Inhabitants of the Twitterverse, at least this little segment of it, will have noticed the effervescent wit of Carol Hedges - author and keen, active blogger - around the place.
Rumoured to be extremely helpful and supportive of other Indies and active in her local community, I had always wanted to invite her around the Cauldron and was introduced to her quite recently.
Her books are popular and, as you will see, she enjoys a good laugh and a joke. I caught up with her as she bedded in the roses somewhere in the south of England and we spoke via the Wizphone.
Here's what she had to say.
Tell us a bit about
yourself, Carol. Including something you have never so far revealed in an
author interview on Indie!
Well, Mark, I’m a
nearly 65 year old grandmother with amazingly dyed red hair and all my own
teeth....checks...OK, 2 crowns. I’m a lot taller than I look on Twitter and I
sound like a seven year old on helium. None of this ( apart from the hair) is
observable on any social media site but can be attested to by friends who’ve
met me. And I’m fairly sure there is
some new revelation in there somewhere....
Whereabouts in
Britain are you from? I hear you are very much a creature of the South?
I was born in Welwyn
Garden City, which was one of the ‘’new’’ garden cities built after World War
2. I went to London University (Degree in English & Archaeology..very
useful when planting potatoes .. I can do superb trenches). I worked in London
for many years (Librarian), moved to Watford, where my daughter was born and
now live in Harpenden. Just south of Luton. Or North of London.
In what genre do you
write?
Currently I’m writing
a series of Victorian Crime fiction novels, set in London in the 1860s. They
feature the same two detectives, the odd running characters ( some of them walk
) and lots and lots of new ones.
What’s your latest?
The latest published
one is Honour & Obey ... the
second in the series. It looks at the marriage market at the time (and it was a
market!)
Can we have an
extract please?
Opening extract from Honour & Obey (publ. Crooked Cat Books, Nov 2014)
London, 1861. An evening in early
spring, and it is raining. But
this is not the sweet spring rain
beloved of romantic writers.
This is rain on a mission. Relentless
rain that falls with a steady
patience as if it has got all night.
Rain with the volume turned
up.
Rain corrugates windows. Rain drums off
roof tiles, the
water falling in torrents from leaky
gutters. Rain whips the
surface of the muck-encrusted streets
into thick brown soup.
Rain coats ancient brick buildings in a
slimy sheen of wet. Rain
glugs and gurgles into drains and
culverts.
Stand awhile in the shelter of this
doorway and listen. The
noise of the pelting rain is almost
drowned out by the great
cacophonous cauldron of sound swirling
around you. Horsedrawn
omnibuses clip and clop, and slide on
their steel wheels.
Arguments break out amongst the
shapeless huddled crowds
hurrying to and fro. At the corner, a
ragged soaked drunk raises
his voice in discordant song. Church
bells ring the quarter-hour
in disunited chimes. A dog howls. It is
an evening not to
venture abroad, you might think. But
you would be wrong.
In the building opposite, a door
suddenly opens and a young
woman appears. The building is old,
brick-banded, and rundown
in appearance. The paint is peeling and
several of the
lower windowpanes are cracked, and
streaky with rain. It bears
the hallmarks of a lodging house, where
rooms can be rented
cheaply and the landlord lives
elsewhere.
The young woman wears a neat but shabby
dress, a shawl
and an uninteresting bonnet. She
carries a wrapped bundle
under one arm. Her complexion is pale
and pinched,
bespeaking a lack of regular nourishing
meals. She glances up at
the sky, grimaces, then sets off
determinedly. Her name is Violet
5
Manning and she is a dressmaker.
You will meet her again, very soon. But
not as you see her
now.
And the rain keeps on falling. It falls
upon a semi-detached
villa on the outskirts of New Camden
Town. The villa is owned
by Mrs Lucinda Whitlow, widow of the
late Nathaniel
Whitlow, owner of a piano factory. In
its time the house has
known the laughter of children, the
bustle of family life. Now it
is a boarding house for professional
gentlemen, overseen by Mrs
Whitlow (widow), who has a false front
of black curls, a false set
of yellow teeth and a false smile.
