Southampton | Rosie Amber

Today our guest is Elaine Jeremiah, author of yesterday’s book review The Inheritance, here is a link to the review http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4oH

Let’s find out more about Elaine and her work.

1) Where is your home town?

I live in Bristol, UK but I grew up in Hampshire near Southampton.

2) How long have you been writing?

I’ve been doing some form of writing most of my life. I always loved doing creative writing while I was at school as well as at home. Unfortunately being in education for so long (I studied English at university) meant that for a while my creative writing was put on the back burner, as I was doing a lot of studying. But since leaving university I’ve been able to concentrate on my writing again and now I’m writing more or less every day. I’m writing more now than ever.

3) What was the inspiration behind “The Inheritance”?

Well question no 7 pretty much answers this one! I was searching for inspiration for a story I could write. I hit on the idea of retelling the parable of the prodigal son for a modern audience. I thought it would be interesting to tell it from the point of view of two sisters and ‘The Inheritance’ was what I came up with.

4) Do you come from a farming or rural background?

No I don’t. I had to do some research on farming as I don’t know a lot about it. It was interesting to me to find out a little about how dairy farms are run. I have always loved being out in the countryside in England though, and I know parts of Cornwall as I have a lot of family living there. So using my knowledge of Cornwall and researching the parts I didn’t know seemed to work well.

5) Would you like to live in London as Emma did?

Again, no! I like to visit London, I find it’s incredibly fascinating as a place, but I would hate to live there. The reason being it’s just so huge and busy as well as being a bit impersonal. My sister lives and works there and I have yet to visit her at her new flat, so I’m planning on doing that soon. I think there are various sides to London; it’s incredibly big as I’ve said and you can have different experiences depending on where you live. If you’re very wealthy as my character Emma’s best friend is that potentially affects how you see it, I should imagine.

6) Tell us more about Steven’s brother Dan.

He’s been difficult for Steven as a brother because he’s always on the wrong side of the law and trying to get Steven involved in his schemes. He’s not really interested in Steven as a person, certainly not in a brotherly way. He just sees him in terms of how he can be useful to him in his dealings with other criminals. So not a nice man.

7) I’m not the first to mention that the story reflects the parable of the prodigal son, was this your intention?

Yes, this was my intention (see above). But I wanted to put my own slant on the retelling of it, particularly by having it be about two sisters and set in modern England. I hope I’ve achieved that.

8) What’s your favourite genre and why?

Oh that’s a hard one. The truth is I don’t really have one favourite genre; I have lots. I’ve read a lot of historical fiction, some crime, romance, thrillers… I could go on. I think for me to enjoy a novel when I’m reading it, it has to grab me and be gripping no matter what genre it is.

9) What are you working on at the moment?

My current work in progress is called ‘Reunion’. It’s a romance about a young woman who goes back to her school for a reunion. Her schooldays were not happy ones and she’s only gone because her best friend thought it might be good for her. It’s about the consequences of her going to it and what happens to her as a result after that.

10) Do you have an expected publication date?

I haven’t set a specific date to publish it. I haven’t finished writing it yet, but I hope to get it finished and publish it sometime this year.