I'm delighted to be on the blog tour for Snow Job: The Great Game by Jenni Ferchenko. I have a fabulous guest post to share with you today. First of all though let's take a look at the description for the book...
When young associate Katya
Kuznetsova loses her job at Lehman Brothers in London, she takes up a new
investment banking role in Moscow, Russia. Determined to succeed, Katya finds
herself trapped by her lifestyle. At the same time she tries to prove her self-worth
but subconsciously engages in self-punishment, including ever more destructive
sex, alcohol and drug abuse. Eventually, things get out of control, leading to
the dreadful consequences Katya is trying to fix, humiltating herself and
losing everything she owns; but she finds something, which was always there,
she just couldn't see it, something priceless... Snow Job: The Great Game
is the first novel by Jenni Ferchenko.
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A
day in my life as a writer
By
Jenni Ferchenko
When it comes to
writing a book there is no such thing as inspiration. To me it is sheer
discipline – pure allocation of time and space.
It took me quite
some time to finalize the structure and character arcs for my novel “Snow Job.
The Great Game”. But once it was done, I locked myself in for ten months at my
parents’ house just outside Kiev to focus on writing the prose.
I am a very goal-oriented
person. Once I set myself a target I go all-in to achieve it. This is not
necessarily a good thing, as it often means I miss out on the smaller joys in
life like meeting friends, playing sports or having a nice meal. I was so
obsessed with writing my novel that I even spent Christmas, New Year’s Eve and
my birthday on my own.
My strategy was
to flood out as much text as possible for a given scene or exposition, without
editing or thinking too much about it. That would usually happen in the evening,
with my productivity peaking around midnight. (However, English being my
seventh language, it is still rather a slow process). Sometimes I would write
until 4 or 5 a.m. and wake up around noon. Without getting up or brushing my
teeth, I would grab my laptop and edit everything I had written the night
before. The trick here for me was not to get distracted by anything - not to
watch Youtube, check Facebook or even play with my dog. As one fellow writer
put it: “we write best when we are closer to dreams”. I fully agree with this.
This is how it worked for me.
I started writing
my novel “Snow Job. The Great Game” as a single girl and finished it in a
committed relationship with the most amazing man on Earth. To be honest, I
cannot imagine how I managed to write it whilst being practically married and
having a household to run, as well as being an active triathlete and aspiring
musician (I also wrote a smooth jazz “Snow Job” album to accompany my
novel).
My man is very
understanding and supportive of my creative endeavours, but now I crave time
with him in the evenings. Of course working and spending quality time together
are not mutually exclusive - there are enough evenings in the week - but I still
had to adjust my writing habits. Normally, I write on Monday, Tuesday and
Thursday evenings (plus any other time I can spare), and edit during the day.
It is not easy,
because I like to submerge myself in the story and live it with my characters.
When my protagonist injured her leg in the story, I felt her pain so much that
when I finished writing the chapter I was surprised I could actually bend my
knee. A week later, I injured exactly the same leg as Katya (my left one) and
could barely walk.
Now I am working on my second book, which will be revealing what is
true and what is not in the original novel. I am trying to stick to my new
writing regime, literally forcing myself to take a break and enjoy life now and
then. However, when you have a story in you, there is no greater pleasure than
putting it in writing.
After growing up under Communist rule in the Ukraine Jenni Ferchenko established a career in the finance sector after achieving an internship with Lehman’s Brothers, London back in 2006. Her years within the sector working between London and Moscow has provided the inspiration behind her debut novel. Today Jenni Ferchenko lives in an undisclosed location enjoying a quieter life as a singer-songwriter and author. She has also written original songs to accompany the release of her debut novel.
Website - http://jenniferchenko.com/
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