Interview with Author Linda Peek
After completing a degree in English Literature with sub-majors in Spanish and French, Author Linda Peek completed a post-graduate diploma in journalism. She was born in the UK and met her husband, an Australian diplomat, while working in Geneva with the British Foreign Office. They’ve had three- or four-year postings in Israel, Malaysia, South Africa, Chile, France and Denmark, with home postings in Canberra, Australia, in between. Three kids and more recently, six grandkids.
Working as a freelance journalist fitted in well with their nomadic lifestyle. As her passion is cooking, she mostly wrote on food and travel. When they were living in Chile their kids were old enough not to need quite so much attention, enabling her to secure a job as Food Editor for an English newspaper with a weekly article called The Good Life. Linda was invited to join the Circle of Gastronomic Writers, whose members included all the Jamie Oliver-types of Chile. This led to being invited as a food judge and to participate in all sorts of culinary events. She was in her element.
On return to Australia from Chile she had to leave her job behind. She felt as if the wind had been taken out of her sails. Much to her husband’s surprise (you’ve got an arts degree not a business degree, he said) she decided to start her own business, as a middle person or broker, handling imports and exports of food ingredients. It took a couple of years to get going but has been very successful. She works from home, make good use of her Spanish and French language skills and absolutely loves it. With a computer and a phone, she could be anywhere, which meant she could continue running her business when they moved to Paris and subsequently to Copenhagen.
While she no longer works in journalism, in 2011 she started writing a recipe blog called Café Cat where subscribers receive the weekly recipe and can go onto the blog at any time to find hundreds of mostly quick and easy recipes. Having spent 40 years as the wife of a senior diplomat she accumulated a repertoire of easy recipes that work. Her husband was Ambassador in the last three postings, which meant a lot of entertaining, and they never called in caterers. She was usually taking her apron off and jumping into the shower minutes before the first guests rang the doorbell. She doesn’t earn any money from her blog, but it gives her a great deal of pleasure to share her culinary tips.
Tell me about your Maltese related book
My mother Margaret grew up on the island of Malta during WW2. Her father was posted there from Britain in January 1939 with the Royal Engineers. When they arrived, my mother and her four siblings – two older brothers and younger twin sisters – thought they were in paradise. It was like being on a permanent beach holiday. But before the end of that year the War started, and everything changed. The family of seven were there until 1945, by which time my mother was a young woman of 15.
We grew up listening to my mother’s stories about Malta and Hong Kong, where they had an earlier posting. We asked for our favourite stories again and again and knew them by heart. The scary ones were the ones we liked best. My mother was always going to write a book about her experiences, but she never got around to it. When she died in 2018, just before her 89th birthday, I flew from Australia to England for the funeral. After helping my sister to sort through my mother’s papers I came home with lots of jottings and half-finished stories about Malta which my mother had written, my grandfather’s diary, which I had no idea he had kept, and several photographs. I realised that if anyone was going to write this book, it had to be me. Then I procrastinated for five years and kept putting it off. The hardest thing about writing a book is starting it. Finally, on the last day of December 2022 I made a New Year’s resolution to start writing next day on the 1st of January and to finish by the end of 2023. Mission accomplished.
What was the most challenging aspect of writing this book?
The most challenging aspect of writing my book was not having my mother there to call on Skype when I was writing her story of survival in a war zone, not mine. To give it more immediacy, I decided to write it using her voice. As I wrote in the dedication, it’s the book she wanted to write. If I was in doubt about some of the details of the stories, I rang my sister in the UK or my brother in Canada to double check their recollection.
Distance was another challenge, but the internet has made research and communication so much easier than it would have been for my mother, had she written the book before Google. I managed to get lots of information from the Maltese Archives and some useful snippets from the Boy Scouts of Malta. I knew both my uncles had belonged to this group, but that was it. They told me that my grandfather had designed the new Scout HQ when the old one was flattened by a German bomb. They even sent me photos of my grandfather and uncles at the bomb site. I also managed to track down descendants of several other key characters in my book, most of whom we had lost touch with.
What is the normal procedure to get your books published?
