Q&A With Christine Wells

Tonight I have the honor of doing a Q&A with historical fiction author Christine Wells. Christine is the author of the novels “One Woman’s War,” “Sisters of the Resistance,” “The Juliet Code”. 

Hi Bianca! Thanks so much for having me.

Q: So Christine what do you like most about writing historical fiction? What do you like least about writing historical fiction?

A: I love writing about strong, clever women who defied gender roles and expectations to do extraordinary things in the past—for example, Catherine Dior worked for the French resistance (Sisters of the Resistance) and Paddy Bennett worked for Ian Fleming in British Naval Intelligence during WWII and was involved in Operation Mincemeat (One Woman’s War).

I like least when I can’t find one small piece of information that I really want to know. I have to force myself not to scurry down too many of these rabbit holes.

Q: At what point in your life did you realize that you were called to be an author?

A: I began writing a novel as a challenge from a friend and soon became utterly obsessed. From that time on, I wanted to have a novel published.

Q: What advice do you give to anyone who wants to pursue being an author as a career? What advice do you give to anyone who struggles with writers block?

A: I think the best thing a professional writer can do is to only allow things that are within your control to affect your opinion of yourself. The market, editors, agents, Amazon—so many things that dictate publishing success in terms of earnings or bestseller lists are beyond your control. If you remember to focus on what is within your control (the writing, the effort you put into marketing but not the reviews or the sales numbers) when the inevitable bumpy patches arrive, you can remind yourself that you are a writer and no one can ever take that away from you.

Writer’s block is tough and my sympathy goes out to anyone who is experiencing it. Sometimes it is the result of worrying too much about things beyond your control (see above). Sometimes you’re burned out and need a break to go out into the world and see friends, enjoy the outdoors, art, drama and music so that you’re receiving stimulus from outside rather than trying to drag words out of yourself. Sometimes you need to break the fear of the blank page by lowering your expectations dramatically. If you set a goal to sit down for ten minutes or half an hour a day or write 50 words each day, and you experience success, you start to rebuild confidence and momentum and get back into the habit of writing. Sometimes, it’s because you’ve taken a wrong turn in the book you’re writing and you need to go back over what you’ve done and see where you can fix it. Occasionally a writer is overwhelmed by life and it might be that they need to take a break and deal with that problem before they can put their mind to the book.

Q: Are you writing a new novel now? If so can you spoil a little bit about it?

A: I am currently editing my next novel, called THE ROYAL WINDSOR ORPHAN, which is about a young woman in the 1930s who comes to believe she’s the illegitimate daughter of the Prince of Wales (who later became Edward VIII and abdicated the British throne to marry Wallis Simpson) and an infamous French courtesan.

Q: If you were to write in a different genre, which genre would it be and why?

A: I am very happy writing historical fiction at the moment but if I did write in another genre it might be crime fiction, which I love to read.

Q: Does Hollywood have the rights to any of your novels?

A: No, but I’m definitely open to offers!