Today I am pleased to welcome the incredibly talented Susie Williamson. Author of Return of The Mantra, one of favourite books of 2018 to my blog for another female author spotlight interview. DS: Welcome Susie. Thanks so much for agreeing to the interview SW: No problem Dan. Thank you for having me. DS: Lets begin […]
It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog; actually 3 long months. Life can throw you curve balls, and I recently had one thrown at me. A bout of pneumonia saw me rushed to Exeter’s A&E, then onto Plymouth for surgery on my lungs. Recovery was going well until I picked up a secondary infection. Looking back I am in awe of the NHS. Plymouth were unable to help so contacted London’s Brompton hospital, who drove down to collect me and take me back to the capital. Being sedated in ICU I have no memory of the Brompton, only waking up back on home turf at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital.
Last week was wonderfully busy, taking the long drive from Exeter to York for this year’s York Literature Festival. It was a fabulous opportunity to take part in a Sci-fi/Fantasy event hosted by the lovely folks of Stairwell Books, joining up with fellow authors for a panel of questions and readings from our array of worlds.
Writing a book is one thing. Marketing a book is quite another. In talking about Return of the Mantra I often reflect on the process of its creation: what inspired me, what the essence of the story is… It’s harder than it sounds. How to sum up the pages into a brief description? Anyone who writes will understand the pains of reducing a story into a one page synopsis, and then a paragraph long blurb. Even now, when people ask what my book is about, I struggle to find those one or two lines to do justice to the story I spent years nurturing into creation.
It is years in the making, this creature called the debut novel; a creature that has lived safely hidden within the walls of my writing room. For long enough it followed the plan I laid out, until it started to take on a life of its own.
