Today we welcome back author Rosa Temple to Whispering Stories Blog to catch up on what she has been doing since our interview with her back in August 2015 on ‘The Writing Life of: Rosa Temple‘ This post contains affiliate links.

Rosa Temple is the pseudonym of published author, Fran Clark.

To date, Fran has penned and self published four publications as Rosa Temple; Sleeping With Your Best Friend, Natalie’s Getting Married, Single by Christmas and Playing For Keeps.

HQ Digital (Harper Collins) has published three books in Fran’s pseudonym, Rosa Temple.  The first was Playing by the Rules in February 2017 followed by Playing Her Cards Right on 28th August 2017 and Playing for Keeps on 12th February 2018.

A mother of two, Fran is married to a musician and recently moved from London to Herefordshire. She spends her days creating characters and story lines while drinking herbal tea and eating chocolate biscuits.

Welcome back to Whispering Stories Blog, lovely to be featuring you again. We last met you back in August 2015 when we spoke to you about your writing life and your latest book at the time ‘Sleeping with your Best Friend’. Since that date I believe you have written and published another three books.

I was still living in London since my first interview but since then I’ve moved out to the peace and quiet of the Herefordshire countryside where the air is clean and my little cottage is quiet and really conducive to writing!

I’d like to think that I’m a better writer but my style has stayed the same.

I always take opinions on board but as a writer it is impossible to please every single reader because there are as many readers as there are opinions. I find opinions very useful but sometimes they can halt you in your tracks. You become afraid to write at all because of what readers might say.

When I’m writing characters I can really only go on my gut reactions. If I like a character he or she will stay in the book and I’ll make sure they are fully formed and not just fillers.

I’m happy to change characters that are not working. I just try to be as entertaining as I can. One of the criticisms I’ve had about my heroines is that they might not be likeable and that’s usually because they aren’t beautiful or role models or have a great career or family. Mine tend to be like me or you, flawed in some way. But I do make sure they learn a lesson in the end. Just like real life. I get bored with heroines who are beautiful, have great jobs and handsome boyfriends to be honest. I prefer to keep it real.

I find it easier as a process because we are always learning and getting better. The difficulty is trying to come up with original ideas and new twists. That’s so hard considering the number or books out there! What I try to do is write a story readers can relate to even though they have read a similar theme or plot. It’s never easy but I keep going.

I’m always excited if I’ve got a book coming out. It’s a satisfying feeling to finish a book you love and are proud of and you get to share with people other than your husband! It’s always an exciting and scary feeling each time.

Wow. That’s a hard one. I think I would choose any of the pages of the Magenta Bright series: Playing By The Rules, Playing Her Cards Right and Playing For Keeps. I love Magenta and can’t get enough of her best friend, Anya. They’re glamorous, they have designer clothes, they’re quick witted, sassy and go to swanky restaurants. Who doesn’t want that?

Concerning your latest book:

Love, Life, and a Whole Lotta Handbags

Having papered over the cracks in her relationship with artist boyfriend Anthony, Magenta Bright is fully focused on opening her first shop on the King’s Road – and on coaching her best friend – vodka-swilling, catty supermodel Anya – through her unexpected pregnancy.

But with Anthony away in Italy on a lucrative commission, the distance between them is more than metaphoric. And then Magenta’s ex, Hugo, shows up, the man she once lost her heart to. At one time there was nothing more important to Magenta than fashion and fun, and throwing herself into every drama that passes her way. But now Magenta’s world is rocked by questions of life and death, and how she would cope if the people closest to her were gone for good.

At work, she can’t seem to put a foot wrong, but in her personal life she’s her own worst enemy. And the stakes have never been higher…

Playing For Keeps was one of the quickest books I’ve written and that’s probably because it was the last in a trilogy. I knew where I was going with it because a path had been laid. I’d lived with the main character for over a year and really go to know her. So it took a matter of weeks to finish. I couldn’t stop writing.

It broke my heart to write this book, not only because some heartbreaking themes are featured in Playing For Keeps, but because I’d gotten to know Magenta so well it was hard to say goodbye to her.

In the first book of the series, Playing By The Rules, Magenta has a devil may care attitude to life. In fact she can’t hold down a job for more than a month at a time. She’s a spoilt socialite and she had me in stitches with her antics. But by book three she had matured and had to face up to life’s harsh realities. I hope I left readers with the feeling that despite the mayhem and chaos in her life, Magenta had come a long way despite her flaws and she had learned some valuable life lessons.

That would give away too much. I can only say something had to shake Magenta to her core and the person who does that was not my original pick. If that sounds cryptic I can only apologise. If you get a chance to read it maybe you can work it out!

I’m not self publishing at the moment because I was lucky enough to get a deal with HQ Digital and I am able to submit to an editor there. That said, there’s no guarantee that because three of my books were published by HQ that they will publish any future submissions. They have rejected two of them! I’ll have to make a decision about self publishing those two because I still believe they have potential. Time will tell.

I’ve only ever seen my books online and that in itself a wonderful feeling of achievement. I didn’t feel like a real write until I had an author’s page on Amazon!

The last book I wrote (as yet unpublished and with a working title of I’m Ella Samuel) is about a singer-songwriter. I’ve taken a break from writing to write songs for the heroine’s album. I would like to share the songs with the book’s potential readers but that’s a massive project I’m working towards so watch this space!

I think it was the publication side. I self published my first book and the learning process was hard for me as I’m not computer smart, neither do I have much in the way of marketing savvy. While that remains true, the book in question, Sleeping With Your Best Friend, which is now free on Amazon, remains in the top 100 UK chart for free downloads and has gotten as high up as 6th! That makes me proud even if I’m not making any money from it!

Women’s Fiction, with a tendency to write romantic comedies and romance.

Definitely marketing. I don’t know how to market books for toffee. I struggle to pitch to agents (which might explain why I don’t have one) and I really don’t do enough on social media. My ideal world would be for me to write a hit novel and have someone take care of all the marketing for me. Now that would be a dream come true.

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