Friday 10 May 2013

The PINK SOFA Welcomes Bev Spicer

Bev Spicer
Bev Spicer is another of those lovely writers that I met since joining Twitter last August. Bev currently lives in France (the PINK SOFA is wooden with jealousy) with her family. She is a prolific writer and, as you will see, has had some VERY interesting jobs. I'm sure she will be delighted to talk about them later. In honour of Bev's visit, there are croissants and bowls of coffee on the coffee table and the PINK SOFA has tricolour ribbons tied round its legs and is humming the Marseillaise. So, Bev, over to you...


''Thank you Carol for letting me sprawl on your sofa. I would love to leave my mark, but that might not be socially acceptable to your next guest. (The PINK SOFA is used to the errant behaviour of its guests, so would not mind in the slightest) Well, I was the girl that was never chased in the playground. I hung around, but no one tried to catch me. In a game of kiss chase, it was the boys who were screaming. Between the ages of ten to thirteen I was designed to repulse. My grandmother insisted on dressing me in Jaeger dresses and designer fur-trimmed coats. The genteel assistants must have been horrified to see their beautifully cut clothes on an irregularly shaped potato of a girl with gappy teeth and piggy eyes.

I did not realise I was a 'minger' at the time. But I did have a great deal of time on my hands, while my peers were out at parties having fun and snogging boys (so they claimed). So I wrote stories for my sisters. I don't remember most of them, but I do remember one. And I recall my youngest sister begging me to write the next instalment so she could find out what happened.

Time moved on. I lost the pounds and gained a less frightening smile, becoming if not a swan, then a passable goose. I spent a lot of time travelling and worked as a secretary for a posh bin-bag company, a croupier for Playboy, a newly qualified and easily distracted secondary school teacher, a conscientious university lecturer and an extremely over-worked and under-paid examiner for Cambridge Exams.


Then, I remembered that I quite liked to write. So, having produced what I mistakenly believed to be a finished book, I foolishly sent it off to be rejected by a selection of literary agents. When I had completed my third book, and learned about editing, I didn't want to spend months waiting for a junior agent to flick through a few pages and send me a polite stock email, so I took the plunge and published Bunny on a Bike, on Kindle, (a humorous memoir of my time at Playboy).

 I followed this up with a mystery/psychological drama: My Grandfather's Eyes, which tells the story of  Alex Crane, a flawed heroine who discovers a family history that shocks her and reveals a secret she had subconsciously been aware of in childhood recollections and dreams



There was no stopping me after that. I wrote another mystery/family drama: A Good Day for Jumping with a complex plot and intriguing characters who share a secret past. And, because I so enjoyed Bunny on a Bike, I have just completed and published its prequel: One Summer in France, based on the study break I spent with my best pal in the south of France while enrolled on a language course at university. That's the story so far.

Bev, on holiday recently. The bottle contains water. She says.

I have two more completed novels on my desk to work on, and another couple under my pillow and several more hovering in the space between my ears. Quite an achievement for someone who started out as a cabbage-patch child-model for Jaeger!

Thank you so much, Bev. What an amazing and very impressive story!! Bev will be staying around to answer any questions and chat, so do stick around.

If you have to go, check out Bev's blog: http://baspicer.blogspot.fr  where there are direct links to her books. The PINK SOFA also recommends that you read her blog post for the 27th April - one of the funniest posts out.. 

You can Tweet Bev @BevSpice
All Bev's books are available on Amazon as ebooks.

27 comments:

  1. The PINK SOFA would like to know what are its chances of being a BunnyGirl - it has lovely legs and a charming manner....

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    1. Haha! The punters would end up canoodling rather than clearing out their bank accounts at the tables!

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    2. So that means none? Despite the lovely legs and being a vision in pink?

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    3. Bev, your life sounds wonderfully eclectic, but what makes me green rather than pink is that you live in France. In what part? North or South? I wouldn't care either way as I just wold love to live there. Anyhow, your sister is obviously to be thanked as without her, you might not have discovered your talent :-) A lovely interview and I'm sure you've left your mark on the Pink Sofa - a cheek of fame, so to speak :-D

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    4. Thanks for popping in, Val. Yes, I love France - for all the usual reasons! Live in the SW, south of La Rochelle in a house my husband is renovating, with a garden that I love. You can see some pics on my blog - look on the right.

