The Last Charm
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3. How long did it take you to write from start to finish?
From the initial concept to handing in my absolutely final polished and edited Word version, was three years. However, I actually handed in a proper first draft (which had the bulk of the story in it but with about 30,000 extra words!) in about two and a half years.
I wasn’t writing five days a week every week during that time though, as I had a day job, and there were periods where I stopped writing for a few months at a time due to several bereavements. I actually wrote about 50,000 words of the book over two consecutive Julys. Every year I go off to a writing retreat in Devon for 4–5 days and closet myself away, writing between 6–8,000 words a day. If you paid close attention, you may have noticed Leila stop off in a little village called Sheepwash … If you’re interested in the retreat, Debs and the team are fabulous – you can find out more here: www.retreatsforyou.co.uk.
4. Tell us more about the structure of the book.
We knew straight away that we wanted to have multiple viewpoints in the book, as we needed to see the story through both Jake and Leila’s eyes, hence the alternating chapters. I also knew pretty early on that is was going to span most of their teens and early twenties, so around a 15–20 year period. The loss, and finding, of the charm bracelet was the hook to get the story started and I knew immediately there had to be an advert and then a letter or email from Leila to whoever had found the bracelet for her. I wanted to use that device to tell the story of each and every charm. Jake has fewer chapters in 2017 because his story is coming to an end.
When we first started out, the structure was going to have the chapters muddled up in terms of year i.e. not in chronological time order, however some early feedback we got was that it was a little confusing, so I rearranged all the chapters to span from the earliest memory up to present day and it definitely made for a stronger story.
5. Who is your favourite character in The Last Charm, and why?
Leila will of course always have a special place in my heart – and she does have a few of my worst traits, namely the inability to park a car without putting a ding in it, and a tendency to be distracted when dreaming up creative ideas – but Jake is my favourite. I don’t really think of my characters as ones I’ve deliberately created, they’re more like friends who talk to me, so for me Jake is a living, breathing person. That might sound slightly odd to non-writers!
I love his resilience after his difficult upbringing, his thoughtfulness, his positive outlook and generally pragmatic disposition. I like too that he’s not afraid to say what he thinks or how he feels – something I genuinely admire in people, because it takes courage to truly own who you are. I also admire the way he supports Leila with her art; something my fiancé has always done for me with my writing.
6. What’s your writing routine like? Do you write full-time?
I’ve mostly had a full-time job in Human Resources since being published, apart from a brief 6-month stint when I reduced to four and a half days a week (but to be honest I ended up doing housework instead of writing!) so I went back to full-time. I write on weekends and some evenings, trying to squeeze in 3–4 hours here and there. When I’m up against deadline I’ll write for between 7–10 hours on a weekend, and past midnight in the week. It can be really painful to tear myself away sometimes to go back to normal life! I also have to squeeze in social media and marketing activities.
If I know what’s going to happen in a chapter, then I can write quickly, averaging 1000 words an hour. A lot of my writing actually takes place in my head before I physically sit down at the laptop. While I’m driving the car, doing housework and walking the dog, I’m thinking, What if x happened? Or, What if x did this? I also spend a lot of down time dreaming up dialogue between characters.
7. Where do you write?
Mark and I have a box room which we’ve converted into an office, so I tend to write in there, unless I’m at the lounge table to keep an eye on our beagle puppy, Luna – who stars as Fleur in the book. However, I can write or edit pretty much anywhere nowadays, including in cars, on trains, on holiday, and in the canteen during my lunch break from the day job. I make the most of any time I have to cram some writing in.
8. What do you do in your spare time?
Ha! Around the day job, housework, writing, seeing friends and family, life admin etc. I don’t have much spare time. However, I read as much as possible; it really helps me relax and I love being transported into other people’s worlds. I try and leave as many reviews on Amazon as possible and connect with authors on Twitter, because I know how much it means to me when readers do this. I also love watching films – I’m a sucker for rom-coms and action films, but am very partial to the DC and Marvel universes.
9. What’s next?
I’m currently writing another commercial women’s fiction novel, partially set in Dorset but with an amazing road trip around Italy playing a major part. So now I have two new main characters to fall in love with; Will and Izzy.
10. Where can we find you?
I love to hear from readers, so please come and find me via Twitter at @NikkiMoore_Auth, or on Facebook at Facebook.com/EllaAllbrightWrites. I also have a YouTube channel where I vlog about getting published and my writing journey – just look up Nikki Moore – Author By The Sea.
The Last Charm Playlist
For me, when I look back over the years and have to evoke a sense of time and place, it’s always music, TV and films that were popular at the time which give me the feeling of that decade/year. In light of that, these are the songs I listened to (in no particular order) when I was writing The Last Charm, largely covering 2001 to 2017.
Avril Lavigne – When You’re Gone
John Mayer – Free Fallin’
Tinie Tempah – Written In The Stars
The Script – For The First Time
Scouting For Girls – Love How It Hurts
Coldplay – Fix You
Oasis – Stand By Me
Snow Patrol – You Could Be Happy
Stereophonics – Indian Summer
Kodaline – High Hopes
Birds – Wings
Adam Levine – Lost Stars
Kodaline – The One
Gabriella – The Scientist (Coldplay cover) on YouTube
Tom Chaplin – Quicksand
Maroon 5 – This Love
Ed Sheeran – Perfect
Book Club Questions
1. What do you think are the core themes of The Last Charm?
2. What do you think the author is trying to tell us about (a) grief and (b) fulfilling your dreams?
3. Jake gives Leila a lot over the years, not just charms but advice and support too. What do you think Leila offers him in return?
4. Do you think that Jake was right to give Leila some of the charms and let her believe they were from her mum? Why? / Why not?
5. How much of an impact did Amelia leaving on the eve of Leila’s eleventh birthday have on her daughter, and in what ways did this affect Leila?
6. Did you always think that Leila and Jake were going to get together? If not, why not?
7. Was the ending what you expected? How could it have ended differently?
About the Author
A self-confessed reading addict, Ella Allbright writes commercial women’s fiction set in her beautiful home county of Dorset. Her first novel in this genre, The Last Charm, will be published in August 2020 by One More Chapter, an imprint of HarperCollins, and she’s currently hard at work on her next book. Ella is represented by agent Hattie Grünewald at The Blair Partnership, who represent J.K. Rowling.
Ella also writes as Nikki Moore, the author of the popular #LoveLondon romance series. A number of the novellas featured in the Top 100 short story charts on Kobo and the Top 20 in the Amazon UK bestsellers Holiday chart, and in 2018 the collection was released in Italy. Her first published work was the short story A Night to Remember in the bestselling Mills & Boon / RNA anthology Truly, Madly, Deep
ly. Her debut romance Crazy, Undercover, Love was shortlisted for the RNA Joan Hessayon Award 2015.
When not writing or reading, she can usually be found working in her HR day job, walking the family’s cute beagle puppy or watching a Netflix series!
You can connect with Ella/Nikki on:
@NikkiMoore_Auth
@EllaAllbrightWrites
Nikki Moore
nikkimooreauthor.wordpress.com
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