Adèle Jordan, a former Örebro student, has recently released her debut novel Kärlek, svek & smaragder which she debuted with at the annual Gothenburg Book Fair in late September. We met in her home for an inspiring talk about her book and writing process.
Adéle and I sit down at her kitchen table and I’m given a copy of her book to browse through. The cover of the book shows an Irish landscape and goes in the green colours that are so often linked to Ireland. The green colours have the same tones as a tattoo on Adèle’s arm of a shamrock, an Irish clover. We are going to continue to talk about Ireland but as I’ve heard that Adèle is a former editorial member, we start to talk about Lösnummer.
– That’s right. I was a member of Lösnummer between 2011 and 2012. I wrote articles about a little bit of everything possible like news, sports, reviews and more. It was fun!
You’re a former Örebro student. What did you study during your time as a student? – I studied Media and Communication with a specialization in film. I also studied creative writing courses. In the creative writing courses did we learn how to write different kinds of texts. Those are the courses I’ve had the most use of after my studies.
–In addition to my university studies, have I studied other writing courses. I took two courses over Facebook, one called Författarateljén which had different themes every week. I wrote my book through a course called “Från bokidé till bokmässa (eng. translation: From book idea to book fair, ed).” by Litterära konsulter. That course had supervision meetings every Monday and different writing sessions every week to speed up our writing. Through that course did I gain access to an editor, proofreading and cover of the book among other things. I also got to go the Gothenburg Book Fair and I’ve released the book through my own publishing house.
What’s your book about? – It’s about Michelle from Sweden who goes to Ireland on vacation. In Ireland, she meets Adam and they fall in love instantly. But Michelle has to go back home, and complications arise. It’s a romance with elements of suspense. You’ll have to read about it to know more!
How come the story takes place in Ireland in particular? – Well, I am a hibernophile. In other words, I love everything about Ireland. I’ve been there four times since 2011 and if I could I would go there all the time. I like the country and the people, so it was quite natural for the book to take place there.
Hibernophile, that’s a word I never heard of before! I know that your writing process has been a bit special, how did you do when you wrote your book? – That’s right. I got a CP-injury at birth due to lack of oxygen. I’m sitting in a wheelchair and cannot write by myself, so I use a voice-controlled program and say word for word. It has been a bit of a struggle of course. It takes a long time to spell out every word and sometimes the program fails. I started writing in January 2018 and also attended a writing course in New York last autumn. I spent several hours each week writing.
How fun with New York. What did you do while being there? – It was there with the course that I studied. We were four Swedes on the course, and we lived in Harlem for a week. We had lessons every morning until lunch and homework to work with during the days. We also explored the city of course.
It must have been very inspiring. Do you have any advice for other students who want to write? – If you really want to write, you just have to start. Don’t think too much. You do not need to write from point A to point B. One advice is to take a course in writing like I did. There are good writing courses that you can study at distance via the internet as the ones I took. The editing phase can be hard, but I went into my own bubble during it. Get to know your characters and go into your own world through writing.
Did you have a complete story finished when you started writing? – I started by writing a synopsis. The longer I wrote the more did the story become different. The characters got their own life. I knew the end of the story all along, it was pretty clear, and it was good to have it like that.
What happens next? Do you have plans to write more books? – I’ve started writing notes for the next book. I hope for it to be ready for next year’s book fair. It’s a bit of a continuation of this book. Some characters remain, although it has been a few years. I could not let the characters go completely so I’ve chosen to keep some of them.
Finally, where can you and your book be found? – The book is available for purchase on Adlibris, Bokus and on my website adelejordan.com. You can follow me on my website where I’ve a blog and on my Facebook page which has the same title as my book Kärlek, svek och smaragder.
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