Meet Author Anni Rose
I’m excited for you to meet author Anni Rose today on my blog, especially because she has some tips on writing comedy callbacks!
Recipe for Mr. Right Blurb
A sprinkle of luck and a dollop of fate …
Ruby Brooks is a little sceptical when her horoscope say sheās going to have a fabulous year ā especially when she loses a boyfriend and a job in quick succession. Plus, a rogue kitchen fitter has run off and taken everything, including the kitchen sink!
So, Ruby takes luck and fate into her own hands with an unusual resolution ā sheāll enter ten competitions a day, whether theyāre for her dream Japanese holiday or a yearās supply of dog food (she doesnāt have a dog) and win her way to happiness.
But when a Valentineās Day prize from a local restaurant results in chef Adam Finder (and his dog, Brutus) appearing in her life, is that luck or fate? And will Ruby ultimately find out that true happiness doesnāt need to be won?
It’s available at:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3lqwepf
Apple: https://apple.co/3BpysL9
Kobo: https://bit.ly/3iM3p4H
Google Books: https://bit.ly/3uVCGYv
Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3AmzplN
Website: https://bit.ly/3AsYFHc
Meet the Author Anni Rose Interview
Kathy: Hi Anni, Iām so glad you could join us today on my blog. Anni is a fellow author in the Romantic Novelists Association with me, and I really enjoyed her book, Recipe for Mr. Right.
Anni: Thank you, Kathy, for inviting me, itās a real pleasure to be with you today.
Kathy: I loved the set-up of Ruby applying to 10 contests a day in Recipe for Mr. Right. And I thought you did a brilliant job of comic callbacks with that set-up. Also, I loved the heart-warming romance between Ruby and Adam. And you did a great job of conveying the stalkerish friend who feels just a bit off. Oh, and I also loved Mr. Tahsin and his son Malik – what great characters. I hope we see them again too. Highly recommend.
Kathy: How did you come up with the applying to contests idea for Recipe for Mr. Right?
Anni: Time to āfess up, I entered ten competitions a day at one time, but only for a month. I did win a āWrite your own Willā book, a pair of rubber gloves, Ideal Home tickets and tickets to a Donny Osmond Concert though!
Kathy: That’s not a bad haul. Have you ever had a kitchen outfitter leave you with no kitchen?
Anni: Of course, the book is entirely fictional; however, a bad experience with a new kitchen might have been the inspiration for it. I donāt think anyone whoās had a new kitchen built will tell you it was much fun, so it was cathartic to get it out of my system by writing about it. But I am lucky, in so much, as I have two really talented sisters, one who designs and builds furniture. She built my current kitchen and (my office) while it was a stressful time for a while, it is just amazing, and I love it.
Kathy: Do you have any pets? Whatās your favorite habit of your current pet?
Anni: Iāve always had pets, in the past horses as well as cats, dogs and chickens.
Now we have just the one cat, one chicken and two dogs. Brian is a fifteen-month-old Labrador and Rocky is a Romanian rescue, who came to us after an operation for two broken back legs. Heād been hit by a car and left in the road, nearly eighteen months ago. Both of them are amazing, and usually quite happy to settle in the office while Iām writing. But give Brian a treat, however small, and he wonāt eat it until heās run round it in circles, jumping and throwing it about, until Rocky comes from nowhere and then pinches it. Funnily enough when we had a reunion with his brothers and sisters, it seems quite a few of them do exactly the same thing. Oh, and he tends to sleep with his tongue out. So, whatever heās lying on can get quite damp.
Kathy: Aww. I love that story.
Meet the Author Anni Rose and Her Thoughts on Writing
Kathy: Do you have a writing routine? If so, what is it?
Not a routine as such because I tend to write whenever I can, so it can be any time of the day (or night). Sometimes I find Iām most productive if I only have fifteen or twenty minutes, so no time to prevaricate and I am very good at that! I try not to go back and read what Iāve written. Thereās plenty of time for editing once the first draft is finished. Otherwise I get caught up with rewriting and editing and before I know where I am, a couple of hours have passed in which time I havenāt written anything new.
I usually write directly on to a computer. I really love writing in long-hand and tend to revert to that if I get stuck on a particular idea. Thatās my justification for buying new stationery, something I do a lot. Oh, and I find I am most productive when not too far away from a large mug of tea.
Kathy: Are you a pantser or a plotter?
A bit of both these days. One of the first books I wrote, I had no plan at all, other than the characters and a basic plot. I wrote the chapters I fancied writing when I fancied writing them. Some days it was just back story and never got into the novel. I loved the freedom of doing it, but it was a very difficult book to edit, and changed hugely over the first few drafts.
