HarperImpulse Fortnight: Q&A with Wendy Lou Jones

1. The book that has made you cry the most: Oh, I’m a bit of a cry baby. I love a good blub. I cry at films all the time, even adverts sometimes. (I seriously do NOT believe I admitted that!) Let me think… Weepiest book? The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks is a killer, but there is a collection of stories I have loved since childhood. They’re by Oscar Wilde. I had them on a story tape as a child and they still make me cry today – see, I blame my parents - The Happy Prince and The Selfish Giant. My youngest likes these too. 

2. The book that has made you laugh the most: Laugh? Goodness. Probably The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. I’m a big fan. Again, that has stuck with me since childhood and I have managed to pass this on too. My eldest is now a fan. 

3. E-books, paperbacks or hardback? E-books, only because I’ve used a backlit Kindle since my eyes turned 40! 

4. The ultimate book boyfriend? No contest - John Thornton, from Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South – Handsome, noble, tortured and brooding. *sigh* 

Now, some more personal questions: 

1. Favourite chocolate bar: Lindor. No. Old Jamaica (rum and raisin dark choc). Oh, that’s mean! 

2. Which Hogwarts house do you feel you belong to: I would be Ravenclaw as I love blue and I’m neither a bad person, nor particularly heroic. I looked it up to see what its motto was and found this - it’s what the sorting hat says: Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if you've a ready mind, where those of wit and learning will always find their kind. - I’ll take that. 

3. One Direction: yay or nay? Should I confess and say ‘yay’??? 

4. If you had to be a celebrity, what would you be and why? I’m rubbish at acting and I hate cooking, so I guess I’d have to be a singer. Prepare to hear the voice of an angel, people! :-O 

5. Favourite Disney character: I’ve got teen and pre-teenage boys! Better to ask me which Marvel character I like. I have little experience of Disney. Thor is a front runner, naturally, and The Human Torch, but I have to say, Iron Man is pretty darned sexy. ;-) 

Thanks for having me, Alba. Next time, I promise to have considered book ‘friends’ before I come on. 

Thank you Wendy for answering these bookish questions for us! I'd like some of that chocolate too and I will have to check North and South now.

Wendy's latest book, By My Side, was published last year by HarperImpulse. Read all about it: 

Betrayed by her boyfriend and best friend, Lena is left empty; trapped under a weight of guilt and loneliness. Then, at her lowest point and when she needs it most, a mysterious stranger comes into her life with a tale of friendship, family, and finding love in the most unexpected of places…

Katy Heath is definitely not thinking of love when she comes across consultant, Adam Elliot, berating some poor patient on the ward one day. In fact it is Dr Peter Florin who quickly has everyone’s hearts aflutter with his easy smiles and practised charm.

Yet Katy comes to realise that there’s more to Adam than his determination to push everyone away and it’s not long before she finds herself longing to reach out to touch the man within, healing the pain of his past.

As Lena is drawn into Katy’s story, she begins to learn – just as Katy does- that the course of true love never did run smooth.