Ask the Author: Caroline Leech
Answered Questions (12)
Caroline Leech
I'm so glad I've found these questions at last! I'm told that the US edition should go on Amazon.com for pre-order about six months before the August 28th publication date, so that will in about March. But I noticed that the UK edition is already available for pre-order on Amazon UK - that one's out a week after the US, on September 6th. I'm excited you'd like to pre-order already, but have to ask for just a little more patience! If you keep an eye on my FB page or Twitter/IG accounts, I'll post as soon as preorders open, I promise!
Thanks for being so keen - it means a lot to me!
Caroline
Thanks for being so keen - it means a lot to me!
Caroline
Caroline Leech
Aaaaargh! Mariela, I feel even worse now! You must think I was ignoring both of your lovely questions! Huge apologies! As I hope you will have seen, IN ANOTHER TIME now has a beautiful cover https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... - and it's one that complements WAIT FOR ME so beautifully while still being totally different. I hope you like it!
Caroline
Caroline
Caroline Leech
Amanda - I'm so sorry not to find your question before! Thanks so much for all your enthusiasm and questions. We've no plans for a sequel, but it's wonderful to know that you cared enough about Paul, Lorna & co to want to know what happened next. My next book, IN ANOTHER TIME, is another story set in Scotland during WW2, and will be out next August though, so hopefully that will interest you too. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Thanks again for getting in touch, and apols again for taking to so long to find it!
Caroline
Thanks again for getting in touch, and apols again for taking to so long to find it!
Caroline
Caroline Leech
Hi Maggie - I'm so sorry it's taken so long for me to find your question! I've just had the cover of my second novel revealed, and yes, it's another WW2 story, but this time set in 1942 up in the forests of the Scottish Highlands. IN ANOTHER TIME will be out next August in the US and September in the UK - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3.... I do hope you like it!
Caroline
Caroline
Caroline Leech
Hi Mariela - I'm so sorry not to have answered your question earlier. Somehow I missed it. WAIT FOR ME is a standalone story, but in August, my next novel will be released. IN ANOTHER TIME is another World War Two story, and is also set in Scotland, though in 1942 in the Highlands. And as you can see from the fabulous cover, it does (I hope) share the same spirit and atmosphere of WAIT FOR ME. I do hope you will like that one too - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Thanks for your questions, and apologies again for not finding it sooner.
Caroline
Thanks for your questions, and apologies again for not finding it sooner.
Caroline
Caroline Leech
Buenos dias, Rosa! Great to hear from you. My literary agent is Jackie Lindert at New Leaf Literary & Media Inc in New York, and Kathleen Ortiz is the agency's Director of Subsidiary Rights. Here is the link to New Leaf's website with all the details: http://www.newleafliterary.com/team/#....
I'm sorry if you tried to find my website to get this information. I have a new site ready to launch, but a few technical problems is keeping it on hold for another couple of days. Thanks for your interest in WAIT FOR ME, and I'll let Jackie know that you will be in touch.
Caroline
I'm sorry if you tried to find my website to get this information. I have a new site ready to launch, but a few technical problems is keeping it on hold for another couple of days. Thanks for your interest in WAIT FOR ME, and I'll let Jackie know that you will be in touch.
Caroline
Caroline Leech
Here are three thoughts:
1 If you are only just thinking about writing, then stop thinking, and start writing! No one can read a story you haven’t written yet.
2 Quite a lot of what you write in a first draft will be rubbish/garbage. That’s a simple fact that every writer will acknowledge. But if you try to stop to correct or beautify it before moving on , you will be throwing away valuable time, energy and confidence. Turn off your inner editor and carry on to the end of the story. Then you can start revising (and revising and revising) and polishing to add the beauty and the shine.
3 Find some writing friends (see my answer on the best things about being a writer!) – whether it’s online or in person, you need to find other writers, aspiring or further down the path, to give you advice, support and a sounding board. These other writers are not simply your contacts, they need to be your friends too, otherwise writing is going to be a very lonely business.
1 If you are only just thinking about writing, then stop thinking, and start writing! No one can read a story you haven’t written yet.
2 Quite a lot of what you write in a first draft will be rubbish/garbage. That’s a simple fact that every writer will acknowledge. But if you try to stop to correct or beautify it before moving on , you will be throwing away valuable time, energy and confidence. Turn off your inner editor and carry on to the end of the story. Then you can start revising (and revising and revising) and polishing to add the beauty and the shine.
3 Find some writing friends (see my answer on the best things about being a writer!) – whether it’s online or in person, you need to find other writers, aspiring or further down the path, to give you advice, support and a sounding board. These other writers are not simply your contacts, they need to be your friends too, otherwise writing is going to be a very lonely business.
