Interview: Shelagh Watkins
Susan Whitfield, author of three published novels, Genesis Beach, Just North of Luck and Hell Swamp, interviewed Shelagh Watkins on her blog on Monday 12th October:
Shelagh Watkins is writer, editor and publisher at Mandinam Press, and author of two books: Mr. Planemaker’s Flying Machine and The Power of Persuasion. She set up the Children’s Fiction group on LibraryThing, the Published Authors group on Goodreads, and the Published Authors Network group on LinkedIn. Shelagh also created the Published Authors Network on Ning and is administrator of the Published Authors forum. There are over four thousand members in the combined groups and networks. When she is not networking, administrating, publishing or editing, she miraculously finds time to write!Susan: Welcome to my blog, Shelagh.
Shelagh: Hi Susan, Thank you for inviting me to be your guest.
Susan: When did the writing bug bite, and in what genre(s)?
Shelagh: I began writing in 1998 and wrote my first novel, The Power of Persuasion. The book, a work of literary fiction set in Scotland, takes the reader around the world from Europe to the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore, and then back to Scotland. I wrote my second novel, Mr. Planemaker’s Flying Machine, in 2002. Although a work of children’s fiction, the book is aimed at a wide audience: from nine-year-olds to ninety-year-olds!
Susan: When you started writing, what goals did you want to accomplish? Is there a message you want readers to grasp?
Shelagh: The Power of Persuasion, which I submitted to all the major London publishing houses, was well received but failed to attract a single publisher. Along with the rejection slips, the advice from all the publishers was the same: I needed to find an agent. However, finding an agent proved to be as difficult as finding a publisher so I stopped writing. I did not write again until 2002 when my brother died and left two young children, then aged five and eight years old. I began writing again and, this time, I found a publisher. The second book, Mr. Planemaker’s Flying Machine, was published in 2005. Two years later, the publisher, PublishAmerica, gave me joint print rights and exclusive electronic rights to my novel and I self-published the book through Lulu.com and as an ebook on: Amazon’s kindle, mobipocket and Smashwords.
In 2007, I rewrote The Power of Persuasion, which took twelve months to complete. In January 2008, I set up Mandinam Press to publish the novel. Having learned how to self-publish, I used the experience to publish Forever Friends, an anthology of short stories and poems written by members of the Published Authors forum and network. The book was published in September 2008 and, this month, appeared in Today’s Chicago Woman magazine.
The only message I would pass on to anyone setting out with the idea of becoming a published author is to be realistic about expectations and do not have a preconceived notion about the number of sales a first time author should make. For some new authors, the number of books may be in the thousands but, for the majority of newcomers, the number of books sold is more likely to be in the hundreds. This means that royalties will be small − small enough to be disregarded as an increase in yearly income. It is far more likely that the expenses incurred in selling a few hundred copies of a book will far exceed the amount earned in royalties.
This situation is no different to those facing most talented individuals who pay traveling expenses and teaching/coaching expenses when pursuing their chosen career. It is the same with writers. Everyone has to learn and, as such, new writers should accept that the learning process will involve some costs.
Susan: Briefly tell us about your book(s).
Shelagh: 
Mr. Planemaker’s Flying Machine is a story of flight, fantasy, adventure and courage. Although Emmelisa Planemaker is a strong-willed little girl, she misses her dad, who died when she was only five years old.
Emmelisa and her brother Dell have a happy and carefree life until their father becomes ill and is forced to retire at the age of forty-three. After retirement, Mr. Planemaker decides to build a scaled, model airplane because he wants to build something lasting for his children but he dies before completing the task.
Three years later, Emmelisa is being seriously bullied at school by a group led by the notorious school bully, Mayja Troublemaker. When Emmelisa becomes increasingly withdrawn and unhappy, she seeks help and advice through the computer her father had used to locate specialist model aircraft companies in his quest to build a model airplane.
The computer is more than just a computer and full of surprises: Mr. A. Leon Spaceman being one of them! He guides the two children to Hardwareland, where they train to become astronauts and take on an extraordinary mission into space: to follow their father’s TRAIL OF LIGHT.
Mr. Planemaker’s Flying Machine was a top ten finisher in the Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll 2005.
