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A THOUSAND ROOMS by HELEN JONES

You don't wake up expecting to die... 

Katie is thirty-two, single, and used to work in advertising. She's also dead. A lost soul hitching rides with the dying, trying to find her way to... wherever she's supposed to be. 

And whoever she's supposed to be with. 

Heaven, it seems, has a thousand rooms. What will it take to find hers?

You can read my review of A Thousand Rooms here.

I am thrilled to welcome Helen Jones to my blog today and delighted that she has agreed to answer some questions all about her novel A Thousand Rooms! 

Welcome Helen!

Could you start by telling me about the inspiration behind A Thousand Rooms?
A Thousand Rooms was inspired by a real event. I lived in Sydney for a couple of years and used to walk to work along Military Road, a main thoroughfare on the North Shore. One morning I came around a curve in the road to see a woman had been hit by a bus. She was lying on the sidewalk covered by a blanket – the bus was still there, as was the driver and a few passengers. There were a couple of police officers as well, but no ambulance, and the area wasn’t cordoned off at all. As I walked past I could see the woman’s arm sticking out from under the blanket and she was wearing a silver charm bracelet. I remember thinking she had woken up and chosen that bracelet to wear, not knowing she would be dead within a few hours. The idea stayed with me, and was the genesis for A Thousand Rooms.

If you could sum the book up in 3 words, what would they be?
Laugh, cry, love

You have chosen quite a tricky subject to write about. Did you find writing the novel an emotional process and were there any passages that you found particularly challenging to write? 
Writing this book was a very emotional experience, as I had to consider what it would be like to be dead, to leave your family behind, and also how they would respond to your death, especially if it was unexpected. I found the moments in the church at Katie’s funeral, where she’s sitting between her parents, particularly challenging to write, as well as the chapter where she goes to their house to say goodbye and realises they’re not coping. I suppose it made me consider loss I’d experienced in my own life, as I had to draw on that pain to convey the emotion.

On a different level, the book also drew on a lot of my experience in Australia, where I lived for many years. It was bittersweet to revisit a place I loved.

How much of you is reflected in your main character? Do you share any of the same character traits? 
Hmm. Katie is like me in some respects, though on a superficial level. For example, she lives in my old Sydney apartment, and her office is actually a place I used to work in when I lived in Melbourne. I do swear a bit sometimes, too! But as a person she’s quite different, for the most part.

What did you find most rewarding about the whole process of writing and publishing your novel? 
I actually wrote A Thousand Rooms the one and only time I did NaNoWriMo, so it was rewarding to complete the 50,000 words within a month (although also completely draining). After that I couldn’t look at it for about a year, so going back and completing the story, fine-tuning the nuance and working on the language, was very satisfying. And being published is a wonderful feeling! I love the idea that someone else will get to read about a story and characters I care so deeply for.

What one message would you like readers to take away from A Thousand Rooms?
Just to live life and celebrate the positives. And that you never know what’s around the corner.

What are you working on now?

I have several projects on the go at the moment. I’m at the editing stage of the fourth volume of my YA series, the Ambeth Chronicles, and I’ve also almost completed a novel about, of all things, vampires, something I never thought I’d write about. And I have a new story which is exciting me, about three women in three different stages of their lives. I’ve only just started writing it but the characters are really speaking to me. Watch this space…

I am definitely watching!! Can't wait to hear more! Thanks so much for popping along and taking the time to chat today!


A Thousand Rooms is published independently and available both as a ebook and a paperback. 

Helen Jones

Helen Jones was born in the UK, then spent many years living in Canada and Australia before returning to England several years ago. She worked as a freelance writer for years, runs her own blog and has contributed guest posts to others, including the Bloomsbury Writers & Artists site. When she's not exploring fantasy worlds she likes to walk, paint and study martial arts. She lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and daughter.

A Thousand Rooms is her fourth novel; she has also written three well-received volumes of her YA fantasy series, The Ambeth Chronicles. She is self-published.
Links:

Twitter: @AuthorHelenJ





https://uk.pinterest.com/helenj0303/

For more recommendations and reviews follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via my blog bibliomaniacuk.blogspot.co.uk or website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk

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