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Q &
A |
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1. I know that you went to Vassar College, but was your school
similar to Heart Lake?
Certainly my high school wasn't at all like Heart Lake. I went
to a public school in a suburban community and spent my last two
years in an alternative program--The Village School--which had no
grades or attendance requirements. When I went to Vassar I met a
lot of people who had gone to private school. I was fascinated by
their clothes, their nonchalance at dorm living, and their academic
preparedness. While I had to struggle that first year, they seemed
to have it all down.
When I was writing Lake I drew on the feeling of being at a private
college (which had once been a women's college) as well as what
I remembered about those private school kids. I also asked friends
who had gone to private schools to tell me about their experiences
and I ordered a copy of The Preppy Handbook (having lost
mine) to remind me just exactly what those kids wore.
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Katie Price, Leighton Buzzard |
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2. Did you make any strong friendships
at school and are you still in contact with any of your school friends?
I made several wonderful friends at Vassar with whom I stay in close
contact. It's what I value most about the experience of going there.
Of course I've made other friends over the years, but there was something
about living in such close quarters for four years that made those
relationships especially intense.
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Caroline Hartley, Liverpool |
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3. How much did your MFA in creative writing help your work?
I was already dedicated to writing when I did the MFA (I've been
writing since I was nine!), but the experience did strengthen my
confidence and taught me valuable critical skills. Talking with
other writers helped me to define and clarify my attitudes about
writing--sometimes I think the most valuable lessons came from disagreeing
with criticisms.
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Jemma Campbell, Chester |
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4. How much of your inspiration
was taken from your own life or from the lives of pupils you used
to teach?
I take plenty from my own life. In Lake I started out with
a character facing a situation I found myself in--young divorced mother
without means of support--and then let her develop into her own character.
I think I always start with a germ of personal experience, but then
the character is often most defined by how she differs from myself.
In Jane Hudson's case it was her aloneness--the lack of family and
friends--that was the genesis of the story.
While the experience of teaching has influenced my writing, I don't
think I've ever based a character on a former student.
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Josephine Summerville, Cornwall |
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5. Do you like the covers designed
for your books, I was impressed by the similar themes carried from
The Lake of Dead Languages to The Seduction of Water, do you have
any influence over the covers of your books?
I've mostly been very happy with the American and British covers of
both books--which is lucky because, honestly, I have very little input
in their creation. My biggest fear was that there'd be a bloody hand
rising out of a frozen lake! The Ophelia-like image on the British
cover of Lake was very evocative of the themes of stunted girlhood
I was working with. Obviously both covers emphasize the watery images
I use which I think is fine. I know I'm very drawn to images of water
so I assume other people are too.
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Joel Thomas, Brighton |
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6. Was there anything you had to
do before you started the actual writing process? Did you do a lot
of research before starting to write this novel?
I did a fair amount of research for Lake, but not as much as I did
for The Seduction of Water or the one I'm working on now. Since
I'd been a Latin teacher and I lived in the Adirondacks for a year
I didn't have to invent all that. However, I did have to keep my Wheelock's
Latin Grammar and Latin dictionary close by my side. I also read books
on how lakes freeze and ice harvesting and spent a lot of time walking
around the neighborhood observing ice. I went to Mohonk Mountain House
whenever I could and the naturalist there told me wonderful things
about how lakes sound when they're frozen (Mohonk Lake did not freeze
that year so I didn't get to experience it first hand).
I love learning odd little facts and using arcane information--so
much so that sometimes I get carried away with research when I need
to go back to writing. For the book I'm writing now I've been reading
up on stained glass (I even took a class in making stained glass--which
I found I have absolutely no talent for), Pre-Raphaelite painters,
kayaking, glassmaking, factory architecture. I still have my Latin
dictionary close by and my edition of Ovid.
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Sophie Ashton, Aylesbury |
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7. What's your next book about? Is it a similar story to The
Lake of Dead Languages?
