A Perfect 10 with Author Lucinda Clarke

Today’s perfect 10 interview session is with author Lucinda Clarke. The questions in these interviews are designed to gain more insight into the inspiration, background and strategy of the authors that stop by.

Please enjoy this edition of A Perfect 10 and look for an exciting announcement regarding all of the participating authors for 2018.

Does writing energize or exhaust you?

It depends on what I’m writing, a tense, fast action scene and I’m banging away on the keyboard fast and furiously making a million typos as my heart races. If it’s a sad bit then I have to stop to get the tissues out to dry my eyes and blow my nose several times.

Do you ever write under a pseudonym? If not have you considered it? Why or why not?

All my books are written under a pen name as my first memoir contained sensitive material. Then it seemed too much trouble to go back o the real me and duplicate all those media sites. Since I write in so many different genres, I’m already schizophrenic and answer to a whole load of names.

Does a big ego help or hurt writers? Why or why not?

I’m not sure I have an ego, honestly. It was all beaten out of me before I was 5 so I can’t answer this question. I think it might hurt them as they would not take criticism on board and try to improve. When I first started writing for a living I got plenty of this and hopefully learned from it. Now for marketing – that’s a whole different ball game.

What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?

Browbeating the bank manager into letting me pay for a Bookbub which twice has yielded amazing returns.

What does writing success look like to you? Have you achieved it?

No, I’ve not achieved it, but I’m passionate about my work and want to share it with the whole world. Maybe it’s the teacher in me, but I want to pass on what I’ve learned about life, Africa and recovery from mental abuse. I also love to entertain and make people laugh. I’m not into the fame thing, it wasn’t fun when people you didn’t know slammed you up against the frozen pea counter in Pick n’ Pay to discuss your latest newspaper column. But I’d sure like a bigger bank balance! I also thing Amie would make a fabulous film.

What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book? What sources do you use?

A lot of what I write comes from experience, but I have three deficiencies – sex scenes I can’t write them without giggling – fight scenes I never know where to put all the arms and legs and how much damage you can inflict with a blow to a certain part of the body, and armaments. I use the internet and spend hours surfing bombs, guns, terrorists etc. They are probably on the way to arrest me right now.

How do you select the names of your characters? Have you ever regretted choosing a particular name? Why?

I always try to choose names beginning with a different initial to make them less confusing. I deliberately chose Amie as my heroine as it comes up early in an SEO. I had to change the name of her boyfriend in book 3 at the last minute as I’d used that for another character in Book 1.

What is the hardest type of scene to write?

As above, fight scenes and sex scenes. In the cold light of day do we pause to consider how ridiculous and undignified the whole mating procedure is? Of course, it’s different in candlelight after a couple of glasses of wine, but at the dining room table on a Monday morning with the trash collectors outside it … see what I mean?

If you could have dinner with four people, living or dead, who would they be and what would you want to ask them?

The Dalai Lama – I would ask him about wisdom and inner peace.

Thomas Hardy – where did he find the courage to write amazing books about subjects that lifted the lid on social issues.

Steven Spielberg – so I could shove my books under his nose and refuse to serve him food and drink until he’d glanced through them.

My mother – why couldn’t she love me and the truth about her life.

What platform has brought you the most success in marketing your books?

Bookbub – again! But Facebook has also helped a lot, apart from the fact I have made some amazing friends some of whom I’ve met in real life. And winning a couple of awards may have helped as well.

Lucinda’s Books:

I’ve written 3 memoirs, a comedy, 4 adventure books and had stories in 4 other recent publications. But if I had to highlight one genre, it would be Amie.

The quickest and easiest way to explain my Amie series is probably this graphic.

I’ve been quite ruthless with my heroine giving her all kinds of challenges, heartbreak and life-threatening situations yet she still bounces back. We have this love hate relationship. It’s not Chick Lit in any form as she’s morphed from a shy, retiring, naïve housewife into a rather reluctant and incompetent spy.