Find Out Friday: Henriette Gyland
12/9/2011 9:35:03 AM
Find Out Friday has taken another international turn this week as we find out about Dane, Henriette Gyland, compulsive knitter, cat slave and guinea-pig whisperer.
Hello, Henri. How are you today? Ready for Christmas?
Not really, to be honest. At the moment I feel I’m being pulled in ten different directions, and whilst it’s great to be busy, having to “change” hats several times a day can be quite exhausting! Not only do I write, I also work as a language examiner and a translator, and this time of year is always hectic because most translation agencies close down for Christmas and New Year and therefore need to clear their desks beforehand. I have done some Christmas shopping but still have lots more to do, although most of it will be from the comfort of my home. Hurrah for the Internet!
How do you spend Christmas? Is it a time of calm or a time of excitement in the Gyland household?
I always start the 1st of December by presenting my children with their advent calendars, where they get a little thing every day in the run-up to Christmas. Even though they’re no longer toddlers, they still get very excited about it. The presents used to be a small toy, a ball, or a funky pen, etc., but they’re getting a bit too old for that, so now it’s a piece of chocolate on weekdays and slightly bigger presents on Saturdays and Sundays.
Are there any Danish Christmas traditions that differ to British ones? What was a typical Christmas morning for you as a child?
I suppose the differences between a British Christmas and a Danish one are, first of all, the timing but also the rituals themselves. We celebrate it on the 24th of December with dinner, often consisting of roast pork with crackling or roast goose, served with caramelised potatoes, red cabbage, and redcurrant jelly. This is then followed by a cold rice pudding flavoured with vanilla. In it will be hidden one whole almond, and the one who finds it receives a token present (similar to the British tradition of putting a sixpence in the Christmas pudding). The trick is to see how long you can string out the suspense as to who’s got it!
After that we dance and sing around the Christmas tree, and then – finally – we get to open our presents. The tradition is to put real candles on the tree in specially designed holders, and then light them. I suspect you’re holding up your hands in horror – won’t the tree burn etc.? It doesn’t because we don’t normally take our trees indoors until very close to Christmas, and there’s enough sap in the tree for the candles to simply go out. My maternal grandfather used to say, “A Christmas tree never burns”, and it didn’t, although as a back-up he always had a bucket of water at hand…
There’s no doubt in my mind that Christmad – oops, a Freudian slip, I meant Christmas, of course – has become very commercialised, Denmark being no different to anywhere else, but once we get to Christmas Eve itself, I still find the whole thing enchanting. And I do love my lie-in on the 25th.
What brought you toEngland?
Er, a bloke. To cut a long story short, it didn’t work out, but by then I’d found a good job, a nice place to live, and inDenmark, unemployment was very high in my field, so I stayed for a little while longer. I then met someone else and that, as they say, was that.
I am always impressed with bi-linguist/multi-linguists – I found O’ Level French tricky enough (yes, I’m old enough to be an O’ Leveller), do you speak other languages and is it something that comes easily to you?
Apart from English, which I started learning aged 11, and Danish (obviously), I speak German, French, and a tiny bit of Japanese. My German is good enough that I can pick up some of what’s said on the news (very topical now the Eurozone is in trouble), I occasionally help my son with his German homework, and one of my husband’s sisters lives in Germany with her husband, so I have plenty of exposure. Because of the similarities between the Scandinavian languages, I can also read and understand Swedish and Norwegian, but I can’t write it. Sadly my French and Japanese are a bit rusty – well, a lot – but I do tend to pick languages up quite quickly once I immerse myself in them and have considered doing a refresher course. When I have time. Which will probably be never.
Now – onto writing. Tell me about your membership with the Romantic Novelists Association. How did you become involved with the RNA?
Years ago I was involved in a local writers’ circle where we met fortnightly to discuss our work. When one of the other members realised that what I was writing was technically romantic fiction, she suggested I join the RNA. At that time I’d never heard of the association and hadn’t thought of my writing as a particular anything – I just wrote – but I took her advice and joined the New Writer’s Scheme. This was back when Marina Oliver and then Margaret James were the organisers, and they were both very encouraging. Since then I’ve been a member for more years than some people have had hot dinners.
What advice can you pass on to the New Writer Scheme members?