The Power of Persuasion is a tongue-in-cheek work of literary fiction set in Scotland. The title is taken from Jane Austen’s Persuasion. The satirical fictional story is about a journalist who stalks a reader (as opposed to a reader who obsessively reads everything written by a particular journalist). The reader, Beth Durban, is aware that she is being followed around and is totally bemused by the unwanted attention:
Beth Durban is persuaded to write a letter to the editor’s page of a national Sunday newspaper in response to a film critic’s prejudice against adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels. When she receives an unexpected visit from the newspaper’s critic, F. William D’Arcy, she is bemused but, after several sightings of the inquisitive journalist, she’s neither pleased nor amused.
Beth is so distracted by the unwelcome interest from such an arrogant man she fails to see that a close work colleague is falling in love with her. As a scientific researcher in a Scottish University, she has led a varied life travelling the world, spending time in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, America, Singapore and Israel. With such a full life, she has had little time to form any serious, romantic attachments that might lead to a permanent relationship.
When she decides to take driving lessons, Beth opens up new opportunities for herself and realises that perhaps she isn’t too old to find love after all.
The Power of Persuasion was a top ten finisher in the Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll 2008.
Susan: What’s the hook for the books?
Shelagh: There is an underlying philosophy to Mr. Planemaker’s Flying Machine that is left for readers to figure out for themselves. The opening chapters lay the foundation for the philosophical underpinnings of the book. Mr. Planemaker is dying. He knows this as do his family, friends and work colleagues. They are all trying to help in this last stage of his life.
In his dreams, the Dream House is his final resting place. In his first dream, when the children approach the door, the house disappears because the time is not right for them. They will not be stepping inside the house for quite some time. Bill Dare, who built the house, tells Mr. Planemaker that no one lives inside the house and no one has ever lived inside the house – this is the house of the dead, not the living. The door to the house is missing and cannot be closed or reopened: a one-way passage. Mr. Planemaker asks about the missing door and Mr. Dare explains that the door is actually there and those who can see it won’t be able to walk into the house. In other words, the door is always closed to the living and only open for the dying.
In all his dreams, Mr. Planemaker asks about the children because every waking minute is spent thinking about his son and daughter and what will happen to them when he has gone.
At first, Mr. Planemaker is afraid and he doesn’t want to step inside the house. It is grey and gloomy and unwelcoming. To allay his fears, the people who built the house – the architect, the builder and the workmen – are always cheerful and reassuring. They know the house is bleak and uninviting but the love and care they put into it overshadows the dull, plain appearance of the grey house.
When Mr. Planemaker meets Joy Nair, he is given his first glimpse of light inside the house. The light is warm and soft, and makes the prospect of stepping inside the hallway more attractive. However, he doesn’t step forward because his thoughts are interrupted as he remembers the children. He still wants more time with them.
At the end of chapter five, he finally gives in and his last dream takes him through the door, not into darkness but into light. Before he finally slips away, he asks about the children and is told that they are going to be okay. With that last thought, Mr. Planemaker lets go of his grasp on life and steps into life after death. Now you must read the story to find out what happens to the children.
The hook for The Power of Persuasion is on the first page:
“Do you wake on Sunday mornings feeling bright and cheerful before you step out to buy your favourite Sunday newspapers, and spend the next four hours reading the print off the page? Does this weekly ritual result in a change of temperament – signs of irritability, aggressiveness and a distinctly argumentative frame of mind? I do. To be more accurate, I did. Everyone around me suffered from my inability to avoid the very thing that caused the Jekyll and Hyde mood swings. The news items didn’t affect me much, but the journalists with a point to make were my Achilles’ heel. To a man and a woman, I disagreed with all of them. We were as black and white to each other as the printed page before me. There was no grey area, no common ground and no compromise.
How could there be compromise in a situation where they wrote and I read? In order to see one another’s point of view, I would need to explain mine. To inflict regularly my own half-baked ideas on my family would have been unfair, and yet they probably suffered more from my silent fuming than they did if I succumbed to soap box outbursts.
The more thoughts I kept to myself, the greater the irritation, but at least I did eventually begin to recognise all the symptoms of Sunday paperitis.” If you like the style of writing, you will want to read on …
Susan: How do you develop characters? Setting?
