There's around ten minutes left of the webchat and I've rounded up a few questions from earlier up the webchat:
A few questions from earlier up the webchat :
From MrsRedwine214
My question would be:
You tend to depict strong female characters in your books. Is that something you have to actively try for, or do they come quite naturally to you?
It's a conscious effort on my part. I'm increasingly concerned about the portrayal of young women in culture and the media, and I try not to be part of the problem. So yes, I consciously create female characters who may be flawed, but are resourceful, brave, practical, kind, uninterested in designer goods and while they might fall in love, do not necessarily define themselves by whether or not they have a man.
SundayGirl79
Hi Jojo, I've read all your novels and was lucky enough to get agree copy of The One Plus One from Mumsnet and I really loved it. I LOVED the road trip up to Scotland - such a great place for the romance to take-off. Was that based on personal experience? Also I wondered whether the seaside town is based on a real place?
I rarely write about real locations any more, as I find it's a sure fire way to attract emails of the "you put the post office in the wrong place" variety. So no, the seaside town is a composite. And the road trip is a worst-case composite of many family road trips we have taken ...
And another Q about the roadtrip:
revealsall
I did feel a little like two books in some ways. There was the poor overworked single parent to start and the road trip towards the end.
And have you done a road trip to Scotland!
I have driven to Scotland, but, thankfully, not with children and a large flatulent dog.
Whiskeytangofoxtrot
What kind of journalist were you before you started writing novels? Why did you switch and was it hard to adapt your writing style to novels rather than your previous job??