Write the best novel you can, and regard the comments from the NWS reader as a help. Don’t be disappointed if it’s not an instant winner – very few people make it with their first novel. I’ve probably written about nine, although some of those have been serious rewrites of earlier attempts. Writers are people with a story (or several) to tell, but that doesn’t mean that the actual craft of writing these stories down is perfect from the outset. It’s like a rough diamond – it needs to be cut, the rough edges smoothed away, before it can truly shine. Having said that, I’m the first person to sulk in a corner when things don’t go my way!
As a New Writer, you entered the Festival of Romance’s New Talent Award. This was a last minute decision – why the uncertainty?
Because the first chapter (prologue) doesn’t actually start with the traditional lead-up to a romantic entanglement – e.g. a meeting, phone call, misunderstanding, a break-up, a new place, etc. – but with an elderly woman dying of a heart attack, alone in her house, while someone watches her through a pair of binoculars. The next chapter does carry on in the above tradition, but I still felt like a fraud – this is the Festival of Romance, and my novel starts with a mystery.
Then I thought, what the heck, nothing ventured and all that, entered it, and promptly forgot about it (blame it on the Hat Syndrome above). It wasn’t until the actual day I remembered and thought it probably wouldn’t win, and I decided to just enjoy the evening.
How did you feel at the moment you were announced the winner?
Well, I was utterly gob-smacked! After that I went through a whole range of emotions, from “Eek, what do I do now?” to “Oh, I’m supposed to go up there”, to “Wow, is this really happening to me?” to beaming from ear to ear. It was a truly special moment.
Can you tell me something about your novel and your chosen genre?
The genre I write in is difficult to pigeon-hole. Some call it romantic suspense, or romantic thriller, or even psychological suspense. If I was to label it myself, it would be something along the lines of kitchen-sink-mystery-romance-drama, but since this is not an easy thing to rattle off the tongue, it’s probably better to stick with the term romantic suspense.
About my novel, well, here’s a mini-blurb: A thirty-something ER doctor returns to her native Norfolk to sort out the estate after the death of her grandmother, only to discover that nothing is what it seems… sorry, but you’ll have to wait for the rest.
Now, I’m going to let you finish this sentence…The biggest news this year has to be…
…winning a prize! Signing a contract with a publisher! Sorry, that was two.
But these things did not happen overnight, did they?
No, it was hard work and determination, years of learning my craft, taking the advice I was given, revising, submitting, entering competitions, dealing with rejection, submitting again, and again. Disheartening sometimes, but I kept going because I couldn’t have stopped even if I’d tried. Once bitten by the writing bug…
What or who inspires you to write and which books are on your To Be Read pile? (My pile has recently evolved into a tower.)
News items, real-life stories, reading the classics, watching TV dramas, favourite authors, conversations overheard on the bus – all kinds of things coming together in one big melting pot.
My TBR pile is so tall it’s like an accident waiting to happen (I sleep right next to it, you see), but for the sake of brevity I’ve narrowed it down to six:
“Heartstone” – C J Sansom
“Star Struck” – Jane Lovering
“One Day” – David Nicholls
“Notorious” – Nicola Cornick
“Death in Hellfire” –DerynLake
“MollFlanders” – Daniel Defoe.
Are you a pen and paper person or do you prefer to type straight to the PC?
A bit of both. I find if I’m struggling with a particular scene, or the words generally won’t flow, that it helps to grab a pen and a notepad, and go sit somewhere else. In the summer I sit in the garden, weather permitting, and in the winter on the sofa, sometimes with the TV on. Actually, it’s like my writing is more “free” with a pen in my hand, because I have to think on my feet away from my computer thesaurus. Dangerous things, thesauruses.
I also edit on paper, with a red pen, and I think this is influenced by my work as a translator – I simply have to print out my draft translation, put it next to the source text, and go through it section by section to ensure everything is present and correct.
Finally – guinea-pig whisperer? I’m intrigued…
It’s just about understanding the creatures, really. I have two, one is very greedy, the other not so, so for instance when they have their favourite food, cucumber, I give them different-sized pieces. Greedy-guts gets the biggest, which means they finish at the same time, and peace is maintained. Pig psychology at its simplest.
Henri, it has been a real pleasure having this opportunity to find out more about you and thank you for taking the time. Please let us know how your year progresses – it is going to be a busy one!
Speaking as a member of the New Writers Scheme, I think it’s fair to say, you are an inspiration to us and I thank you for that.
Have a great Christmas and enjoy what is to follow.