At Mrs Whitlow’s, for a moderate outlay
of cash, the
professional gentleman can avail
himself of a bed, use of
ablution facilities and privy, together
with breakfast and an
evening meal. Mrs Whitlow’s cooking is
in a class of its own.
Her cabbage is always boiled for
exactly one hour. She makes
pastry you could tile roofs with, and
her gravy possesses a thick,
glutinous quality rarely seen outwith
the river embankment at
low tide.
Mrs Whitlow’s lodgers have just
finished their evening meal
of scrag-end of unidentified animal
served with soggy potatoes.
Now she is busy clearing away the
plates, helped by the
undersized maid of all work.
“Knives and forks in the basket, girl,”
she snaps. “Then
scrape them plates into the pig
bucket.”
The maid comes from the local Foundling
Hospital. She has
a name, but Mrs Whitlow prefers to call
her “girl.” It saves time.
She drops the cutlery into the basket
and eyes the plates
hungrily. Several of the lodgers have
left unappetising scraps of
food.
“Hurry up, girl,” Mrs Whitlow commands.
“I ‘aven’t got all
day.”Th
e Foundling scrapes the plates into the
rusty iron bucket.
Her stomach rumbles. Footsteps sound in
the hallway. Mrs
Whitlow darts to the door. One of the
lodgers, the new young
6
man who only arrived recently, has just
descended the stairs and
is heading for the front door.
“Going out, are you, Mr Err...?”
Mr Err is indeed going out. He has on a
long dark overcoat
and his hat is pulled low over his
face. He makes no reply,
merely opens the front door and
disappears into the pouring
rain.
“Manners!” mutters Mrs Whitlow.
She goes back to clearing the plates,
and persecuting the
Foundling.
Evening lengthens. Lamplighters begin
their rounds. Shop
windows are also lit, displaying their
rich contents to the rainsoaked
passers-by. The magic light of a
millions gas-lamps draw
the flâneurs – both men and women –
like moths to its
flickering flame. For there are
particular pleasures to be had at
night, when the streets become a
glittering gallery of images and
goods.
Sometime later Mrs Whitlow’s lodger
will return, will let
himself in with his key and will
quietly climb the stairs to his
room. Sometime later the brightly lit
shops will shutter-up, and
the streets will empty out. Sometime
later, Violet Manning will
be brutally murdered, and her body will
be dumped in an
alleyway.
You have more than
one book. For marketing purposes on the
Twitterverse, do you think it is better for sales and brand awareness to hammer
ONE book ad infinitum?
I hope I never hammer
anything, other than the odd nail, crookedly. It’s actually easier to have more
than one book on the go and best to have a series, especially if you are a
crime writer. People who read crime fiction like to read everything by a writer
they enjoy.
And as for my technique, if I have one, I think it can be divided into: 1. Sell everybody else first. 2. Sell YOURSELF as a brand next.
People buy from writers they engage with and find interesting. Nothing is more likely to detract from sales than a writer endlessly and robotically putting out promo after promo. If you visit my Twitter site, you’ll find funnies, pics (frequently of cake), other people’s stuff, amusing posters etc etc.
And I chat. Lots.
Follow Carol on Twitter HERE:
https://twitter.com/carolJhedges
And as for my technique, if I have one, I think it can be divided into: 1. Sell everybody else first. 2. Sell YOURSELF as a brand next.
People buy from writers they engage with and find interesting. Nothing is more likely to detract from sales than a writer endlessly and robotically putting out promo after promo. If you visit my Twitter site, you’ll find funnies, pics (frequently of cake), other people’s stuff, amusing posters etc etc.
And I chat. Lots.
Follow Carol on Twitter HERE:
https://twitter.com/carolJhedges
You are very active
on Twitter? Can we follow Carol Hedges anywhere else?
