A Moment With… Jessie Wells

I am pleased to be welcoming Jessie Wells to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for her book, The Good News Gazette.

Because we all need something to smile about!

She may be down but don’t count this determined single mum out just yet…

Nine years ago, Zoe Taylor returned from London to the quiet hamlet of Westholme with her tail between her legs and a bun in the oven. Where once her job as a journalist saw her tearing off to Paris at a moment’s notice after a lead, now the single mum covers the local news desk. At least, she did…until she’s unceremoniously let go.

When Zoe invites her friends over to commiserate, wine and whining soon turns into something more… and before the night is out she’s plotted her next step: The Good News Gazette.

Now, as a developer threatens to force Westholme into the twenty-first century, Zoe’s good news movement finds her leading a covert campaign as a community crusader. She may have started The Good News Gazette as a way to save herself, but she might just be able to save Westholme in the process…

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To talk about why ‘writing about what you know’ could be the best advice you’re ever given, it’s over to Jess. 

For the past two decades, I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a novel. As a former journalist and avid reader, I’ve always loved words, so wasn’t daunted by the thought of writing lots of them. There was just one problem that kept cropping up; what the topic should be.

‘Write about what you know,’ was the advice that I kept being given, and in theory the adage makes sense. By writing about what they know, a writer can bring so much depth, emption and realism to a subject matter. They can inspire, inform, bring a new perspective to issues and lived experiences which have been under-represented or, worse, misrepresented.

But as a mum of two young children who was lucky enough, in my role as a freelance writer, to work from home, what could I possibly bring to the table? What could I have to say that women all the world over didn’t already know, or hadn’t already experienced, other than my top tips for how to get felt-tip out of fabric couches or how to deal with a rewritten Christmas list on the morning of Christmas Eve?

Plenty, as it turns out.

I can’t remember when, exactly, the idea for The Good News Gazette – a story about a single mum who starts up a good news newspaper to provide an antidote to the constant flow of bad news – came to me. What I do know is that, for some time, I’d had an increasing sense of fatigue about the negative news that, thanks to our 24-hour, multi-media news access, seemed ever-present – and that was before anyone had even heard of Covid.

I wasn’t alone. My husband had fallen into the habit of turning off the news, rather than having it provide the soundtrack to his thoughts at bedtime, and my friends would discuss the negativity they were reading on social media about the areas in which they lived.

All this misery was making me feel gloomy. But there was one outlet that I could always turn to to cheer myself up. For some years, Liverpool journalist Rebecca Keegan had been featuring only good news through a web-based tabloid newspaper called Good News Liverpool.

This awe-inspiring woman had single-handedly started up this news outlet in a bid to cut through the negativity and shine a light on some of the many great things that were happening in Liverpool City Region – and it was working.

Her operation was a starting point for me, making me consider what it would be like for someone trying to launch a similar newspaper in a much smaller setting; a soulless suburb that had lost its heart.

And there it was; the moment at which I realised there was something I could write about after all. I, like so many other people, knew what it was like to live in a suburb where boarded-up shops had started to become commonplace. I knew what it was like to feel exhausted by the constant flow of bad news, and to wonder if we’d made a huge mistake in raising our children in my home town, rather than setting up camp in the Outer Hebrides, where surely there was more chance we could keep them safe from harm.

And I also knew what it was like to feel touched by the kindness of the local community; to be able to walk up to the shops and pass the time with numerous strangers along the way, purely because of the very heart that ran deep through the neighbourhood I was proud to call home.

I wrote about what I knew – and The Good News Gazette is the result.

So the next time someone tells you to write about what you know, why not do just that. You may realise you had a book in you all along.

About Jessie Wells: 

Jessie Wells lives with her husband and two children in Merseyside.

She has always written in some form, and previously worked as a journalist on the Liverpool Echo and Sunday Mirror and as a freelancer for various national women’s magazines and newspapers before moving into finance.

She loves nothing more than getting lost in her imaginary worlds, which are largely filled with romance, communities bursting with character and a large dose of positivity.

Say hello to Jessie via Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter.  

The Good News Gazette is out in ebook and audiobook on November 25^th, 2022, and in paperback on March 16^th, 2023. Click to buy on Waterstones, Blackwells, Foyles, Amazon UK, Amazon US and WHSmith.

by

Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.