Have you ever wondered how much it would take to make you snap? For thirty-two year old Katy Davenport it was the littlest thing...
All her boyfriend of five years had to do was answer her question about dinner.
Not ignore her.
Not continue to watch the football like she didn't exist.
In that moment Katy snaps. One moment of insanity and Katy throws her life away.
The policeman who arrests her laughs, her best friend cheers, and her anger management counsellor insists on embarrassing her in front of the entire class.
For Katy, this is just the beginning as she tries to find her place in a whole new world where her ex-boyfriend refuses to move out of her house, and Katy finds herself snapping again and again.
Will Katy be able to control her anger for long enough to pick up the pieces of her life?
Laurie, thank you for coming on the blog today. For those that don't know you, can you tell us a bit about yourself please?
Thanks so much for having me on Lozza's Book Corner!! Like many authors, I started writing stories very young. They often involved children moving schools and having midnight feasts (I grew up with my nose in Malory Towers and The Twins at St Clare's). My school reports read the same, year after year ... "Lauren is an imaginative child who entertains the class with her stories, but must try harder in maths" Nothing's changed there then.
I started writing romance novels in my twenties, but it took a few attempts to get it right. My debut novel, The Reluctant Celebrity, was released in 2015, and I'm now in the thick of writing my fourth novel.
Other than my writing, I'm fanatical about Twixs, live in a small village in the Essex/Suffolk countryside, and do lots of dog walking and running (to burn off all of the chocolate I scoff).
Who needs maths anyway?! Where did your love of books/writing come from?
Having seen my own daughter's imagination develop, I think it's safe to say I was born with my head in the clouds. When my mum dragged us on walks as a child, I would race off ahead with our dog and pretend we were hunting for an escaped prisoner, or searching for treasure. At some point along the way, my mum started supplying me with exercise books to write in, and my love of writing stories was born.
Writing and reading was my escape into a world of heroines and adventure, away from hand me down Batman t-shirts, and two older brothers who liked to torment me by stealing my teddies and stringing them up places where I couldn't reach them.
I know just what you went through Laurie as live with 3 boys growing up - triple trouble! How To Throw Your Life Away is a very intriguing title - other than the obvious, what's the book about?
For me, How To Throw Your Life Away is about the expectations we have about what our lives are going to look like. The book starts when Katy realises that she's a million miles from where she thought she'd be. Here's the blurb...
Have you ever wondered how much it would take to make you snap?
For thirty-two year old Katy Davenport it was the littlest thing...
All her boyfriend of five years had to do was answer her question about dinner.
Not ignore her.
Not continue to watch the football like she didn't exist.
In that moment Katy snaps. One moment of insanity and Katy throws her life away.
The policeman who arrests her laughs. Her best friend cheers. And her anger management counsellor insists on embarrassing her in front of the entire class.
For Katy this is just the beginning as she struggles to find her place in a whole new world where her ex-boyfriend refuses to move out of her house, and Katy finds herself snapping again and again.
Will Katy be able to control her anger for long enough to pick up the pieces of her life?
Where did you get inspiration for this book?
In the opening scene of How To Throw Your Life Away, we meet Katy, who has just snapped because her boyfriend wasn't listening to her.
I remember vividly when the seed for this novel was planted. I was standing in the living room speaking to my boyfriend (now husband), who wasn't listening to me (grrr!). I thought to myself - what would happen if I picked up this remote and hit him with it? Luckily, my husband is nothing like Katy's boyfriend, but that one question planted a seed which grew into How To Throw Your Life Away.
Sounds great! Can you tell us a little about your writing process?
All of my novels start with a 'What if...' seed that plants in my imagination. What if the boy who broke your heart when you were young becomes famous and wants to win you back? (The Reluctant Celebrity). I don't write it down straight away, I just let it sit there. Sometimes nothing happens, but other times characters start appearing and a story line grows. It's at that point that I write a few thoughts down. Then I wait. If I wake up in the middle of the night with scenes and conversations running through my head then I know it's a story I have to write.
In the past I've always started with a detailed plan and character arcs for all the main characters, but I've just had to pleasure of reading Stephen King's On Writing, and have taken his advice to let the story unfold on its own as I'm writing it. The verdict is still out.
Did you have a favourite chapter/part that you particularly enjoyed writing?
I was crying and laughing as I wrote the final part of How To Throw Your Life Away. It still gets me every time I read it. If I've transferred just a small part of that magic into the book for the reader to take away with them, then I'll be happy.
I love characters and getting to know them... how were yours born? Did you know instantly their name and personality or did that come as you wrote?
The characters themselves usually come fully formed in my head, as does most of the story. Sometimes I feel like a ghost writer, doing my best to capture someone else's life.
But names...oh how I agonise over the names. I'm not sure if I'm the only writer who finds this, but I have an unconscious thing about names which start with the letter J - Jason, Jake, Julie, Jemima, Jess, Jenny. When I started writing The Reluctant Celebrity, I quickly realised that almost every character had a name that started with J. I had to go through and give all of them new names. Even in my latest completed novel, Three Months to Live, I had two main female characters with J names. I had to change one of them to Samantha, but she'll always be Jemima to me.
If you had to be locked in a room with one of your characters for 24 hours, who would you pick and why?
Oh I would love this to happen! I've changed my mind two or three times already, but I think I'm going to have to say Claire, who is Katy's best friend in How To Throw Your Life Away. She's very funny and a lovely friend, and hopefully we'd be trapped in her kitchen so she can bake lots of yummy cakes for us to eat whilst we await rescue.
So far, I've never thought about writing a sequel to any of my books, but I have characters like Claire, and Rich (from The Reluctant Celebrity) who I'd like to see again.
Quick Fire:
Paper/hardback or kindle? Paperback
Book or film? Book, always book
Pen/Paper or computer? Computer
Facebook or Twitter? Facebook
Night in or evening out? Night in
Summer or Winter? Winter (I'm a cold person, so at least in winter I don't look strange wearing jumpers)
Birthdays or Christmas? Christmas
Laurie, thank you again for joining me in the Book Corner and taking time to answer the questions. Before you go, please tell us where we can get your book/s? (links) and keep up to date? (social media)
How To Throw Your Life Away is available on Amazon,
How To Throw Your Life Away
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01DA96ASI/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1460874899&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=how+to+throw+your+life+away&dpPl=1&dpID=51VMBbdV41L&ref=plSrch
website is www.laurie-ellingham.com, and I'm on Facebook (Laurie Ellingham Author) and Twitter (@LaurieEllingham)
Thanks so much for having me on Lozza's Book Corner. I've loved answering these questions.
