September 15, 2019

Life as an author with Imogen Clark

This weeks guest

Welcome to this week’s guest, we are here with author Imogen Clark. Imogen’s first novel Postcards from a Stranger reached the top of the Amazon Kindle charts in both the UK and Australia this year and we also happen to have grown up in the same town so I can’t wait to hear how Imogen finds breaking out of the bubble too.

How do you describe yourself to people, are you comfortable now saying you are a full-time author?

Ooh that’s a difficult one to start with. No, I’ve really struggled with that I’ve found it really difficult. I think particularly because I started with self-publishing and I didn’t have anyone behind me saying my book was good. It was only when I got picked up by a publisher because they must think it’s alright as well, so then it was like okay deep breath. I’m getting better, my second book has now been in the best sellers list this week too so I should really be much braver.

It’s that imposter syndrome isn’t it, I’m the same. Sometimes I feel really uncomfortable saying I’m a model, I say it then want to run away and hide in a corner.

Yes absolutely. Or I can say it but then I don’t want anyone to ask me questions about it, so I’ll gloss over it and move on. It’s not that I’m not proud of what I’m doing because I really am, but yes, it’s that imposter syndrome.

I’m really interested in how you got started because your background is in law, you went to university, qualified in Law, raised four children so at what point did you think about going back to university and studying?

It was when my fourth child started school and suddenly thought I’m going to have some time here, I thought about going back to work but I’d taken all this time out of work it was going to be quite difficult to get back in. So, I started writing blog, I was writing a blog about what it was like having four children at home, it was good fun and it released a level of creativity in me that I’d forgotten I had. That led me to do an Open University course on creative writing and then an English degree and by that point I had moved on from just writing my blog to full length novels. I really enjoyed, I’d get to the end of the novel and think well that’s not good enough and start again. I think I wrote 6, Postcards was my 6th and I thought that one actually isn’t that bad, you know that one might be the one.

I think being a lawyer you're taught to think in a very precise way and it knocks the creativity out of you but it’s astounding the number of lawyers that go on to be authors.

The 6 books that you’d started writing, did you show them to anyone?

Imogen laughs out loud at this thought, no I think my mum read one. I think the very first one I let the girls in my book group read and they were very kind and I was terrified obviously. It was interesting, once they forgot it was my book we were discussing we clicked in to talking about the book and I just sat back at listened. The second one I was slightly braver and put it out a chapter at a time but only to a small group of people and then I just kept practising, you have to learn your craft really.

You self-published Postcards from a Stranger, how did you find that process because you were stepping into unknown territory?

Completely. Since the invention of the kindle there’s been this huge breakout of people self- publishing, it used to be called vanity press or books not deemed good enough to be picked up by publishers but that’s all changed now. Once I decided that was the route I was going down I just did courses, learnt how to get an editor, choosing a front cover, marketing, Facebook ads all the things I needed to know and then one day bravely pressed the button.

You quickly gained a great response to the book though.

I did, people started leaving comments and sharing it. I would ask them to leave a review because once you get reviews it’s got some credence and people then take a risk on it, it wasn’t expensive, I think it was £1.99. After it had been out for about 6 weeks, I got an email, it was from an editor from a publishing company and I thought it was a joke. It was from an editor who had read it, liked it and was working for Amazon publishing, Lake Union which is the women’s fiction arm. From that they offered me a 3 book deal. Dream come true stuff. I went from having this little book that I just published myself to being part of this huge machine which is so exciting, and they are a great publisher to be part of. It’s a huge learning curve and I’ve had to ask a lot of stupid questions and I’ve made a few mistakes but I’m learning every day.

At 52 you have found yourself with a whole new career, now dealing with Amazon, having meetings in London. Where we live is quite a small town, it’s the kind of place where people either stay all their lives or leave and then come back when they have a family. That’s one of the reasons I called the podcast ‘Liberte Free to Be’ because we really do live in a bubble here. How did you find stepping out of that bubble?

I’ve gone out of my comfort zone. It’s very exciting and it’s very terrifying. I think it’s helped that all the people have met have been really lovely, mostly women, and they’ve been so supportive and encouraging. I did do 15 years in the corporate world so I can pretend. If I was really out of my comfort zone I could just pretend that I knew what I was doing until I had a better idea. The publicity for my new book 'The Thing About Clare' has got all sorts of things in place like radio interviews and a blog tour, all kinds of things and each of those things makes me do something I’ve never done before but I’m having a ball.

How do you juggle family life with four busy kids, how do you discipline yourself to sit down and write?

It’s really hard. When I was just doing the degree it was something that I was doing for myself to stop myself to stop me from going crazy at home with the kids so I didn’t want it to impeach on my time with them. Now I get up very early, it’s a lot easier when the house is quiet before it all kicks off. I’m not much good in the evenings so they’re a bit of a write off really. Just these last few days I’ve been away because I had to the editing for the third book and I just can’t concentrate enough, so I took myself off. My husband is fantastic, he just steps up and takes over which makes everything so much easier. If this had all happened ten years earlier I’m not sure how we could have made all this happen.

How do you find the inspiration for your books, have you got pages and pages of ideas ready to roll or do you get flashes of inspiration?