Now, Iām writing a series of books, set in the same town. I really need to be more organized and keep track of characters, places etc. Itās quite often minor characters that I find Iām interested in developing stories for in later manuscripts. Until recently I kept notebooks full of ideas and notes, but these days Iām experimenting with Plottr software, and so far, it does seem easier to be able to just go back and check on something.
Kathy: I feel like I’m a bit of both too.
Meet the Author Anni Rose and Advice on Callbacks and Comedy
Kathy: I really loved your use of callbacks. Do you have any advice for writers on writing callbacks?
Thank you. If thereās something the character needs to do or say at the end of the book, I try and introduce the idea early on and maybe refer to it occasional throughout the book. One of the first writing classes I went to said that if you were going to fire a gun in chapter four, you needed to introduce it in chapter one.
Kathy: Do you have any other advice for writers on writing comedy or romantic comedy?
My family think itās incredibly funny that I write comedy, because usually if I tell them a joke, I get something slightly wrong. So, they donāt find it nearly as hilarious as I do and I end up explaining the joke to them. I like my main characters to have a sense of humour.
I think that humour is important in life in general. Quite often the things I think are funny at the time when I see them written down later donāt work at all andāI hate slapstick. My heroes or heroines are normal people. My comedy will hopefully come from their reaction to situations they find themselves in. I like them all too much to subject them to absurd physical activity such as pies in faces, pokes in the eye or have them slipping around on banana peel. Having said that I am currently struggling to fit my āHas anyone seen the dog bowl?ā joke into my current WIP.
My Favorite Question: If you could choose five writers to join you for a dinner party, who would you invite?
Kathy: And my favorite question: if you could choose five authors to join you for a dinner, who would you choose?
This is an incredibly difficult question. I couldnāt possibly limit my dinner companions to five if I had to include any romantic novelists, so Iām going to exclude all of them. But it goes without saying if I could invite as many as I wanted then youād be on my list Kathy. But it was still incredibly hard. I have a long waiting list if any of the following couldnāt make it:
So, without the romance writers it would have to be Ben Macintyre ā he is a historian, reviewer, and columnist for The Times newspaper. He has written a number of books about historical controversies, and I heard him talk once about Agent Zigzag. I know he can really make the period come alive and has a lovely sense of humour too. So, I think heād make a great dinner companion. And I have a huge number of questions about other events Iād like to know his theories on.
Enid Blyton: I grew up reading Enidās books. I so wanted to go to Malory Towers or be a member of the Famous Five. Of course, weād be having lashings of ginger beer which I think sheād approve of!
Harlan Coben: If you asked me what other books apart from romances I read for relaxation, Iād probably say crime. Anything crime except psychological thrillersāunless that is, theyāre written by Harlan Cohen. I think Iāve read all his books and at the moment am loving Stay Close on Netflix.
Vikram Seth: I was introduced to Vikram by Suitable Boy and love his writing style. He is an amazing storyteller, but we havenāt seen much of him for a while, Iām worried he might have writersā block so my final guest would have to be Anne Lamott.
Anne Lamott: I loved Bird by Bird, great writing advice, very provocative with a light humorous touch. It was one of the first writing books I read, and she gives great advice. I loved her novel All New People too, if anyone can get Vikram going again Iām sure it would be Anne.
Kathy: That is going to be an amazing dinner party! Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions. Iām looking forward to reading your second book, Recipe for Mr Perfect.
Anni: Thank you, Kathy, it was great talking to you. The punchline for the dog joke ā oh yes ā I didnāt even know he played cricket.
Kathy: You can follow Anni here:
Twitter: @AnniRoseAuthor
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AnniRoseAuthor
Website: https://anniroseauthor.co.uk
Instagram: anniroseauthor
Recipe for Mr. Perfect Blurb
How do you know if youāve found Mr Perfect or Mr Perfectly Useless?
Jess Willersey realised things with Martin werenāt perfect, but itās still a shock when he leaves. Is she destined to a singleton lifestyle with only her cat for company, or could a certain hat-astrophic encounter with a handsome stranger at a rather unusual wedding signal a turning point?
At the same time, Jessās best friends and work colleagues, Maggie and Sarah, are going through their own personal disasters ā from shocking family revelations to dodgy dating app-related drama.
To top it all off, it seems that the handsome stranger wonāt remain a stranger ā and when Neil Jackson turns up at the friendsā office with yet another bombshell, how long will he stay āMr Perfectā in Jessās eyes?
Let’s Talk
So, if you could choose 5 writers to invite to a dinner party, who would you invite?
2 Comments
Giulia Skye
Great interview. Anni Rose’s books look great. I will check them out. My 5 writers to invite to a dinner party are: Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Rachel Gibson, Julie James, Nora Roberts and Georgette Heyer!
kstrobos
That would be a fun dinner party!