Self-Publisher’s Showcase: Today we are joined by Lorraine Pestell, author of the A Life Singular serial. Welcome to the Showcase Lounge, Lorraine.

Lorraine Pestell:   Thank you so much for the opportunity to feature on Self-Publisher’s Showcase, and a big G’day to your community from a blisteringly hot Melbourne summer!

SPS: For any of our readers that haven’t come across your work previously, can you take a moment to tell us all a little about yourself?

LP:  Of course!  Like all introverts, I am my least favourite subject, but here goes… I was born in a north-western suburb of London (a long, long time ago), as the eldest of four children in a musical family.  I have loved writing for as long as I can remember, and would often squirrel myself away in my corner of the bedroom I shared with my two sisters to craft backstories about my favourite celebrities or to extend reports I’d seen on the news.  Even from a young age, I have always been fascinated by the reasons why people do or say what they do or say.

Quite deliberately, as a stamp of independence, I attended university as far away from home as possible without leaving the UK education system.  I spent four enlightening years in Stirling, Scotland, followed by a further two in Edinburgh after graduating.  Having said that though, Glasgow is my equal-first favourite city with Melbourne!  I have enjoyed a long career in the IT industry since then, which has taken me all over the world:  the US, various European capitals, Singapore and now Australia.

Throughout this time I have continued to write, both because I love the creative process of stringing words together to evoke particular emotions, but mostly as therapy for symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, in order that it not define my life altogether.  My publishing journey only started in earnest around five years ago, when sudden inspiration for a new sub-plot to the story I’ve been writing since my teens triggered an absolute obsession to speak out.

SPS:  What are your perfect writing conditions, and how often do you write?

LP:  When I’m writing, rather than editing or social-media-ing, I need complete silence.  My ancient, creaky dog is always by my side, occasionally nudging my elbow or making peculiar grunting sounds when he thinks I need a break!  There’s also usually the remains of a cappuccino next to my mouse, and chocolate is an essential ingredient for weekend writing.

I write as often as I possibly can; most evenings and all weekend.  Ideas wake me up at night, and I’m forever e-scribbling notes into my smartphone or tablet while I should be focussing on other things!  I recently relocated 4000 kilometres eastwards, back to Melbourne from Perth, and have been unemployed for a number of months.  Apart from the obvious impact on my dwindling fortunes, this period has allowed me to spend much more time writing.  This luxury is about to come to an end, since I start a new job very soon.

SPS: Can you put your finger on the moment where you decided that you wanted to publish your work?

LP:  Yes!  As mentioned above, because I grew up immersed in the music world, at fourteen years of age I began writing a cute romance between a pop star and a rock guitarist.  This stagnated for many years at a time, making way for other pursuits, but continued to tap on my shoulder every now and again.  Life has dealt me some unfortunate circumstances, and I would always turn to my imagination for refuge.

During the early 2000s, the story became a vehicle for two very specific goals:  one, to inspire fellow sufferers of mental illness to rise above their symptoms; and two, to encourage non-sufferers to support, include and even love us in our quest to live a ‘normal’ life.  Therefore, from when I woke one morning in 2008 with a tangential episode desperate to find its voice, I haven’t looked back once!

SPS: Why do you think it is that you have decided to write the serial that you have?

LP:  My two goals, described in the previous section, came about because I encounter so much discrimination, ignorance and stigma on a daily basis as someone afflicted with mental health issues.  The World Health Organisation recently published a statistic showing there are around 350 million people in the developed world at any one time suffering from some form of depression- or anxiety-related illness, which means that this same number of people are experiencing a similar level of adversity.

By wrapping my very serious and heartfelt messages into a love story, I hope to be able to reach a much wider audience; to ‘preach to the unconverted’, if you will…  The serial’s backdrop of millionnaire celebrities who travel the world will appeal to a wide cross-section of readers.  It also showcases Melbourne, Australia, which is regularly voted the world’s most liveable city – typically vying for top spot with Vancouver, Canada.

SPS: What kind of reader do you think would enjoy ‘A Life Singular’?

LP:  I originally expected my readership to be predominately women who like contemporary fiction and romance.  However, I have received positive feedback from men too, which is great, probably due to the sporting, business and philanthropy themes which run through the books.

My subject matter and treatment would probably appeal more to someone who’s after intellectual stimulation rather than pure entertainment and escapism; people interested in learning, social justice and making the world a better place for everyone.

SPS: What exactly is ‘A Life Singular’; are we talking elements of spirituality?

