I’ve been tagged by fellow author Alison Grey for the 24th week of The Next Big Thing Blog Hop.

The idea is to hop from blog to blog to discover exciting books we might not have heard about or that are still works in progress. Each author will answer the same ten questions, then list authors who will answer the questions on their blogs next Wednesday.

So let’s get started..

What is the working title of your book?

My work in progress is Casting Shadows – The Further Misadventures of a Vision Painter. It is a  sequel to Falling Colours – The Misadventures of a Vision Painter but due to personal circumstances I’m now not sure whether it will be finished so I’ll be talking more about Falling Colours which was published in June 2012. 

Where did the idea come from for the book?

When I was writing exercises for writing classes and working on my first novel Heart Stopper, I kept finding that life was imitating my writing in small and slightly scary ways. Over the previous few years I had already discovered the power and danger of writing out your visions for your future. When an exercise was set to write out a short story using magical realism, I thought of the idea of someone with the gift of turning people’s vision into reality. I did not want to write about a writer doing this, and since I enjoy painting, I came up with the concept of Vision Painting. I wrote a short story called The Vision Painter which I turned into the novel, Falling Colours.

What genre does your book fall under?

Falling Colours does not really fit into any category. It has elements of magical realism, lesbian romance, and suspense. It has been nominated in the General Fiction category for awards for this reason.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

When I wrote Heart Stopper and had an Irish-Indian character, Priya, who had no Irish blood in her, I found that people assumed that Priya was me. So I tried to change the protagonist’s ethnicity in Falling Colours but still wanted her to have an Irish-Indian background. I based Kiran on Aishwarya Rai who has beautiful and different coloured eyes to the norm of an Indian woman. So I guess it would make sense that Aishwarya could play her. Ashley was based on a crush I had at the time on a straight redhead. She grew more developed in my mind as I wrote Casting Shadows but I guess Julianne Moore or Jessica Chastain could play the Ashley that appears in Falling Colours. We are talking wishful thinking here, right..? 🙂

By the way, it didn’t work.. People still see Kiran as me..

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Falling Colours: Everything changes for Kiran, the only vision painter working in Ireland, when she meets a woman and makes a tiny wee mistake.

Casting Shadows: When everything she loves is threatened, Kiran has to uncover the secrets buried in the history of the vision painters.

What is the longer synopsis of your book?

Kiran is a vision painter. The only vision painter working in Ireland. Her vision painting  practice isn’t doing too well and she works as a waitress in a struggling restaurant in Connemara. Everything changes when she meets a woman. And makes a tiny wee mistake.

Falling Colours (as described in a review) while thrilling in its pace and plot turns, is also a truly unique study of love and its effects.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Falling Colours was self-published as an e-book (at Amazon and Smashwords) and as a paperback through CreateSpace.

My first book Heart Stopper was also self-published as an e-book (at Amazon and Smashwords) and as a paperback through CreateSpace.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I wrote and edited Falling Colours in five months. The writing flowed and I did most of my editing as I wrote. I found that the characters in the book pretty much told me what to write and I had a lot of fun especially in the interactions between Marge and Kiran.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Falling Colours was inspired by the idea that someone could help people find their own happiness by getting them to visualize it clearly.

Casting Shadows was inspired by a curiosity about the details of the entirely mythical profession of vision painting. How did it start? How does it work? How did the rules come into play? What happens when things go wrong?

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I hope it will get readers thinking about what they wish for in their lives and why. Also, there are challenging characters in the book, especially the character of Marge, and that is the only criticism I have received of the book. I wouldn’t change Marge for the world. I wrote her as she presented herself. I find I can’t write if I don’t believe so I can’t write books that are just populated with likeable, loveable, happy characters. We all know people who are so damaged that they can be difficult to love or like. I wanted to explore the point of view of a character like that, one who is not inherently evil and doesn’t mean to be hurtful but ends up causing such pain.

Next Wednesday check out Clare Ashton’s blog to find out about their Next Big Thing.

If you are an author and you want to participate in the blog hop, please contact Clare.