Shelagh: My characters are composites of people I know. I take characteristics of someone I know well and put those characteristics into a completely different character. A teenage girl with a bad attitude might be transfigured into a difficult young boy with a surly disposition. The appearance of the character will be very different to the real person.
Most settings are taken from real life where possible, otherwise I do extensive research to make the setting as real as possible. This was extremely important in the Power of Persuasion where every location had to be accurate whether I had visited the region or not. The reader must not be able to detect the difference.
Susan: Who’s the most unusual/most likeable character?
Shelagh: Cosmos, by a mile. He is so bright and all-knowing. He is always there if he is needed but he is never under anyone’s feet. He is the perfect companion. By the way, Cosmos is a cat, but an extremely bright one!
Susan: Do you have specific techniques to help you maintain the course of the plot?
Shelagh: No. The plot drives itself. All my brilliant ideas away from the word processor soon lose their brilliance when I begin to type. Writing seems to release a creativity that cannot be evoked any other way.
Susan: Do you have a specific writing style? Preferred POV?
Shelagh: Yes. My style of writing for children is very different to my style of writing for adults. There is a sharpness to my adult writing that is absent in my children’s novels.
Susan: Share the best review (or a portion) that you’ve ever had.
Shelagh: My best reviews are all for Mr. Planemaker’s Flying Machine, which appeals to just about anyone. The Power of Persuasion is really aimed at Jane Austen fans and not everyone is a fan! Consequently, I found these few words encouraging:
“I read your book some weeks ago and hope you do not mind, put some thoughts on paper:
I was intrigued the way you set out your book with the link of the mysterious appearances of D’Arcy. My very early and mistaken assumption was that Beth’s letter was equivalent to Elizabeth’s refusal of Darcy’s proposal of marriage by Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. If you saw the production with Colin Firth, he became frustrated at this and was obviously haunted by her.
I was particularly interested in the ‘snapshots’ – I could see where the university scenarios came from and those concerned with human interaction showed your perception of how we mortals behave. You must have done a lot of research on some of the geographical visits – I have been to most places so recognise the authenticity. Many of these could be expanded into short stories and then you could have your own anthology. Well done!”
Susan: What’s the most unexpected thing that’s happened to you as a writer?
Shelagh: I was amazed when a presenter from Preston FM community radio asked if I would be interested in a serialisation of Mr. Planemaker’s Flying Machine. The book was aired over ten weeks from May-July this year. Daily excerpts and a Sunday Omnibus edition totalled over thirteen hours of air time. It was quite brilliant. The narrator, Mike Gardner, did a superb job.
Susan: What are your current projects?
Shelagh: I am working on a sequel to Mr. Planemaker’s Flying Machine.
Susan: Where can folks learn more about your books and events?
Shelagh: On my website: http://shelaghwatkins.co.uk
Susan: Shelagh, I wish you the best with all of your many endeavors!
Shelagh: Thank you Susan for allowing me this opportunity to talk to your readers. It has been a real pleasure, and thank you to all the readers who dropped by to read this blog post.
Guest Author: D.K. Christi
Check out DK Christi on Visual Arts Junction:
Forever Friends in TCW
Originally printed in September 2009 Today’s Chicago Woman, www.TCWmag.com
Mr. Planemaker’s Flying Machine on Preston FM
By Shelagh Watkins
Preston FM is about to serialise the children’s fiction novel, Mr. Planemaker’s Flying Machine for the daily morning programme, Chat City.
The time: 8.20am (GMT) every morning Monday to Friday
The place: Chat City on Preston FM
The starting date: May 11th 2009
5-8 min daily episodes will be repeated in an omnibus edition at 5pm (GMT) each Sunday.
Listen live online on www.preston.fm
At 830am (GMT) Monday May 11th, a pre-recorded interview of the author will be aired immediately after the first episode of Mr. Planemaker’s Flying Machine.
End of Blog Tour
The blog tour is at an end and it is time for me to sum up the last twenty days of the tour. Thank you to all the blog hosts for taking part and helping to make this a successful tour. I would like to give special thanks to all those following the tour who left comments; your support was very much appreciated! I would also like to thank everyone who joined in the tour and decided to buy a copy of Forever Friends. One of the comments I received during the tour said: Should be getting my book any day now. Can’t wait to read it. A few days later I received this from the same person: I received my copy the other day and I’m astonished by the presentation. You have done such a wonderful job with this anthology. I’ve never seen one so well presented. So, if you are looking for a well-presented anthology full of wonderful stories and poems, order a copy now; you will not be disappointed!