I am also on Facebook
... though I’m more selective as to whom I ‘’friend’ as I had a nasty incident
recently where someone claiming to know several of my friends was actually
posting malaware. FB shut down my site and I had to clean it. So now, you have
to be a friend of a friend to be my friend. If you see what I mean.
Thank you. I really
am proud of them. They are designed by David Baird, a local graphic artist, and
the husband of one of my friends. So that makes them extra special.
There are a few ‘’secret’’ things in the covers...you have to look carefully and compare each one. Not saying any more. I’m not an artist, so I don’t know what advice I can give.
I DO remember going to a talk at the RNA where a cover designer showed us several covers (different genres) all featuring the SAME bloke!
There are a few ‘’secret’’ things in the covers...you have to look carefully and compare each one. Not saying any more. I’m not an artist, so I don’t know what advice I can give.
I DO remember going to a talk at the RNA where a cover designer showed us several covers (different genres) all featuring the SAME bloke!
It is worth paying out for a good cover artist: it doesn’t cost the earth, and they do know what looks good on the various sites. NEVER try to draw your own!
If you knew how like an
endless Moroccan bazaar this marketplace was going to become, would you have
done something else instead of write novels? Or are you compelled?
I always wanted to
write, and I have been lucky enough to enter the Moroccan Bazaar when it was
more like a corner shop.
So I have grown up with it. I am also lucky that I find it fun. I love being on social media, I love blogging and meeting other writers and people from all over the world. It is far more immediate than it was when my first novel was published. So I’d be here, whatever. And I hope I’ll be here for a few years more, until the braincell gives out.
So I have grown up with it. I am also lucky that I find it fun. I love being on social media, I love blogging and meeting other writers and people from all over the world. It is far more immediate than it was when my first novel was published. So I’d be here, whatever. And I hope I’ll be here for a few years more, until the braincell gives out.
What else do you do
apart from scribble?
I have several jobs,
as I’m still waiting for my books to reach blockbuster status. I tutor GCSE and
A level students. I invigilate public exams at a local secondary school.
L-Plate Gran - Carol's Ever-Popular Blog HERE
And, as those of you who follow my ‘Adventures of L-Plate Gran’ blogs know, I look after my little granddaughter two full days a week. World save-age may come later... if I can fit it in between jobs.
L-Plate Gran - Carol's Ever-Popular Blog HERE
And, as those of you who follow my ‘Adventures of L-Plate Gran’ blogs know, I look after my little granddaughter two full days a week. World save-age may come later... if I can fit it in between jobs.
Three favourite
books, two favourite CDs and favourite film?
Anything by Blondie or Paul Simon ( more cheating).
Invite your big hero
to lunch. Where and what would you eat?
Now then, I’m going
to go off piste again. My big hero is
a heroine .. a real one, and it is my lovely daughter. She spent 3 years in Afghanistan
working for SOCA, enduring some hair-raising exploits, most of which she can’t
share as she has signed the Official Secrets Act, and ending up with her name
on a local Taliban list.
After returning to the UK, she not only worked but
joined the Territorial Army, which involved full Boot Camp training.
Now she manages to
hold down a high powered job in government security as well as being a wife and
the best mother I know to Little G. I’d take her to The Ritz for afternoon tea.
We’d have little crustless salmon and egg and cream cheese sandwiches, tiny warm scones with clotted cream and jam and plates and plates of lovely cakes and fruit tarts.
We’d have little crustless salmon and egg and cream cheese sandwiches, tiny warm scones with clotted cream and jam and plates and plates of lovely cakes and fruit tarts.
And finally, what do
fans of Carol Hedges have to look forward to in 2015 and beyond.
November 2015 is when
Death & Dominion, the third
Victorian crime novel will be available. And I’m currently writing the fourth: Murder & Mayhem. After
that.........who knows?
Carol, it's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you today and I, and the Wizardwatchers, wish you every success in the coming years.
Thank you, Wiz. And the same to you.