I’ve got various ideas some of which may turn into books. Some days I’ll have a great idea then the next I’ll think it’s not so good. One day I was walking to the cinema and between less than half an hour I’d had an idea, had the whole thing delivered to me in less than the time it took me to get there, which is bonkers. I was writing it all down really quickly before the lights went down in the cinema. But most of the time it starts with a question. For instance Postcards is about a mother who is not with her children as they grow up. It came from a really challenging day with my four children when I just thought I could just leave, go to Leeds Bradford and jump on a plane and they wouldn't miss me, which of course isn't true but it got me thinking well what kind of a woman would do that.

How do you deal with critique? You put your books out there and we all know in any line of work you can't please everybody.

I find it really difficult, it was hard enough when it was my friends, you know they said they liked it but are they just being polite? I see the reviews coming up on Amazon and Good Reads and look at them through my fingers trying to work out if I dare look. It's better for my mental health not to read them, not to know what people say. I just look at the average ratings.

What tips would you give to step out of your comfort zone?

I think you just have to be brave. You know we're a long time dead. I really can't bare the idea of regretting anything so what have I got to lose. If it doesn't work it really doesn't matter. You just have to seize the day, it's a bit of a cliche but it's so true.

So what's next?

So next I want another book deal, (which Imogen did go on to achieve a few months after our chat so is busy writing again). I just need to keep learning really and keep writing. I'm really enjoying doing what I'm doing and if it all stopped tomorrow no one can take it away from me.

Final 3 questions I ask all my guests. What book has inspired you?

Playing Big by Tara Mohr

Song/music that's inspired you?

Handels Messiah Chorus

Who inspires you?

J.K Rowling. Obviously because she is a phenomenal writer but it's her resilience, you know she had all those rejections and she just kept going.

If you'd like to follow Imogen you can find her at https://imogenclark.com/

Have you always wanted to write a book, maybe now is the time to get started, what have you got to lose? I'd love to hear from anyone whose taken up writing later in life or has a burning desire to tell their story one day. What would you write if you weren't afraid?

What's Stopping You?

You can also listen to the full podcast https://anchor.fm/outofthebubble/episodes/Episode-4-with-Author-Imogen-Clark-Imogenclarkathome-e2j0hb

November 21, 2018

Out Of The Bubble podcast with Jo Moseley (HealthyHappy50)

Episode 1 of Out Of The Bubble podcast is out and I got to talk to the inspiring Jo Moseley otherwise known on social media as HealthyHappy50. Here are some of the best bits!

I've known Jo for about 12 years, our children went to the same primary school together and then we both went through similar lifestyle changes, also known as divorce. I've been quietly watching and admiring the work Jo has been doing and her journey. She has grown and changed over the years and I have full on admiration on how she has transformed her life and what she has achieved so far, although I have a feeling she has only just getting started.

How do you describe yourself?

I still describe myself as a mum first and foremost and as a single mum that will always be my biggest thing. I have a very normal day job. I'm developing an interest in adventure, little adventures, environmental aspects and all the things about wellness and well-being around being outside and doing fun little adventures.

You say 'little adventures' but some of the things that you've done to date I wouldn't class as little. Can you tell everyone what your first challenge was and how you got started.

The first challenge was probably the biggest. In 2013 my mum died of Lymphoma, four days before Christmas and I decided to do something in her memory. The only real sport I did at the time was indoor rowing so I rode a million metres and a marathon, which basically means rowing 10,000 metres every other night for 8 months. We raised just over £10,000 for the MacMillan charity.It was a great way to honour her memory and it was great for me to help work through the grief and turn it in to something positive. So I started with something big and now I do lots of little adventures, wild swimming, paddle boarding, running, picking up litter and surfing.

How did you start indoor rowing in the first place?

A few months before I had been crying in the supermarket, with my sons when I just had one of those moments when I put my bags down and said I just cant do this anymore.I wasn't sleeping, I was really stressed, mum and dad were going through chemo, a friend lent me a rowing machine which really started to help me sleep and it started from there.

So most people might do a challenge and then think okay I've done it, that's fantastic and then go have a cup of tea and put their feet up. You didn't do that did you?

No I think I realised how much better I felt, I was 48 and i think some of the crying wasn't just life overwhelming but it was the early stages of the menopause but I didn't realise it.  I never asked my mum about the menopause, it just wasn't talked about. The symptoms were creeping up on me without me knowing so I did some research and realised these symptoms, crying, aching joints, not sleeping, feeling more anxious were symptoms of the menopause.I realised exercise had really helped me feel better and it would be silly of me not to continue.These self care routines to get me through the day became more enjoyable so once I was swimming, running and eventually paddle boarding they were activities that were so much fun, why wouldn't I want to do these things on a daily basis.

How did you get involved in the This Girl Can, Sport of England campaign?

The first time was after completing the Great North Swim and I took a picture with these really huge goggles on and they had this thing where you could upload an image and choose a slogan , one of the slogans was 'Damn right I look hot'. So there is me a 50 year old woman with massive goggles and a yellow cap and they saw it and chose me, I did a little bit of radio interviews and they were just broadening it out to fifty year old's and moving way from focusing on younger women.

