Interview with Laura Besley

 A big welcome to Laura Besley, writer and blogger!

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I'm half English and half-Dutch and my younger sister and I spent our childhoods in England and Holland. I feel that I greatly benefited from living in two different countries as it gave me a different perspective on life. I also speak both languages and that has helped me learn more languages in the future. 

I have continued to travel in my adult life. I graduated from university in 2001 (with a BA Joint Honours in English Literature and Film Studies) and initially worked in business. I soon realised that I wanted to travel more and retrained as an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher and have been teaching ever since. I started in England teaching students from all over the world. I then taught Business English to Adults in Germany for 2 years and am now teaching (mainly) kids in Hong Kong. I love teaching as I can learn so much from my students. 

Living in Hong Kong is fantastic! Hong Kong is such an amazing city and offers a great combination of East & West. I think the more you travel, the more you realise that places can be different, but also the same and that's wonderful.
2. Tell us about what are you working on currently?

Currently I'm doing a flash fiction project. Flash Fiction is very short fiction (max. 500 words) and my aim is to write a piece of Flash Fiction every day for a year. I started on 4th May and so far I've managed to keep it up. On Fridays I post 'the best of the week' onto my blog. I'm hoping to put together a collection of some of the others in 2013.

3. Tell us about your blog, and your favorite kinds of books.

I set up my blog, Living Loving and Writing, in January 2012 and love it! I'm totally addicted! I usually post entries three times per week. 

Monday - general musings on life, living abroad. 

Wednesday - mid-week book review

Friday - Friday Flash Fiction. 

I love reading books written recently as I like things to be fast-paced. I get impatient with older novels that were written for an audience living in slower times. I like reading about different cultures and peoples as well. 

4. What book(s) have inspired your writing?

That's quite a difficult question to answer as I've read so many books.

5. What do you do when you experience writer's block?

Leave my desk! Don't keep persevering when it's just not going to happen. Sometimes I read, or watch a film, or go out for a walk. There's nothing worse than staring at a blank page.

6. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?

I think I found the first few pieces reviewed the most difficult. It's never easy showing someone else your work, but to improve you have to. And the advice you're given from others is invaluable. Any compliment is wonderful - comments I get on my blog, or if people read something I've written and say kind things I'm always really pleased. 

7. What advice do you have to aspiring writers?

Practise, practise, practise! And develop a thick skin!

Check out her blog:  http://laurabesley.blogspot.com/

Thanks for joining me, Laura!