1. Are you a panster or a plotter or perhaps a bit of both?
Definitely a panster! I don’t mean to
be, I always start off with a vague outline of a plot and a hazy picture of
both the hero and the heroine in my mind’s eye, but very early on they take
over and then I have no choice but to follow them. Anyone who visits my website
already knows that I’ve stolen my motto from that late and great writer Ray
Bradbury, who said find out what your hero wants and then follow him.
2. Which comes first - characters or plot for you?
Well I’ve sort of already answered this
but I guess it has to be the characters, and one will always be more
influential. Sometimes the heroine, sometimes the hero. It just depends on the
direction of the story and how they are feeling on the day. Yes, you did read
that right. My characters have personalities and feelings from day 1 and they
make them known big time, especially when I try to ignore them.
3. What are you working on now? Is this a book in a current series or
something totally new?
I’m working on the second book of my
Mapleby Memories trilogy. The first one, Remembering Rose, was a bit of
an experiment for me in two different ways. Firstly, up until then I had
written all my books in the third person. In Remembering Rose, the
heroine, Rachel Ryan, tells the story herself, so readers are actually
‘listening’ to Rachel when they read the book. And secondly, it is a time
travel book with some psychic and ghostly overtones which again was a first for
me. I loved writing it because I not only had to flesh out a lot of characters
living in different centuries, I also had to link them together. The idea came
from two photos I saw that had been taken 50 years apart, and I even wove the
life story of some of the people in those photos into Remembering Rose.
The book I am working on now is based
on one of the characters in the first book. I’m not going to give her name away
but I’d be thrilled if anyone who reads Remembering Rose wants to have a
go at guessing who the next heroine is. They can tell me via my website and if
they get it right I’ll send them a short extract from the draft I’m working on.
4. Do you have some kind of object or place that figures in most of your
books? I use gems a lot, hospitals and caves.
Not consciously or deliberately, but
looking back at all the books I have written, they mostly feature children and
animals as well as the main protagonists. They might be central to the story or
just on the periphery but they are nearly always there. It’s probably because
I’ve spent so much of my own life surrounded by them that to me including
children and animals makes my stories more realistic.
5. Do you write every day or just when the spirit hits?
I wish I could say every day but I’m
afraid it’s not only when the spirit hits, it’s when I can actually find the
time. Life for me, as for most people, is a question of juggling a lot of balls
in the air and catching whichever one falls first. When it’s a writing day that
lands, then it’s a real bonus.
6. Where can we find you?
I’ve recently revamped my website at www.sheilaclaydonwriter.com. It gives info about me, my publisher, fellow writers and all my books.
Each one has a short blurb so visitors can read what the book is about, and they
all have direct buy links. I love it when people visit. And love it even more
when they comment. Writers need fans and support, and they especially need
reviews and when they get them they are always very grateful.
7. Who are your favorite authors? What about a book you’ve enjoyed?
That’s a tricky one because I am what
is known as an eclectic reader. I often have several books on the go at once,
mixing fact, fiction, science fiction, biography and philosophy, so some days I
will absolutely love Stephen King for example, but on other days it might be
Jane Austen or Lucretius or Yuval Noah Harari, before I dip back into Joanne
Harris or Joanna Trollope or go for a crime thriller by Lee Child or Ian
Rankin, or something historical by the wonderful writer Hilary Mantel. I guess it’s a mood thing. Sometimes I want
to learn, sometimes I want something that will take my imagination on a trip,
so there is no one book that is my all-time favourite, plus there are new books
coming out every day, which is exciting. So much to still read and so much to
still learn. But if I had to name one book that I’ve gone back to several times
it would be White Witch by Elizabeth Goodge. I first read it many years
ago I don’t even know if it is in print any more, but something about the
heroine, Froniga Haslewood, who is half Puritan and half gypsy, has always
appealed to me. Set in 17th Century England in the time of the civil
war, Froniga’s wisdom and her healing skills and her knowledge of herbs are
central to the story and to all the characters in it. Somehow, despite the
inevitable deaths and deceptions there is something soothing and inspiring
about her story. If you can find a copy then I would definitely recommend it.
No comments:
Post a Comment