The Writing Life of: Kiltie Jackson
Kiltie Jackson
This week on ‘The Writing Life of:‘ I am thrilled to be interviewing author Kiltie Jackson. Kiltie will be sharing with us detail of her writing life, telling us all about her latest book ‘An Artisan Lovestyle‘, which was released on 28th June 2018, and answering a few fun questions too. There is also a giveaway to enter a the bottom of the page too.
So without further ado I’ll hand you over to Kiltie Jackson. Post contains affiliate links.
Kiltie Jackson grew up in Glasgow in Scotland. This is a very unique city with a very unique way of looking at life. When she was old enough to do so, she moved to London and then, after several years of obtaining interesting experiences – which are finding their way into her writing – she moved up to the Midlands.
Kiltie currently lives in Staffordshire with five cats and one grumpy husband. Her little home is known as Moggy Towers, even though despite having plenty of moggies, there are no towers!
The cats kindly allow her and Mr Mogs to share their house on the condition they keep paying the mortgage!
She loves reading, watching movies, and visiting old castles. She really dislikes going to the gym! Her biggest desire is that one day she can give up the day job and write her stories for a living.
Kiltie’s debut novel, ‘A Rock ‘n’ Roll Lovestyle’, was released in September 2017 and won a “Chill With A Book – Reader Award” in December 2017.
She first began writing her debut novel eleven years before it was released but shelved it as she didn’t think it was very good. In November 2016 when, having read more on a best-selling author who had begun her own career as a self-published author, she was inspired to revisit the unfinished manuscript and finally finish what she had started.
Since beginning to write again, the ideas have not stopped flowing. ‘An Artisan Lovestyle’ is the second book in the Lovestyle Series. Work is due to begin on book three (not yet titled but also part of the Lovestyle Series) in the Summer of 2018. She currently has a further ten plots and ideas stored in her file (it’s costing a fortune in USB drives as each story has its own memory stick!) and the ideas still keep on coming.
Kiltie Jackson now lives her life around the following three quotes:
“I love having weird dreams, they’re great fodder for book plots!”
“Why wait for your ship to come in when you can swim out to meet it?”
“Old enough to know better, young enough not to care!”
1) As a child what did you want to do when you grew up?
For many years, I wanted to be a nurse. I was all set to join the Army in the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps but they changed the nursing ranks and my mother felt it would be less beneficial for me to join up. So I ended up working in a shop!
2) Who were your favourite childhood authors?
Enid Blyton was the main one followed by C.S Lewis, Frances Hodgson Burnett and L.M Montgomery.
3) At what point in your life did you realise you wanted to be a writer?
It was always in me. I’ve always had a love for words and wrote poetry and song lyrics when I was younger. I decided I ‘was’ going to be a writer in November 2016 and ‘became’ a writer in January 2017.
4) How did you go about following that dream?
I had the first seventeen chapters of a book which I had begun writing eleven years before. I believed the quality of the writing was rubbish and had shelved it. When I ‘knew’ that the time was now right for me to pursue a career in writing, I picked it up, blew off the metaphorical dust and carried on from where I had left off. It became my debut novel ‘A Rock ‘n’ Roll Lovestyle.
5) What is your writing day like? Do you aim for a certain amount of pages or words before you stop for the day?
I still have a full time job so can’t write as often as I would like. My timetable is Tuesday and Thursday evening after work, nearly all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
Where Kiltie Writes
6) Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
I do write under a pseudonym. ‘Kiltie’ is a nickname which was given to me about twenty years ago. The name ‘Kiltie Jackson’ is totally unique which gives me a head start if anyone chooses to look me up on Google or Amazon.
7) Do you have any strange habits before starting, or whilst in the midst of writing?
I’m very boring for I have none. The nearest I get is that I will always have a small cup of coffee at 8pm sharp when I work on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
8) Do you write longhand, typewriter, or on a computer?
On a computer. If you saw both my handwriting and my atrocious spelling, you would understand why!
9) How many books have you written? Do you have any unpublished work?
I have written two books, ‘An Artisan Lovestyle’ being the second. I have some short-stories which are unpublished or half-finished. I also have a children’s story which I have been told I should submit to a publisher but I haven’t gotten around to that yet.
10) Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Very much a pantster! I have the story in my head with specific events which must happen at specific times in the story line and then fly by the seat of my pants as I work on trying to link them together in a credible manner!
11) Do you read all the reviews left for your book(s)?
If I don’t read them, my husband will! So far, I have been lucky in that I haven’t really had any negative reviews but when it happens, as it surely will, I hope I will be able to take it on the chin and move on because it would wrong to allow all my good reviews to be tainted by the bad ones.
Concerning your latest book:
The Lovestyle Series Book Two
Publisher – WickedKilt Pub
Pages – 348
Release Date – 28th June 2018
ISBN 13 – 978-1999866617
Format – ebook, paperback
Are you ‘living’ your life or just living your life?