The Seduction of Water is about a woman, Iris Greenfeder,
whose mother was a fantasy writer and died in a hotel fire when
Iris was a child. Iris goes back to the hotel where she grew up--Hotel
Equinox--to look for the manuscript of her mother's last book. I
indulged my love of fairy tales and fantasy literature in this book
and had fun creating a hotel, which I based on The Catskill Mountain
House but embellished with everything I would like to find in a
summer resort.
It's similar to Lake in that it's about the impact of the
past on the present and it's set in the Hudson Valley. Otherwise,
it had a very different feel to me--less brooding than Lake.
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Thomas Hughes, Shrewsbury
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8. Which part of the book did you
find most difficult to write?
The scenes where young girls get hurt. As a mother I'm very conscious
of not manipulating my readers by playing on their fears for their
children. For that reason, I sent Jane's daughter, Olivia, out of
the picture, but then I was still stuck with horrible things happening
to teenaged girls. I felt those events were necessary for the plot--and
I tried not to dwell on them--but they were painful to write.
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Sally Lloyd, Doncaster |
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9. Do you have a routine when you're
writing?
Yes. I walk my daughter to school and then continue on a two-mile
walk with my dog. Then I come home (about 10:00), make my second cup
of tea, and sit at my desk, which is on a converted front porch under
a window. Often I sit for a while just staring at the birds in the
Rose of Sharon bush outside the window, but I get down to work pretty
soon because I've only got to 3:00 when my daughter comes home. It
usually takes me (when a book is in full swing) two days to write
a chapter longhand and then one or two days to type it on the computer.
If I've really got my act together, I end the week with the chapter
written, but untyped, so that on Monday I start with typing a chapter
which seems so much less intimidating. I never try to write when my
daughter's home (although I might do something like answering these
questions while she's doing her homework) and I follow that routine
3 or 4 days a week. On the fifth day I do all my errands and go to
yoga class or have lunch with a friend. On the sixth day, I the chapter
to my husband to read and he makes corrections and tells me (gently)
where I've gone astray. |
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Carol Barratt, Eastbourne |
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10. Did you always want to be a
writer?
Pretty much. When I was nine my fourth grade teacher introduced creative
writing as a subject and I wrote a ninety page (handwritten, crayon
illustrated) epic called The Adventures of the Magical Herd.
I've still got it--there's a character named Carol in it who lives
on the range with the wild horses and doesn't seem to have a human
family or attend school. I wrote anguished poetry throughout my adolescence
and was awarded Young Poet of Long Island when I was seventeen. There
have been several periods when I gave up writing for a while--during
college, and when I went to graduate school--but I always came back
to it.
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Lynda Collett, Lichfield |
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11. I've read a review of this
book where you were likened to Donna Tartt, how do you feel about
his comparison?
Well, I admire Donna Tartt very much so if I've got to be compared
to someone it might as well be her. Of course, the problem with those
comparisons is that it's easy then to criticize the book as not living
up to the comparison. Aside from the classical references and the
fact that both books take place at schools, The Secret History
and Lake are very different.
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Margaret Matheis, Western Super-Mare |
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12. It must be an amazing achievement
to have had two books published, as a writer, what is your greatest
ambition?
Thank you. I certainly wrote for many years without getting the money
or validation of publication and I sometimes thought that it just
might not happen for me (as it often doesn't happen for many talented,
deserving writers). It's certainly been a wonderful experience--mostly
because having a contract enables me to spend more time writing. I
guess my only ambition is to keep writing. I hope enough people enjoy
the books that I get to do that. I also hope that I'm able to sit
down each day and write honestly--that I continue to find material
that's challenging, that I don't get lazy and take short cuts, and
that it always feels as fresh and exciting as when I wrote The
Adventures of the Magical Herd.
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Joan Miller, Canterbury |
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13. Has the book been published
in any countries aside from the UK? If so how well was it received
abroad?
Aside from the US, Canada and the UK, Lake's been published in Italy,
Japan, Germany, Norway, and The Netherlands. Honestly, I don't get
a tremendous amount of feedback about how it's doing. I recently gave
the Japanese edition to a Japanese friend and she translated for me
a lovely note from the translator at the back of the book. It's just
thrilling for me to think of people I couldn't speak to reading the
book and enjoying it.
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Hilary Kingsford, Stoke On-Trent |
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