Lily Malone – Jenn J McLeod – small-town storyteller

Posted on 06/02/201824/02/2018 by Jenn J McLeod — 15 Comments

Lily Malone – Portrait of an Author (w/ giveaway)

Welcome to my fun Q&A where you’ll discover new things about some of our favourite authors. I’m delighted to welcome my good friend (funny, very talented and multi-published), Lily Malone, to a blog series that celebrates another art form (as my new novel is a love story about a sitter and an artist!!) NOTE: giveaway is not closed.

Let’s start, Lily …

Q: As pose and composition are important factors for a portrait, choose what kind of ‘look’ would you like for your portrait.

On a chaise lounge (Kate Winslet/Titanic style)
Fully clothed in a rocker (Whistler’s Mother style)
A close up of your face (Girl with the Pearl Earring style/Mona Lisa)
In all your formal finery befitting your ‘authorly’ status (Regal style)
Other

I’d like something a bit more glamorous thank you very much, because everyone thinks of glamour when they think of me, (they do, don’t they, Jenn?) thinking Reese Witherspoon/Nicole Kidman red carpet at Big Little Lies premier-style.

**Q: Snap I just took your photo as a reference for my portrait of you. Tell us where you are and what you’re wearing. (Be honest.)**

I’m at my computer desk. Wearing socks. Black leggings (I’ve just been for a walk) and a long sleeved pink sloppy shirt. Oh, and a wrist brace because I’m an author and I type too much! (I also have my hair in pigtails. Don’t tell anyone!)

Q: Given a choice, what precious item would you want to be included in a portrait of you?

A bottle of red wine. A pack of cards, Joker facing out.

Q: With acquired savant syndrome* featuring in my next novel, I’m curious . . . If you were to wake up from a coma one day to find yourself totally obsessed and a genius (in something other than writing, of course) what would you want it to be? (music, painting, languages, maths, touching your toes while typing, etc)

Is that what acquired savant is? I’d no idea. I’d like to be brilliant at poker. A genius/world champion at Texas Hold-em. If that’s not an option, then golf. A genius at golf would be good (not to mention lucrative).

Q: If you happened to wake up one day and be a genius with a paintbrush, whose portrait would you want to paint and why?

I think I’d like to paint Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Harrison Ford (Han Solo) together, now they’re old. They made me cry in the first of the newer Star Wars movies (Was it The Force Awakens?), and now, of course, the very lovely but so tortured, Carrie Fisher has passed, I wish even more that I’d had this skill and opportunity.

Q: Your preferred medium would be?

A: Oil on canvas

B: Watercolour

C: Pencil/Ink

D: Pastels

E: Kiddy crayons

Lily says: F: Patricia Arquette

(Oh, Lily, you always make me laugh.)

Picasso once asked the question: “Are we to paint what’s on the face, what’s inside the face, or what’s behind it?” In my next novel, the artists says to 58 y.o Ava, “A mature person has depth of character and it’s their layers, built from life’s lessons that interest me the most—when wisdom replaces curiosity and experience replaces youthful exuberance.”

Q: What two traits would you hope an artist captures in a portrait of you?

Hopefully that my life is rich with wonderful family and friends, and that I’ve made some big mistakes but they didn’t kill me, and they’ve made me stronger.

Q: Because every fireplace deserves a portrait, in whose house would you hang a portrait of you as a surprise and what would they say?

My friend Carrie’s, where it would sit over our Thursday night girls card table… and (if we refer to 3 above, I would have my pack of cards with the Joker showing.) Carrie would say: “bloody Lil, and she reckoned she never gets dealt the Joker”)

Q: Keeping in mind that lucky recipient of your portrait, how would see yourself framed?

Minimalist or no frame at all – just the canvas (take me as I am) This one!
Modernist – chrome, nothing too fancy
Sophisticated – warm, wood, old world
Flamboyant – go all the way and gilt-edged!

A: Minimalist or no frame at all – just the canvas (take me as I am) This one!

Q: Finally, if someone was to add a plaque/title your portrait, how would it read?

