Ask the Author: Suzanne M. Wolfe
Answered Questions (7)
Suzanne M. Wolfe
I'm guessing you mean male and female but I am going to pick Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in Patrick O'Brian's astonishing historical series of books about the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars. Their individual characters are so finely drawn, the friendship that grows between them despite their enormous differences of temperament is so moving and hilarious, that they are one of the most brilliant depictions of friendship in all of literature.
Suzanne M. Wolfe
When I was 12, I was studying St. Augustine's "Confessions" in Religion class and I asked the teacher, Sister Bernadette, what the name of Augustine's concubine was (he calls her Una--the One--in the "Confessions"). She replied that no none knows, that the concubine is "lost to history." That phrase "lost to history" stuck with me (fell into the swamp) and 40 years later, I decided to find the concubine and let her speak--tell her own story, the "confessions" of her own life. Hence the title, "The Confessions of X," (X because she is nameless).
Suzanne M. Wolfe
This is a hard one to answer: I keep a writer's journal and jot down things--sometimes very random things like a word or phrase that catches my ear or a name or a quote or almost anything. And I don't do this every day but only when something catches my imagination. I carry the journal with me everywhere I go, just in case. The name for the hero in my Elizabethan series is in my writer's journal.
As far as inspiration for stories and characters: my imagination is like a giant swamp and random things seem to fall into it over the years and then, one day, they pop to the surface and I go "Ummmm. That's interesting. Let me see what I can do with that." This is as close as I can get to answering this great question.
As far as inspiration for stories and characters: my imagination is like a giant swamp and random things seem to fall into it over the years and then, one day, they pop to the surface and I go "Ummmm. That's interesting. Let me see what I can do with that." This is as close as I can get to answering this great question.
Suzanne M. Wolfe
I am about to begin the final revision of the first novel in a mystery series set in Elizabethan London--the 1580s. This is forthcoming in August 2018 from Crooked Lane Books. The second novel in this series is forthcoming by Crooked Lane in 2019. I have also just finished editing the second edition of my first novel "Unveiling," forthcoming by Paraclete Press in Spring 2018.
Suzanne M. Wolfe
As the great John Gardner said: "Read, read, read. Write, write, write." Make a writing schedule--I get up at 6am every morning to write--and stick to it. Or, if you are not a morning person, write every day from 7pm to 11pm. This will obviously depend on your work/life schedule but at least a couple of hours writing time every day is the minimum. For many years, when I had small children and growing teens, I was only able to write at night. Now, I have switched to the mornings. Whatever works for you. Just keep at it. Oh, and one last thing: switch off all electronic devices--too tempting.
Suzanne M. Wolfe
Not sure how to answer that as the need to write stories is more like a compulsion for me rather than a chosen activity. And sometimes--perhaps, often--it is a hard slog. What I can say is that when I am writing I feel more alive than at almost any other time. And this is a great joy. I love being inside the lives of my characters and their world. So, for me, I guess this is the best thing about being a writer.
Suzanne M. Wolfe
This is a hard one to answer. Writer's block can come from many sources, not all of them identifiable to the writer. But I can give one example: when I was in the early stages of writing "The Confessions of X" I kept beginning the first chapter and couldn't get anywhere with it. I couldn't find the concubine's "voice" at all. This persisted for months and, eventually, I got so discouraged I kind of shut down and developed full-blown writer's block. But I still kept sitting down at my computer to write even if I came up blank. Then one day, the thought came to me that I had to make the narrative a retrospective so that the "voice" was an older, wiser, and more educated "voice" than merely the voice of a young, illiterate mosaic-maker's daughter. Once this clicked, I sat down and wrote the first chapter in a single sitting. The floodgates were opened and I was off. This is an example of a technical narrative problem. But others can include health, exhaustion etc. which can "block" the writer.
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