An Interview with Marsha Moore

What to do at 4Am in London...

An Interview with Marsha Moore

It's a question we've all faced, isn't it? You're stuck in a strange city at a random time waiting for a meeting / train / anything interesting to happen. Sure, you've got a guide book, but you've got, say, two hours free and the last thing you want to do is get all excited about visiting something cool - only to find out it's shut for the next four hours. Bleh.

Enter Marsha Moore. Marsha (who is Canadian by birth, so automatically rocks) has produced the solution to this problem: 24 hours London, a travel guide that breaks down your day and tells you the best things the city has to offer on an hour-by-hour basis. So successful has the guide proven, she's just released 24 hours Paris, with more in the pipeline. Marsha, being a woman of many talents, is also in the process of editing her first novel, under the pen name of Talli Rowland.

Don't you just hate talented individuals?

Hello Marsha! Can you talk us through your path to publication?

Like most writers I know, I started writing as a child. Short stories, poems, songs, fake newspapers – I just loved telling tales. Although my first epic was based on a disastrous family trip to Florida, I followed up with the fictional 'Glint off the Gold'. The novel followed the story of Anne, a one-armed diver who made it to the Olympics. She married her childhood sweetheart and had twins, but she died of cancer in her twenties. What can I say, I was a slightly morbid child! I finished it off at around age 12 and sent it away to publishers. And I got a response: my first rejection. Disgruntled they hadn't recognised my genius, I put aside my novel writing and focused on the business of being a teenage (i.e., being snarky to my parents).



After completing my Bachelor of English, I still couldn't let the writing thing go so I decided to take the most practical route and become a journalist. My head was filled with visions of breaking international news stories and interviewing celebs, but the reality was oh-so-different: I found myself lugging tripods through the sweaty wilds of Texas and sitting in a beige office editing medical journals.



Many career changes and a few countries later, I was back where I’d started: writing another novel, which was promptly rejected. I wrote another, and another. Along the way, I happened to meet a publisher who was seeking non-fiction projects. I wasn’t that keen on non-fiction, but I pitched a few ideas, and we hit on the concept of creating a travel guide that would help people decide what to do, when – a kind of ready-made itinerary spanning 24 hours, starting with London and then expanding to other cities. I wrote up a few sample hours to give my publisher a sense of how it would look, then signed the contract for my first published book!



I kept writing fiction, though, and I happy to say that my first novel will be published next year.

Have you always fancied travel writing?

I love writing and I love to travel so it’s a natural combination, but it’s something I pretty much fell into! It is great fun, though, and who wouldn’t love the excuse to try another croissant or glass of wine in the name of research?

The 24 Hours city guides have a unique premise amongst travel guidebooks - can you explain for someone who may not have come across them?

Traditional travel guides group their content by activity – shopping, eating, etc. The 24 Hours series groups its content by time. It’s particularly useful during the night-time hours, if you’re looking for something to do at 4 a.m., for example. Instead of flipping through a whole book to find a restaurant that’s open all night, you can quickly scan the 4 a.m. chapter. Also, we include lots of off-the-beaten-track activities for both locals and tourists – like anti-drawing classes or midnight movies – to help explorers take advantage of everything a city has to offer!


You've written guides to both London and Paris – where are you hitting next?

We’ve had such a great response to London and Paris that we’re already planning for a 24 Hours Sydney and 24 Hours New York! We’re also in the process of putting together iPhone apps so travelers can access all the content on the go.


How do you go about researching these books?

Research for 24 Hours London was fairly easy, as I’ve lived in London for almost six years. I love the diversity of London and I really enjoy exploring, so when it came time to sit down and write the book, I already had a good sense of what I’d like to include – activities for both tourists and locals, a different take on the usual tourists-track sights. The actual writing took about six weeks, and then the lengthy process of editing and fact-checking was a few months. The hardest part was making sure all the factual information was correct – you wouldn’t believe how difficult it can be to pin down some businesses on their actual opening hours.



