#BlogTour #Interview #Giveaway: The Street Orphans @authormary @#TheStreetOrphans #MaryWood #HistoricalSaga

I’m on the blog tour for The Street Orphans by Mary Wood today and have a fantastic Q&A with Mary to share.  My thanks to Mary for being so lovely and understanding when, due to a teething baby, I was unable to review the book as well.

The Street Orphans is available to buy now in ebook and paperback.  You can purchase a copy of both here.

Mary is hosting a Giveaway for a copy of this book throughout the blog tour.  To enter just comment on this post or any of the other posts on the tour.  Good luck everyone!

Before I share my Q&A with you here is a little about the book.

Book Description:

The Street Orphans is an emotional story set in 1850s Lancashire, from Mary Wood, the author of In Their Mother’s Footsteps and Brighter Days Ahead.

Born with a club foot in a remote village in the Pennines, Ruth is feared and ridiculed by her superstitious neighbours who see her affliction as a sign of witchcraft. When her father is killed in an accident and her family evicted from their cottage, she hopes to leave her old life behind, to start afresh in the Blackburn cotton mills. But tragedy strikes once again, setting in motion a chain of events that will unravel her family’s lives.

Their fate is in the hands of the Earl of Harrogate, and his betrothed, Lady Katrina. But more sinister is the scheming Marcia, Lady Katrina’s jealous sister. Impossible dreams beset Ruth from the moment she meets the Earl. Dreams that lead her to hope that he will save her from the terrible fate that awaits those accused of witchcraft. Dreams that one day her destiny and the Earl’s will be entwined.

Q&A with Mary Wood:

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I have just celebrated my 55th wedding anniversary, and am a mother of four, grandma of eight, plus four step-grandchildren and a great granny to 20 with 1 on the way, plus 3 step great grandchildren. My Christmases are very expensive, so I save all year in a Christmas-Club, but it’s never enough! I love to shop for them, but sometimes, it’s not possible so then they all get a voucher.

I am the thirteenth child of fifteen, so love big families. My home town is Lancashire, but I spend the winter months in Spain, where I do most of my writing.

What do you do when you are not writing?

I love to socialize, eat out, walk, and enjoy online scrabble and card games. TV is another media I enjoy, and yes, reading is pretty high up there too.

Do you have a day job as well?

No; I am retired from the 9 – 5 life, and now I devote many hours a day to my writing.

When did you first start writing and when did you finish your first book?

I started when a child, writing stories, but actually finished a complete novel in 1989. Though it was many years later before I was published.

How did you choose the genre you write in?

I, like most authors, wrote what I enjoy reading. I used to devour Catherine Cookson books and they inspired me to write.

Where do you get your ideas?

My main source of inspiration comes from a name popping into my head. The name soon becomes a fully rounded, living, breathing character with a story to tell – it feels to me as if this person has lived and wants me to tell their story – weird, I know! Other inspiration has come through stories I have come across during research, or when visiting an historic place, I can feel the happenings of the past, and before I leave have a whole novel plotted in my head.

Do you ever experience writer’s block?

No. Not in the way that I have read some authors suffer this, where nothing will occur to them, but in a lesser way, I have experienced a – hard going – when the words are not flowing, but are drawn out of me, if that makes sense? But I just keep going and soon it all begins to flow.

Do you work with an outline, or just write?

Yes, I have an outline. Quite a detailed one, and this, I think, is why I don’t suffer from writers block. I have my synopsis to refer to at all times. The whole novel, characters, plot and setting is outlined before I begin to write the novel

Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?

The Dwelling place by Catherine Cookson. I had read a lot of the classics and loved them, but this book was different, it drew me in as if I was living it, it touched my every sense and my every emotion, it made me say: ‘I want to write, and I want to write like that.’

Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?

These were many. I sent off numerous synopsis and first three chapters, but a rejection letter always landed on my mat. I gave up on that novel and began a new one, which I gave the title of The Brutal Bonds of Love. It was a novel that I loved, and believed in, but still, I had no luck. Although, I did get feedback, which is a good sign. I rewrote it at least fifteen times over almost as many years, and eventually, I self-published it under a different name – An Unbreakable Bond, and wrote three more books – one a prequel, one a sequel, and one a spin-off – all reached number one of genre. Then, a magical thing happened, I was spotted by Pan Macmillan, and signed a seven book deal!!!

