IInntteerrvviieeww wwiitthh DDeeaann AAmmoorryy,,

aauutthhoorr ooff ""YYOOUUNNGG LLOOVVEE""

IInntteerrvviieeww wwiitthh DDeeaann AAmmoorryy,, aauutthhoorr ooff ""YYOOUUNNGG LLOOVVEE""

Who are you?

My real name is Edgard (Eddy) Adriaens. I was

born 21.09.1953 in the Flemish city of Aalst.

I grew up in a family of seven and married to

Arlette Scheerlinck. We have a beautiful

daughter, Tamara and are living in Nederhasselt

- Ninove, a small village in Flanders'

countryside.

After finishing high school, I worked at a few

local SMEs as a correspondent and assistant

(sales) executive. In 1986 I was recruited by

Bacob Bank, and started as a relationship

manager. After the bank’s merger with the

Dexia Bank, I moved on to be an Electronic

Banking Expertise Officer at Dexia, later

renamed Belfius bank.

I am the author of "Young Love", a set of two

teenage high school romance novels and

compiled a number of theme books about

coaching, mindfulness, hypnosis, cold reading, influencing, communication and dating. I also

publish poetry, short stories, novels and compilation works in Dutch (Flemish) and Spanish.

What inspires you to write romance stories?

I draw my inspiration mainly from events in my own life, but I also keep my mind open to

ideas from any other source: movies, television series and programs, newspaper and magazine

articles, people I know, etc…

Why did you decide to write young and new adult romance?

There is something endearing, fresh, compelling and innocent about young love that makes it

irresistible. Stories about young love are open minded, unpretentious, have a strong sense of

hope, and take us to a period in life where nothing is definitive yet: imagination still reigns

and cynicism isn't present yet.

The first cut is the deepest. Because romance is about a time in life when our life is filled with

new emotions, new perspectives, new dreams and new experiences. Because they are new,

they are felt more intense, and also the drama is more intense. At a young age, we still have

this capacity to love unconditionally.

Every decision in this phase of life still has the potential of creating a totally different future.

In considering the possible consequences of the main characters' decisions, we enter a world

with new morals and new choices that invite us to consider applying them to our own daily

actions. Since the theme is universal, we can draw from what is happening in the story and

learn from the characters' behaviour and growth how to conquer problems in our own life.

Romance Stories are inspiring and empowering. Teens and young twens are still at the

outskirts of society. They aren't really part of the system yet, which allows them to revolt and

kick ass. As such, they remind us of our own ideals, which makes it easy to feel empathy for

the characters and be empowered by them. Watching them grow and learn from their

mistakes, makes us reconnect with our younger self, which makes the characters easy to root

for.

The characters are easily relatable: we all experienced this period in our own life, which

allows us to identify easily and communicate more openly, honestly and candidly with the

main characters than is possible in most adult novels.

Romance stories are good adventures, because traditionally the hero and heroine fall in love

very soon, but have to conquer a lot of opposition and go through a roller-coaster of

experiences and emotions before finally finding love in each other's arms. Like in real life,

love stories usually have a clear plot, but there are a lot of uncertainties at the start, obstacles

to overcome and misunderstandings to clear before the love is accomplished.

To some adults, reality is a disappointment. They want to experience true love and, live all

these emotions and believe in a happily ever after, but often can't. Reading about it is the next

best thing and has the power to turn every day into a love story. Romance novels offer hope

and feed optimism. There is nothing that makes you feel better than reading about people

who become happy. You also know that any emerging problem can be easily solved by

reading the story all the way to the end.

When did you begin writing?

I wrote a couple of short stories during my

high school years and wrote my first novel at

the age of 18. When I started working, there

really was no time for writing during a long

period. After 25 years, I traded my

commercial function for a desk job and finally

recovered the time and energy necessary to

resume writing

What other genres do you write?

Teenage romance short stories, biography,

poetry and non fiction compilation theme

books.

Tell us about how you write:

The question sounds simple enough. Yet there is no easy answer: A lot depends on the

nature of the book that I have in mind.

If you visit my web shop at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/Jaimelavie , you will find a great

variety in the kind of works offered and each type of book requires a specific approach.

- I produce works in Dutch, English and Spanish. It goes without saying that books written

in another language than my native, will require a different approach.

- Amongst the various works, there are compilations dealing with social and scientific

subjects, collections of poems, collections of short stories and novels.

When talking about how to write a romance novel, here are the steps I use:

1. Writing a fiction novel starts with an idea: What do I want to write about? This will

typically be a situation that I have some knowledge about and that I am interested in sharing.

2. Each story requires a basic conflict. Something prevents the hero and heroine to fall in

each other's arms on page one and live happily for ever after. What exactly is keeping them

apart and why, is key to the story.