Elsa Clairmont was widowed barely five years after marrying her childhood sweetheart. She has struggled to come to terms with the loss and, six years later, has almost ceased to live herself. She does just enough to get by.
Danny Delaney is the ultimate ‘Mr Nice Guy’. He’s kind, caring and sweet. A talented artist in his teens, his abusive mother ruined his career in art and he turned his back on his exceptional gift. Now, he does just enough to get by.
On New Year’s Eve, both Danny and Elsa die in unrelated accidents.
Thanks to some poker playing shenanigans, Elsa’s husband Harry, and Danny’s old Art teacher, William, manage to orchestrate a deal with Death that allows Danny and Elsa to live for one more year on the condition they both agree to complete three tasks.
They have until the last chime of Big Ben on the 31st December to fulfil their quests.
If they succeed, they stay in the world of the living.
If they should fail however…
‘An Artisan Lovestyle’ is a story of personal growth and self-discovery as two people find themselves forced to make overdue changes in their lives, changes in other people’s lives, and all with the added challenge of finding true love before their time runs out.
Will they do it?
Can they do it?
After all, it’s a matter of Life or Death…
12) How long did it take you to get from the idea’s stage to your date of publication?
I would say it took approximately fifteen months because I was still in the middle of writing my debut novel at the time.
13) How did you come up with the names for your characters?
Elsa was already named as she was also in my debut novel. Danny was initially called Jake until I realised I also had a ‘Jeff’. I tend to let names come to me rather than try to make them up.
14) Can you give us an insight into your main character(s) life?, What makes them tick?
Both Danny and Elsa are very nice people who’ve had to deal with some tough breaks. For Danny, he grew up in a mentally, and physically, abusive home and lacks self-belief as a result of this.
Elsa lost her childhood sweetheart to cancer, five years after they were married, and she’s never gotten over it. She is a classic case of simply existing.
15) Which was your hardest scene to write?
I can’t really think of one. Many of the scenes can be awkward for different reasons – such as whose point of view does it work best from, or the placement of it within the story.
16) How did you come up with the title of your book?
The idea came to me one morning at 4.30am when I was unable to sleep. I’d had a provisional title but, when it became clear that book 2 was going to be a follow on within the ‘Lovestyle’ series, it made sense to stick with that.
17) Did you get a family member/friend to read your work before sending to the publishers?
I self-publish so have fewer hoops to jump through before publishing. I have several friends who read my work at different points in the process to ensure the storyline is working.
18) What process did you go through to get your book published?
Due to making the decision to self-publish, I didn’t have to submit to agents or publishers. Instead, I had to learn the process myself. Thankfully, I was mentored by Pam Howes, who very kindly passed on her knowledge of self-publishing, gave me the name of an editor and answered my many, many questions.
19) What did you do once you had written the final word in your book?
In both events I did exactly the same thing. I stared at the PC screen in disbelief, unable to comprehend that I had actually written a book (book one) or that I had written two books (book two)! I have no doubt I will do exactly the same with books three, four and five.
20) What’s next for you, writing-wise?
Get on with writing book three. I really enjoy writing and creating new stories so, as fast as one book is completed, and edited, I am right on to the next one.
1) What’s your favourite food?
Spaghetti Bolognese.
2) If you had a box of crayons and you could only choose one, which colour would you choose?
Depending on my mood it would be red or purple.
3) What movie could you watch over and over again?
Love Actually.
4) What would be the top song on your playlist?
There could never be just one…
5) If you won millions, what would be your first purchase?
A nice house with some land to build cottages on so I could move my mother closer to me but without actually having her under the same roof!
6) A talking duck walks into your room wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, whats the first thing he says to you?
“Does this outfit look quakers to you?”
I enjoyed the post and entered the giveway. FIngers crossed!
This is a great interview!
I love her writing nook! She’s given me a bit of inspiration to revamp my reading area!
Great interview! I love the fun section, too. 🙂
Great, my fingers are crossed for you too.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.
I know it looks really lovely doesn’t it.
Thank you. Glad you liked the fun section. I loved coming up with those questions.
Lol I hate going to the gym too and I work there ?
Awesome interview! It really inspired me with my own writing and the unique pen name idea is really great.
Great interview! Ugh I hate the gym too but I force myself to go – LOL
That’s funny. I’m not sure I could work in a gym with all those sweaty bodies.
Thank you. I agree about the unique pen name.
Thank you. I hate the gym too.
Great interview. Love finding out more about authors. Entered the giveaway too (fingers crossed ;))
Great interview!
Thank you. Good luck with the giveaway.
Thank you.
Great post and interview I love learning a little bit about new authors and their books on your The Writing Life of a feature. Now I am really intrigued by the concept about this book it looks and sounds absolutely amazing, thank you so much for sharing your awesome post.
Thank you. I’m really happy that you like the weekly author interviews.