LP:  Yes, I do venture into the realm of spirituality during the serial, although I’m most definitely not a religious person.  The serial presents a long, intense journey through the process of writing an autobiography, and therefore is about a life.  What kind of life?  A life singular.  We are given a life, and it’s up to us to make of it what we will.

I deliberately chose to place the adjective after the noun as a tribute to the European languages which shaped my love for literature.  Each part in the serial is linked to a classic novel from the 18th, 19th or 20th century, usually French, but also Russian and Brazilian.  It is the ‘life’ which is first and foremost, and the multi-dimensional meaning of the word ‘singular’ is perfect for the complexities we are all faced with:  one, unique, extraordinary.

As a recovering, disappointingly-unsuccessful suicide victim, I am plagued with a death-wish that has led me to delve into reincarnation and souls.  This is also the glue which holds my protagonist together in his own hours of need.

SPS: Can you tell us about Jeff and where he found his drive to succeed in life?

LP:  Jeff himself doesn’t know exactly where he found his drive to succeed!  That’s part of the mystery journey we go on.  He was born into a violent, disintegrating family on the fringes of society, blessed with extraordinary intelligence, talent and foresight that the rest of his family cannot understand.  He firmly believes that he’s an old soul, particularly when he begins to recognise his destiny and after his soul-mate makes herself blatantly accessible to him.

Like many savvy kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, Jeff Diamond is intent on being “someone”, and uses whatever means at his disposal to reach for outlandish goals.  Sales proceeds from the books go to two Australian non-profit organisations which provide mentoring and support for such youngsters, because my handsome hero could certainly have done with their services when he was growing up!

SPS: How does he cope with the tragic loss of Lynn?

LP:  Well, if you ask his friends and children, they would most likely tell you that Jeff doesn’t cope too well at all!  A larger-than-life celebrity, he has lived his adult life under public scrutiny, which means his public persona needs to struggle on after Lynn’s murder while his private self is left to pick up the pieces of their shattered paradise.

The premise onto which our hero holds is that this is only one of many lives, and he and Lynn will seek to share each subsequent life too.  Hence his haste to arrive in the next…  Through his firm belief that the lovers have been together in previous lives, he hangs onto this dream even though all around him think he’s crazy.

SPS: What are the reasons behind García turning out the way he did?

LP:  97% of Australia’s population are migrants or are descended from migrants, some of whom have endured incredible hardship to land in a safe and prosperous destination.  Many arrivals during the nineteen-forties and -fifties sailed for six weeks in often awful conditions to reach their new homes in the southern hemisphere, a large proportion leaving family members behind and thereby incurring debilitating mental scars.

Add to this a jealous grudge fuelled by his own feelings of inadequacy, along with a wife who fell in love with a superstar, Juan Antonio García becomes obsessed with eliminating his nemesis.

SPS:  Does Jeff find the whole documenting process healing or does he struggle with his emotions?

LP:  Both!  Creating his autobiography helps with healing because it accelerates the struggle with his emotions.  It also benefits his children’s grieving process, surfacing the depth of love from which they were conceived and providing them with an insight into their father’s intentions for the future.  Very much an introverted set of novels, I wanted to articulate the internal conflict of grief and recovery:  what helps and what doesn’t.

Moreover, because the Diamond family have lived their life in the spotlight, the public assumes it knows the stars well.  The autobiography is Jeff’s chance to set the record straight; a legacy to acquit his and Lynn’s case and to inspire others to lead an equally singular life.

 

 

SPS: How does Jeff’s story progress in the second instalment?

LP:  The ‘A Life Singular’ serial follows standard dramatic structure; i.e. Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action and Dénouement.  Part Two is the commencement of Act One, the Exposition, and sees Jeff track back to how he met his 16-year-old dream girl, and how he helped her to understand both his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and his ambitious plans for the future.  It finishes with how the young couple’s efforts to stay together were thwarted by her parents.

Between the beginning of Part Three to halfway through Part Five constitutes Act Two, with Part Six as the culminating Act Three.  In all, the serial spans almost fifty years, ending in contemporary times (providing I stick to my deadlines!)

SPS: Are there any characters we should be on the lookout for?

LP:  I know and love most of my characters so well, it’s difficult to single any out.  Wendy García, the killer’s wife, has a few interesting quirks, and the family’s agent / manager, Gerry Blake, is an over-grown schoolboy who revels in the high-life he lives courtesy of his biggest clients’ fame and fortune.

The Diamonds have two teenaged children, the sporty Ryan (nicknamed “Jet”) and Kierney, who longs to be a human rights lawyer.  Their father depends on the kids rather too much, and we see how they deal with this reliance in very different ways, but always with love and respect.  We don’t really get to know Lynn until Part Two, but she is the guardian angel that I wish I had!

