My guest today is Wendy Clarke. Wendy is a full
time writer of women's fiction. Her work regularly appears in national women's
magazines such as The People's Friend,
Take a Break Fiction Feast and Woman's
Weekly. She has also written serials and a number of non-fiction magazine
articles.
Wendy lives with her husband, cat and step-dog in Sussex
and when not writing is usually dancing, singing or watching any programme that
involves food!
Room in Your
Heart is Wendy's first collection of short stories.
I set out to find out more.
I am aware you
haven’t always been a writer. What did you do before and why did you choose to
change careers?
I’d
like to say I was one of those writers who was born with a pen in their hand
but it wouldn’t be true. I always loved English Language at school but thought
that studying it at university sounded a lot like hard work so did psychology
instead. After that, I drifted into teaching. When my children were born I was
a stay at home mother for a while before working as education officer at The
Sussex Wildlife Trust. I eventually returned to teaching – this time as English
teacher in a private primary school. When the school sadly closed in 2011, due
to the recession, I decided to do an online creative writing course while
thinking about my future. I loved it, despite having not written any fiction
for over thirty years - and the rest, as they say, is history!
Your prolific
output, and indeed your success, as a short story writer is well known. How do
you maintain such a level?
I’m
lucky in that writing is my only ‘job’ so that helps. Having said that, I still
only write part-time - fitting it in around other things such as my choir,
walking the dog and seeing my grandchildren. I try to write at least one story
week and am very lucky to have a very good relationship with The People’s Friend
who publish a lot of them.
It was a real
pleasure to meet you at the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s (RNA) Winter Party a
few weeks ago. Does this mean you’ll be turning your hand to novel writing?
I’m
trying – honestly! I have three chapters of a novel written but I’m aware I’ve
been saying that for rather a long time now. I just seem to keep writing more short
stories and serials... I just can’t help myself! The plan is to try to get onto
the RNA New Writers’ Scheme in January and that, hopefully, will spur me on.
Can you tell us
about your working day?
That’s
a little difficult as each day is different. What I’ll do is tell you what I
did today. Firstly (while still in bed) I checked Facebook and Twitter and
posted/tweeted new items and left comments etc. Then I looked at my blog to see
if there were any comments I needed to reply to. After that, I got up and went
Christmas shopping. Once home, I walked the dog then wrote 1000 words of a
short story before stopping for lunch. In the afternoon, I wrote another 1000
words then, around five, I went back to checking social media again. This was a
productive day but they’re not all like that.
Where is your
favourite place to write – and why?
I
am a writing nomad! I usually start off in the living room as it’s south facing
and the move around the house as the mood takes me. In the summer I like
writing in the conservatory but it’s a bit cold now that it’s winter.
You’ve recently
had an anthology published of some of your short stories, Room in Your Heart. How did you choose which to include?
I
decided that I wanted Room in Your Heart to be a collection of romance stories
and thought I’d use ones previously published in The People’s Friend. I read
them all and then chose my favourite stories for the start, end and middle of
the collection. The rest were selected to mix light stories with more emotional
ones, male and female viewpoints, first and third person and past and present
tense. Hopefully, the finished collection is a well-balanced one.
If you could
choose anyone to invite to a dinner party, who would your guests be?
My
friends would laugh if they saw this question and say ‘nobody’ as they know I
don’t like dinner parties but if I had to then I’d say Strictly star Kevin from
Grimsby – so
that he could dance with me between courses! David Nicholls – so he could tell
me how he writes such wonderfully funny books and Dame Judi Dench – just
because she seems so lovely (well, she was when I met her in a garden centre!)
And while
you’re not busy writing and entertaining, what do you do to relax?
Oh,
that’s easy... I dance! I’ve been dancing modern jive for around twenty years
and salsa for over ten. Five years ago, my husband and I took up ballroom and
Latin and try to dance twice a week – there’s nothing like dancing for
forgetting everyday problems. I also belong to a choir and a very friendly,
informal badminton club and I mustn’t forget walking my dog Bonnie, that’s when
I do my thinking.
What’s next for
Wendy Clarke?
More
of the same probably. I like writing short stories too much to give them up but
if I can write a novel alongside them then it would be the icing on the cake.
Thank you very much for having me on your blog Natalie; it
was lovely of you to ask me.
It’s been a pleasure, Wendy.
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