It’s an Anna coup! Two Anna’s in as many weeks — right here on Author Harvest… WITH a giveaway each! March ended with Anna Campbell and April welcomes Anna Jacobs. Happy, happy harvest!
Tell us about your latest novel, Anna?
The Trader’s Dream is the third book in the Traders series. It comes out in mass market paperback at the end of March. This is my favourite series of all I’ve written and will be 5 books long. The Trader’s Dream is set against a background of the opening of the Suez Canal, something I’d been dying to write about. In 1869 Bram Deagan (the Trader) dreams of his family joining him in Australia, and fate manages this, but in a way he didn’t expect. Maura Deagan had no desire to go to Australia, and no choice but to take her orphaned nieces and nephew there. But the journey had unexpected results. My website had more information and I am happy to give away a copy (signed for Australian readers. See below for details.).
Fabulous, now, let’s start by you telling me if it’s scones and tea or some other homemade delight you have whipped up for me today!!!!! 🙂
I’d not make scones as I’m a coeliac, so how about my super-duper gluten-free chocolate cake? And I don’t even drink tea or coffee (don’t like the taste) so how about a nice glass of lemon, lime and bitters?
(Bring! It! On!)
At home …
My mum says garden gnomes make a house a home! Are you loud and proud in your love of garden gnomes at home, a closet gnomer or with a strict ‘no gnomes’ policy at your place?
Strictly no gnomes. (Shudders delicately) Since I grew up in the UK, what I love about
Australia is having my own lemon tree and growing tomatoes without all the hassles of a greenhouse. Or our curry leaf tree, for when my lovely husband makes a curry and goes out to pick a few leaves.
(As far as I know, gnomes are quite comfy hiding out in tomato bushes and curry leaf trees!)
What vegetable (or fruit) have you always wanted to grow at home?
I don’t do gardening myself, just encourage my personal hero, who loves gardening. He has herbs, the lemon tree and two olive trees, from which he bottled his own olives last year. He was so proud of them. It took a few years for the tree to fruit, but we waited patiently. A bit like writing really, takes a few years to bear fruit.
If I came to your home and looked in the refrigerator, what would I find?
Tons of salad, cheese, olives, vegetables and fruit, and a bottle or two of white wine. I have a lot of food intolerances so can’t eat processed food, but luckily we’re both into fresh produce. And I’m a cheese addict, so you’ll find my special treat of goat cheese that costs $45 a kilo. Yum.
(Goat cheese? Pass.)
If you sorted your wardrobe by colour, what colour would stand out? (Ahh, do you sort your wardrobe by colour?!)
Ha! Ha! Does anyone really sort out their wardrobe by colour? I’m too busy writing and reading and talking to my beloved to bother with details. The predominant colour is black, often with sparkly bits, but my skirts are a rainbow – again with sparkly bits. Maybe the latter are my trademark? I don’t see why older women should dress placidly!
What are you wearing now? (Be honest!) (And you’d better say sparkles!)
My comfy long skirt, and a black top with silver embroidery round the neckline, plus my slippers.
(Excellent!)
Whose home would you like to housesit and why?
No one’s home. I love my own home best – but actually, it’s two homes, because we have a house in the UK and spend a few months there every year in the so-called English summer – we didn’t have one last year LOL. We have family in both countries and we love this lifestyle, but Australia is our main home.
(I have two homes too. One is call ed ‘the dog house!’)
Country curiosities…
We love a sunburnt country (slip, slop, slap and all that). What’s your ideal hat? Or are you a boots person?
Neither. I don’t go out in the hot weather because the mozzies adore me, and also because I’m allergic to sunblock. My feet are always warm, so I’d hate boots. Even the sneakers I wear to walk on my treadmill come off quick smart when the session is over and I put some sandals on.
If you were a tree (or animal) what kind of tree (animal) would you be?
Goodness, what a difficult question. Maybe an ash tree. Very graceful. I don’t think there is anything more beautiful than a mature tree, especially in the UK in spring, when the foliage is a delicate tree and the light underneath the tree is filtered into a green/gold, dappled caress.
Now for the big question… Why did the chicken cross the road?
To read one of Anna Jacobs’ books, of course.
About you…
Your turning point: when was that point in your life that you realized that being an author was no longer going to be just a dream but a reality and a career?
When I decided to go for it and follow my dream. It took me ten years to get published because I was working full time and raising teenagers, but I did it, and it has made me joyful ever since. I’ve made up for the slow start since by published first two books a year, then three. This year I intend to write four books, and completed the first one by the end of February. I can’t keep up that pace, of course, but the story just wrote itself.
What is the hardest part of writing for you?
Getting an uninterrupted run at the story. ‘Life’ keeps getting in the way, shopping, friends, family, ‘stuff’. I try to write a ‘dirty draft’ fast, then polish it madly afterwards.
If someone was to write your biography, what do you think the title should be?
‘Like No Other’. It’s the title of a book I wrote and it fits me too. It’s not that I’m an alien come to earth (well, no one has accused me of that yet) but what with food intolerances which mean I can’t eat half the foods other people can (I’m so jealous of them), and my propensity to go glassy-eyed and slide into my imagination when an idea suddenly occurs to me, not to mention that I don’t like background music especially when I’m writing (though I do confess to being a Mikado fan), I don’t want to go to the cinema (seats too uncomfortable for my bad back and music too loud) and am sometimes too blunt for my own good (which comes of growing up in Lancashire) . . . Luckily I have some lovely family and friends who put up with all this.
(I’m not a background music girl either, despite coming from a musical family. My cousin (Michael Lewis) has been with the Aust Opera for as long as I can remember and I believe he did the Mikado.)
What question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview? How would you answer that question?
I can’t think of one. I’ve been published for twenty years this year, have over 60 books published, so I think I’ve been asked most questions.
(I reckon you have too. But here’ one… How will you celebrate your 100th book?)
Fun stuff …
What does your protagonist think about you? Would he or she want to hang out with you, the author, his/her creator.
You know, I can’t do role playing, just can’t. And I can’t do this sort of thing.
(Well you can’t be good at everything!)
If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional, with whom would it be?
I’m a sad sack. I really like being me, not only for my joy in being a novelist, but my deep love for my husband of over 50 years.
If I said to you, “Just entertain me for five minutes, I’m not going to talk,” what would you do?
Shriek and run away.
(Come baaaaaack, Anna. It’s okay. You don’t have to answer!)
What food would you be?
Cheese
(Goat?)
How weird are you? Rate yourself on a scale of 1 (not) to 10 (very).
9. I don’t think I’m nasty weird, but I definitely don’t fit in with the norms, especially for a woman of a certain age. I feel as daft and young inside my head as I ever did, so I shall continue to behave accordingly.
Good on you, and thanks for taking part in my autumn harvest, Anna.
Folks…. leave a comment to win a copy of Anna’s book.
Writers – tell us how you’d celebrate YOUR 100th book.
Readers – give Anna’s 100th book a title.
AND THE WINNER IS…… Bec Brown! Well done with that title, Bec.
Lovely Lia Weston is both a Simon & Schuster author and she joins me each month on the 
author was no longer going to be just a dream but a reality and a career?
Yes, it’s Regency romance author queen – Anna Campbell – who I am certain will have prepared a lavish feast fit for a contemporary fiction princess like me (although with queen-like aspirations) and also have rogues on hand (out of bed, but drapped in a shimmering gold toga and…. ) Okay, so, wrong century. Maybe we’ll just ask Anna…
never going to happen.