I
started writing my first novel after having had one of those "life
moments" and decided that if I ever wanted to be a writer, I had to
actually write. I packed in my job and headed off to the wilds of South
America with little more than a tent and a toothbrush. By day I would
walk across the Argentine Pampas, being stared at in amazement by more
sensible people in cars and buses and as night fell, I would hide my
tent behind a few bushes and try to forget that there were still pumas
out there...In that grotty little tent that I sometimes shared with
mice, ferocious biting insect thingies and a fox who crashed in one
night and stole all my food, I wrote Chocolate Mousse and Two Spoons - a
tale of love, life, skinning rabbits and eating cake.
I have since followed this with Eating Blackbirds - a novel based around a man who has spent his adult life saving his money in the most ingenious of ways as he waits for his Big Adventure. As he nears early retirement, the Big Adventure starts to happen.
My third book, Cold Enough to Freeze Cows, was so named after I had been jotting down Welsh idioms - unfortunately, my writing was a bit messy and so refering to it months later, I got it wrong... The book should, technically, have been called Cold Enough to Freeze Crows, but after much deliberation, I decided to invent a new idiom, as the winter in this book was pretty cold...
Babies and life took over for a while, and my writing turned into something that was done in snatched moments whilst children slept in the back of the car, and thinking was done as I paired socks, but slowly as the children became more independent (or I got used to not sleeping much)it started to creep back into importance.
My fourth book is called "Jam Tomorrow" and is a far-fetched take on the walking holidays I used to go on, where everyone would start by being the best of friends and slowly as the week progressed and the legs began to ache, they would all fall out. What would make any of those holidays worse, I thought? I slapped a quarantine order on the dilapidated farmhouse they started at, threw in a few strong characters and lit the touch paper...
Whatever they are, I hope that you enjoy them!
Lorraine Jenkin
I have since followed this with Eating Blackbirds - a novel based around a man who has spent his adult life saving his money in the most ingenious of ways as he waits for his Big Adventure. As he nears early retirement, the Big Adventure starts to happen.
My third book, Cold Enough to Freeze Cows, was so named after I had been jotting down Welsh idioms - unfortunately, my writing was a bit messy and so refering to it months later, I got it wrong... The book should, technically, have been called Cold Enough to Freeze Crows, but after much deliberation, I decided to invent a new idiom, as the winter in this book was pretty cold...
Babies and life took over for a while, and my writing turned into something that was done in snatched moments whilst children slept in the back of the car, and thinking was done as I paired socks, but slowly as the children became more independent (or I got used to not sleeping much)it started to creep back into importance.
My fourth book is called "Jam Tomorrow" and is a far-fetched take on the walking holidays I used to go on, where everyone would start by being the best of friends and slowly as the week progressed and the legs began to ache, they would all fall out. What would make any of those holidays worse, I thought? I slapped a quarantine order on the dilapidated farmhouse they started at, threw in a few strong characters and lit the touch paper...
Whatever they are, I hope that you enjoy them!
Lorraine Jenkin