Forever Friends is available now from amazon.com:
Thanks again for reading this and best wishes for the holiday season!
Shelagh Watkins
Day Twenty of Blog Tour
Thank you for reading this blog entry! This is an extension to the blog tour. If you missed the tour, welcome! If you stayed with us throughout, thank you for following the tour! This extension is very much in keeping with the way contributors submitted their work to the anthology. The last day for submitting was August 31st 2008 but the final submission did not arrive until September 5th! Submissions did not always arrive together. When I received and accepted two short stories from Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow, I received a request from Elynne to consider two more submissions since all four short stories would still be well within the four thousand word maximum. I agreed and accepted two more short stories.
Before I talk about the four stories, here are my answers to some interesting questions posed by Elynne:
1. What is appealing about anthologies for the reading public at large?
The short story has enjoyed something of a revival in recent years with the increased pace of life alongside busy schedules that leave less time for reading. A volume of short stories, therefore, lends itself to those who have little spare time to do all the things in the day they would like to do. The attraction of this particular collection of work lies in its diversity and variety of genres. From romance and mystery to fantasy and science fiction, there is something for everyone. While some are short and pithy, others are thought-provoking and satisfying. All are entertaining.
2. What are the advantages for readers to pick up a good anthology?
The advantages are many; the first one being time, as mentioned in my answer to the first question. Another advantage is variety; readers receive a new vision every few pages. Different writing styles can also be considered an advantage as can diversity and the opportunity to read different points of view. On an academic level, anthologies have a special appeal to teachers for classroom use because they provide examples of different ways of writing in one volume. A good anthology will have all these advantages plus the obvious attraction of a well-compiled volume of work. If, after reading a poem that follows a story, the reader is inspired to read the next short story, then the compiler has worked hard to create a book that flows from beginning to end. Always the sign of a good anthology.
3. How and why is this particular anthology special?
Forever Friends is special because it brings together writers from all over the world. The contributors to the anthology have experienced some of the same things in life but their personal experiences and how they reacted to them are unique. It is this uniqueness that they bring to the anthology. The stories and poems are full of imagination and love; human kindness, thoughtfulness and understanding; humour, wit, honesty and candour. Something for everyone!
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I would like to thank Elynne for inviting me to say more about Forever Friends. As mentioned earlier, Elynne has four stories in the anthology. Three of the short stories are true stories about events in Elynne’s life concerning her family and friends. The first of these stories, The Red Pen, is about her beloved sister Ivy. The fourth story, part of a Wright College Graduation speech Elynne gave as Distinguished Professor, is an insight into life survival skills.
Forever Friends is available now from amazon.com: Forever Friends
Thanks again for reading this and best wishes for the holiday season!
Shelagh Watkins
December 20 Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow
Day Nineteen of Blog Tour
Thank you for reading this blog entry! This is the last post on the blog tour. If you have only just joined the tour, welcome, you have only just made it! If you have read every post, thank you for following the tour! Two days ago, I talked about the poems in Forever Friends and how some of the poems express feelings of friendship through music and nature. Last week, I mentioned that the poems in the book celebrate friendship in all its facets from loving to detached, giving a few glimpses of the other side of friendship, while others are thankful and show gratitude for the kindness of friendships and the loyalty of true friends.
Dana Rettig’s poem, Gratitude is one of a number of poems in the anthology that focus on the value of friends for their help and support. There are times in everyone’s life when they lose the motivation to continue doing something that seems impossible to achieve. If all hope seems to be gone, encouragement from a friend can make all the difference between success and failure. Dana’s poem is about the special kind of friendships that give us strength and for which we are eternally grateful.
I would like to thank Dana for inviting me to her blog to give me a chance say more about the poems in the anthology. Although this is the last blog on the original tour, I will be visiting Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow’s blog tomorrow when I will be answering some in depth questions about anthologies in general and Forever Friends in particular. Do not miss it!
Forever Friends is available now from amazon.com: Forever Friends
Thanks again for reading this and best wishes for the holiday season!
