Welcome, Jess Mountifield, to A Million Miles from Anywhere.
Please tell us a little about yourself.
I am a quirky person who lives in the
gorgeous Roman City of Bath, UK. I'm married with a very dapsy cat
and spend most of my time (if not writing) watching films, exploring
the countryside and doing anything a little crazy with my friends.
Why did you start writing?
I wrote a lot as a kid, for therapy,
especially when I had nightmares. After writing them down they never
seemed so bad, but I stopped when I was seventeen. Several years
later a good friend mentioned he was writing something. When I told
him I used to write he asked why I'd stopped and I realised I didn't
have a good answer.
When I went away and thought about it
more I had an idea pop into my head and then I was set. That idea led
to my first novel, With Proud Humility and I've not really looked
back since.
Which of your books are you most proud
of and why?
Probably Sherdan's Prophecy. It's a
Sci-fi book that sort of also classifies as Christian. I really
stepped out of my comfort zone with this one, dealing with characters
being tortured and all sorts of other challenging subjects like
science vs faith. So far all the feedback has been really good, from
people who have some kind of faith and people who don't, which has
made the hard work seem all worthwhile.
Please give a little information about
your writing process.
I'm pretty much halfway between a
plotter and a pantser. I get an idea and add it to my notebook, then
let it bounce around the back of my brain for a while until I feel
like I know the characters well enough to write about them, then I'll
write a 500-1,000 words long outline, of what I think happens to them
in their story, not really enough to be called a plotter and more
than the fly by the seat of my pants approach.
Usually after that I try and write
about 1,500-2,000 words every week day until the books finished in
first draft. Once I'm happy everything's written down I leave it for
a few weeks and then go through the massive editing process. I do a
second draft, send it off to me editor, then after all that's sorted
it goes off to my two proofreaders and then finally I look over it
once more. Only then do I dare to declare a book done. Since there
always seem to be mistakes missed even after all that I usually find
I do one more go through, adding a few corrections that are pointed
out.
Are you traditionally or indie
published? What do you think about the “other” way of publishing?
I'm an indie all the way. For me
personally it's never been a tough decision. I like getting to sit
down with my own cover designer and plan out what I'd like. I also
like being able to write what I want. If I'd been trying to go the
traditional way I'd never have Sherdan's Prophecy out there. It's too
gritty to be picked up by a Christian imprint and God is mentioned a
few too many times to get a standard Sci-fi publisher to pick it up.
Please give a little information about
your most recent book.
My most recent book is a fantasy short
called Wandering to Belong and I'm running it's official ebook launch
on 16th March here. It's set in my fantasy world, Ethanar and features a young human
girl, Aneira, as she wanders the wilderness, trying to look for her
people. She finds something she really didn't expect instead.
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| Click for Jess Mountifield's Amazon Page |
What do you think sets your book apart
from other books in the same genre?
A lot of books in the fantasy genre,
have epic plot-lines where the main character has to save the entire
world and risk their lives in the process. With my short fantasy
books I usually write about more everyday characters, people we can
relate to, as they go about their daily lives and encounter a dose of
the unexpected. I'd like to think all of them have something a bit
more normal about their journeys and stories.
Why would you suggest someone read your
book over all the other books out there?
This is a tough question to answer,
there are a lot of awesome books out there, but I'd like to think I
offer good easy to relate to characters who tackle adversity well,
even if they make a few mistakes.
What do you hope people will gain from
reading your book?
I would hope people would always feel a
little better after reading my books, a little stronger maybe or a
little braver, with a bit more hope that life really is what you make
of it.
If there was one thing you would change
about your life, what would it be?
I think I'd make myself better at
living in the now and getting excited about what's happening right
now rather than always looking to the future and the next big thing.
I'm a determined person who strives for great things most of the
time. Sometimes I need to remember the now should be appreciated for
being awesome too.
If there was one thing you could change
about the world, what would it be?
I'm torn between intolerance and
injustice, although I think to some degree they go hand in hand. So
many people think their way of life is the right way and try to
enforce their ideas on other people and so many people put their own
needs above those of the people around them to the detriment of
society as a whole. I think we'd all benefit from having more respect
about what people belief and feel and have as basic rights.
Any last comments ...
Thanks for having me on your blog and
asking some very interesting questions and thank you everybody who
read this! If anyone wants to find out even more about me or check
out my books, my website is full of all that sort of stuff -
www.jessmountifield.co.uk
Thank you Jess, for coming on to the blog today. Good luck with your writing and for anyone looking to find out more about Jess's work you can use the contact links below -
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