Joan Fallon
was born in Dumfries, in Scotland, the only child of a Scottish mother and an
Irish father, but spent most of her formative life in the south of England. Teacher, management trainer and business
woman, she moved to Spain at the beginning of the new millennium and became a
writer. To date she has written six
novels aimed at the women’s
commercial fiction market and a non-fiction book based on authentic interviews with a
number of Spanish women of all ages and from all walks of life.
Welcome Joan and thanks for
accepting the invite to be a part of my blog!
Your real name and pen name?
My writing name is part of
my real name which is Joan Fallon Cook.
Fallon is my middle name and I thought a shorter name would be more
suitable as a pen name so I write as Joan Fallon.
About your education
I trained as a teacher and
have an Honours BA from the Open University.
I also have a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management Studies.
What career did you plan during
your education days
I wanted to be a journalist
but in the end I became a teacher.
What languages you can speak
and write?
I live in Spain so I can
speak and write well in Spanish. Many
years ago I learnt French at school, so can still manage to get by if I am ever
on holiday in France.
What hurts you most in this
world?
What hurts me most is the
enormous division that exists between rich and poor, in not just third world
countries but everywhere.
What is the biggest challenge
you have faced? How did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge I have
faced was when my seventeen-year old son dropped dead, unexpectedly. It was hard to find the strength to keep
living but with the help of my family and friends I did. That was when I made a career change and
began to work as a management trainer, a job that had less contact with
teenagers.
If you had to live a day of
your life as one of a living or dead personality, who would it be and why?
This is not a question I
have asked myself but I think it would be interesting to live one day of my
life as Emily Pankhurst, the leader of women’s suffrage.
What is your favourite genre
and why?
I am very fond of writing
historical fiction because I enjoy the research that is necessary to write a
convincing story. I particularly like
social history and setting my characters in a different time period.
When did you start writing?
What is the purpose of your writing?
I started writing full time
eight years ago. I would like to say
that the purpose of writing was to make money but no-one writes to make
money. I started writing because, after
a very busy life, I suddenly had the time and the opportunity to do so. It is something that I had been waiting all
my life to do.
Which of your work has been published
so far? Would you like to share a synopsis of your work?
I have self-published seven
novels and a book of non-fiction. All my
work is about women, usually strong women who have to face some kind of
difficulty or problem and manage to overcome it.
What are your forthcoming
writings?
My current novel is a
mystery story about a famous artist who, despite losing her memory, is trying
to write her memoirs. The tension is
between what she remembers and what actually happened fifty years before.
What are your future plans?
To continue writing.
How much real life goes into a
fiction writing?
A great deal of real life
goes into my stories; I use all sorts of details from my life and those of
people I know. I like to write about
real places and real historic events.
However the end result is always a work of fiction.
Is a high level of imagination
important for an Author?
If you are writing fiction,
it is very important.
Your dream destination on
Earth?
I think I am living there at
the moment, in southern Spain overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Your origin of birth and other
countries you have visited/ stayed.
I was born in Dumfries, in
Scotland but I moved as a child to England, where I spent all my life until I
came here to Spain.
I travelled both for work
and pleasure to many European countries: Italy, Germany, France, Denmark,
Norway, Finland, Portugal and Belgium. I
also visited the USA and Canada.
What were the best things you
liked in these countries around the globe?
I like travelling and I like
seeing how people live in other countries.
I am fond of trying new food and sampling the local wine, especially in
Italy.
Your favorite time of the day?
I am definitely a morning
person. Most of my writing is done first
thing in the day.
Your
zodiac/ sunsign?
I am Aries - very
competitive and keen to get things done.
Your favorite color and why?
Green because I have green
eyes.
What was the last book you
finished reading? What is the current book you are reading?
I am currently reading
Philip Roth’s book American
Pastoral. Before that I read An
Englishman in Madrid by Eduardo Mendoza (a translated version). This was an interesting story because it was
set just weeks before civil war broke out in Spain. For me it was of particular interest because
my love story Spanish Lavender is set in Malaga during the civil war, and the
book opens in February 1937.
Your favorite book and why?
This is an impossible
question to answer; there have been so many favourite books over the years. At the moment Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies is my current favourite.
Your favorite movie and why?
I love movies but I don’t have any particular favourite. It’s
the same as with books. I’d say my current favourite movie is The Dallas Buyers’ Club but then I
also like The Descendents.
Your favorite celebrity and
why?
Probably Johnny Depp, he is
a talented actor, handsome and I love the quirky roles he plays.
Your
favorite food?
I love any kind of seafood
but especially scallops.
Some quickies: Sun or Moon,
Laughter or Smile, Morning or Evening,
Coffee or Tea, Mountain or Sea,
Long Drive or Short Drive, Silence or
Conversation, Water or Fire,
Air or Earth, Mars or Jupiter, Tulip or
Rose, Red or Blue, Left or
Right, Glance or Stare
Sun, Smile, Morning, Coffee,
Sea, Long Drive, Silence, Water, Air, Mars, Rose, Blue, Right, Glance
Twitter handle: @joan_fallon
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/joanfallonbooks
Goodreads author page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard
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