Ask the Author: Francesca Armour-Chelu
Answered Questions (5)
Francesca Armour-Chelu
I don't. I'm terrible with it. That said, a walk usually helps. But if I can't walk I eat. I'm normally a healthy eater but when I'm feeling stressed Monster Munch crisps have a strangely powerful allure for me.
Francesca Armour-Chelu
Getting something right after you've struggled to find the way to say it, then someone says 'I loved that bit'. That's a great moment. Writing can feel a bit lonely so it's lovely when you realise you struck a chord with another human being.
It's also fantastic when you finally hold your book and smell it! (I'm certain every new author smells their book; its an OCD they share ) and you see the cover art work and all the work the publishers put in to get it just right and you feel so pleased it all came together. But it's also amazing to think 'I made that world': its characters, language,climate or geography. It's actually quite surreal.
It's also fantastic when you finally hold your book and smell it! (I'm certain every new author smells their book; its an OCD they share ) and you see the cover art work and all the work the publishers put in to get it just right and you feel so pleased it all came together. But it's also amazing to think 'I made that world': its characters, language,climate or geography. It's actually quite surreal.
Francesca Armour-Chelu
Write! I'm not being facetious. Despite my posh name I don't come from a wealthy family-my parents were artists and worked all hours and like them I worked two jobs when I started Fenn Halflin,and had two children under 5! It wasn't until maternity leave with my third child that I got a chance to get the first draft completed. You have to have 'mental space' to write BUT if you can't get that then you have to simply still steal that space, even if it's only ten minutes or so - on your commute to work, or waiting for the potatoes to boil. Keep a notebook, jot down ideas, describe someone who sat opposite you on the bus. NEVER stop thinking of yourself as a writer-just because you clean other people's houses doesn't mean you're a cleaner not writer. You're both.
Francesca Armour-Chelu
I get inspired by almost anything; the news, people I meet, things I remember. Fenn Halflin was mainly inspired by where I live which is close to the coast. As a child I spent lots of time in places like Walberswick and Aldeburgh in Suffolk, exploring boatyards and marshes. When I left home I lived in a dilapidated Edwardian railway carriage which had been abandoned on water meadows... so I've always been on, or near, water.
Francesca Armour-Chelu
I'd read about the Moken people who live off the Thai coast and islands- the original so called 'Sea Gypsies'. I found the idea of living like that really interesting; what problems would you face, how would you adapt, what about food and fresh water? Fenn Halflin and the Fearzero was a very different story to start with, but in 2009 there were several terrible migrant-ship disasters in the Mediterranean. After that the story changed and I decided to set Fenn's quest against a backdrop of an aggressive land-grab after disastrous climate change.
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