Live webchat with best selling author Jane Green - Mon 2 July 1.30-2.30pm

swizzle

Which of your novels do you like the best? Do you have a favourite?

I do love The Beach House. I think it was really the first novel I wrote in which I could truly write about a happy ending because I finally had a happy ending of my own so I knew what it felt like.

So many of the novels before that had been about women who appeared to have it all but had been desperately unhappy - clearly my denial of my own situation!

And I loved the characters. They all felt like my friends, my family, the people I wished were in my life.

phishphood

I think you manage to produce about a book a year. Is that difficult? How many hours a day do you write for? Does it all come out right first time or is there a lot of rewriting involved?

Sadly lots of rewriting required these days. My writing is very much a job. I have to be enormously disciplined and write every day. I leave the house at around 8.30 and go to a writer's room, and write until around lunchtime every day, sometimes longer. I need the routine of leaving the house, and like being around other people, although I keep headphones in and listen to music, only taking them out if the writing's going well and I have time to chat!

granIT

Do you think your books have changed as you have grown older? Have your preoccupations changed? And has the tone and style, or have they stayed the same?

The books today are completely different from the earlier ones! The first few were far harder: more sarcastic; edgier. Today they are softer, more vulnerable, as in fact I am softer and more vulnerable. I'm not sure if motherhood has changed me, or America! Either way I am now ridiculously soppy!

fridaygran

Hello Jane, it's lovely to have you on Gransnet. I love your books and I wanted to ask whether you plot meticulously before you start or whether you work out the story as you go along?

Hello fridaygran - lovely to be here! I'm working with a new editor, and she is definitely a fan of the higher concept plot, which I'm quite enjoying. Having said that, I have always focused a little more on the characters and let them tell their own stories. I have a rough idea of the beginning, middle and end, and know that I can always refine the plot in the editing stage.

newt148

When writing and the subject grinds to a halt what advice to restart or enliven the either the character or the topic? and does this happen or is it just me.....
many thanks sue (smile)

Hello Sue! It happens to all of us, all of the time. The only advice I can give is to keep going. Sometimes it helps to skip that section and jump to another, coming back to that, but whatever you do, don't walk away or stop writing - the more you write the easier it is. Good luck!

redamanthas

Do you feel that it is ever too late to start writing? And is it important to get your work seen and accepted by an agent rather than contacting publishers directly? How did you begin to approach for publication when you started and has it change?

Never too late. I'm not too sure what to say about an agent. In the old days I always said absolutely, but more and more people in the US are self-publishing, and doing so successfully, so I'm not entirely sure what to advise. Going down the traditional route, you must have an agent. Go through books you love or are similar to the one you have written (and you must have finished before you do anything), and read the acknowledgments to find out who their agent is.

Get hold of a copy of The Writer's Handbook at the Library and find the address, then send three chapters, a great synopsis, and a cover letter. The synopsis is terrifically important, as are the chapters.

Best of luck!

flowerfriend

DiL introduced me to your books. I am 65 she is 36. We both enjoy your books enormously. Now my closest two friends enjoy them too because of my recommendations. They are 59 and 63. So I am guessing that your books appeal to a wide age range. Did you have an idea of an age group for whom you wanted to write when you started and has that changed?

I started writing for women like me - 27, and am now writing for women mid-thirties to sixties/seventies I would think. I believe you have to have had a certain kind of life experience to fully appreciate the books I write now - the young single girls have no interest in reading about blended families...

glammanana

Hi Jane, I love reading your books they always seem to have some experience that I have come across in my lifetime I find them so enjoyable,what career path would you have taken if you did not write these fab books,and at 60+ am I too old to consider putting pen to paper ??

You are NEVER too old! NEVER! Pick up that pen and start writing now! I wish more people would write their stories - whether memoirs or novels - and do believe that we do indeed all have a story to tell.

Had I not been a writer, I think perhaps a garden designer. Or architect. Or cook. Or jeweller. Something creative for certain.

distaffgran

How have you found having children has combined with being a writer? Has the pram in the hall been a problem? - or were you always well off enough to have help?

Oh God. Am laughing. I was always the breadwinner, and although I wouldn't have described myself as being well off, I did have a young girl come to help in the mornings so I could write.

My afternoons were spent walking my colicky baby for hours round West Hampstead. If I tried to stop to get a coffee, he'd start screaming. I clearly remember my agent calling as I was going endlessly up and down the aisles of Woolworths in the Finchley Road, and asking where I was.

"you don't want to know," I replied, all thoughts of life as a glamourous bestseller having long gone out the window.

mtp123

Do you have a favourite Author if so whom?

Not one, but a few. Jonathon Tropper; Armistead Maupin; Patrick Gale; Dani Shapiro

zither

Do you welcome the chicklit label or do you think it misses something about your books

(not a leading question or anything...)

At 44 I defy anyone to call me a chick... It was a great label in 1996 when it was created, but it truly doesn't fit what I write anymore. However people may try to defend or expand the label, the vast majority of people, when asked to define it, would say it is the fluffy twenty-something single girl looking for romance.

I'm writing for women of every age, and particularly now my age and older. I have had a huge problem letting those women know I'm writing for them because of the 'chick lit' label, so whilst I did not mind in the least when I was writing younger books, it doesn't apply now.

KatieFerrell

Hi Jane!
Where do you get your inspiration for stories? Do you draw from real life experience or simply from your imagination? You're one of the rare authors who can bring me into the story in no matter the plot/characters. From Mr. Maybe to the Beach House I love that I feel I can connect and relate to the story despite not having much in common in my real life.
Thanks for helping me escape into the wonderful world of your characters!

Katie - thank you!! Inspiration often comes from my life, whether it's something that's happened to me, the life of a friend, a theme I have noticed, or even a person I have passed and found compelling. Nan in the Beach House came about after I moved into a tiny beach cottage after my former marriage ended, and found myself falling in love with my landlord. We'd go for late night walks on the beach, and every night a woman would pass us on a bicycle, smoking, with red lipstick, and I was fascinated by her and knew I had to use her in a book, hence Nan.

clairew

sorry - can I also ask what books you like reading?

I read everything, from commercial fiction like mine, to thrillers, to literary fiction. I am lucky enough to have got my hands on the new Marion Keyes which isn't out for a few months - The Mystery of Mercy Close - and it's FANTASTIC!

clairew

Have any films been made of your books?

grrrr. Sadly not. I think The Beach House would be lovely, and I still can't believe Jemima Jones has never been made. I don't quite understand it, but clearly it's just not my time. I thought Nancy Meyers - Something's Gotta Give; It's Complicated - would do a gorgeous job with The Beach House and Nantucket. We sent it to her but she's busy filming. I am sure as soon as she finishes she'll get to it and phone me saying yes! I love this! This, Jane, is my new blockbuster!

kacey

I read somewhere that you do a lot for charity. Which ones do you support - and what made you feel it is important to put something back? Just downloaded your new book on my kindle for my holiday and looking forward to tucking in

It's very hard to choose, because there are so many deserving and wonderful causes. My foremost charity is a camp set up by Paul Newman called the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, for children with terminal diseases. I support a variety of breast cancer charities after losing one of my best friends, and a medical center in Pasadena called City of Hope which is developing groundbreaking medical treatment for cancer and diabetes amongst other things.

I think it's vital to give back. I hope to be in a position to give far more than I already do. I am enormously blessed to have what I have, but it means nothing if it's not shared.