WRITERS ABROAD MAGAZINE: THE THIRD SPACE
I kept a blog. But a blog-based book can easily seem episodic. So I structured each chapter around a specific theme. I removed dates to“ unbloggify” it, and added context and reflections. I mailed every passage mentioning someone to the person concerned to get their consent for publication. That was a lot of work!
Tell us about your writing routine. Preferably I write in the morning. Then I take the dogs out, and after that I do my translation work.
How did you come up with the cover for your book? It ' s wonderful by the way. My daughter Tessa Rose Jackson( TRJ Illustration) designed it. The luminous life jacket represents a refugee as well as a volunteer, the little Corinthian curls in the waves evoke Greece, and the outline of the waves vaguely evokes the Lesbos coastline. Amazing!
You chose the self-publishing route. Was it difficult? Do you have any tips for aspiring writers wanting to be published? I self-published because the issue is so urgent; it’ s quicker. Also, I wanted to learn how to do it. The paperback edition was easier to format. I was incredibly lucky in my team: my daughter as designer, a wonderful editor( essential, even though I’ m an editor myself), three critical beta readers, and a neighbour who did the HTML for the e-book. Normally the designer and editor would be paid, but because this is a book for charity, none of us is getting paid. All that help was vital. I’ d advise anyone who wants to publish an e-book to either use zero formatting or to convert the entire text into HTML. And to read David Gaughran’ s book, Let’ s Get Digital! My neighbour kindly converted the text to HTML.
Most writers don ' t enjoy the self-promotion aspect of their job. How about you? In this case, the book is serving a more important cause. Promoting my memoir or a novel would feel more uncomfortable.
All the profits of your book go to Starfish, the voluntary organisation you worked for. Where can we download / buy the book? My book is on sale from Amazon.
What is your next project? There are several! First I will probably return to the memoir I haven’ t published yet( one publisher told me I had to get more narrative drive into it) and try to... get more narrative drive into it!
If you could invite any famous people to a dinner party, who would you invite? I would invite the Greek ex-finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, the American writer Joyce Carol Oates, the Indian writer Neel Mukherjee, and the Nigerian writer Sefi Atta.
15 | May 2016