I decided to go with Ingram Content, a hybrid which is halfway between self-publishing and going with a well-known publisher. It’s a print on demand system where Ingram puts your book onto all the online platforms and into catalogues which go to libraries. If you ask Google who is the biggest distributor of books in the world, the answer is Ingram Book Company which offers immediate access to more than 2 million titles. So far, I have been happy with their performance. I used a local radio station’s studio to make an audio recording with my own voice. It seemed appropriate as people always said I sounded like my mother. Over 30 hours in the studio have paid off and it’s now on Audible and Spotify, for those who prefer to listen.
How important are the elements of character, setting and atmosphere to a story and why?
The seven main characters in my book are my maternal grandparents and their five children. As they were not fictional, but people I knew well, it was easy to describe them. My grandfather died of a heart attack in his early sixties when I was eleven, so while I remember him, I didn’t know him well. By writing this book and drawing heavily on his diary I got to know and admire the man who became my grandfather. For the other people who appear in my book, I had to rely on my mother’s descriptions and photographs.
To provide the right atmosphere for my story I spent many hours researching the geography and pre-war history of Malta, as well as Malta’s WW2 experience. My book is not a traditional history book – it’s written through the eyes of a child – but I wanted to get the geographical and historical facts right.
How many books have you written so far?
Only one so far: Malta: A Childhood Under Siege.
What’s the best way to market your books?
I live in Canberra Australia and have managed to get my book into the gift shops of the Australian War Memorial (Museum) and the National Library of Australia as well as several local independent bookstores on consignment. I went in and spoke to the buyers. For all these local sales I ordered my own stock of books. I had an official book launch in March hosted by the Maltese High Commission in Canberra and a launch in Malta in May at the Lascaris War Rooms, which my grandfather as Garrison Engineer designed.
The largest book distributor in Malta has taken my book on and they order from Ingram in the UK. In Canberra and the surrounding area, I have given Author Talks for Maltese groups, Rotary Clubs and several public libraries, with more in the pipeline. These have all been the result of personal contact. Find out who is in charge and send them an email. I’ve had several newspaper, radio and TV interviews and both my high school and my university published an article in their alumni newsletter, after I emailed to tell them about my book. The first step is writing your book, then you have to sell it and you need to be proactive.
What is your writing routine? When you write, do you plan or outline ahead?
I completed my university degree by correspondence, have been writing a weekly food blog for 13 years and run my own business from home, so I am very disciplined.
Once I started writing my book, I became somewhat obsessed. The first thing I did was to start a Google Doc and write down the name of every chapter I knew I would write – the Gun, the Rabbit, the Air Raid Shelters, the Rationing and so on. Often, I would wake up with a whole chapter in my head and had to sit down immediately and type furiously, before it disappeared into the ether. Like a dream you remember when you first wake up but have forgotten by the time you’re eating breakfast. I wrote my book in seven months and most days I spent several hours working on it. The last two months were mostly spent editing and moving things around. My editor, three adult children and husband all had access to the Google doc and wrote comments and suggestions in the margin which was very helpful. Sometimes I would invite a close friend and avid reader in for a few days, to read the manuscript and give me general feedback. It all helped in my journey towards publication.
How hard or easy is it to establish and maintain a career in writing?
I’ve only written one book and I don’t need to make money from it. To maintain a career in writing I think you probably need to complete a book a year and I don’t have time. I still run my own business, have six grandchildren, am a volunteer newsreader on a community radio station for the blind and visually impaired, sing in a choir, go to the gym most days, run a monthly lunch group where we all speak Spanish and attend another one where we all speak French. I like to be busy but writing a book can be all-consuming. Well, it was for me. If I write another one, it will probably be a cookbook.
What is your advice for aspiring writers?
They say everyone has a book in them. If you think you have one, get on with it. Don’t keep putting it off!
More information about Author Linda Peek here:-
Website: https://woodlandspublishing.au/malta-a-childhood-under-siege/
Public Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/linda.peek.author
Food blog Café Cat website: https://cafecat.com.au/
Food blog Café Cat Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thecafecat/
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