Today I would like to welcome Sam Birch author of The High-Street Brides Guide. Welcome Sam so glad you could join me.
Do
you have any advice for other writers?
Listen to your gut. You know when what you’re
writing is and isn’t working, and if it’s not, be brave enough to cut a section
out, to edit a story arc or do what’s necessary to make you feel right about it
again, even if it’s a big job. Slogging on writing something you know you’re
not happy with because it’s daunting to make changes won’t bring out your best
work. Just make sure you save and back up the original version before you make
sweeping changes—knowing you can always go back frees you up to move forward.
Do you have anything specific that you
want to say to your readers?
I hope The
High-Street Bride’s Guide helps to make planning your wedding cheaper,
easier and more fun. When I wrote the book I wanted it to be practical, but
also to be a laugh—none of this dry bullet-pointing or terrifying
deadline-setting you sometimes get in wedding guidebooks—but one of the other
great things brides and bridesmaids are telling me so far is that it’s been
helping the woman of the hour relax and feel in control too, which I think is
exactly what you need at what can be a pretty stressful time.
What
were the challenges (research, literary, psychological, and logistical) in
bringing it to life?
To be honest, The High-Street Bride’s Guide came kind of naturally. I’d been
writing about wedding planning for about four years when I started it, and I
finished it in a month. I had a really clear plan for the book from the off,
since it was non-fiction and I wanted to make sure I covered everything I could
think of. Then I just sat down and went at it until it was done!
What
books have most influenced your life most?
Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland has been one of my favourite books the
longest—I’ve loved it to bits ever since I was little, and I’ve even acted in
the play twice. The first time I played the dodo and one of the Queen of
Hearts’ card soldiers, but by the second time around I’d been promoted to
Alice! My husband knows how much I love the book, and for one of our
anniversaries he got me a reprint of the original handwritten version with
Lewis Carroll’s own drawings—it’s one of the most precious things I own. I read
it with awe, noticing even the tiniest differences between that and the
published book.
If
you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Terry Pratchett, I think, because it kind of
fits into the narrative of my writing career so far: I interviewed him back
when I was Books Editor at my uni paper, York
Vision, and that interview was what got me my first paid writing job, as Features
Editor on a business magazine. It would make a weird kind of sense if he
mentored me through my transition from journalism into books, and non-fiction
into fiction.
What
book are you reading now?
A couple by my fellow HarperImpulse authors: The Best Thing I Never Had by Erin
Lawless, and The Right Side of Mr Wrong by
Jane Linfoot. Two very different books, and quite a change from what I usually
read—you might have noticed I’m a fan of J.K. Rowling, Douglas Adams, Terry
Pratchett and co.—but I love trying new things! Erin’s book makes me all
nostalgic for my uni years and Jane’s is my first foray into something a bit
steamy!
Who
is your favourite author and what is it that really strikes you about their
work?
Don’t make me choose! I love Lewis Carroll, as
you know by now, because of the crazy unexpectedness of his stories and the
strange beauty of the world he creates—he can capture your imagination in such
a unique way. I also love Terry Pratchett because I think we’ve got a really
similar sense of humour—his books make me laugh more than any others—and
Douglas Adams for his skewed logic, like what he says about dolphins in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
“For instance, on the planet
Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins
because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all
the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But
conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more
intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”
THE HIGH-STREET BRIDES GUIDE BLURB
Brides-to-be, this one’s for you!
You can say your vows in a
catwalk gown so beautiful it reduces your mum to tears (and not because she
paid for it).
You can style a reception so
stunning your guests won’t believe you didn’t hire an A-list planner.
And you can sprinkle the day
with personal touches that make everyone feel like you gave them special
attention before they even got there. Without spending a house deposit on it.
Honest.
Samantha Birch has written for GLAMOUR,
Brides, You & Your Wedding and Cosmopolitan
Bride. She knows a thing or two about planning a wedding on a budget, how
much you can expect to pay for everything and where to go to get it for less.
And she’s put it all down here.
Author Bio
So far
I’m the author of one book: The
High-Street Bride’s Guide. I’ve written about dresses, bridesmaids and cake
toppers for Brides and You & Your Wedding, and regularly
contribute to the likes of GLAMOUR
and Love Baking – often while eating
cake in my pyjamas. I live with my husband in a chaotically untidy flat in
Letchworth, which I pretend is an artfully unkempt writer’s loft in St. Albans.
