My First Time...with Emma Glass
Born and bred in Swansea, Emma Glass studied English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Kent before pursuing a career as a children's nurse. She is now a research nurse specialist at Evelina London Children's Hospital. Peach is her first novel.
Emma will be reading and offering up tips for writing and getting published at The Riff Raff on Thursday 25th January. Tickets are going fast so grab yours right here.
Here's the blurb for Peach...
'Something has happened to Peach. It hurts to walk but she staggers home to parents that don't seem to notice. They can't keep their hands off each other and, besides, they have a new infant, sweet and wobbly as a jelly baby. Peach must patch herself up alone so she can go to college and see her boyfriend, Green. But sleeping is hard when she is haunted by the gaping memory of a mouth, and working is hard when burning sausage fat fills her nostrils, and eating is impossible when her stomach is swollen tight as a drum.'
Describe the exact moment you decided to write your book?
Peach started with a beat. I was frustrated, uninspired, tired (drunk) and due to submit 4000 words of a novel for my creative writing class at university. I was listening to music with my eyes closed and I began to write the feeling of frustration, frustration turned to fear, fear to desperation and then an image of a girl. And suddenly I had Peach.
When I read what I had written and realised how image driven it was, I knew that she was not just a girl, not in a normal world. The story came later. I had to turn in a synopsis with my 4000 words and I thought: ’This is pretty crazy to begin with, I may as well go the whole way.’
What’s the one thing you wish you’d known before starting to write your first book?
I wish I’d known I was going to be a nurse. I would’ve written faster.
What’s your go-to procrastination method?
Fringe maintenance.
What was the biggest tantrum you had while writing it?
I didn’t really have a tantrum during, but I wept a lot afterwards.
Best thing about writing your book? I can use it as an excuse for not owning a house or having a baby.
And the worst?
The thought of people reading it and being hurt or distressed by it.
Go-to writing snacks?
Eggs for breakfast, always. And then litres of water and crisps or crackers.
Who or what inspires you to write?
Is it a cop-out to say everything? (It’s true)
The book that changed you?
So many! 1984, Less than Zero, Tender Buttons…
Your pump up song?
Deftones - Back to School.
If you could share a bottle of wine with one writer dead or alive, who would it be?
Dead – Virginia Woolf. Alive – Margaret Atwood, Lydia Davies and Susan Hill (girls night in).
One piece of advice you’d give first time writers hoping to get a book published?
Don’t compromise and don’t follow the rules, for the sake of following rules.
Full stops are friends. Genres are melting, follow the drips.
