The Bathroom Book of Romance: Interview with Barry Eva

ABOUT BARRY EVA

Born in Barnet, Hertfordshire, England, Barry left his beloved England in 2000, moving to the USA. Under the name "Storyheart” he released his best selling YA novel “Across the Pond” which currently has over 100 reviews on Amazon. Barry is also well known as the host of the popular radio show "A Book and a Chat" with over 450 shows under his belt. Popular for narrating his stories on local TV or as a guest on other media stations, Barry's whit, oratory, and old-fashioned English charm make him a popular interviewee. The Bathroom Book of Romance – Book 1 is the first of a series of book sharing his previously published online, short romance stories. Find out more at http://romance2read.com

ABOUT THE BATHROOM BOOK OF ROMANCE

This compilation, the first in a series of books with short stories, is short enough to read over a cup of tea or coffee, or whenever you have some time to yourself, yet long enough to bring a tear to your eye or a smile to your face. In fact some people call them “bathroom stories” as that might be the only place you get five minutes peace and quiet to yourself.

Q: Welcome to The Writer's Life! Now that your book has been published, we’d love to find out more about the process. Can we begin by having you take us at the beginning? Where did you come up with the idea to write your book?

“Are you sitting comfortably, now I’ll begin?” Is how “Listen with Mother” children’s radio program many, many years ago. Part of that fifteen minute, once a day program for children on the BBC radio was a short story. Perhaps that is where my interest in short stories came from? After going through the normal writing of poetry which went into writing songs, and being a true English romantic I started writing short romance stories. These stories spread over a number of years the rate of creation often depending on the emotional state I was in at the time. And so started the creation of what has become the first book in the “Bathroom Book of Romance” series.

Q: How hard was it to write a book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make the journey easier for other writers?

Writing was not that hard as a lot of the stories had already been created over many years. The hardest part was selecting the stories for book 1, saving some for boo2, and then sorting out what will become a Christmas special of holiday stories. Not just that… but working with my publisher to migrate the stories into a format that could be incorporated into Book 1.

Q: Who is your publisher and how did you find them or did you self-publish?

My publisher “Bookateer Publishing”, I am lucky I do a lot of book sighing events with one of the owners of this publisher “MJ Allaire” who is the author of the great YA series “The Denicalis Dragon Chronicles” (www.denicalisdragonchronicles)

As her books are about dragons, and of course my YA book is a lot to do with England, I dress up as St George and defend the people purchasing her books or is it defend the dragons? Not sure quire which. Any way we do the sighing stuff together. So when I was looking for a publisher I of course went to MJ. The rest, as they say, is history.

Q: Is there anything that surprised you about getting your first book published?

This is not my first book, but is my first E- Book, I was surprised as to just how much work was required to get the book into the correct format, the issues with pictures and the amount of work that still had to be done to get it accepted.

Q: Can you describe the feeling you had when you saw your published book for the first time?

From experience with my first actual book I knew that holding it was something special, with an E-Book it is not quite the same, however the fact I have used my own name with this E-Book rather than my pen name (Storyheart) meant that little bit more seeing it there online and available to download, and as for the first review… well any review is special. I am lucky that my YA book Across the Pond now has over 120 reviews and every one good or bad (lucky most are good) is something special.

Q: What other books (if any) are you working on and when will they be published?

There are two further books (at least) in the bathroom book of romance, book two is another group of stories, and there is a special “Christmas” version that I will be bringing out next year of some special holiday stories.

Q: Finally, what message (if any) are you trying to get across with your book?