Happy publication day to Kiltie Jackson!

My guest today is author Kiltie Jackson who is celebrating the release of her third novel, An Incidental Lovestyle. Don’t you just love that cover – I actually own and drive a Volkswagen Beetle (my favourite car), although mine is black all over.

A bit about the author…

Kiltie Jackson spent her childhood years growing up in Scotland. Most of these early years were spent in and around Glasgow but, for a short period of time, she also lived in the Highlands.

When she was old enough to do so, she moved to London where she had many interesting experiences and most of which are now finding their way into her writing.

Once she had wrung the last bit of fun out of the smokey capital, she moved up to the Midlands and now lives in Staffordshire with one grumpy husband and six cats.

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 home as long as the mortgage continues to be paid.

Kiltie loves reading, watching movies and visiting old castles. She really hates going to the gym!

Her biggest desire is to one day give up the slave job so she can dedicate herself to writing full-time.

Kiltie has written fascinating post all about the importance of timing, but first, let’s take a look at the blurb for An Incidental Lovestyle…

It only takes one small incident to change your life…

Jenny Marshall is your stereotypical, middle-aged, spinster. She works in a library, has two cats and likes cake. She has her dreams but not the courage to chase them.

Jeff Rowland fell in love at first sight with Jenny four years ago but hasn’t seen her since. When they bump into each other again, he realises his feelings haven’t changed.

When Jenny’s car breaks down on a cold winter’s day, it sets off a chain of events which brings them together in a way neither could ever have imagined. Both, however, have dark secrets in their past which begin to seep into their present.

Will these secrets bring them closer together?

Or will they shatter their relationship beyond repair?

Doesn’t that sound fab! It’s definitely going onto my TBR pile. Now, let me hand you over to the lovely lady herself.

Life is all about Timing.

So much in life comes down to timing; being in the right place at the right time or the wrong place at the wrong time. We’ve all heard the stories of people who were late to leave for work one day and missed being involved in accidents which, had they left on time, they’d have been caught up in. Or, the kind people who let a person jump the queue only for them to buy the winning lottery ticket. And, for a writer, timing can be everything.

In 2006, I had an idea for a novel. This was not unusual – I already had a few ‘book ideas’ jotted down although I’d never taken any further action on them. This particular idea, however, really took root and I proceeded to write the first seventeen chapters of ‘a book’! When I read them back, however, I decided they were a bit rubbish, and consigned them, and memory stick they were typed on, to the back of the junk drawer!

Fast forward eleven years and, upon reading the bio of another author who became a writer simply to prove to her children that you can achieve anything you put your mind to, I suddenly felt a frisson of excitement run through me and I knew that ‘now’ was the time to blow the dust off that old memory stick in the drawer and have another go.

When I re-read what I’d written, I realised I’d been too harsh and critical on my younger self – those early chapters had potential. Within three months, I’d completed my first draft. Here, however, timing was the key. In those eleven dormant years, social media had exploded and mobile phones had become mini, hand-held computers. This technological progress enabled me to create a better story which was more believable. A long-distance friendship is far more sustainable now than it was a decade ago, thanks to these developments and a long-distance friendship was the back-bone of my story. I finally released my debut novel, ‘A Rock ‘n’ Roll Lovestyle’ in September 2017.

Since then, I have gone on to write and release a further two books and timing also had a hand in those. In my second novel, ‘An Artisan Lovestyle’, the essence of the story is focused on two people who are throwing their lives away. They have so much going for them but they have shackled themselves to events in their past and cannot move on to better things. They are wasting their time on earth. Luckily, however, they have other-worldly guardians looking out for them and, through a series of events, they learn just how precious time really is. Part of me identifies greatly with this as I do regret the time I lost between beginning to write my first novel and finishing it. Those sands of time are now gone and can never be recovered.

My latest novel, on the other hand, is a reflection of my opening paragraph. ‘An Incidental Lovestyle’ begins when Jenny Marshall’s car refuses to start on a cold winter’s day and she has to take the bus to visit her friend. If Brian, her less-than-trustworthy Volkswagen Beetle, had been up for the task in hand, Jenny’s life would have continued to trundle down the same old path it had trundled for the previous twenty years. Instead, what was initially considered to be appalling timing on the part of Brian, actually turned out to be a very big blessing in disguise.

These are examples of how time and timing is addressed within my books but a different kind of time also plays a part in helping them to be written. As a lady of older years, I find my sleeping patterns have become rather skew-whiff and it is not unusual for me to be lying wide-awake at four o’clock in the morning. Unfortunately, I tend to be far less awake at four o’clock in the afternoon – much to my employers dismay but that’s another story and we won’t go there! Anyway, back to the four in the morning slot – this is when I solve my book problems. I’ve had so many inspired ideas at this time of the day and a great many plot holes and plot problems have been resolved in a far more satisfactory manner than when I’ve been mulling them over during normal and acceptable ‘awake’ times. Examples of this include the book title for my second novel. I’d tried everything in my head and nothing was right. I knew my second novel was a follow on from the first book but at no point had it occurred to me to carry on with the ‘Lovestyle’ theme. That is, until I was wide awake at four am and it suddenly hit me that, if this was going to be a series, then why not tie it down with a distinctive series name! Et voilà, my problem was no longer a problem. This morning, yes, at 4 am, I was awake again. I’ve had an idea for some time for a future book in the Lovestyle series but I couldn’t figure out how I was going to ‘fit it in’ – thankfully, the old four o’clock magic was there to do what I needed it to do and I can now say there will, at this time, be nine books in this series. I think writing those will keep me out of mischief for some time to come.

So, you see, timing really is everything, in every possible way and probably more so than we ever truly realise. Thank you for giving me some of your time by reading this and a thank you to Eva for giving me this time on her blog.

Kind regards,

Kiltie Jackson.

xx

Thanks for being such a fabulous guest today Kiltie, I wish you every success with your new novel.

To Keep up with Kiltie, you can find her at the following places: