Coral McCallum

Rock Fan to Rock Writer

Hi Coral,

Thank you for sharing your story. I'm currently reading Ellen and really enjoying it.

I'd like to find out about your motivation as a writer.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Yes, ever since I could write a sentence. As a child I was always writing stories and plays, most of which I never finished. As I became a teenager, I wrote to escape from the torment of school bullies. Writing was my escape from the real world. I’d find a quiet corner (usually somewhere in the school that I wasn’t meant to be) and I’d spend my lunch breaks writing. I still have all those old reporter’s notebooks somewhere. 

Is there one particular person who inspired you to write?

Oh good question! Myself I think is the honest answer. I reached a bit of a crossroads in the latter half of 2012 and decided that I needed to do something just for me. I thought long and hard and eventually decided that it was time to try writing again. I’d pretty much stopped writing when I got married and had my two children. After almost 16 years of running around doing everything a working mother does, I felt the time was right to try. I bought a new A4 notebook, some new pens (I’m a sucker for colourful ink especially purple) and I literally sat down on my front doorstep in the early evening sun and began to write. Seven years later I haven’t stopped yet! A friend shared a quote with me a very long time ago now “Dreams get you started. Discipline keeps you going.” That’s been my mantra ever since.

Why do you think books are important?

Books can teach you so much! They set your imagination free. They introduce you to new worlds. They allow you to become “friends” with so many fascinating characters. They can make you laugh out loud. They can make you cry. 

 I have such fond memories of my mum reading stories to me when I was a little girl and equally fond memories of reading some of those same stories to my own children when they were wee. There’s something very special about that bond and those books.

Who is your favourite author/ which is your favourite book? Why?

Cruel question for a book lover! Indulge me for a minute or two because I need to pick a few. It’s impossible to pick just one!  I think the best written book I’ve ever read is Lord of the Rings and I love the cast of characters, especially Gandalf. I also love Barbara Erskine’s novels and the way she ties the past to the present. I’ve been in love with her books since I read The Lady of Hay many years ago. I also love Anita Shreve’s books, especially the ones that are all set in the same house in Fortune’s Rocks at various points in history. I think that’s a really subtly clever trick. I love Paulo Coehlo too and have re-read The Alchemist several times. You’re never too old for a tale about chasing your dreams! Oh…I could go on and on….John Irving, Stephen King, Kate Mosse…. Guess I better stop before I get carried away.

What sort of music do you like to listen to? Who is your favourite singer/ band?

I love my hard rock and heavy metal!  I also like Southern rock and some country.  I guess I like a bit of everything except dance music and that awful boom boom stuff you get in nightclubs! LOL Again, a bit like the books question, asking a rock fan to pick a favourite band is very cruel! I am huge Alter Bridge fan and, in particular, of their front man, Myles Kennedy. In fact, I run two separate social media fan pages supporting Myles. I’ve been lucky enough to meet him several times and he is one of the nicest, most  talented, humble humans you will ever meet. 

 There are several bands that I’ve seen many  times – Black Stone Cherry, Halestorm, Shinedown, Rival Sons, Massive, Ghost, Brian Fallon, The Cadillac Three, Blackberry Smoke….like the books, I could go on and on. 

My son is usually my “gig buddy” and together we’ve been to over 50 shows so far. COVID 19 has knocked this year’s plans for six but all the shows I have tickets for have been rescheduled so 2021 is shaping up to be a busy year!

If you had the opportunity to change one thing what would it be?

Right now, if I could, I would eradicate COVID 19 and let us all get back to living our lives. 

If you could choose a superpower what would it be?

To be able to tell when someone was lying to me.

You have a Saturday night free. No kids or work to worry about (post lockdown) what would be the perfect way to spend it?

At an Alter Bridge show, on the rail, slightly left of centre and in front of Myles, surrounded by the wonderful people I’ve met from all over the world through going to these shows. Catching a guitar pick or two or maybe snagging the set list would be the icing on the cake.

If I had to stay home, I’d be curled up with a good book or writing, listening to some music and chilling with a glass of wine.

Tell us all about your books.

To date I’ve self-published five novels all along a rock music theme.

Four of these form the Silver Lake series (Stronger Within, Impossible Depths, Bonded Souls and Shattered Hearts) The final book in the series is my current work in progress and should be out early in 2021 all going to plan. The series follows the story of Jake Power and Lori Hyde who meet by chance on the beach when he comes to her rescue and the rest as they say is history….  I don’t want to give away any spoilers but the series will take you on an emotional roller coaster of a ride. There’s laughter, there’s happy tears,  there’s a few sad tears too and lots of great music. 

Ellen, is a stand alone spin off from the series. It tells the story of Ellen Lloyd and a band called After Life that you first meet in Impossible Depths. She intrigued me as a character after I created her and I felt I wanted to tell her story and the story of the rise of After Life.

What was the inspiration for the Silver Lake series?

The characters of Jake and Lori had lived in my head for a very very long time, probably more than twenty years and I couldn’t figure out what to do with them. I wanted to write a feel good contemporary romance with believable characters. My key characters all have flaws or quirks to help the reader relate to them. For example, Jake is always late. 

The advice given to me by a high school English teacher was to write about things I was passionate about and about places close to my heart. 

I chose to set the series in and around the small town of Rehoboth Beach, De USA which is one of my favourite places on earth. The  beach house is modelled on my aunt’s house, again a place close to my heart. The love of rock music speaks for itself.

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Which of your characters do you like most? Why?

Oh that’s like asking me to pick a favourite child! Too cruel!  I love them all!

Tell us about your characters. 

In the Silver Lake series, the principal characters are Jake Power and Lori Hyde

Jake – when you first meet him, he’s an aspiring rock star with a heart of gold. He’s tanned, tattooed and has long sun bleached hair. There are hints to a dark side in his past that is revealed in Bonded Souls. 

Lori – is a strong, determined young woman. She’s returned to Rehoboth Beach at the start of Stronger Within to recover from a serious accident so initially there’s a fragility to her character. She’s an artist and designs the artwork for some of the biggest bands around but at first she keeps that hidden from Jake.

The other members of Silver Lake are

Grey – bass player, grumpy, slightly older than the others and, at the start of the series, the only one who is married with a little girl, Becky. 

Paul – drummer, always hungry and the first to want to break for lunch when the band are rehearsing

Rick- guitarist . He’s the sensible one. He’s a music teacher and keeps the others on the straight and narrow… most of the time.

What motivates your main character/ characters?

My main characters have to be believable. I don’t go in for prima donna rock stars! I like to write about the real “off stage” side to them. I guess that’s the primary trend with all my main characters – they feel like real people. 

I also like slightly flawed characters – both Lori and Ellen have been the victims of tragic accidents. 

I like my characters to have personality traits too which helps the reader to connect with them. For example, apart from having a tendency to be late, Jake will run his hand through his hair when he’s nervous.

If your main character could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

Well, Jake and Lori live in their ideal location – there’s worse places to live than Rehoboth Beach, De. I guess that’s the joy of creating their lives in your story, you can have them settle anywhere in the world that you want them to. Writer’s prerogative!

What do you think is your main character's best and worst trait?

If we stick with Jake, his best trait is that he has a heart of gold. His worst trait (apart from the dark side that if I reveal it here will risk spoiling the storyline for you) is that’s he’s almost always late. It’s bit of a joke through all the books in the Silver Lake series that Grey fines him $20 every time he’s late. Adds to the “real feel” of things.

What sort of reception has your book had?

I have been very lucky over the past five years since I first published Stronger Within that no one has told me my “book babies” are ugly. They have been very well received and are all currently sitting on Amazon.co.uk with 5* status. That is real dream come true moment right there for me.

Some of the quotes from reviews of the Silver Lake books have said:

“A beautiful love story”

“All I can say is WOW!”

“This rock romance is full of music, drama and love that draws you in and leaves you wanting more”

“You can literally hear and feel this”

“Super emotional”

And for Ellen:

“This isn’t just a book band – I want tickets to their next gig”

“Fragility, Scarring and ultimately triumph!”

“The romance steps away from the usual clichés and tropes, exploring the passion of performance.”

Now, I’m blushing!

What other genres have you explored as a writer?

I use my blog to play about with various genres and as a proving ground for some of my characters. I’ve written several gothic horror short stories. I’ve tried my hand at some fantasy. One of the most popular of serialised fiction on my blog is my Silently Watching vampire tale. Who knows it might find its way into a novel one day. For now I’m just having fun writing it every few months.

How do you overcome writer’s block?

I’ll park whatever piece I’m stuck on and go and do something entirely different. That might be writing a poem (I was published as a poet before I published my first novel) or it might be spending an afternoon colouring in a mandala or I might go and write a short story in a different genre.

I’ve also learned not to be too precious about my first drafts. I made a rookie continuity error with Bonded Souls. I’m not someone who plans every last scene and every last paragraph. I prefer to let the story flow around the key scenes. Well with Bonded Souls I let it flow too much and realised I was too far through my timeline to add in a key scene. I wrote the scene itself and quickly realised that I’d need to scrap around 40 000 words to get it back into the right place in the story. Cutting those words and re-writing them was a harsh lesson but the sacrifice was worth it. 

What advice would you give to other aspiring indie authors?

Keep going. Don’t lose faith in yourself. Write write!  Proofread, spell check and grammar check until you are sick of the sight of your own words. There’s nothing like hitting “publish” for spotting a typo!

On a more serious note, if you expect to make your fortune from your books then I hate to disillusion you. There are roughly 70 new books published every hour for Kindle. Currently there are around 7.5M eBooks available on Amazon so that’s a pretty big ocean for your book baby to swim in. Yes you’ll make some money but unless you carry a lot of luck it’s not going to pay the bills. Take pride from the fact that someone has spent their hard earned cash on your book and be thankful for each and every review that your book receives – yes even the ones with less stars.

Write for the joy and satisfaction of telling your story. We may be indie authors but we are storytellers at heart.

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You can find Coral's books at Amazon.co.uk

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You can read her blog at https://coralmccallum.wordpress.com/

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