Is anything in your book based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?

There is a lot of how folk lived, drawn from my own experiences, as very little changed in the domestic lives of folk, from the turn of the century to when I was a child in the 40’s and 50’s. Two world wars had almost stopped progress – so, yes, I do remember outside lavs that were emptied onto a cart at night, and coppers that had to have a fire lit under them to bring them to the boil to wash the clothes and to fill the bath tub from. Also, black-leaded stoves, linoleum on the floor, and quarry tiled floors that needed polishing with red polish, and even gas and oil lamps. Other experiences are sometimes taken from what I have been through myself. Not the rape, murder, or workhouse situations, thank Goodness!

What was your hardest scene to write?

There has been many, as I am a gritty writer, and my women suffer a great deal. I often cry while writing, but perhaps the one that made me cry the most was when Megan – a character in An Unbreakable Bond, and Tomorrow Brings Sorrow, was murdered by her own son in a brutal attack. I had loved her from when she was 13yrs old, and written her harrowing life, through to her finding happiness and good fortune, only to see her beaten so badly. It broke my heart.

How did you come up with the title?

Titles are difficult and sometimes a bone of contention. I create one which I think really suits the book, then my editor says, ‘not suitable’ so we brain storm others. For example: The Street Orphans was once called, Judge Me Not. Brighter Days Ahead, was Reach Out to Me. A number of my books have now got different titles to those I gave them – but that’s not a bad thing, as I love what they are now.

What project are you working on now?

I am working on the third of a new trilogy. The Girls Who Went to War – The first two are The Forgotten Daughter and The Abandoned Daughter. This one is The Wronged Daughter. They met as nurses in Belgium at the beginning of the Great War. They became friends, but each has a past that affects them. They drift apart after they come home, and we go on a journey with each in their own book – but their present is troubled too. And so, do they look to each other again, or take a different path?

What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?

The criticism which was both very tough, and yet, led to greater things for me was ‘this book has been edited by a monkey!’ It was part of a review in my self-published days. I answered the reviewer, telling her that I’m not a monkey, but an OAP fulfilling her dream, but unable to afford an editor. She was mortified and told me that she was a professional editor and offered to edit my book for me for nothing!! Her edit and subsequent ones on other self-published books, greatly contributed to me becoming a published author. I shall always be grateful to her. Greatest compliment? The same book was compared to the wonderful Catherine Cookson. It doesn’t get better than that!

Is there anything that you would like to say to your readers and fans?

Thank you. Two, overused words that don’t really cut it. For they cannot begin to cover what I have been given by my wonderful readers. They are always there for me, supporting and encouraging me, and I love them to bits.
Thank you to you too, this has been a lovely interview, and I really appreciate you hosting me on your wonderful blog.

About The Author:

Born in Maidstone, Kent, in 1945, the thirteenth child of fifteen children, Mary’s family settled in Leicestershire after the war ended.

Mary married young and now, after 54 years of happy marriage, four children, 12 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren, Mary and her husband live in Blackpool during the summer and Spain during the winter – a place that Mary calls, ‘her writing retreat’.

After many jobs from cleaning to catering, all chosen to fit in with bringing up her family, and boost the family money-pot, Mary ended her 9 – 5 working days as a Probation Service Officer, a job that showed her another side to life, and which influences her writing, bringing a realism and grittiness to her novels

Mary first put pen to paper, in 1989, but it wasn’t until 2010 that she finally found some success by self-publishing on kindle.

Being spotted by an editor at Pan Macmillan in 2013, finally saw Mary reach her publishing dream.

When not writing, Mary enjoys family time, reading, eating out, and gardening. One of her favourite pastimes is interacting with her readers on her Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/HistoricalNovels
And on her web page: http://www.authormarywood.com
She is also on Twitter: @Authormary

Mary welcomes all contact with her readers and feedback on her work.

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