SPS: How does Jeff cope with attempting to write from Lynn’s point of view?

LP:  Because Lynn and Jeff are twin souls, they have an innate understanding of each other anyway.  However, in writing a joint autobiography, Jeff needs to ensure he supplements his own recollections with personal insights from his wife’s diaries as well.  Reading these for the first time and giving them context within the life they shared is a mixture of intimate voyeurism and emotional rollercoaster.  A natural pessimist, given his overriding mental state, the bereaved husband is overjoyed with what he finds.

SPS: What can readers expect from Part 3, and when are you expecting to release it?

LP:  Part Three is currently about 50% complete, and I hope to be able to release it by June 2014.  I’d love to hear from anyone up for some beta reading, as long as they have read Parts One and Two already.  [That’s the thing with serials as opposed to series – they must be read in sequence or they don’t make sense!]

As mentioned before, Parts Three to Five represent Act Two of the re-enactment of Lynn Dyson and Jeff Diamond’s life.  In Part Three we see their amazing showbusiness careers blossom independently, while Lynn fights for her freedom and Jeff fights his demons, addictions, phobias and the incessant nightmares.  It takes the reader on whirlwind tours aboard the rock star’s bus, and shows how our celebrities’ public and private lives often compete and conflict with each other.  Part Three has a very happy ending, and we also discover the sordid details behind Jeff’s violent childhood in western Sydney.

SPS: Sales proceeds via ALifeSingular.net go to the School Volunteer Program (http://www.svp.org.au ) and The Smith Family (http://www.thesmithfamily.com.au). How and why did this come about?

LP:  Volunteering my time to certain non-profit organisations is another aspect of my everlasting therapy program!  Young people from disadvantaged families have the odds stacked against them in a similar way to adults with mental illness, and indeed many of these kids will already be heading down a tortured path before they reach legal majority.

I had the privilege of working with the School Volunteer Program as a pro-bono strategy and project management consultant, during which I was amazed at how much they achieve with so few resources, a whole lot of energy and huge personal commitment.

The Smith Family is a much larger, national charity which operates several programs, ranging from financial sponsorship to mentoring individual children through their school and university years.  I am about to commence my fifth year as mentor of a Year 10 student (14-15 years old), and am looking forward to the usual mix of face-to-face and online chat sessions over the course of the academic year.

The objective of the iTrack program is to paint a picture of the future which makes the students curious beyond their immediate family’s awareness.  Most of them aren’t exposed to people who attended university or build a career, so we help them to envision a path which doesn’t just see them fall back into unemployment, early parenthood or even crime.  Jeff Diamond would have been first in line for such mentoring services, were he not a fictional character growing up in the 1960s!

My one regret with the iTrack mentoring program is that I’m unable to stay in touch with my mentees after our program finishes, since they are minors and need the protection of remaining anonymous beyond their first names.  I have dedicated ‘A Life Singular – Part One’ to my first three students:  Jackie, Taryn and Ashleigh.  Last year’s was Daniel, but he arrived too late on the scene for a mention!  If my serial is a success, I would love to be able to contribute financially to these fantastic organisations too.

SPS: Can you take a moment to tell us how the cover design process went for the 2 novels so far?

LP:  Certainly!  I have a very fixed idea about how my characters look and the type of settings I wished to see on the covers.  I designed my own drafts, using stock photographs from various sites and then running some of them through a nifty service called ‘SketchMyPhoto’.  I signed up with Xlibris Publishing initially, not realising they would censor Part Two to the extent that its entire premise would be negated, and they took my draft cover designs and created the initial covers.

Therefore, having parted company with Xlibris and turning to CreateSpace for all future parts, I needed to engage a professional cover designer.  Via the all-knowing, tweeting bluebird, I was very fortunate to find Ida Jansson from Amygdala Design in Norway, who has done an awesome job with my very inflexible ideas!  How do you explain to someone in freezing Norway that the natural landscape in southern Australia is vastly different to the north, given the fact that our vast island continent is as big as the USA?  Several drafts later, and through Ida’s patience and professionalism, I now have covers for all six parts, just hanging around for something to go inside them.

SPS: It’s probably a good time to ask what can we expect next from the pen of Lorraine Pestell, part 3 or something different?

 LP:  Nothing from my pen, to take you literally!  In fact, it’s been so long since I’ve written anything by hand that I was severely challenged at a recent Writers’ Victoria workshop, when the instructor denied us all access to our laptops and tablets.  Serious withdrawal symptoms, particularly for a 30-year IT veteran like me!

