Ask the Author: C.C. Yager
Answered Questions (5)
C.C. Yager
Much has changed in Vienna since I lived there, but I'd love to visit again to see friends and my old haunts. The cafe I loved has turned into a popular bistro -- no longer the quiet hangout for students. Vienna is glorious in the spring as well as the fall!
C.C. Yager
What an interesting question. I'm not a big romance reader, and I'm assuming that "fictional couple" could also mean buddies, cop partners, as well as romantic couples. And I must confess, my first reaction was "no favorite." But then I started thinking about it, and I realized that there are 2 couples that make up a sort-of triangle that have fascinated me since I first read their story -- "The English Patient" by Michael Ondaatje. The 2 couples are Almasy (the English Patient) and Katharine, and Almasy and Hanna, his nurse. The first couple is a romantic, lustful one. The second is all about compassion, humanity, trust, dependence, and ironically, life. It has fascinated me the way Ondaatje juxtaposes these two couples in the story, and then adds Hanna and Kip which just seems to emphasize that the human heart has a massive capacity for love of all kinds. All in the midst of World War II. It's a beautiful, at times a tense and suspenseful, story and well worth the read.
C.C. Yager
Huh. I wish someone had told me when I was starting out how hard it was going to be. Writing is hard work. It requires perseverance, dedication, and commitment, a knowledge of English, usage, and a large vocabulary. Read voraciously and all kinds of books. Subscribe to a really good writing magazine like The Writer and read it. Write everyday, something, no matter how you feel. Keep a journal for personal musings so they don't invade your professional writing. And finally, live your life fully. If you have no experiences, you have no way to learn about human behavior and life itself. I believe we live in order to learn and experience. Get out there and live!
C.C. Yager
At the moment, I'm working on nonfiction, i.e. essays, because they are short and allow for me to also work on marketing "Perceval's Secret." Book 2 of The Perceval Novels series is a completed first draft. Eventually, I plan to whip it into shape so I can give it to an editor to read.
C.C. Yager
The idea for "Perceval's Secret" began with a concert at Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis. I was there, listening to a Shostakovich symphony, when a conductor entered my mind. He was conducting on an empty stage that I recognized as in the Grosse Saal of the Musikverein concert hall in Vienna, Austria. He said, "I want to be a conductor!" in a young boy's voice. I was intrigued. Who was this guy? Why was the stage empty? Why Vienna? And the questions kept coming. When I got home that evening, I began writing his story that grew into "Perceval's Secret."
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