Shelagh Watkins
December 19 Dana Rettig
Day Eighteen on Blog Tour
Thank you for reading this blog entry! This is the eighteenth post on the blog tour. If you have only just joined the tour, welcome! If you are still with us, thank you for following the tour! This is the penultimate blog on the virtual book tour. Yesterday, I talked about the variety of poems in Forever Friends and today I will be talking about the non-fiction stories in the anthology. Real friendships are made every day along with new relationships of love or companionship. At the same time, friendships are broken and friends are lost in one way or another. The true stories in Forever Friends reflect all these different states of friendship and human relationships. You will find true stories about family relationships, old school friends, ex-lovers, new acquaintances and even family pets.
Yvonne Oot’s short story, Timeless Friendships is a true story about the music industry. After travelling the world, Yvonne finally chose to settle in Nashville, Tennessee, the home of country music. Starting her writing career with Interstate 40 Country Music Magazine, she has met and worked with some of country music’s finest legends. Keeping her promise to Merle Kilgore just prior to his death in 2005, Yvonne currently writes for Up Country Magazine in the UK. Her short story in the anthology is a tribute to Merle Kilgore and Jim Ames, who mentored Yvonne and followed her career until their own deaths.
I would like to thank Yvonne for inviting me to her blog to give me a chance say more about the true stories in the anthology.
Forever Friends is available now from amazon.com: Forever Friends
Thanks again for reading this and best wishes for the holiday season!
Shelagh Watkins
December 18 Yvonne Oots
Day Seventeen of Blog Tour
Thank you for reading this blog entry! This is the seventeenth post on the blog tour. If you have only just joined the tour, welcome, there is a lot for you to catch up on! If you are into the third week of this virtual journey, thank you for following the tour! Last week I talked about the variety of poems in Forever Friends and how some of the poems express feelings of friendship through music and nature. Poetry lends itself readily to the interpretation of sounds and sights found in our everyday surroundings, whether it be in town or in the countryside. Poetic, lilting words that flow across the page convey thoughts readers can feel inside as they pick up the gentle rhythm and tempo of a poem. Within the pages of the anthology, you will find poems that demonstrate the importance of friendship and the special relationship that can develop between humans, animals and even musical instruments.
Tiziana Rinaldi Castro’s poem, Ah, What a Relief has a musical rhythm that gives a clue to the meaning of the poem. At first reading, it may not be apparent to the reader that the poem is about the relationship between a musician and a musical instrument. The cadence of the words, however, induce the sound of notes in the air being played, informing the reader that a wind instrument is the friend of the poet and that the friendship is renewed each day afresh. The perfect combination of poetry and music!
I would like to thank Tiziana for inviting me to her blog to give me a chance say more about the poems in the anthology.
Forever Friends is available now from amazon.com: Forever Friends
Thanks again for reading this and best wishes for the holiday season!
Shelagh Watkins
December 17 Tiziana Rinaldi Castro
Day Sixteen of Blog Tour
Thank you for reading this blog entry! This is the sixteenth post on the blog tour. If you have just joined the tour, welcome! If you read all the blogs, thank you for following the tour; only three more blog posts to go! A week ago I mentioned the last section “Spiritual Friends” in the anthology Forever Friends. In the opening section “Family Friends” the first story in the book is My Hero, My Dad by D. J. Stephens. I chose this story because it was the first submission I received and in all the rearrangements I made it always stayed the first story in the book, so it seemed to be the right place for Don Stephens’s story.
The last short story in the anthology is The Night of the Gift by Grace Bridges. I placed this last in the book because it seemed to sum up the way that friends are always in our thoughts no matter how far away and provided an ideal ending to the volume of short stories and poems about love and friendship. Just as the first story always remained first after every reshuffle, The Night of the Gift always remained last so, again, this seemed to be the right place for Grace Bridges’s story.
The Night of the Gift is set in a remote village in Southern Russia, where a young doctor is feeling homesick for Ireland. In a sleepless reverie, she imagines that a childhood friend, who is supposed to be far away in Brazil, pays an unexpected call … but is it in her imagination or is it real? Read the story to find out more about this supernatural flight of fancy.
I would like to thank Grace for inviting me to her blog to give me a chance say more about Forever Friends.
Forever Friends is available now from amazon.com: Forever Friends
Thanks again for reading this and best wishes for the holiday season!
Shelagh Watkins
December 16 Grace Bridges
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