Life is always about the next hand

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lily Malone might have been a painter, except her year-old son put a golf club through her canvas. So she wrote her first book, His Brand of Beautiful instead. Lily has now written three full-length rural romance stories and a novella all published by Harlequin Escape. Her debut trade paperback, The Vineyard In The Hills was published by Harlequin MIRA in September 2016, and her new release with MIRA is Water Under The Bridge, Book 1 in the Chalk Hill series, out now. When she isn’t writing, Lily likes gardening, walking, wine, and walking in gardens (sometimes with wine). She loves to hear from readers and you can find her on Facebook, and on Twitter: @lily_lilymalone. To contact Lily, visit www.lilymalone.wordpress.com

GIVEAWAY: NOW CLOSED AND WINNER ADVISED

Lily is giving away a print copy of her book – Butterfly House Book 1: Who Killed The Bride? (a whole lot of fun and based in her hometown, featuring the very famous Cowaramup Cows. Oh, I do love cows!)

Just LIKE this post and tell us in the comments if you’d like to be in the draw. (Aust. only, sorry. Blame Aust Post for the exorbitant prices.)

Before you go, I have some more author portraits to celebrate the release of my 5th novel (March 19 in Australia/NZ and April 5 overseas) so you might want to subscribe to my blog (right) or check out my Book Room for info about A Place to Remember.

*Acquired savant syndrome, in which a person acquires prodigious capabilities or skills following dementia, a head injury or concussion, epilepsy or other disturbances.

Posted on 10/05/201610/04/2016 by Jenn J McLeod — 14 Comments

Author, Lily Malone, Writes To Her 19 y.o Self

Dear Lily,

Here you are, about to board the plane to London today.

You already know that you’re running away from a small country town and a cute country boy, and running towards bright lights and adventure. Good on you! Every girl should travel while they’re young. Travel while you’re bold enough to do all those risky things because when you’re a middle-aged mum you’ll have other responsibilities and you won’t be so fearless (or flexible).

So go white water rafting (hold on tight when you get to the second rapids in the Zambezi, the lady beside is gonna fall in and try to take you with her); go hot air ballooning across the Serengeti (it will be a bumpy landing but don’t worry about that, you’ll pull through). Remember to pack some kind of roll-up mattress. Africa is very bumpy if all you have between you and the earth is the tent floor.

Mostly, I want you to consider this . . .

Your friends will move on while you’re overseas travelling. Some will go to university, some will get married, others move away and some will have babies by the time you get back. Life moves on… don’t expect that you can leave now and come back and step into your old life. You’re doing your life in a different order. You’re having the fun now and you’ll come back and get stuck into career, study, the wrong boyfriends and much later, the right boyfriend who will become your husband, and then your family. The downside of that is, your body is older, and you won’t roll with the 2am, 4am and 5am punches of needy babies. But you’ll deal with it. Take heart in the knowledge that the never-ending nappies do actually end, and you won’t be the milk truck forever.

If there’s one thing I’d say to you, it’s this: “Stop worrying so much about what other people think of you. Other people are not talking about you or watching you every second of every day. You are not that interesting! Don’t be so self-absorbed. It is not all about you!”

A word to the wise: Don’t take every rejection personally. (This will help you deal with 1-star book reviews when you’re 45).

Love,

Your 45 year old self.

p.s. That Queensland cane-cutter who is sweet on you in Crete? Don’t dance the Lambada with him. It only leads to trouble…

p.p.s Buy shares in a company called Google.

Lily Malone writes Australian Contemporary Romance with Escape
Publishing. You can BUY The Goodbye Ride from Amazon AUS . Lily’s writing style blends romance with her delightful (sometimes cheeky) sense of humour and fresh, whimsical turn of phrase. Also by Lily Malone: So Far Into You, His Brand of Beautiful, and Fairway to Heaven.
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Wanting to honour the lost art of letter writing through this blog series, I also opened my fourth novel with a character writing a letter. And not just any letter. It’s a story –perhaps the most important he’ll ever tell.