Research for 24 Hours Paris was slightly more difficult, as I wasn’t as familiar with the city. I visited the city quite a few times, and before each visit I did a lot of online research, using information from www.paris.fr and other touristic websites and blogs. I’m also lucky enough to have friends and family who live in the city, so I was constantly grilling them on their favourite places and neighbourhoods, what was hot, and where to go. Once I had a lengthy list compiled, I did more research on individual places, narrowing down the list to the kind of places and activities I thought were the most interesting, unique and varied. I wanted the sorts of things I included to appeal to a broad range of readers, from locals to tourists with children. I visited Paris several times to hit as many places as I could on my list – and the result is 24 Hours Paris!

What are you working on right now?

I’m still in the throes of promotion for 24 Hours Paris, along with edits for my debut novel The Hating Game which will be released next year by Prospera Publishing. I’m also working on research for 24 Hours Sydney and 24 Hours New York… have I mentioned my head is about to explode?

You're working on your first novel under the name of Talli Rolland - why the pen name?

The Hating Game is my first novel, to be released in early 2011. It’s with the same publisher as my non-fiction travel writing, so to draw a clear distinction between the two, we decided to use a pen name, Talli Roland. It’s actually quite fun having a pen-name and I’ve really enjoyed building up a platform as Talli! The Hating Game has nothing to do with travel, but focuses on my other obsession: reality television (yes, I admit it!). It’s about a man-eating woman who agrees to star on a dating game-show to save her ailing recruitment business. What she doesn’t know is that the male contestants are four of her very unhappy exes. Cue lots of conflict and drama as she makes her way through the game to try to win the prize money at the end!

How different an experience has writing a novel been compared to writing the guide books?

It’s completely different, and I like that. With guide books, you don’t have to worry about structure, plot or characters! You do the research, and then write four or five short and snappy sentences per listing. It’s actually quite difficult to cram a lot of information into a succinct paragraph, yet make it easy to read and entertaining. I think the ability to do that has helped me with my novel writing immensely – I certainly don’t waffle on as much as I used to! Writing novels requires a different element of concentration – a focus on pacing, character development and plot.

Do you have an agent?

I don’t have an agent at the moment. I would like to have one eventually, as I do think they’re important to help guide you in your career as well as selling rights and other contractual issues. At the moment, I have a very good working relationship with my publisher so I haven’t felt as much of a drive to seek out agents, but it’s something I’ll certainly be looking at going forward.

Do you write full time? What are the positive and negatives of this?

I’ve been a full-time writer for two years now. Balancing a personal life with writing is certainly one of the things I find hardest. Working from home, it’s very easy to let your job gradually encroach on your free time. There were times when I realized I hadn’t actually left the flat for two or three days – definitely not healthy! I try to set definite ‘office hours’, working from around 8 a.m. to around 4 p.m. Then, when I leave my office, I leave my work behind. I’m also part of a writers’ group which has provided me with a forum of like-minded people to whinge about the hardships of being within striking distance of the fridge 24-7.

How different has the reality of publishing been from what you imagined it would be?

There’s been a lot more hard work involved than I thought! I had visions of writing a novel, getting a publishing contract, then retreating back into my gilded tower (or cramped office, whichever) to leisurely spend all the royalties my best-seller would make. It hasn’t actually been that way (surprising, I know!) – I’ve learned that authors must take a good deal of responsibility for promotion and networking to help drive sales. I don’t have any issues with that (and in fact I actually enjoy it!), but it’s different to how I imagined!

And finally, can you sum up a key piece of advice for aspiring writers in one sentence?

Be persistent and patient: writing is 1% inspiration and 99% hard work!

So, if you now fancy exploring what Europe's top cities have to offer at three in the morning, check out 24 Hours London and 24 Hours Paris, while you can find out more about prospera publishing over here. Marsha blogs under her own name here, and blogs as her super fiction writing alter ego, Talli Roland, over here. And if the standard of her travel guides is anything to go by, her first novel, The Hating Game, is going to be fab.