4. The conflict alone isn't enough: next I need to have an interesting story about the topic.

Each year, thousands of love stories are being published. If my topic is a love story: what

makes it worth while? what makes it different from the other romance novels? Do I have a

unique angle, a hook or a catching metaphor that readers will love to read about ?

5. How will my story develop? By now I have decided on my topic and I have a story in

mind. It's time now to draw up my itinerary.

Who are my main characters? What is their situation? What is their goal in this phase of their

life? Where does the conflict between them originate? What are the consequences? Who are

the people they will meet on their voyage towards their goal? Do they have allies, enemies?

What obstacles will they meet with? What resources do they have or can they acquire along

the road that will help them overcome these obstacles?

At the start, this information needs not be too elaborated. More details will be added as the

project grows.

6. With the information from step 3 in mind, I write an outline and a table of contents. In the

outline, I plan the important events per chapter. But again: all this is very provisionally. Just

like in real life, I need a travel scheme with indication of important landmarks lest I'd stray;

but once on the road I'm still free to allow a detour or even decide a change of direction.

7. I start writing. This is so evident, that it almost sounds easy to do. In reality, though my

wife will warn me every now and then not to get obsessed with my writing, writing to me is a

steeplechase with many hurdles: I have a full time job and I need to reserve time for family

affairs. Also, writing is a creative act, which implies that it's not really recommended to start

writing when I'm too tired or the available timeframe is too limited.

8. Rereading and editing and rewriting are important: With the writing process regularly

interrupted, I need to reread a lot to bring myself back in the mood of the story and to avoid

all contradictions and repetitions.

What's special about writing about teen romantic

relationships?

I just try to avoid clichés and truthfully tell a story about

authentic young people. Nobody is ever perfect or one

dimensional: people are complex and flawed; they make

mistakes and often even behave in illogic and contradictory

ways. They learn and grow through their experiences.

Do you have a special routine?

I don't. I am a hobby writer. I write when I have no

professional or familial obligations to attend to and when I

feel like writing and I know that I will be able to concentrate on it for a number of hours.

When I started writing, there were no personal computers yet. For years, I've done my

writing on a mechanical type writer on the living table. Since I got my first computer, I do

my writing in my home office.

Is it easy to remain motivated?

I write to entertain myself, which allows me a maximum

of freedom: I don't have to consider whether some

publisher will like what I write. When other people find

my books on the internet and like them as well or add

them to their reading stacks, then that's extra motivating.

But in the end, I don't write for the market. I write for

me. I collect information about subjects that I like to

know more about and use them to create compilation

works, which I love reading; or I write down stories

from my personal life because I would hate to see them

lost. And of course, I love it when others tell me that

they loved reading my books as well and that makes me

want to write more books.

Motivation is a flow. When you do things because you like doing them and are under no

obligation to do them, then they are more of a luxury than of a work. Yet also a flow has it's

tops and bottoms: sometimes, writing feels like an obsession and if I lived alone I might

forget to eat or sleep because at such moments, the complete story has taken possession of me

and I then get afraid that I might forget important elements should I dare to take a pause.

At other times, desperation will awake: is my story really worth telling? is it good enough?

aren't there already enough good stories sitting on the shelves? That's when discipline proves

to be a valued helper.

Your novels are set in the Flemish towns of Aalst and Ninove. Why have you chosen

this setting?

I am Flemish and so are my main characters. Each country

and region has its distinct idiosyncrasies and charms.

Young people in U.K. have customs and norms that are

somewhat different from the way Americans or Belgians of

the same age behave. With that in mind, I've made the

decision to stay as close to home as possible, in order to

safeguard the authenticity of my novels.

Do you listen to or talk to your characters?

My characters are "living people". I get to know them as

good as possible. Being a very visual person, I first search

for pictures of people that I can identify them with. On my train commutes to work, or

whenever time allows, I wonder what makes them tick, how they think, what they want and

need, what makes them happy or unhappy, what they are frustrated about, which elements are

likely to cause frictions when they communicate with the other characters in the book, how

they will respond to what is happening, etc ...

I do a lot of inter-acting with my characters, without however actually making real

conversations with them. They become members of my family, lovers, friends and colleagues

but I don't talk with them: the writing is my talking.

Do you imagine you're telling your story to somebody while you are writing?

As a writer, I have to speak my audience's language. When

I'm writing a story about 17 year olds, I am talking to 17

year olds. When writing for adults, I'm addressing myself

to adults. But apart from the dialogues, I never tell my

stories to one special person.

Also, I have things to tell, not lessons to give. I love to

hear that people feel empowered after reading my stories. I

love it when they come to me and tell me they liked what I

wrote about the necessity to having goals in life and a plan

to realise them. But I couldn't start writing a novel with the

idea that I had to somehow teach people how to go about

their life.

