Today, I am pleased to welcome a women’s fiction author from Ireland. Sharon Black’s debut novel, Going Against Black, has been published by Tirgearr Publishing and is a humorous, light-hearted read of love and rivalry in the world of journalism and sport. Let’s get to know Sharon a bit better, shall we?
Some would say Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Regan has it all. Beautiful, smart, athletic and a great job working as a journalist – in the almost exclusively male sports department. But Charlotte is not quite as sure as she seems. Recently split from her overbearing boyfriend, she escapes for weekends, surfing in the Atlantic, and spends her free nights watching sports, roaring at the TV.
Derry Cullinane is a fashion writer, gossip columnist and sophisticated man-about-town. The go-to guy for any woman seeking expert advice on what fabulous outfit to wear for any given occasion. He’s also tall, dark, good looking – and straight! So what’s the snag? He has a track record of dating glamorous, vain and shallow women.
Charlie gets an opportunity to write a new column under the pen name Side Swipe, but is soon drawn into a war of words and wit with a rival paper’s columnist The Squire – and their verbal fireworks get readers and editors talking. Yet neither Charlie nor Derry knows just whom the opponent is…
When Charlotte and Derry meet at the Races, the attraction is instant. As their relationship develops, so much more proves at stake, than protecting their alter egos. But a blunder puts Charlotte’s job in jeopardy just as Derry’s past makes front page, and Charlotte begins to doubt her feelings. When Side Swipe and The Squire are finally forced to reveal themselves, will they revert to type – or confound everyone’s expectations?
Hello Sharon and welcome to my blog!
Hi Fros, thank you for having me!
What has inspired you to write this book?
Going Against Type was inspired by an old movie I loved, starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey. It was Woman of the Year, and they played rival columnists. She was a sort of pundit, who took a lash at sport in her column. Tracey, playing a sports reporter, leaps to attack. In my book, I decided to turn the stereotypes upside down. So my heroine is a sports reporter, and my hero is a fashion writer! I also wanted to keep the suspense going, and have them attacking each other week after week, even after they meet and begin a relationship. So, unlike the Hepburn/Tracey movie, my columnists write under pen names!
Sounds like a cracking good read! What other writing have you done? Anything else published?
I was a features writer for national newspapers, so I was used to having articles published all the time. But that’s hugely different from creative writing. The first creative writing I had published, were some short stories for a woman’s magazine. That was in my twenties. Down the years, I tried my hand at a number of novels, but I never finished any of them. I lacked both the confidence and the skills to see them through.
What genres do you read mostly, and what are you reading now?
I mainly read a mixture of literary fiction and commercial women’s fiction. I don’t think you could write commercial women’s fiction (as I do) and not read it. There are so many excellent authors too, and I am very loyal obviously, to the Irish ones. There are also a couple of English writers I love; they’re very funny and I love that in writing. At the moment I’m reading ‘Nora Webster’ by Colm Toibin. He’s an Irish author, and the book is set in rural Ireland in the late 1960s. I’m enjoying every word of it. I’ve read a lot of his books, and he is a wonderful storyteller. His characters are so rich and well written.
You know, I love Cecilia Ahern’s quirky, whimsical stories and she’s the only Irish writer of women’s fiction that I’ve read. I should look into Colm Toibin too, thank you for the recommendation. Tell us Sharon, if you were to pick a male and a female character from your book and then pick an actor and an actress to play them, whom would you choose?
Funny you should ask that, Fros! As I was writing Going Against Type, I could see two actors in my head, acting out all the scenes I was writing. My heroine, Charlotte, would be played by Reece Witherspoon, and my hero, Derry, would be played by British actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Both of them would have to get the accents right. Charlotte would have a soft Dublin accent and Derry, a hint of a Cork accent. There’s nothing worse than a really fake accent in a film, I think.
How right you are! You picked two brilliant actors and I bet they’d manage the accent just fine. Also, Cumberbatch is quite a looker, so I’d definitely go see the film (laughs). Tell us about your website/blog. What will readers find there?
My blog is a mixture of bits of information about my work, links to guest blogs I’m on (like this one, thank you!) and light-hearted columns about anything that takes my fancy. I did write a column for a while for a national newspaper, and that was fun.
What were your most and least favorite subjects in school?
My favorite subject, right from a very young age, was English. If I had a book, I’d completely blot out everything around me. I’d get lost in the story. And I used to get so excited when the new school books were bought each year, because I’d just take the English books and read them before the new term began! I also wrote a lot. Stories and poems. After that, I really liked history. It was one of the subjects I took in college.
My least favorite subject, and it’s terrible to admit it, was math. I could do the basics, and I really appreciate how important it is to have the basics. You just couldn’t get through life otherwise. But a lot of it, no matter how much I tried to understand it, and retain it, might as well have been Chinese. I did pass it though.
What are the things in your life that you’re most grateful for?
I had a great upbringing. I have kind, wonderful parents, who were always there for their children. And I have two terrific younger brothers, who have lovely wives and family. I’m also grateful for my husband. We’ve been married for 22 years and we have three fantastic children. So I’m lucky. And I also have wonderful, supportive friends.
After that, I’m just grateful to be in good health. And that at the moment, all my family is too. That’s it. Nothing else actually matters after that.
Thank you for being here with us today, Sharon. Wish you lots of success!
Thank you so much Fros, same to you, and thanks again for this opportunity.
Bio
SHARON Black grew up in Dublin. She studied history and politics at University College Dublin and then did post-graduate in journalism at Dublin City University. She has worked for national newspapers, including The Evening Herald and The Irish Examiner. She had short stories published in U Magazine and won the 2010 Dromineer Literary Festival short story competition. When she is not writing, she reads, walks and sees friends. She co-founded a local book club 14 years ago. She loves theatre, old Hollywood films, science fiction and good stand-up comedy. She lives in a coastal village in Dublin, with her husband and their three children.
Visit Sharon’s Blog
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Go here to buy the book on Amazon US
Go here to buy the book on Amazon UK
Go here to get the purchase links for Smashwords, Kobo, Nook & Apple
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