Art and Things

Jenn Ashworth is a novelist, blogger, workshopper and teacher from Preston. She published her first novel A Kind of Intimacy in 2009 to great acclaim and is one of the UK’s most promising and successful young writers. We spoke to Jenn about her first novel, her new novel and writing in general.

How long did it take to write A Kind of Intimacy from conception to first draft?

I think about three years, although that was never full time. I can’t pinpoint the time of the first conception because I didn’t sit down to write a novel - it was a short story that got out of hand.

The original short story I wrote late in the summer of 2003 - the novel was published in March 2009 but it was complete about a year before that. I moved house and job a few times and had a baby in-between too.

Were you working or studying whilst you were writing?

First I was working at the Bodleian Library in Oxford - then for two years I was a single mother living in Preston, where I am now.

One of those years was spent studying for the Creative Writing MA at the University of Manchester - I got the train in once a week, left my girl with my mother, and worked at night or around her naps the rest of the time. I only ever wrote part time - sometimes very, very part time, until recently when a school-age child and an arts council grant allowed me to give up my job as a prison librarian and spend my whole time on writing and writing related freelance projects.

Do you let your stories take their course as you write, or is there a lot of pre-planning and character development involved?

I try to plan because I have the idea that it would make the process easier - that there will be less drafts and less mistakes, that it will be quicker and less frustrating. But I’m on the cusp of starting my third novel now, and realising that the messy, unplanned way of writing is just what works for me.

The characters tend to take the lead, although often it’s a place or an idea, or just one perfect scene that comes to me fully formed and needs to have a whole novel built around it so I can explain to myself why I am so interested in it.

Many young or first time writers are extremely daunted by the process of getting an agent and approaching publishers. Any basic advice?

I was lucky and got an agent very easily - this wasn’t to do with the MA in Creative Writing, but the result of a competition I entered in the hope of winning some rent money. One of the judges liked my book and sent it to her agent, who became mine too.

I didn’t win any rent money though, and it did take a year to sell the book because many publishers didn’t see the funny side and worried about the plot and characters being too bleak.

My agent was only the second agent to have seen my work - the first had been fairly sniffy about the extract he’d read, claiming there wasn’t enough plot for a full length novel and that I should trim it all back to a short story. The arrogance of that judgement and advice, especially after having read only a tiny extract of my work, still astounds me.

My advice (given in the same spirit of arrogance) would be to meet other writers, get involved with online and local writing events, be polite and always very persistent.

Being polite is the most important thing to me. I avoid working with rude people and I think agents and publishers,and everyone really, would prefer to work with people who turn up on time, reply to emails, are sane and know how to double space and spell-check.

How did it feel when you realised that your novel was going to be published?

Relief, I think. It had been a long road.

The money aspect wasn’t life-changing and for a while things went on exactly as they had done, but I had a secret sense of utter relief that I wasn’t going to have to self publish - which I would have been willing to do in one form or another in order to get the book out there if I’d have needed to.

It had taken such a long time that I’d almost become immune to the knock-backs. I bought some expensive rose tea, some posh chocolate biscuits and spent the afternoon in bed reading. In the evening I got pissed on my own with some whiskey. The next day, I took my little girl to the child-minder and went to work.

I put it on my blog a couple of months later, and started telling people after that. It was like an early pregnancy. I wanted to wait a couple of months before telling people in case it didn’t ‘take.’ It was only after I’d met my new editors and publicist at Arcadia and saw their ideas for the cover that I started to get excited.

And what was the initial reaction like?

Very good - I’ve not had a bad review yet (which means I’m going to get one really soon, and I should keep my mouth shut) and there were some promotions - the Waterstone’s New Voices and the Guardian Not the Booker shortlist - which meant that it sold much better than I thought it would.

The trade paperback sold out three print runs, I think, and the mass-market paperback is out this month. Rights have sold in America and a couple of other places. It’s all been very surprising.

For anyone who is about to go to a bookshop. Why should they buy A Kind of Intimacy?

It’s the kind of book I like to read. So if you have a similar taste to me, and like dark, uncomfortable humour, domestic Northern settings, odd main characters and a story that occasionally veers into the salacious - then this one is for you.

The highlights include a parade of Fat-Admirers and a cheese and pickled onion hedgehog. What is there not to like?

You blog and publish online a lot. How important is that for a writer in 2010?

For me, it’s really important because I love to write, I love the regular, almost diary form - the way it isn’t a diary at all because it is so public, and the way the feedback is near enough instant.

Professionally it has been important for me - a lot of my teaching work has been offered to me because of the profile I’ve got through my blog and the award that I won for it. But I’d be wary of saying that every single writer should rush and get an on-line presence - the marketing and publicity side is nice, but it isn’t the point of it. I see so many shitty writer’s blogs because they’ve missed the point that this is a special kind of writing, and not just a free advert for the novel.

I miss that point sometimes too, but I try not to. It’s also a time-drain and because you’re typing it’s easy to think you’ve been very productive when the novel lies untouched. Although the disadvantages are outweighed by the advantages - the friendships I’ve made, the conversations I’ve been able to take part in, the opportunities presented to me.

What is your second novel about, briefly?

It’s two narratives - the first is one evening - Valentine’s Day 2008. Lola is at home watching the television - there’s a ground-breaking ceremony on the local news. The City are building a memorial to her friend Chloe who died ten years before. Just as they dig into the ground where her memorial summer house is going to be (don’t worry, it is supposed to be a little odd and improbable sounding) they discover a second body. That half of the novel follows Lola through the night as she is joined by her friend Emma and they watch the investigation into who this second body is. The thing is, Lola already knows - and she’s scared Emma knows too.

The second half of the novel is set between Boxing Day 1997 and Valentine’s Day 1998 and is Lola’s memories of the couple of months leading up to Chloe’s death - everyone thinks she drowned in some kind of tragic suicide pact, but Lola knows that isn’t quite true either. During this part of the story Emma, Lola and Chloe are fourteen going on fifteen, and Chloe is getting more and more involved with a boyfriend who is much too old for her and makes her do bad things with a polaroid camera. There is also a renegade North West tonight presenter, a flasher in a Halloween Mask and lots about fish that glow in the dark. It all comes together in the end - promise.

When can we expect to see it on the shelves?

Watch this space. As soon as I am able to tell you the good news, it will be up on my blog. Exciting things are afoot.

Finally. What’s the best thing a new writer can do to keep their spirits up when they get knocked?

Drink a lot, I suppose. And have other hobbies.

Be humble - you’ve no right to get published - and be determined to get it published anyway. I’m more interested in my current writing projects than in ones that I’ve finished so always having something new on the go helps too.

Find out more about Jenn, including info on her upcoming projects at:

www.jennashworth.blogspot.com

www.arcadiabooks.co.uk

Buy her book at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kind-Intimacy-Jenn-Ashworth/dp/1906413061/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268579119&sr=8-1

Read an extract from A Kind of Intimacy at:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_extracts/article5772103.ece

And read and extract from Jenn’s second novel Cold Light at:

http://www.themanchesterreview.co.uk/content_item.php?issue=3&id=307