How would you describe Young Love? What is it about?

Young Love is about relations that fail because the main characters, though of the same age,

have different priorities and ideas about what it is like to be young, Young Love is not just

about Sean and Katherine however, not just about a failed relationship, or the gradual descent

into depression when their relationship changes into a holding pattern. It’s mainly about

Sean’s coming of age : how he learns to deal with a failed relationship and move on with his

life without blaming Katherine, others or even himself; and about how his experiences force

him to look inside for answers and learn that it’s ok to accept that some decisions are a

consequence of elements that are outside his own circle of influence.

Young Love is about the uncertainties and overpowering emotions that come with true young

love. It's about the sweetness of young love, but also about the anguish of regret, the sadness

of time and energy lost, the importance of open communication and trust. It depicts the

heroes psychological struggle in a honest and genuine way.

Personally, I would describe Young Life as a story about overcoming life events and

experiencing the wondrous realization of how strong human nature actually is. Young Life is

about rediscovering hope, falling in love, and learning to love life. This book is about growing

up, new beginnings, recognizing that although we do have limitations these are definitely

outweighed by our strengths. In a world seemingly without a cure, there is always hope in

one form or another, but it just takes a little time to learn that.

When you were writing Young Love, did you think or even hope it would be popular or

did you assume the manuscript would sit in a drawer for the rest of your life?

There are some rules about teen love stories.

First of all, since most readers are female, the

stories are nearly always told from the point of view

of the heroine.

Secondly, in order to make the plot more

interesting, there is nearly always an added element:

the unsuspected inheritance, the bad boy, the dark

past, … and as if that’s not enough yet, the young

adult books are often flooded with paranormal

aspects and supernatural creatures: zombies,

vampires, werewolves, …

Thirdly, there’s always a happy end: the sweethearts

conquer all obstacles, resolve all differences and

live happily ever after the end line of the novel.

Real life is not like that. I knew I was taking a big

risk by writing about ordinary teens living in a

normal world. On the other hand, I also knew that the Young Love theme is an universal one

and that the story of Sean and Katherine is representative of what we’re all going through,

which means that everybody will easily emotionally connect with what they are going

through. As such, their experience struck me as something that Is certainly worth telling.

Do you remember what sparked the idea for this book?

When I wrote “A Schoolyard Love Story”, the first part of the Young Love Series, I was

eighteen and still searching for

answers that could explain a failed

relationship that resembled very

much to what Sean and Katherine

went through. I didn’t understand

how a girl could break up with me

and yet claim she loved me and

appeal to my feelings for her every

time I tried to move on. I didn’t

know how to react and the longer we

turned in circles around each other,

the more bitter and emotionally

crippled I became. I felt small, limited, worthless, unfit for this world and incapable to build

and maintain balanced and satisfying relationships.

Until I met her, my life had been very much like the ocean: idyllic and peaceful at some

times, dangerous and hostile at other times; but always something basically unpredictable in

which boring periods happened to alternate with exciting moments in spite of myself.

Something mysterious that I tried to accept for what it was, without ruminating too much

about what I expected from it or how I could get the best of it. Things were what they were

and so was I. I was extremely egocentric, extremely irresponsible, extremely careless,

extremely inconsiderate and extremely passive at the time

I wrote “First Love’s Shadow” one or two years later. In the course of the couple of months

that separated the two periods of my life, I had totally changed. I had become a lot more

understanding and empathic, felt responsible for my life, knew what I wanted and was

prepared to work for my goals, but also ready to make compromises where necessary.

Putting unto paper the experiences that awoke and changed me, and telling about how I took

the lessons to heart and put them into practice by trial and error was something I did for

myself. Only after I reread the story, did I realize that the story transcended my personal

experience. So, what started with a desire to remember, ended with a story that shows how

we can get past negative and dark thoughts and embrace life.

How did you come up with the title?

Originally, I named the story after my high school

sweetheart, because she was the catalyst who started

the reaction and our relationship had become the

touchstone for my following romances. But when I

decided to publish the books, I realized that I needed a

title that would tell the reader what the stories were

about.

What do you like about your main characters?

Some people read books in order to escape reality.

They want to read about magic, great adventures, romances with rock stars and nobility,

paranormal gifts and supernatural creatures. They won’t find these in my books.

I write about normal young people living in an ordinary world and struggling with love, loss

and growing up. Life isn’t a fairy tale. It is not full of princes and werewolves. It is not a

sweet everlasting romance where everything always turns out exactly the way we want it.

