Featured Interview With Joy Mutter
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Jersey in the Channel Islands too many decades ago to mention. I went by the almost impossible to pronounce name of Joy Houiellebecq until my marriage in 1984. My profession was graphic designer for twenty years after gaining a Graphic Design Degree in Coventry. I then lived briefly in London before becoming a wife, mother and divorcee in Kent.
After an illness in 2012, not wishing to claim benefits I took the bold, some might say foolhardy action of selling my house in Kent and moving to the North of England in order to help fund my long-held ambition of becoming a full-time, published author. I now spend most of my days writing books.
I have written six books since 2007 and decided to publish them all on Amazon in Kindle editions in July 2015. By November 2015 I had also published them all in paperback editions. The first three of my books are mainly autobiographical and form the Mug Trilogy. Potholes and Magic Carpets and Random Bullets are contemporary erotic fiction. I have also published a non-fiction book called Living with Postcards which can also be found on Amazon. My latest published book, Random Bullets is an erotic thriller with a fantasy twist.
I am now working on a collection of short stories in different genres, plus another erotic thriller with a fantasy twist. My intention is to publish both books in 2016. I also intend making audio book editions of at least a couple of my fiction books in 2016. It appears that 2016 will be a busy year for me. However, as writing and publishing is a profession that I am passionate about, it won’t feel at all like work.
I would love to hear what you think of all of my books.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have been a voracious reader from very early childhood and also spent much of my time writing. English was always my favourite school subject and I gained my highest grades whenever I was free to use my imagination. Writing poetry was a pleasure and my close relatives would often receive a handmade, handwritten book of verse from me as gifts from when I was about ten until my early teens. Books have always been my lifelong sanctuary and inspiration. It is perfectly fitting that I now spend roughly seven hours each day writing them.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I have read so many varied authors from every genre throughout my long life that it is hard to single out any authors in particular. The style of every author that I have ever read must have influenced my own writing in some way to a greater or lesser degree. Alan Bennett, Iain Banks, Fay Weldon, Tom Sharpe, Ben Elton, Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley, Agatha Christie, Dahl, Asimov are just a few that spring to mind. They are all so different but each have their own particular influence on my writing.
Having never consciously tried to write in the style of any other author that I have read, I only hear my own voice when I write, nobody else’s.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My sixth book is called Random Bullets. I published it on Amazon in July 2015 as a Kindle edition and in paperback in November the same year. Although I have been writing books since 2007 and full-time since 2011, I waited until 2015 to self-publish all six of my books on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.
After shooting and killing his nephew, a gunman runs wild in a London park. What drives Edward to commit such a heinous act? Who will survive yet another of his moments of madness? Set in 2015 in London, Jersey and Manchester, Random Bullets is an erotic thriller with a fantasy twist.
Several people that have read it said in their reviews that they could not put it down. It is my favourite book of the six thus far, although my non-fiction Living with Postcards book has sold more copies. Random Bullets was certainly the most fun of the six to write. Part of the book has to do with being disinherited, a subject that I know something about. You will know to what I am alluding if you read my autobiographical Mug Trilogy.
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