Beyond Dead - Interview & Giveaway - Living Life With Joy

Beyond Dead by Jordaina Sydney Robinson

Published: March 2016

Book Blurb: Dead less than twenty-four hours, with a job that doesn’t pay, a fashion disaster for a uniform and more afterlife rules than she can shake a stick at, Bridget Sway thinks it’s as bad as it can get. And then she finds a dead ghost stuffed in her locker.

Since the police are desperate to arrest her for murder, Bridget’s new best friend convinces her the only way to save herself from an eternity in prison is to solve the murder themselves.

With a handsome parole officer watching her every move, an outlaw ghost befriending her and two persistent mediums demanding her attention, solving the murder is not quite as easy as it sounds. And when “murder” turns into “murders” Bridget needs to solve the case … before she becomes the next dead body stuffed in her locker.

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About the Author

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Author Bio: Jordaina Sydney Robinson grew up and, despite many adventures further afield, still lives in the North West of England. For fun she buys notebooks, gets walked by her husky puppy and sings really loudly and really badly whilst driving her trusty old Seat, Roger. If you want to find out just how bad her singing is then you can visit her official website at www.JordainaSydneyRobinson.com and ask her.

Q & A with Jordaina

1. What do you hope readers will take away from your book?

There are a couple of things. The first is that there is always a silver lining to every situation no matter how dire things may initially seem as long as you know how to look. For example, you break your leg – boo! But you get six weeks off work – yay! That’s a very simplified example, I know, but you get the idea. The second thing is that it’s important to not hide or compromise who you are. I wanted Bridget to be really strong and independent but also flawed so people would be able to relate to her. She can be materialistic and occasionally dismissive of people but those are the things that make her real and she embraces that’s who she is. I think that’s the most attractive quality a person can have – to be confident enough in themselves to be who they are, faults and all. Ultimately, the book is a cosy mystery so neither of these themes are hammered home, they just play out in the background. Above all, the thing I’d most like people to take away is that they had a fun time whilst they were reading.

2. What is your favorite thing about being a writer?

Writing! Just sitting down at a desk (or a picnic bench in the summer) with cup of tea and letting my imagination create whatever it wants. Also working in my pyjamas is a nice bonus.

3. Did you always want to be a writer?

Yes. Always. For as long as I can remember I’ve been writing something, whether it was dodgy poetry, short stories or full length novels. When I was younger I flirted with a few other career ideas but I never really abandoned writing.

4. What inspired you to start writing and what continues to inspire you?

I’ve always loved stories. I love that you can pick up a book and become completely immersed in that world and leave the real world (and all the bills that need paying, washing the needs doing) behind for a while. I keep writing for the same reason I keep reading and that’s because I want to know how the stories end. Also, I get to live vicariously through my characters which is fun!

5. Do you write with a plan or do you write and see where the story takes you?

I plan but I plan loosely. It’s a “broad strokes” plan that takes up less than a page. Even then I use it as a guide rather than a concrete diagram of how everything will play out. Usually for NaNoWriMo I don’t plan anything at all and just write pretty much whatever comes and let the plot unfold as we go. It can be pretty disjointed when you try to read it back but I mainly do it for fun and exploring a different genre than anything else.

6. What are the challenges of writing a series? Did you plan the series out before writing or did the books come together as a series once you’d begun writing the first one?

Bridget was always going to be a series. As a reader they’re my preference so it makes sense that it’s the same when I’m writing. I think the biggest challenge of any series is that you have to let the characters and storylines grow and evolve without losing the basic elements of what your readers fell in love with in the first book. It can be a fine line and I’ve read more series that do it badly than those who do it well.

7. What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?

I once worked in a factory sorting white hangers from black hangers. I lasted a day. And I only lasted that long because it was out of town and the only way there and back was a company bus. If I could have gotten myself home I’ve have been out of there after ten minutes!

8. What would you be doing if you weren’t an author?

I wanted to be an actor for a while until I realised that tv shows/films were filmed out of sequence and that to make Superman “fly” they attached a harness and filmed him swinging around indoors in front of a green screen. That said, I think I only wanted to be an actor because it was another way of telling stories. I don’t really know what I would be doing – there are far too many careers for me to choose from (astronaut, scientist, archeologist, cruise ship singer) but I lack the dedication to do any of them which I think is one of the many reasons I love writing because I sort of get to do them all.

9. What is your favorite inspirational phrase or quote?

“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” It’s a quote from G. K. Chesterton. It’s something that really resonates with me because it’s all about perspective which links back into the whole “silver lining” theme in the series as well.