The second time recently I wrote to them and told them my story thinking they wouldn't necessarily be interested but it was more about me being brave. I had this idea that if I wrote to people , the more I got no's the less it would worry me and they said yes.They put it out there and so many women said thank you for sharing the tough times and being so honest, I realised the more honest I was about the crying and difficult times and being injured the more normal I was, the more relatable I was the more It inspired people.

Were you sporty when you were younger?

When I was little up to secondary school age I was doing all the things i'm doing now, I didn't think they were sporty , I was called a tomboy, now I would have been called a sporty girl.I would be out climbing trees, throw myself in to the sea, try and skateboard, ride my bike. I've got a picture of me on my Chopper looking cool in my Bay City Roller tartan trousers but then when I got to school it was all very formal and that just turned me off.I loved gymnastics, doing headstands and cartwheels but school stuff just turned me off. From my late twenties to my late forties I did just about nothing, maybe one 5k walk and I did the Moonwalk when my marriage was collapsing.So its always been in me but for many years it was dormant.

So after all these challenges you've now discovered this real passion for paddle boarding , is that your main love?

I think I love all of them, I love anything to do with the water.Paddle boarding is easy in the sense that I live near a reservoir so I can do it in my everyday, whereas surfing and body boarding I have to go to the sea.

One of the things I don't think you realise is the impact your social media posts have on other people, I see your posts out running, picking up litter being outdoors it makes me want to get out and do something.I think social media for the over 40's is a really inspiring place. How do you find social media?

I love Twitter because everyone was so supportive, it's quite quick and you can learn lots of news things about conferences and events. Instagram is very pretty and very supportive and kind. You can curate a really kind environment and I've made loads of friends that I've actually met. You can't make friends over night but this is a different group of friends built upon shared goals and dreams and that brings them alive. I've not met anyone that I've then gone away and thought I'm so glad I met.

I would say it takes a lot of confidence to get out there and meet new people, have you always had that confidence or has it come with everything you've been doing?

I think I've had it and lost it. I think babies, marriages, miscarriages, divorce, grief, they dampen who you are, it's just a case of excavating through all those difficult situations and revealing who you probably are. I am more in my fifties like I was aged 9 or10 than I have ever been.I'm totally cool with the idea that I'm uncool. I'll never be the one who walks in to a room and they'll think wow she's so glamorous, they'll probably think when did she brush her hair but I'm cool with that just as I was when I was at nine or ten without the angst of teenage years. There's a real liberation now. I think your thirties and forties are really difficult because you are establishing who you are and there's a lot of keeping upness which if I was back there again I would say don't even try, follow your own thing. Don't worry about what everyone else is doing, it's just not relevant to your life and I still have to say that to myself sometimes.

Do you still get scared when you are doing new things? How do you over come it?

God, yeah.

I think i've learnt you only have to be brave enough to do the next thing, you don't have to climb the mountain just take the next step. You've just got to believe in yourself and see what happens. I'm going to give it everything I've got but not necessarily attach it to the outcome.

You've got quite involved in litter picking, plogging and environmental issues. Can you tell us more about it?

I have always loved the sea, my dissertation was about the environment back in the 1980's, I've been more aware of the problems with plastic and like most people watched David Attenborough. It's just been a rediscovery of something that I was interested in when I was younger. At the beginning of the year I decided to do a litter pick or beach clean every day and post pictures and see if anyone else would join in. The first thing I got invited to talk about what I was doing was at a running festival, it was just one of those relationships that I had built on Twitter. It always amazes me that people are watching you from a distance without you realising in a good way and thinking she's quite consistent about the subject, then someone comes along and says would you like to be involved in this, I never imagined it. It's interesting because at the beginning of the year I had written a list of crazy goals for the year,when I looked back a lot of them had come true, even if from a slightly different angle.

Do you think you've found your purpose other than being a mum and a daughter?

Yes massively. In fact I see the link between the environment and well-being is the link I want to share with people. Particularly at our age there is so much about our own well being, going through the menopause, the mental changes and there are so many things that we can do with a purpose to help bring everything together. So much of the environmental and adventure world is dominated by younger people and I just want to say look actually we have a contribution and we can have these little adventures that can be hugely enjoyable.

What's your current challenge and what's next?

I am running a 1000km this year, so I'm currently on about 750km. I'm thinking of doing a longer run next, possibly picking litter. Maybe there is one big thing in me when my boys have left, we'll see!

What song motivates you?

This Is Me from The Greatest Showmen by Keala Settle

What book inspired you?

Playing Big by Tara Mohr or anything written by Brene Brown

Who inspires you?

Taryn Brumfitt, founder of the Body Image Movement

Since speaking with Jo in 2018 she has gone on to write a best selling book- Stand-up Paddleboarding in Great Britain.

You can follow Jo over on Instagram and Twitter @healthyhappy50 or on her website www.healthyhappy50.com

To listen to the audible podcast please click on the podcast link -

I'll be back in two weeks when I talk with Zoe McNulty from School Of Strut.

In the meantime...keep being fabulous x

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