Ask the Author: Anne Merino
Answered Questions (8)
Anne Merino
I'm so busy writing right now that I kind of feel guilty when I take the luxury of reading someone else's work.
I AM looking forward to Preston and Childs "Crooked River" because an Aloysius Pendergast detective story always brightens the day. Also have my fingers crossed for a new Jeffrey Deaver Lincoln Rhyme story or new Sister Jane mystery from Rita Mae Brown!
I AM looking forward to Preston and Childs "Crooked River" because an Aloysius Pendergast detective story always brightens the day. Also have my fingers crossed for a new Jeffrey Deaver Lincoln Rhyme story or new Sister Jane mystery from Rita Mae Brown!
Anne Merino
I would travel to P.G. Wodehouse's Blandings Castle, tack up a horse and go for a ride in the idyllic English countryside.
Anne Merino
I pick up anything by P.G. Wodehouse and delve into it, marveling at his wit and genius for plotting. Then I study the page with the VAST list of his other titles and feel guilty about being a big self-indulgent blocked writer. Reluctantly I head back to the current work in progress to see what I can do with it.
Anne Merino
The genuine thrill of creating a story I'd like to find on a bookshop shelf and read!
Anne Merino
1. Write.
2. Write a lot and write the story you'd want to read. I understand the value of genre guidelines but don't let them hamstring your creative process. As the great screenwriter William Goldman once noted about the publishing/entertainment industry, "Nobody knows anything!".
3. Every writer has their own way of working -- some like detailed outlines, some (like me) prefer a few notes on the back of an old car insurance envelope. Some like writing at a specific time of day while others write when they can. You'll find yours as you go.
4. Keep submitting.
2. Write a lot and write the story you'd want to read. I understand the value of genre guidelines but don't let them hamstring your creative process. As the great screenwriter William Goldman once noted about the publishing/entertainment industry, "Nobody knows anything!".
3. Every writer has their own way of working -- some like detailed outlines, some (like me) prefer a few notes on the back of an old car insurance envelope. Some like writing at a specific time of day while others write when they can. You'll find yours as you go.
4. Keep submitting.
Anne Merino
I am currently working on the second book of the Hawkesmoor Trilogy.
There are also two other finished novels that are not part of the Hawkesmoor group with my editor at Rivercliff Books being readied for publication. They are Fenrir's Children -- a suspense story set around the events of the French Revolution and Spider Hall -- a modern day haunted house story set in England's southern coast.
There are also two other finished novels that are not part of the Hawkesmoor group with my editor at Rivercliff Books being readied for publication. They are Fenrir's Children -- a suspense story set around the events of the French Revolution and Spider Hall -- a modern day haunted house story set in England's southern coast.
Anne Merino
A great walk out in the fresh air with my German Shepherd, Hector, always seems to wake up the creative side. That said, I do think writing is a habit and one should write frequently. Waiting to be inspired could mean quite a long drought in producing words and pages. It's so easy NOT to write, sadly!
Anne Merino
I was having a coffee with an old friend and hearing about the restoration process to her family's historic house -- not, apparently, an endeavor for the meek and easily frightened as disaster can lurk behind every electrical conduit.
It occurred to me, as I listened to her tales of discovering old, fascinating things in long abandoned attics, that if one had immortality of some description, one could revisit a place from the past and, perhaps, find something that would shed light on a mysterious historical event. Upon returning home from the coffeehouse, I jotted up some notes about a northern English castle with a unique former inhabitant.
It occurred to me, as I listened to her tales of discovering old, fascinating things in long abandoned attics, that if one had immortality of some description, one could revisit a place from the past and, perhaps, find something that would shed light on a mysterious historical event. Upon returning home from the coffeehouse, I jotted up some notes about a northern English castle with a unique former inhabitant.
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