I love my characters exactly because they are ordinary people like you and me. I love their

authenticity and realism. They are not perfect, not famous, or brilliant, but they confront the

ups and downs of life, learn and grow throughout the process and refuse to withdraw into

themselves or to settle for less than what is possible to make the best they can of their life.

Looking back, why do you Sean and Katherine didn’t work as a couple?

The relationship didn’t work in Young Love part 1, A Schoolyard Love Story, but who’s to

say the two of them don’t outgrow their differences and get together in part 2?

However, the main reason why I think they didn’t

work as a couple is that they were too young.

Without going into detail, it is clear that a lot of the

problems they faced were a direct consequence of

their age: their isolation both at school and during

the weekends, the opposition of Katherine’s

parents, the fear for repercussions from the

teachers at school ….

Another reason were the differences in what they

expected from life at that time: Sean was already

bored with hanging around in discothèques at a

time when Katherine only just started going out

during the weekends. He was not planning on

continuing his studies and was ready to settle

down, whereas for her study came first, followed by the dream of enjoying her young life for

a few more years.

Thirdly, there are indications that they just didn’t fit after all: in many fields Sean was a lot

more immature than Katherine and both young people were very different when it comes to

the way how they communicated and handled information, which led to a steady stream of

frustration on both sides.

Finally, they both may have loved one another, but what they called “love” was very

different: Katherine was first of all looking for a buddy who would offer her companionship

and support through her last years at high school, whereas Sean was hoping they might stay

together for ever and was constantly pushing her to formalize their relationship.

It’s a pity they didn’t realize sooner that the two visions weren’t compatible: instead of

crushing the spirit out of each other over and over again, Katherine might have gotten what

she wanted and Sean would have been saved a lot of pain and doubt.

What pitfalls have you experienced during the writing process?

I tend to tell too much, instead of allowing my characters to show through their conversations

what's going on and how they feel about it. I should drop a lot of interior dialogue and

concentrate more on dialogue itself.

Language is one of my most important personal points of attention: Not being a native

English speaker is a handicap when writing in English, just like not being a teen is a handicap

when writing for a teen audience. After all, speaking the language of your audience is the

first law of successful communication.

Has your writing process or style changed over the years and In what way?

On a technical level, I improved my dialogues, and worked hard to tell less through narrative

language and internal dialogues, and more through the characters’ actual conversations.

Is writing a lonely experience?

It's all about balances. Writing is something I do on my own, but so are working in the

garden, cleaning or doing odd jobs around the house. I don't need people around me while

doing any of them. But writing doesn't prevent me to share quality time with others or to

engage in social activities at other moments. Also, I'm writing as a hobby. I have no

financial considerations or deadlines to get stressed about. When I'm writing, I'm very

conscious that I'm writing because I like to write, not because I must.

Are you working on a new novel? What can your readers

expect next from you?

I am working on a new young love novel, which doesn’t have a

definitive title yet. The new book is about the romantic life of a

teenage girl. At the start of the book she’s only about fifteen and

unlike Sean, is still accepting that people come into one’s life and

sooner or later are likely to also disappear from it again. I’m

really excited about this new project, which allows me to treat a

number of subjects that where outside the range of interest in A

Schoolyard Love Story and First Love’s Shadow: abusive

relationships, rape, teenage pregnancy, internet dating, ….

What influenced you to publish with a publisher or self-publish your book.

What would you advise new authors to explore?

At the start, I didn't feel the need to share my writings. All that I wanted was to have my

writings and compilations printed, so that they wouldn't get lost and I could read them myself.

Within this context, the decision of a POD publisher was a logical consequence.

Soon I discovered that relatives and friends were interested in also having a copy of my books

and that, occasionally somebody would order a copy from the Publisher's Site. I discovered

that, given a little bit of promotion, more books were purchased.

However, POD books are extremely expensive. This is not the right channel if you want to

compete on the market. Also, chances of getting known to the larger public only by

publishing POD books are almost nil. Exceptions of course do exist, but generally there is

another story, unknown to the general public, behind their success.

If you are a new author, convinced of the quality of your writings, and you want to

commercialise your work on a national or international level, I recommend you search for a

good agent to introduce your works. However, bear in mind that over the past decade the

publishing sector has seen it's number of sales drop dramatically, while there has been a

disproportional increase in the number of authors, resulting in long waiting lists and

extremely tight selection criteria.

What advice would you give other romance writers?

Live consciously, mindfully, interested in how people are and what motivates them.

As much as possible: Read, Think, Analyse, Learn, Exercise, Keep improving.

Involve others: share your thoughts and writings, discuss about them.

Find your voice: try out different genres and find out what you are doing well. Maybe readers

won't like your adult novels so much, but teens will be enthusiast about your young adult

stories.

Write. Write. Write.

Never give up.