which I’d like to give two answers, really. I’ll go with Suzanne Brockmann’s Gone too Far for its sizzling affair played out against a global setting of conflict and terrorism. I think you have to know your subject and have a lot of guts to contemplate such a sweeping canvas. And the relationship is mega.

What to know more about Sue?

Sue Moorcroft writes romantic novels of dauntless heroines and irresistible heroes. Love & Freedom won the Best Romantic Read Award 2011 at the Festival of Romance and Dream a Little Dream was nominated for a RoNA in 2013. She received three nominations at the Festival of Romance 2012, and is a Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner. She’s vice chair of the RNA and editor of its two anthologies.

Sue also writes short stories, serials, articles, writing ‘how to’ and is a competition judge and creative writing tutor.

Website www.suemoorcroft.com. 

Blog http://suemoorcroft.wordpress.com/ 

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