Member Showcase: Angela Hobday

Member’s Showcase – Angela Hobday

Today we welcome Angela Hobday to the Blog. Angela, as you will know from her previous excellent blog post, writes as Annie Try. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed for the monthly showcase. I’m going to start with the quick fire round, so make yourself comfortable in our lovely virtual leather chair and off we go:

What’s your favourite food?

Salmon, roasted or pan-fried with fresh vegetables, probably – but I love traditional foods like roasts and shepherd’s pie, the latter with lashings of melted cheese on top. Favourite dessert is my daughter-in-law’s homemade ice-cream. It has the wow factor!

What is your favourite colour?

Definitely soft greeny-blues or bluey-greens. Sea colours.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?

There are loads of places. I enjoy islands or coastal places. Also I was enchanted by San Gimignano in Tuscany and want to revisit. I love Venice too. I have yet to see the Norwegian fjords or the Northern Lights which I would like to do. Plus maybe visit relatives in New Zealand.

Pen or keyboard?

Both, but if using a pen I prefer a small fountain pen.

Now for a few more in-depth questions;

How did you start writing?

I have always scribbled away for relaxation but when I began work as a clinical psychologist I found I had a lot of expertise about children in care or adopted, so started writing journal articles and then discovered a need for basic therapy books designed for those working with children, which I wrote with a colleague.

Why did you choose to write in your particular genre?

My genres now are YA contemporary fiction and adult general fiction. My first novel, Losing Face, arose because of a coincidence. I was working for an MA in Creative Writing and although I had started a novel, it was going slowly. Then I attended a seminar on working with children who had unusual appearance. There was only one novel for YA amongst the literature on display. By the time I arrived home, I had a new novel buzzing around my head.

Have you got a favourite genre to read? If so why?

I read YA contemporary fiction because that’s what I am writing. But otherwise I have very wide tastes. I like books that are unusual in some way, for example The Time Traveler’s Wife or The Book Thief. I also read John Grisham and Kate Atkinson - I have just finished her novel Life after Life, which I loved.

How would you describe your writing regime?

Chaotic. Next question?

What would be your top tip for writers?

If writing is important to you, never give up. Scribble everywhere, ignore rejections, learn more about your craft and write what God leads you to write.

Can you give readers a short passage from your book so that we can have a flavour of what it is about?

Yes, sure. Losing Face is written in two voices writing to each other and this is the second character, Em, getting the story down on paper in chapter 2. Spider (Cass’s love interest) has driven recklessly and there has been a crash. Em’s friend Cass has been thrown through the windscreen.


I thought you were dead when we pulled up behind you. I jumped out and so did Jock. It seemed to take forever to run round to the front of the car where you were. That nutter Spider had hold of your arm and was trying to drag you up. He was shouting “Get up babe, get up!” over and over. Apart from his crazy mind, he was just fine. The airbag thingy had popped out of the steering wheel just like it was meant to. He had got out with hardly a scratch. Shame there wasn’t one for you.

​I started shouting at Spider,

“Get off her, leave her. She mustn’t be moved. Stop that.”

Jock was quieter, more patient with him.

“Come on mate, let go of her now. She can’t get up. We’ll get some help. You just leave her there.” Then Jock pulled Spider away from you, talking to him all the time. You made some dreadful gurgling noise. That’s how we knew you were alive.


What are you working on at the moment?

I am in the process of editing three books. Dancing in the Dark (working title), another YA novel, plus two adult fiction novels,Trying to Fly and Out of Silence.

Can you tell us about them, without giving the game away of course?

Dancing in the Dark is a sequel to Losing face, focusing on Em’s own story and her hunt to discover questions about her past.

In Out of Silence a psychologist begins to tackle his own difficulties as he works with an elective mute.

Trying to Fly is the story of a recovering agoraphobic who discovers a mystery to be solved (with a little romance along the way).

Thank you for allowing us to have a glimpse in to your life as a writer. It was a pleasure to have you on the blog. I would like to wish you all the best with your writing.

You can find out more about Annie and her writing in the following links

Website

Blog

Twitter

That's it for another Bookaholic day. I will see you all back here very soon. Until we meet again, keep reading.