Joni Scott - A Heart-Warming Tale of Love and Loss
Joni Scott is an Australian writer. She wrote her first book 'by accident' after creatively 'expanding' on family research. Previous to this, Joni enjoyed a scientific career as an organic chemist working in hospitals and industry. She later home-schooled her children and embarked on another career running a tutoring business. After writing her debut novel, Whispers through Time, she contracted CRPS and lost the use of her dominant right arm and hand. In early 2020, she traveled to Italy for specialist treatment just as Covid-19 erupted in Europe. While she was in hospital there, Italy went through lockdowns, 1,2 3, and 4. This experience inspired her second novel, The Last Hotel which she wrote with her left hand while in lockdown. Though the physical act of writing is still a struggle, Joni has completed her third novel which is in the process of publication. As our Author of the Day, she tells us all about her book, The Last Hostel.
Please give us a short introduction to what The Last Hostel is about
It's March 2020, and as flights are canceled and hotels close in virus-stricken Europe, seven stranded strangers meet by chance. Out of necessity, they form a family in lockdown in the last hotel open on the French Riviera. The virus seems at first an unwelcome disruption to their lives, but in time, each of them discovers aspects of themselves and others, even love, that make their lives richer. I know we all have Covid fatigue, but many readers tell me they found this book surprisingly emotive, uplifting, and optimistic.
What inspired this book?
Real-life inspired this book. In late 2019 I was struck down by a paralyzing and terribly painful supposedly incurable disease called CRPS, after just falling and breaking my arm. I lost the use of my right arm, shoulder, and hand, so could not drive, dress myself, brush my hair, etc. With no treatment options in Australia and an upsetting prognosis, I booked a medical trip to Genova, Italy to receive treatment in a clinic. My husband and I flew out from Brisbane on Feb 28, 2020 two days after the outbreak of Covid in North Italy. To cut a long dramatic story short, with me in hospital, Italy entered lockdowns 1,2,3 and 4. The day I left the clinic, still paralyzed along my right side, we had to leave Italy by train for the French border escorted by police. Safely in France, many hours later, we realized things were little better and had to move hotels each day as they closed like a pack of dominoes. Desperate, we went to Nice airport where many other travelers were also stranded. While watching humanity in crisis, I decided that day to put us all in a novel. Except, small problem, I could not even type anymore! Nor did I have a computer with me.
How much of your own lockdown experience is included in the novel?
Not so much of mine, that would be boring! but the strangers I met mostly younger than me, started my imagination on a journey. A male ballet dancer for the Nice Opera, a mother and her teenage daughter, two young women from the UK who had just lost their dream jobs in St Tropez, a young British chef…If only I had taken their addresses, then I could have told them later,’Hey, I put you in a book.’
Why have both your books been ‘accidents’?
If anyone had said three years ago, you will produce two published books in two years, I would have laughed. If ever I imagined writing a book, it would be a maths or science textbook, not two novels.
So, I feel the books chose me to write them. For the first one, I was on holiday and reading The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. She is an Australian author who writes fantastic novels wherein a character in the present discovers secrets about her family in the past. I really enjoyed this book and so, having time to spare as it was raining for days, I decided to try writing using my sister’s research of our maternal grandparents’ lives. As I am a maths and science teacher, I had never attempted an extended fiction writing exercise before. Once I started this totally unplanned project, I found this new activity totally compelling, so compelling I kept writing for five months. My husband scoffed when I told him, ‘I am writing a book’. I knew I was kidding myself too, but for a lark, I presented the pile of pages to my sister wrapped in a bow for her birthday. I had used her 15 years of research, filled in gaps and silences to make a romantic love story. Then she really surprised me by months later presenting me with a contract from a publisher. Sneaky girl had sent it off all over the place, including London. The result is my debut novel, Whispers through Time. Like its predecessor, The Last Hotel was also unplanned, (just like my life, really.)
Besides writing what other skills do you have?
My career has been in the scientific field. I studied at Sydney University and have a Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry. I still love learning stuff and enjoy imparting knowledge to my students. After raising my own children, I started a tutoring business.
Why did you pick the Riviera for the setting of the book?
I didn’t pick it, it was where I was, where we became stranded with nowhere to go. But I did choose the quaint village of Beaulieu-sur-Mer, near Nice, for my hotel setting as Nice seemed too large and besides all the hotels closed there. I had the idea of a smaller place like a pensione, a bit like The Exotic Marigold Hotel, a quirky place.
Magic and serendipity are themes in your book, why is that?
I love the unexpectedness of life. In fact, I thrive on it. My life has taken many turns, I’ve had a few re-starts, some magic happenings. I am an eternal optimist. Nothing gets me down for long. The character, Kaz in the book is probably me as a girl. This answers the next question as to why my treatment of the heavy topic of lockdown, scary virus ended up as a light-hearted love story. One friend after reading it, said, ‘Trust you to find the flip side of lockdown!’
What part of the writing was the most fun?
Creating the fictional characters to match the real ones I met. The chef, Will had to meet a beautiful French girl, Lotte who has a dishy widowed father. Then I needed some neighbors and of course a bookshop and its owner, Henri who has a stutter. There are two nasty characters though. But since I love the French language, I had to put a lot of French in to create the atmosphere. A few readers reported feeling totally immersed in France which for me was very gratifying.
How has the pandemic affected your perspective on life?
It hasn’t troubled me overly. I feel for those it has though, like the young people and those who lost their livelihoods. Life is unpredictable. In fact, interestingly, I was researching the Spanish Flu, for the sequel to Whispers through Time, when Covid happened. Bit spooky, exactly a century later.
Does the book have an underlying message?
I am happy when people find meaning in what I write. Without realizing it while writing, (as I was in strange circumstances) I did construct discourses that some readers have identified. One is; if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Another is; to be thine own self be true. The character, Jenny represents this, albeit a bit later in life and my young lesbian character learns to trust in herself. Another is; what seems like a detour, is actually the way you were meant to go. I like this one a lot as it is evident in many serendipitous moments.
Do you have any interesting writing habits?
As I am now a disabled writer, because my hand still has a mind of its own, my writing habits are rather odd. I can’t write for long at a time, so I alternate typing, dictating, and scrawling with an apple pencil on an iPad and pressing the magic convert to text button. But The Last Hotel will always be my special book baby as I totally wrote it with one hand, my left, in a tap-tap one-finger manner on the old battered iPad I had with me in Europe. It really was crazy. That book used me as some sort of medium. The words just came from somewhere as did the characters. But it kept me going for over five months while I slowly gained back use of my other arm. It was the perfect distraction from real life at the time.
What are you writing now?
I‘ve become a history blogger lately. Which is great fun. As I already had researched heaps of topics for my two historical novels and The Last Hotel, I decided to share some of this fascinating stuff in blogs which I post weekly on my website, joniscottauthor.com.
My third novel, Time, heal my Heart is at the publisher now. It is the sequel to the first. Meanwhile, I am writing the final book in this historical trilogy and have started another contemporary Australian novel with an Indian sub-plot, called Tangles.
Where are your books available and how can readers interact?
Details of my books, blogs, and links to buy are available on my website, http://joniscottauthor.com. My email details are there too. Please interact with me and write a review after reading on whichever platform suits you.
The Last Hotel (Tellwell) and Whispers through Time (AM, London) are available on the usual online platforms in paperback, hardback and e-book form and in physical bookstores. The Last Hotel will soon be released as an audiobook by Tellwell.