Contact:
Contact:
Diamonds & Dust:http://bookgoodies.com/a/ B00H0C9JG2
Honour & Obey: http://bookgoodies.com/ a/B00PC1MI9I
Carol has her first tattoo - featured on the BBC |
Carol is also the author of the popular Spy Girl series - which I didn't know when I picked up the Wizphone! |
Carol's Cauldron Spoon |
Wiz, Carol's books ROCK. And I can verify the tall lady on helium thing, as I have met her. And soon, once again it will be...
ReplyDeleteda-da- daaaaa...
Carol Hedges is.....THE INVIGILATOR...
or INVIGILATOR II - the return, starring Carol J Hedges (as seen in the Wizard's cauldron)
(I still have the photo from last year!!)
ha ha ha. I can't wait for that! Available at a Twitter Feed near you :-) Thx T. :-)
DeleteWhat fab interview - I love finding out more about my favourite writers and Carol sounds like a blast - even if she does sound like a seven year old on helium :D
ReplyDeleteThanks Green Wiz..this was fun....hope I left everything tidy.....
ReplyDeleteGreat interview, I enjoyed reading it very much...and I love Steel Magnolias too!
ReplyDeleteNothing better than a feisty interview between two smart, funny, creative people! Loved it. And look forward to catching up with Carol's work. Thanks, Wiz, for once again introducing me to a fascinating artist (an artist who's female, older, witty as all get-out, and clearly indefatigable just makes it all the more icing on the cake!).
ReplyDeleteThank YOU!!
DeleteGrandmother power is the best! Great interview. Best of luck with sales, Carol.
ReplyDeleteFabulous interview, and fabulous writer, mother and gran with it, not to mention being a complete HIPster ;) Carol's books are brilliant! I can testify to that having now read four of them!
ReplyDeleteHi both, I followed Carol over here and can vouch for her supportive friendship and unfailingly entertaining twitter presence. Gosh I didn't realise you had two more books in the pipeline. At least the two of us never get the time to get bored, right?!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGreat to find out so much more about you Carol, entertaining as always and I loved the excerpt - I am definitely looking forward to getting to that on my TBR list :-) What was the tattoo of, may I ask?
ReplyDeleteThanks Lorraine and Mary Ann ..I see myself as a beacon of hope for the over 60's. That's when I'm not seeing myself as an exhausted elderly senior with half a braincell somewhere
ReplyDeleteGo, Carol go, you are a beacon of hope and an inspiration to those of over 60 -the best time of our lives!
DeleteMe an'all, Carol. Great interview. I'm still trying to convince people that writing books is "Work".
DeleteGreat interview, love that you got a tattoo.
ReplyDeleteI have 2 now...both quotes from Shakespeare
DeleteAs an octogenarian author and fan of Carol's, I can vouch (not that she needs it!) for her expertise at writing, both blogs and books! She has just the right, sometimes indefinable, touch which takes a book from the 'quite good' to the extra special. Her 'Honour & Obey' was an excellent read and her humorous blogs are a must! I fly a flag for octogenarian writers, but she certainly had the edge for the over 60's!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous you have made my afternoon!! (I think I know who you are and I admire you immensely. If I can be still writing in my 80's I'll be very pleased.)
DeleteBrilliant interview. Carol brightens my day on Twitter and Facebook
ReplyDeleteThank you Shelley....he asked the right questions!
DeleteFabulous interview, Carol and Mark. I thoroughly enjoyed adding flesh - figuratively speaking only! - to the person I'd got to know on twitter.
ReplyDeleteI could do with a bit more flesh...since taking on Little G it is falling away fast!
DeleteA fabulous interview you two! Enjoyed this one and learning more about the wonderful Ms Hedges...I always want to say Madam Hedges as sounds more of a force to be reckoned with and appropriate but then it also sounds a tad dodgy, so I dare not...well, not usually anyway ;-D
ReplyDeleteYou can say it...hahahaha
DeleteFabulous. If only it was possible to find out what Carol's on, and bottle it.
ReplyDeletecoffee. Lots and lots of coffee. There. Now you know.
Delete