Interview with Jamie Admans

Hi Jaimie

Welcome to Comet Babes Books

Can you tell us about your story in Christmas Wish Come True?

Hi Jo, thanks for having me! My story in the anthology was originally called A Santa for Christmas but has since been renamed as Christmas Every Day. It’s about Emma - her life is pretty dull and the highlight of her day is saying hello to Gorgeous Dog Walker, a man she passes when she takes her dog out each night. She doesn’t even know his name, but all that changes when she (accidentally!) pushes him under a bus and he ends up in a coma, and Emma finds herself talking over his very unusual job and learning the secret of his very unusual identity!

I have previously read North Pole Reform School, can you tell me if there will be Zombies in Christmas Wish?

Hah! There are no zombies in this one (unfortunately!) There is a very grouchy elf though so I hope he’ll make up for the lack of zombies!

What is your favourite thing about Christmas?

Oh, what isn’t my favourite thing about Christmas?! I love this time of year! The music, the films, the festive treats and ‘limited edition’ winter goodies, the baking, the chocolate, the scented candles, the cold nights, warm blankets, and winter boots!

And, of course, all the lovely festive books that are out!

What are your future book plans?

I’m currently planning and starting work on another Christmas book, a full length one this time. I try to save a Christmas story to write around this time of year as it’s much easier to get into the festive feeling now than in the summer! I also have a completed novella that I’d like to expand into a full-length novel, and about nine million YA ideas screaming for attention!

What inspired you to take up writing?

I don’t know! I’ve been writing on and off since I was a child, but the turning point was about eight years ago when I actually finished my first novel. I’d been writing bits and pieces of it here and there, and without me realising, it had become an 80,000-word novel. Of course, it was absolutely dire and will never, ever see the light of day, but just the act of realising I could finish a novel changed the way I viewed writing. I suddenly realised I could write books!

Are any of your characters based on people you know?

Not ‘based on’ as such, but all parts of my own life end up sneaking into my writing. Most characters are an amalgamation of people you know, strangers you pass in the street, celebs on the TV, etc, so while no characters are specifically based on any one person, all characters are influenced by who and what I see on a daily basis.

I would hate anyone I know to think a character was based on them. Sometimes I’ll write a sentence and think ‘this sounds exactly like something so-and-so would say, I hope he doesn’t think this character is supposed to be him!’

Do you have a support network for your writing?

I think Twitter is the greatest support when it comes to writing! I know a lot of other writers on there, and lots of book bloggers and people who love reading, and I think it’s so nice to be able to post an update and have people cheering you on, whether you’re struggling through a scene, blasting through a first draft, or drowning under a pile of revisions! Away from the internet, I don’t like to talk about works in progress until they’re finished, so if people ask me what I’m working on, they usually get a vague one-sentence answer which ends the conversation. I find it much easier to be open online, especially with other writers and book lovers who understand just how frustrating writing can be when it goes wrong and how exhilarating it can be when it goes right!

What items are on your desk/where you write?

My desk is so small that there’s not much room for stuff! I’ve got a notebook and pen, a couple of USB sticks for backing up, and a bottle of water! My laptop takes up the rest of the space. I’ve been promising myself a new desk for years!

What's the worst advice you have ever received?

Worst advice? That’s an interesting one! The first piece would probably be from a career advisor at school who told me that writing was a waste of time and would never be a real job. (The same man claimed any job in the IT industry was pointless as the internet would never take off – this was the late 90s/early 00s so before the internet took off but it shows how valid his claims were!)

The second bit was probably ‘save your work directly to a USB stick’ – no! I learned this lesson the hard way. Save your work to your computer and immediately copy it over to a USB stick, because if the stick chooses to crash mid-save, you lose a lot of work!

What's the best/worst thing about social media?

The best thing is absolutely the support network, and how close it lets you get to people who are far away. I’ve made some true friends through social media, people I’ll probably never meet because we live too far away, but the distance is unimportant because they’re never further away than a DM or mention!

The worst thing about it is when you’re on a deadline, and you either have to force yourself not to open Twitter, or you go in ‘just for a quick check’ and you’re still there three hours later, nattering away and following links to Buzzfeed and Youtube, and you’ve got absolutely no work done whatsoever!

Have you ever heard a strange/different story that you thought would be great in a book?

Many! I save anything that piques my interest. There’s a part of my brain that’s always on the lookout for new stories and I feel like my ears prick up at the mention of something interesting, and I think ‘this would be great for a story’ so I always save links and pictures and stuff, even if I can’t use them immediately, there’s plenty of stories still to come that they might be a perfect fit for!

You mentioned North Pole Reform School earlier, that whole book was born from a newspaper article about a window cleaner dressed as an elf who refused to wear a safety harness. The headline was ‘Elf & Safety’ and it led to all sorts of ideas about an elf school, which quickly snowballed into North Pole Reform School!

Thank You!

Christmas Every Day by Jaimie Admans

Emma loves bumping into Gorgeous Dog Walker, Nick, every evening. But when he ends up in a coma (partly her fault), she ends up taking care of ‘his job’…and his dog! Emma stopped believing in Santa years ago, but this Christmas her world is about to be turned upside down!

Jaimie is a 30-year-old English-sounding Welsh girl with an awkward-to-spell name. She lives in South Wales and enjoys writing, gardening, drinking tea and watching horror movies. She loves autumn and winter, and singing songs from musicals despite the fact she sounds like a dying hyena. She hates spiders and cheese & onion crisps. She spends far too much time on Twitter and owns too many pairs of boots.

She has been writing for years, but has never before plucked up the courage to tell people. Kismetology is her debut novel and she wants you to know that the mum in this book is nothing like her own mum!

She is also the author of young adult romantic comedies Afterlife Academy, Not Pretty Enough, and North Pole Reform School.

Find out more on www.jaimieadmans.com or connect on Twitter @be_the_spark