GUEST POST: Jill Mansell

Today on My Overstuffed Bookshelf, I have the pleasure of featuring author Jill Mansell.  She is the author of the recently released Rumor Has It. She was kind enough to take the time to offer a guest post for all of us.

The thing about being a writer is the massive difference between most of your working days and…well, the rest of them. By this I mean that MOST days consist of dropping the kids off at school, coming home and settling myself down on the sofa surrounded by cushions and crisp (potato chips) packets and pens and writing pads and my iPod touch and the phone and the TV remote control. The plan is that I will then briefly skim through my emails and Twitter and Amazon and any blogs that may have mentioned my name, before settling down to several hours of uninterrupted writing. At the end of these few hours – oh, how time flies! – I will have completed a couple of thousand words – rather good ones, at that – of my current novel. I will then go and pick up the kids, come back, cook something for dinner, clean up the kitchen, eat food, watch TV, read a bit of someone else’s book (for a change!) and go to bed at around midnight.

In reality it doesn’t quite happen like that. I spend far too long on emails and Twitter and other such lovely time-wasting diversions. I make endless cups of coffee, eat lots and lots of snacks and scour the internet in search of ways of transforming myself into the kind of author for whom time flies while I’m writing. Because for me, it never does. And I’m starting to feel quite hard done by! I keep reading about these writers who wake at five am and start work in their nightdresses and work and work, utterly absorbed in their characters, until eventually they look up and discover that somehow, mystifyingly, twelve hours have passed and they’ve completed six thousand words. And I’m sorry, but it just isn’t fair! I’ve slogged away for twenty years now and never found an easy way of doing it. For me, writing books is slow and difficult. I’m too easily distracted. There are always other things I’d rather be doing. Why am I always so sloooow?

But as I say, that’s only MOST of my days. Happily, after all the hard work, there are also the remaining few, the sparkly exciting ones when I’m let out of the house, into the real world to meet people who like my books as well as other people who also write them and know what it’s like. And these are lovely, celebratory days. We drink champagne and talk and laugh and eat fabulous food and have fun, and that’s what makes it all worthwhile. The last time it happened we all met up at a glamorous awards ceremony and had a truly memorable day. And what do we writers always say to each other on these occasions? “Why can’t every day be like this?!”

Would you be tempted?
Newly single, Tilly Cole impulsively accepts a job offer in a small town as a “Girl Friday.” Fun job, country house, fresh start, why not? But soon she finds herself in a hotbed of gossip, intrigue, and rampant rivalry for the town’s most desirable bachelor—Jack Lucas.

Rumors of Jack’s “love ’em and leave ’em” escapes abound, and Tilly decides to do the mature, sensible thing… avoid Jack at all cost. But the more time Tilly spends with Jack, the more the rumors just don’t make sense. Tilly doesn’t know what to believe… and Jack’s not telling. 

UK bestselling author Jill Mansell has written nearly twenty romances and women’s fiction novels, and sold over 4 million books.  A master of romantic comedy, her smart, sassy style has an irresistible appeal for women of all ages.  A full–time writer, Ms. Mansell worked for many years the Burden Neurological Hospital, Bristol. She lives with her partner and their children in Bristol, England. For more information, please visit http://www.jillmansell.co.uk/ or follow Jill on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JillMansell.  

For more information and to purchase this book,  please check out Sourcebooks, Inc.