Yes, Parts Three to Six of the ‘A Life Singular’ serial are slated to keep me going on the same path until the end of 2015.  Then, who knows?  I have a tiny idea germinating in relation to aboriginal assimilation into ‘mainstream’ Australian culture, but I mustn’t become distracted until my present mission is complete.

SPS: Was the Self-Published/Indie-Published route always your preferred route for your work?

LP:  I think most authors dream of the traditional publishing contract, with the fat advance cheque and all the marketing and promotional activities taken care of.  A bit like our rock stars, in fact!  They are ferried around in limousines, stuck in front of cameras or onto stages to strut their stuff, and then they head out to parties.  I don’t think many aspiring authors would turn down a ride like that?

Following the career of JK Rowling, to name only one author whose books spawned box office blockbusters, it would be my crowning achievement to see ‘A Life Singular’ made into films or television series, because then my serious messages about mental illness would reach yet wider an audience.  If this dream were to turn into reality, perhaps I would have a hand in changing the world for the better, just like my fictional heroes!

Of course, self-publishing has become the ideal entry into the literary world.  There are now many avenues, such as Self-Publisher’s Showcase, for independent authors to reach an audience, and the cost of entry is affordable for most people.  Social media is both a blessing and a curse for writers; it takes up so much time which could be spent on more writing, and yet it gives us heretofore unknown access to readers and potential readers.  I am still learning how to use the various social media outlets productively – there seems to be a new platform emerging every few weeks!

Many traditionally-published authors also seem to be turning to self-publishing either for their entire or certain segments of their portfolio, which can only boost the industry further, in my humble opinion.

SPS: Has the experience so far been all that you thought it would be?

LP:  As an IT manager with many years’ experience working with offshore resources in India and the Far East, I had an advantage over other writers seeking to self-publish.  I understand the differences in culture, language and work practices which exist between each country, and have learned to communicate unambiguously and give step-by-step instructions.  For their part, the consultants did not realise that Australia has several time zones, which meant that I regularly received wake-up calls at 5am!

My negative experience with censorship was a surprise, having chosen to self-publish partly to avoid unnecessary interference.  I had not realised that the Philippino agents of a US-based company would impose such outdated, overprotective and self-righteous policies on their authors.  When I queried their decision, I was told that their policy was ‘black and white’.  Life is not black and white, however, and times they are a-changing faster and faster…

SPS: If you could give one piece of advice for someone looking to get into writing, what would it be?

LP:  I still consider myself a novice in the publishing world, even though I have been writing for most of my life.  I spend time reading other authors’ reviews left on Goodreads, Amazon, etc. and am often disappointed by the fact that books can be won and lost on punctuation and grammar, rather than on the quality and impact of the story itself.  I am the first to agree that excessive errors of this type become tiresome to the reader, however I don’t believe reviewers should use this as a battering ram to ruin new writers’ confidence.

I would absolutely relish the services of a professional editor for my books, but the cost is prohibitively expensive for people on a budget.  I have a few friends who are fairly eagle-eyed at proofreading, but the odd typo invariably evades us all.

Lastly, I’m a firm believer in writing from the heart.  If you have something you’d like to say, write it honestly and with all your emotions laid bare.  Anything less is short-changing your readers.

SPS: Before we bring this interview to a close, it’s your chance to name-drop. Anyone who you feel is deserving of more recognition at present or someone whose writing you have recently enjoyed? Now is your chance to spread the word…

LP:  Oh, where do I begin? So many!  Well, there’s Victor Hugo, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Paulo Coelho (at least he’s still alive to receive my praise) and Honoré de Balzac, all of whose writing has inspired me over the years.  From a non-fiction point of view, I am a fan of Alain de Botton for his empathetic and insightful treatments of life’s ethical dilemmas.

Closer to home, Graeme Simsion’s ‘The Rosie Project’ caught a moment in time with its humour and has helped to demystify Asperger’s Syndrome.  [Watch out for the movie from Sony Pictures – Graeme has been exported to California to write the screenplay, which is ironic because Rosie started out as a screenplay many moons ago!]

SPS: Thank you for joining us today Lorraine, and all the best for the future.

LP:  Many thanks for the opportunity to ‘appear on your show’!  Your questions are extremely pertinent to my ambitions for the serial, and my brain is now feeling quite exhausted.  I would love to hear from your readers, if they have any other questions or comments.

SPS: For more information on Lorraine and the A Life Singular serial, please do visit her Author page here and do please add your comments below.