Caroline Leech
Thinking about the craft of writing - when there’s a new story forming in my mind, and I start doing some research or background reading – this is particularly with historical fiction where so many different real life experiences can feed into one fictional story – it can be thrilling when suddenly the ideas of places and events start coming thick and fast. I do lots of scribbling in notebooks about tiny details I want to include, and it’s so exciting to be gathering all these individual jigsaw pieces together, working out how they might connect and hold on to each other, and suddenly I start to see the actual picture forming. I get a real buzz from that.
But the other wonderful thing I am discovering is the amazing sense community between writers. Although writing is something you (most often) do alone in your own head, I have always shared my writing time and space with some close ‘writing buddies’ who make sure I turn up and I’m accountable for the writing that I need to get done. And I've made some wonderful writer friends – online and from around Texas – by being part of a critique group, and going to SCBWI conferences and meetings. Since since I got my book deal, I’m part of a huge group of other YA/MG writers debuting in 2017 called The Swanky 17s. We share so many of our excitements, terrors, questions and answers about the publishing process and about our writing, it’s almost impossible to understand how a writer could choose to be alone. Of course, if I stopped spending so much time interacting with my writer friends online, I might get a bit more real writing done!
But the other wonderful thing I am discovering is the amazing sense community between writers. Although writing is something you (most often) do alone in your own head, I have always shared my writing time and space with some close ‘writing buddies’ who make sure I turn up and I’m accountable for the writing that I need to get done. And I've made some wonderful writer friends – online and from around Texas – by being part of a critique group, and going to SCBWI conferences and meetings. Since since I got my book deal, I’m part of a huge group of other YA/MG writers debuting in 2017 called The Swanky 17s. We share so many of our excitements, terrors, questions and answers about the publishing process and about our writing, it’s almost impossible to understand how a writer could choose to be alone. Of course, if I stopped spending so much time interacting with my writer friends online, I might get a bit more real writing done!
Caroline Leech
Luckily, (so far) I’ve never sat down with a blank sheet of paper/screen with no idea of what to put on it. I’m an avid plotter by nature, so by the time I have to write the actual manuscript, I already know fairly well where it is going, and what any particular chapter has to have on it. However, there have been times when I’ve been baffled about how to get the story I know already down into actual readable text. This can sometimes be a red flag to me that the outlined story isn’t strong enough. Not so long ago I knew exactly what a chapter had to include, but when the words didn’t come, I jumped to write the next chapter instead, and in the end decided the first chapter wasn’t actually interesting or important enough to write at all!
When I’m revising, I can sometimes get stuck when I know there’s a problem with what I’ve already written, but I can’t work out how to revise the problem away. At those times, I’ve either put that part aside and gone to play with another part of the story, or I’ve talked it through with a writer friend. Sometimes even just walking away, having a shower, doing something manual like driving, cooking or housework can open my mind up to the problem and the answer – or AN answer – will come to me when I least expect it.
When I’m revising, I can sometimes get stuck when I know there’s a problem with what I’ve already written, but I can’t work out how to revise the problem away. At those times, I’ve either put that part aside and gone to play with another part of the story, or I’ve talked it through with a writer friend. Sometimes even just walking away, having a shower, doing something manual like driving, cooking or housework can open my mind up to the problem and the answer – or AN answer – will come to me when I least expect it.
Caroline Leech
I’m currently writing the second of the books bought by the lovely Alice Jerman at Harper Teen. It’s not a follow up to WAIT FOR ME, but could be seen as a companion piece. I’m trying not to share too many more details about it online right now – although I love the subject so much it can be hard to shut me up if you meet me in person – but I’m sure once the first draft is finished, I’ll feel like I’ll be able tell you a little more.
Caroline Leech
WAIT FOR ME came to me like a little ringing bell in my head during a conversation with close friend in Wales who mentioned that when her father was a child, there had been a German prisoner of war working on his family farm. She told me that the prisoner had made a gift for her dad, something he still treasured. For some reason, this story set my mind racing and I immediately started researching POWs working on British farms. I did check that my friend didn’t mind if I purloined her story as inspiration for mine, and she very generously said I should go for it. She’s a writer too, but specializes in more medieval history, myth and legend, three things that Wales has in bucketloads. And originally my story was set in South Wales, near where I used to live, but eventually I decided to move it north to Scotland, where I was brought up. Long story as to why, but I'm glad I did. Working on this book, and the new one, both set in Scotland feels very comfortable for me.
Caroline Leech
I don’t find any problem being inspired to write – something, anything – but I do have a huge problem giving myself TIME to write. For a long time, I felt that since I wasn’t a REAL writer, then I couldn’t justify spending more than the odd hour or two on it. And even now, when I have one book coming out within months, and another on the way, I still find it hard to say to other people, “Sorry, I can’t do that thing, that’s my time to write.” To compensate for that, I tend to get up very early to write for two or three hours before anyone else in the house appears. Now I just have to work on getting to bed at a decent time too!
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