The Other Side of the Season

Life is simple on top of the mountain for David, Matthew and Tilly until the winter of 1979 when tragedy strikes, starting a chain reaction that will ruin lives for years to come. Those who can, escape the Greenhill banana plantation on the outskirts of Coffs Harbour. One stays—trapped for the next thirty years on the mountain and haunted by memories and lost dreams. That is until the arrival of a curious young woman, named Sidney, whose love of family shows everyone the truth can heal, what’s wrong can be righted, the lost can be found, and . . . there’s another side to every story.

CLICK for more or leave a comment below for Lily.

Posted on 25/04/201625/04/2016 by Jenn J McLeod — 10 Comments

Dear Reader: The truth about all that book release buzz.

You might have expected this blog post to be a really long and thoughtful discussion about the book business, when it’s actually about the way authors pop up on social media, crying virtual tears of joy, and gushing over reviews! I mean, it’s just a bloody book after all—not a Powerball win.

But in a way being published is like winning the lottery. There is luck involved and with so many books out there, Australian fiction in particular, when a reader looks to spend their hard-earned dollar and chooses your book over others, it’s better than a lottery win. (Okay, that’s a lie. A Powerball win would be pretty darn good right now. For a start, I wouldn’t have to write this blog post. I could just go out and buy all my books myself — although that kinda defeats the purpose of why I write stories!)

This post is about all those annoying authors like me: “woo-hooing” and “squeeing”, almost peeing their pants with excitement, and posting to social media when most of their social media connections already know the book is coming out. I mean, you’ve been following our journeys all this time, right?

I’ll tell you the truth about authors and book buzz . . .

Launch time for an author brings with it a sudden urgency—one that is a stark contrast to the leisurely year it took to write, edit, perfect, cover and print the paperback—and it kinda flips an author’s world upside down. (They go from quiet achievers in their lounge room to awkward promoters of their finished product.)

The buzz about the launch is important because in the paperback world, there is a finite time for that book to hit the magic sales mark, which makes the publisher happy and the booksellers.

Booksellers . . . Now here is something readers might not realise.

Just like your local newsagent orders in the daily paper and what doesn’t sell that day gets bundled up and returned to the publisher – no cost to the agency operator, booksellers can do the same with books. They might order in sixty copies of a new book and in six weeks, what hasn’t sold, can be (not always) returned to the warehouse. (A small bookshop won’t have the shelf space to stock multiple copies of every book and while you can always ask the bookshop to order a novel in, if it’s not there, on the shelf, it’s out of sight, out of mind.)

So, say 5,000 books left the warehouse (yay!) and 3,000 came back – unsold in six weeks (boo!)*

That, dear readers, is why authors make a big noise, often preaching to the converted. They are urging those of you who are thinking of buying their book to not delay.

Make a bee-line to your bookstore because those early sales figures can have many ramifications, including keeping their books on the shelves longer. And because every author understands a reader can’t buy every book, the simple act of sharing a buzz post, or mentioning an author’s name at a dinner party, can help enormously. Sometimes it’s the smallest of things that can have the greatest impact, like the bee — the hardest working creatures on the planet (apart from authors), with their contribution to the bigger picture often unappreciated (like women writers!) *wink*

Okay, so, how and when a reader buys a book is none of my beeswax, but can I just say…

Whether it’s my book or another favourite author (and there are an awful lot out for Mothers Day in May including many of my friends: Natasha Lester, Nicki Edwards, Fleur McDonald, Kerrie Paterson, Tricia Stringer, Mandy Magro, Lily Malone, Kayte Nunn) I urge you, on their behalf, to not delay that all-important purchase if you don’t have to, and to think about sharing a post/tweet or two, as many of my readers already do. (And there, my lovelies, is a rhyme… Just. For. You.)

So, there you have it . . .

The truth about the book buzz and all those annoying social media posts.

On behalf of busy authors everywhere,

Happy Mothers Day and happy reading,

Jenn J

*not actual figures. 🙂

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