Writer Wednesday with Joan Fallon

This week, I had the chance to meet Joan Fallon, author of literary and historical fiction, including her most recent work, The Thread That Binds Us. I admire the fact that she’s lived in various places around the globe–not to mention her background as a teacher, which we share.

Tell us about yourself:

I was born in Scotland but left when I was quite young. Since then I have spent half my life in England, where I worked first of all as a teacher and then later, as a management consultant and trainer. For the last twenty years I have lived in the south of Spain where I dedicate myself to writing both literary and historical fiction.

Tell us about your book:

My latest book is called The Thread That Binds Us. It is the story of Susan, an ambitious career woman, who has reached late middle-age. She is desperately trying to hold onto her job, is always at logger-heads with her son and now she discovers that her parents had lied to her all her life. When Susan discovers that her father had an illegitimate son, she is at first horrified and then obsessed with finding out more about this child. But her obsession with finding him begins to threaten her seemingly happy marriage.

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

Yes, books are my passion and I grew up reading everything I could get my hands on. So, from an early age, I always wanted to write but I had a full-time job and a family and it just wasn’t possible to devote the time required for writing.

What is your “day job”?

My day job now is a mixture of writing, self-publishing and marketing my books. That doesn’t leave me any time to work at anything else.

Who is your favourite character in your book, and why?

The main character in almost all my books is female. I began working in the late sixties and during that time and through to the nineties I felt that I was a woman struggling for recognition in a man’s world. Because of that almost all my books have a strong female protagonist. I like to write mainly about women and the challenges they have to face because I understand them best. That doesn’t mean I don’t have some very likeable men in my books, too. In fact in my latest book, the rather put-upon, easy-going husband is my favourite character. He is at his happiest when he is out on the golf course with his ancient friends or walking his dog by the river. But I like Susan too because I can see some aspects of myself in her.

If you were to be stranded on a desert island, what non-survival item would you bring along that you couldn’t live without?

At first I thought I’d bring along a Kindle with thousands of ebooks on it but there could be problems with charging the battery. So I would go for an enormous box of pens and paper. I could write and then read what I’d written years later—if I was still there.

Are any elements of your book autobiographical or inspired by elements of your life?

None of my books are autobiographical but many of them have been inspired by elements in my life or someone I’ve known.

Are you working on any other projects at the moment?

Yes, I’m about halfway through the third book in a historical trilogy set in Moorish Spain, entitled the al-Andalus trilogy.

Finally, where can we find you?

I am on the usual social media sites and have a webpage for my books:

https://www.facebook.com/joanfallonbooks