SATURDAY SPOTLIGHT NO.7 – RACHEL BARNETT

Complementing the author spotlights I ran from 2011 to 2016, today’s Saturday Spotlight, the seventh, is of novelist (and former 100-word competition entrant) Rachel Barnett. If you would like to take part in a spotlight, see Saturday spotlights.

Rachel Barnett lives on a farm in rural Wiltshire, almost within touching distance of Stonehenge. After a career as a primary school teacher (yes, it is as exhausting as everyone says), and then creating a little monster of her own, a chink of spare time saw her taking as many creative writing courses as she could get her hands on. Suitably equipped, she has finally managed to hide away from everyone (except for the dog!!) for long enough to achieve her life-long ambition of writing a book, or two…

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And now from the author herself:

My Writing Cave

My writing space has been put to many uses over the years. It has been a storeroom, playroom, farm office… Apparently it began life as an egg room, with its own outside door for the customers. It’s a single-skin addition to the side of our farmhouse, long and narrow, cold in the winter and perfect in the summer. Just right for storing eggs!

It’s just right for me, too – with the addition of a plug-in heater in the colder months. And a pair of fingerless gloves if it’s really parky.

After inhabiting the end of the kitchen table for years, I managed to claim this space as my own a few years ago and set about redecorating it myself. With gleaming gloss work and a fresh splash of sunny yellow on the walls I became overly bold and decided to put up Venetian blinds single-handedly. This approach is not one I would recommend. Put it this way, by the time the blinds were up and working I think I’d exhausted my entire (and rather extensive) vocabulary of swear words…

My desk is the crowning glory in this space. It was a Christmas-and-birthday-and-another-Christmas present from my other half and it’s beautiful. An antique with burr walnut veneer and wonderful deep drawers which are easily big enough to hold manuscripts. With that, a windowsill full of houseplants, and my gorgeous Labrador, Murray, snoring at my feet, I have created my perfect office space.

I try to write every day – to be honest it’s no hardship. Having come to writing later in life than some, I’m loving the freedom and creativity it allows. It’s also so much fun. I can have my characters do whatever I choose – the megalomaniac in me is very happy – and I get to drink as much tea as I want.

My approach to writing is linear. Once I have an idea of the beginning, the hopeful ending and a vague idea of what’s going to happen along the way, I start at Chapter One and write forwards from there. I also tend to ‘write myself in’ to a novel, which means I usually end up cutting the first few chapters as I have used them to ‘place’ my characters. For me, this approach works well, and I enjoy the way it means I learn about my characters in the same way my readers do. It also allows me to keep my finger on the pulse of my book.

As a reader, I enjoy fast-paced novels, and I hope that’s what I deliver for my readers. I also love writing feisty characters and challenging them with difficult decisions or circumstances – mostly because I want to find out what they’ll do – and I wrap the whole package up in a gorgeous location.

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Rachel online…

I have two novels publishing with Embla Books (an imprint of Bonnier Books) this year. The first was out on 16th May and is set on a luxury yacht in the Italian Riviera. You’ll find sunshine, sea and secrets galore in A SUMMER ON THE RIVIERA (pictured above). Available on Kindle, as an audiobook and in paperback https://amzn.eu/d/9eTSbvr.

I also write romantic suspense for Champagne Book Group under a pen name – Laura R Leeson. THE VALENTINE RETREAT, set in glamorous Los Angeles, is available in eBook and paperback https://amzn.to/2YaXezJ and its sequel – Valentine’s Revenge – is due out any time now.

My social media platform of choice is Instagram – you can find me there at www.instagram.com/Laura_R_Leeson or www.instagram.com/RachelBarnettAuthor

I also lurk occasionally on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Laura_R_Leeson

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If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, see Saturday Spotlights or email me for details.