Interview with author Jane Risdon @Jane_Risdon Only One Woman @AccentPress #BookTwitter

Interview with author Jane Risdon

Can you tell us a little bit about your book?

I am co-author of Only One Woman with Christina Jones (Accent Press Ltd) which was published in paperback May 2018.

Only One Woman is set in the UK music scene of 1968/69 and features the diaries of two young teenage girls – Renza 16 and Stella 19 – in love with the same lead guitarist, Scott. It follows their lives through the grooviest decade of the 20^th century when anything goes: the social upheavals, world events, the music, and the fashions which influence their lives as they conduct their love affair with Scott, unbeknownst to each other.

Locations for their story include England, Jersey (Channel Islands), Germany, and a Mediterranean cruise with stop-off visits to many gorgeous countries.

The novel is so true to its era iconic rock singer Graham Bonnet agreed to write the foreword. Graham sang on the 1968 hit Only One Woman, written for The Marbles by the Bee Gees. He went on to front legendary bands such as Rainbow, Michael Schenker, Ritchie Blackmore, Alcatraz and more and has his own band The Graham Bonnet Band which is still touring.

I wrote the book – not my usual crime/thriller – after going through some memorabilia belonging to my husband’s band and also from our life on the road years later, managing singers, songwriters, musicians, and record producers internationally. It started out as a crime story set around a band in the late 1960s but turned into women’s fiction/romance somehow. 

The memorabilia gave me a great source of information about our lives and life on the road as touring musicians back in the late 1960s before things in the business went massive in terms of tours and publicity, and I wrote it from the POV of Renza, aged 16, about to leave for Germany when she meets and falls in love with Scott, lead guitarist with Narnia’s Children, who come to live near her.

The story is written in diary form and it soon became obvious I needed another voice and as Christina and I are old friends – she was fan-club secretary for my husband’s band and a best-selling/award-winning author in her own right – and because we’ve always wanted to write together, I sent her the book and she loved it and wanted to write Stella. She had to write her characters and story around a completed plot. She did brilliantly too.

Did you have a favourite character to write?

I don’t have a favourite character, although Scott was fun to write. Writing from a male POV was fun and it came easily. I suppose having worked all my life in the music business, mostly with men, I can get inside their heads quite easily.

What has been your proudest bookish moment?

My proudest bookish moment was seeing Only One Woman in print and in Waterstones. I’ve had many stories published in anthologies in print and online in newsletters and articles, but have never been able to see my work in print in a book store – until May 2018. Doing a book launch and signing was epic too. I’m used to album releases and launches so it was a particular thrill to be doing a launch for something I’d created – with Christina.

Do you have any questions for your readers?

Many readers of Only One Woman, male and female, would like a sequel. I’d like to know in which period they imagine it should be set – following on from 1969 where Only One Woman ends taking the story forward another two years – or perhaps a period further in the future telling what happened to the band, Stella and Renza after say, ten years or so. If they’d like to message me with suggestions that would be fab because I have started writing the sequel and it would be helpful.

What is your all-time favourite read?

My all-time favourite read is possibly Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne Du Maurier. An adventure story and romance in the old fashioned meaning of the word. I love anything to do with Pirates. It is a love story, a crime story and a pirate tale all in one. Set in beautiful Cornwall. I usually read crime/thrillers only but her books have influenced me since I was young.

Only One Woman by Christine Jones & Jane Risdon

Only One Woman Blurb:

Hello – we are Renza Rossi and Stella Deacon, and like most girls in the 1960s we kept diaries. Properly written diaries – with daily entries from 1968 through to the end of the decade, chronicling our life, the fashions, the music, the excitement – and our love affairs…. Which, is just as well – because although we didn’t know it, and we certainly didn’t know each other, miles apart geographically and with totally different lifestyles, we were both in love with the same boy… 

How this came about, the ups and downs, the laughter, the tears, the heartbreak, and how it was resolved – all played out to a 1960s background of love and peace and rock’n’roll – is covered in the amalgamation of our diaries – which we’ve put together and called ONLY ONE WOMAN. 

We very much hope that they’ve whetted your appetite and you’re now longing to read the rest…Only One Woman – published by Accent Press Ltd.

 E-pub is on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Simon & Schuster as well as other good digital sites around the world.

Only One Woman in Paperback is in Waterstones (just order it) and other smaller independent book stores around the world as well as via Amazon.

With love, Renza and Stella XXX 

Author Bio:

Jane Risdon writes mostly Crime Thrillers often set in the music business or with an organised crime or espionage element. With a former career in the international music business managing songwriters, singers, musicians and record producers, she often draws upon her experiences in Hollywood, Europe and SE Asia for her plots.

She is also the author of short stories which have been included in 15 anthologies to date, as well as in magazines and online newsletters. She also contributes articles and writes flash fiction. Two of the anthologies she has contributed towards are award winners.

Jane has co-authored the award-winning Only One Woman with long-time friend Christina Jones, which is set in the UK music scene of the late 1960s. Jane is married to a musician and has drawn upon her knowledge and experiences of life in the music business for her first outing into Women’s Fiction. Only One Woman was published in paperback on 24th May 2018 and is also available in Waterstones and on most digital platforms. For more information visit her Amazon Author Page:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00I3GJ2Y8

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