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  2. Fun as always. Thanks, ladies.

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  3. Well, there speaks experience! No chance for the PINK SOFA; I wondered why it had a ball of white fluff stuck on its rear - nothing like aspiration.
    There's nothing, in fact, like determination either and you clearly have that in chip-piles, Bev, to stake on your own choices. I knew that I'd enjoy this interview: Bev and Carol on the Sofa (I'll bet there was plenty of sand-dune natter that didn't get into print!) might make a whole story in itself! ;)

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    1. Hi, Christina. Pink sofas didn't feature much in the Playboy casino. Pink faces and pink chips, but nothing much that was soft and inviting.

      Sand dune chat was generally smug. We had no idea what would come next and found life in London, working for Playboy a bit of an eye-opener.

      Have the next Bev and Carol book brewing - set in Seychelles, where I taught for the government just before the second or third coup. Should be interesting to write.

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  4. Phew! Just taught one of my lovely students in the garden. Forgot I had a lesson, again! Would have got away with it, had I not answered the door in my dressing gown.

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  5. Congratulations, Bev! That's a gorgeous line-up :)

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    1. Thanks. I like 'gorgeous'! Reminds me of lots of things too yummy to mention.

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  6. Oh Bev, what a sorry excuse of a childhood you conjure up. I do hope it was laced with lashings of poetic licence. You certainly have been prolific in your writing! I hope all those ideas in your head are being written down because when you start to approach our age the memory tends to fade! As ever, the sofa rose to the occasion, no doubt showing off their be-ribboned legs in the process. I do hope the croissants were served at an appropriate temperature (should they be served warm or am I being a pleb?)

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  7. Poetic licence? No, I don't have great memories of myself as a child. Extremely lacking in confidence. Making up for it now, though! Sofa is so much more wonderful than I imagined it. Might ask Carol if I can stay. She might get Sting to visit, just to keep me warm.

    I do write every day, Rosalind. If I don't I get a bit tetchy. I eat my pain au chocolat warm and flaky from the oven and, probably like you, I don't really care whether it's the right way, or not! Thanks for leaving a comment. Much appreciated. Just going to cuddle Carol for a while and see what cake is on offer...

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  8. Bit mundane then - your CV must look pretty bland!! How interesting that you tried such a variety of careers before reverting back to your original love of writing. Lovely to read about your journey : )

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  9. Haha! Hi Amanda. Yeah, CVs... Never did like putting one together. Lists don't do justice to a person. In my case, the unusual things generally worked in my favour, though!

    Lucky to be able to write, that's for sure. Thanks for your comments. Great to have a response!

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  10. France? Totally jealous. Thanks for introducing us to Bev!

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    1. Hi Kelly. Thanks for popping in for a snoop:) Still love England - lived in Cambridge for years, so the little village where I now live had to measure up! If I want something bigger I go to Saintes - beautiful Roman town on the river Charente. Great for culture, coffee and croissants. Sorry, am I making it worse!

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  11. Great guest post! And I too am jealous of the French local.

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    1. Hi Katya. My next book is set in department 17. First draft completed. Had to be very careful not to write about the village community! Don't want to be sent back to England just yet! Thanks for your visit and your comment. Now, where's that extra cushion?

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  12. Coffee and croissants?! And the rest!

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  13. Shhh! Don't want to create a stampede! Anyway, mademoiselles, it seems that you too live in a most beautiful part of the world! High Peak - food for the soul:)

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  14. Great interview and so funny! I wish my CV was half as interesting!

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  15. Hi Georgina. Thanks for popping in! Glad you found the interview funny. I'm lucky to have travelled - so just get yourself a rucksack and a great mate and hop off somewhere. (Just remember that other people's lives always seem more interesting than they really are!).

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  16. Carol will be calling time on me soon, so if there's anything you want to say, you'd better be quick! Snooze. Snuggle.

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  17. Thank you Carol, for allowing me to recline on your Pinkest of Sofas. The memory of my time with you will come back to me in years to come, its aroma unlike but as intense as Proust's childhood recollections of fragrant madeleines...

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  18. Another lovely author on the PINK SOFA and like you Bev I was never chased in the playground. But i have made up for it since. A fun blog.

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