Hello, and thank you for visiting my site. I hope that you'll return often and always find something of interest about my world and what inspires me to pick up a pen. (This is a figure of speech, unfortunately. My handwriting is terrible!) Here's what I've been up to recently...
Just a Minute!
This afternoon’s PYA event at Northallerton Library was fun. Organised by Neelie Wicks and chaired by John Jackson, the five of us on the panel had just a minute to answer each question. These ranged from discussion of our own motivation, strengths and weaknesses as writers, marketing strategy (always a tough one), literary pilgrimages and favourite authors. The photo above shows Marla Skidmore, Kate Swann and myself highly amused by something, although I can’t remember what. Maybe that’s just as well!
Neelie is just visible on the left with Paul Smith and Rosemary Kind, who has captured our attention with one of her answers.
We didn’t stay serious for long, though, and the audience also fired a few questions at us.
For the record, here are some of the questions with my own answers:
Q.What literary pilgrimages have you been on? A. Venice, in search of ‘Miss Garnet’s Angel’.
Q. What is your writing Kryptonite? A. Inability to settle down into one genre.
Q. Do you view writing as a spiritual practice? A. No. My feet are firmly on the ground most of the time.
Q. Does a big ego help or hurt writers? A. Needs to be kept under control when dealing with magazine editors. The choice is often accept the criticism or don’t see yourself in print.
Q. Do you think somebody could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? A. Maybe, but I couldn’t, at least not when writing fiction. Much of it comes from my own experiences or those of people close to me and I really care what happens to my characters. I laugh and weep with them.
8 May, 2019 - Make the first comment on this story