Ask the Author: Philip Spires
Answered Questions (13)
Philip Spires
Strange this should come up... I have recently suffered a personal jolt. For twelve years I have been president of a society near to where I live. Relationships within the group became strained and, for one reason of another, I was kicked out of the presidency by the vice president. My model of running things openly, democratically and with consultation does not fit with the particular brand of fascism espoused by my opponent! How's that for one side of the argument! Well, over the last few months, since I was booted out, I have written another novel called The Pitcairn Perspectives. It's not published yet, but will be so in a month or so. I realised after finishing it that each character in the book lies to and undermines the others. While I was writing it, that element never came clear to me. What place autobiography...
Philip Spires
Hello Shakti
I have sent a few comments on your work. There is one section I find truly evocative. If the MS Word file is a problem, d let me know.
Regards
Philip Spires
I have sent a few comments on your work. There is one section I find truly evocative. If the MS Word file is a problem, d let me know.
Regards
Philip Spires
Philip Spires
Dear Shakti
Thanks for your message. I am duly flattered by your term "established authors like you", since, I can assure you, it does not feel like that from the inside.
It's true that I have published several books and hundreds of reviews and articles. My ezinearticles.com pages have been accessed almost 100,000 times. But who can ever say if any of them have ever been read?
My latest book is free. It's called Eileen McHugh, a life remade, and can be downloaded from http://www.philipspires.co.uk or elsewhere. It's a novel about an unknown artist from the 1970s.
Why is it free? There are two reasons. First, there is a device in the plot that is enhanced by making it free. Secondly, if it were for sale, I might make a few euros, but it would mean that many fewer people would read it. And I am proud enough of the book to think it is worth reading.
That, you see, is the key. Write because you want to write. Then publish because you think it might be worth reading. It's not good to be so conceited that self-criticism does not figure. Only publish what you think is worth reading, and have several people read your work before you proceed. Their reactions are important. They cannot be wrong, because their opinions are personal.
Your title is intriguing. It sounds to me as if it might owe something to R K Narayan...? If it does, you are on the right track. If it does not, then the track can be equally right, but lead somewhere different.
Thanks for your question. Do have a look at Eileen McHugh and please send me a sample of your book via the email on my website.
Regards
Philip Spires
Thanks for your message. I am duly flattered by your term "established authors like you", since, I can assure you, it does not feel like that from the inside.
It's true that I have published several books and hundreds of reviews and articles. My ezinearticles.com pages have been accessed almost 100,000 times. But who can ever say if any of them have ever been read?
My latest book is free. It's called Eileen McHugh, a life remade, and can be downloaded from http://www.philipspires.co.uk or elsewhere. It's a novel about an unknown artist from the 1970s.
Why is it free? There are two reasons. First, there is a device in the plot that is enhanced by making it free. Secondly, if it were for sale, I might make a few euros, but it would mean that many fewer people would read it. And I am proud enough of the book to think it is worth reading.
That, you see, is the key. Write because you want to write. Then publish because you think it might be worth reading. It's not good to be so conceited that self-criticism does not figure. Only publish what you think is worth reading, and have several people read your work before you proceed. Their reactions are important. They cannot be wrong, because their opinions are personal.
Your title is intriguing. It sounds to me as if it might owe something to R K Narayan...? If it does, you are on the right track. If it does not, then the track can be equally right, but lead somewhere different.
Thanks for your question. Do have a look at Eileen McHugh and please send me a sample of your book via the email on my website.
Regards
Philip Spires
Philip Spires
Write. Start with a shopping list.
Philip Spires
It is 2020. I wonder what might happen?
Philip Spires
I will try to answer when I have sufficient confidence in my abilities to call myself one. It could be a long wait, because I am usually so busy writing, I don't have time to think it through.
Philip Spires
SPQR of Mary Beard and Capital and Ideology of Thomas Pickett. I already have the books.
Philip Spires
If my advice is worth anything, which is debatable, I would advise anyone to write because they want to write, not because they want to create or sell a product. Writing is communication, not commerce.
Philip Spires
It was simply the quality of the experience that life presented. There are big stories. There are big issues. And nobody needs to invent anything. Observation is all it takes and then, crucially, the right words.
Philip Spires
Hello. Good question. In fact, I wrote two African novels! I spent two years as a volunteer teacher in rural Kenya in the 70s. As ever, I kept a commonplace book. It's not a diary, but it is something between a workbook and a scrapbook. Some of the stories I recorded came together as a plot and I did want anyway to write something about culture and identity. The Spain residence came some years and three other countries later.
Philip Spires
I would travel inside the mind of any major Shakespearean character and I would ask a question. Precisely who was it who brought you to life?
Philip Spires
I have an idea for a new parody. I did Donald Cottee based on Don Quixote a few years ago. Now I am thinking about Byron's Childe Harold wandering anew through Europe. It's an idea.
Philip Spires
The idea for Eileen McHugh, a life remade, came from a desire to investigate the nature of art as communication, especially for an artist whose own powers of communication are not the best. Eileen is a sculptor who wants to engage her audience through objects that tell stories. These are usually found objects or things she found in the gutter, the discarded bits of other people's experience. She was not particularly successful in attracting an audience and her artistic endeavour ceased some years ago. But now someone called Mary Reynolds claims to have discovered an archive of Eileen's notes and sketches. Mary sets about recreating Eileen's life through the recollections of those who knew her in the 1970s. My idea was that these reminiscences, part stories, part biographies, would come together effectively to create something that Eileen herself might have planned, a near random collection of bits and pieces.
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