Henri can be found on Twitter @henrigyland
And on Facebook
You can find out about Henri and other great authors at Choc Lit.
Comments:
Jan Brigden:
12/11/2011 9:27:37 PM
Fab Interview.
Another great Find out Friday interview, Laura. Loved reading all about Henri’s journey to publication (whoop whoop!) and all about the Danish Christmas traditions. Thanks for sharing your story with us, Henri, and once again, Congratulations.
Sarah Tranter:
12/9/2011 8:50:09 PM
Henri.
Another great post Laura – and congatulations again Henri – 2012 is your year!
Sx
Susan Bergen:
12/9/2011 7:27:51 PM
Guinea Pigs.
Lovely interview and great to hear about another success (heard it first on ROMNA). Well done, Henri.
Must chat to you sometime, Henri, in your role as Guinea Pig psychologist. I’m the world’s champion Guinea Pig sexer. And I bet you can guess how that came about!
Susan.
Laura James:
12/9/2011 7:09:15 PM
FOF.
Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments. I have been very honoured to have such generous and open guests.
Lizzie Lamb:
12/9/2011 7:07:18 PM
What a gal.
Many thanks to Laura for this blog post. I don’t go on to that many blogs because there are hundreds of them but I do follow them over from Facebook/Twitter, if the blogger includes a link – especially if they are about my RNA friends (!) Henri, I bow to your linguistic skills; and Laura – sadly, I took have ‘O’ level French, too. But most of all Henri, I enjoyed reading about your path to publication and how honest you’ve been about how hard it is. IT IS. BLOODY HARD. Good luck to both of you with your writing. Lizzie xxx
Liz Harris:
12/9/2011 6:36:53 PM
Henri Gyland.
A very interesting interview. Thank you for it, Henri and Laura.
I can’t wait to read your book, Henri; it sounds intriguing.
Liz X
Henriette Gyland:
12/9/2011 5:22:05 PM
Thanks.
Thanks for all your lovely comments. It’s a pleasure being here today.
Debs Carr:
12/9/2011 3:58:13 PM
Congratulations.
Congratulations once again, Henri. I can’t wait to read your book.
Thanks for the interesting interview.
Janice:
12/9/2011 3:33:01 PM
Henri’s Post.
Your Christmas sounds lovely. Huge congrats on how far you’ve come this year Henri with your writing award and your book deal – all richly deserved. Happy Christmas to you and yours! xx
Sue Moorcroft:
12/9/2011 3:08:04 PM
Lovely.
Excellent post. Enjoy the run up to your first book being published, Henri.
Talli Roland:
12/9/2011 2:40:56 PM
Wonderful Interview.
Great interview, ladies. I loved hearing about the Danish Christmas traditions!
Rhoda Baxter:
12/9/2011 1:48:23 PM
Sounds lovely.
I like the idea of real candles on a christmas tree. I might have to try that when the kids are older.
What a great story. Congratulations on your successful year. May 2012 be even better!
Rhoda.
Angela Britnell:
12/9/2011 1:47:15 PM
Interesting!
Glad to read all about you and especially aboutDenmark. I lived there for several years and met my American husband there so have fond memories of Danish Christmases. All the white tree lights put me of coloured ones forever!
Lynne:
12/9/2011 1:16:29 PM
Wow!
What a brilliant story Henri!!! I’d always wondered what it felt like to be told you’ve won a competition when you’re in the room when the announcement is made!
It is a long time to wait for a book though, I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the end!
Lynne.
June Gadsby:
12/9/2011 1:06:16 PM
Henrietta Hyland.
So glad that success has found you Henri – you are worth it!
Catherine Miller:
12/9/2011 12:39:31 PM
Interview.
Another great Find Out Friday. Thanks for sharing your story, Henri 🙂
Henriette Gyland:
12/9/2011 12:08:43 PM
Danish Christmas.
Thanks, Helen. I’m so pleased to be here today, and naturally very excited about my book. Sadly publication day probably won’t be until March 2013, so I’ll have to curb my enthusiasm a little. But, oooh….
Happy Christmas to you too, or “Glædelig Jul”, as we say in Danish.
Hx
Helen Hollick:
12/9/2011 10:58:47 AM
Thanks for sharing.
I’m so pleased for you Henri – can’t wait to read the book. And thanks for sharing about how you celebrate a Danish Christmas – very interesting
Best wishes for Yule – and your book!
What’s Happy Christmas in Danish?