Ask the Author: Jon Franklin
Answered Questions (7)
Jon Franklin
This is something I am fortunate to have not experienced so often. The reason for this is that I tend to map out my novel from the outset. If for whatever reason I do struggle - for example, the middle of three act story telling can bring problems - I tend not to force things and return a day or two later.
Jon Franklin
Fundamentally, by Nussaibah Younis.
Jon Franklin
A few months after graduating from university with a degree in Photography, I was trying to find my feet again, back out in the real world. Between jobs, I spent a short period signing on. Out of the blue, I received an invitation out of no where to spend a week as the Official Photographer of People and Events for the 1996 running of the Dubai World Cup! I must have been the only member of the British media staying at the Dubai Hilton as a guest of his Royal Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum who was signing on at the time. I had about forty-five quid to last me the week, which explained my rather large room service bill. Luckily a bus shuttle ran me too and from the racecourse each day and something I was able to keep my 'job status' secret from all around me. Talk about 'playing a part' it was all quite surreal. The role I was given was a status thing; it wasn't actually paid - so I wasn't breaking any rules as such and later work did come from it. Not sure this would be a great plot for a book particularly - a short story, perhaps - but it did feel something of a mystery that I was there supposedly living the 'high life' when my own stays back home in England was anything but!
Jon Franklin
Promotion of my sequel to Shouting The Odds, which is called Manvers Road Star - a heartwarming story of friendship, resilience and the incredible bond between humans and horses. You will find more information about it on my Amazon author's page.
Jon Franklin
The idea for writing Shouting The Odds came from my personal experience of working in betting shops in 1980's and 1990's Britain. Though by then betting shops were as common on the British high street as pubs, supermarkets and chemists, the general consensus among the British public was that it was a taboo to be seen in one. Part of my motivation for writing a novel set in a betting shop was my desire to challenge that notion.
Jon Franklin
To write from personal experience about a subject that you care deeply about.
Jon Franklin
Last year I was lucky enough to attended a talk by Ian McEwan at my local city library here in Malmö, Sweden where I live. I think he summed this question up very nicely. He said that the best thing about being a writer was the sense of inner joy he feels when he closes down his computer for the day, that the words he'd written during that session - whether it was simply one sentence or two or three chapters - were uniquely his and his alone.
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