Ask the Author: Madeleine Mitchell
Answered Questions (6)
Madeleine Mitchell
I go away and do things. I read other books. As bizarre as it sounds, I often sit in the bath or someplace quiet and place myself in the characters I'm writing about or the situations where the block is. For some weird reason this seems to push my creativity forwards and I end up chattering away to myself as the plot unfolds. Yes...my husband thinks I'm nuts! Music is very important to me when I write. If I want to write dark stuff, I listen to say The Cure, Pornography. If I want to write something lighter, I'll listen to music that's more upbeat. If need to write emotional stuff, then I put on something that pulls the heart strings.
Madeleine Mitchell
I can create my own worlds with my own characters which enables me to fly into places that I dream about. I keep a dream diary. Some of my dreams are just amazing, and I don't know where the hell they come from. Whole sagas. Writing enables me to be creative. I need that.
Madeleine Mitchell
Writing the book is the easiest part. The editing afterwards is the worst process and the most disheartening. I hate it. Write about what you know, but don't be afraid to research until you can write about what you didn't know. Be concise. Don't use ten words where you can use one. I cut my teeth on short stories but in fact, they are incredibly hard to write well. Write from the heart. Use your own experiences. But there's a fine line between sharing those experiences and being over indulgent. Always bear in mind that you're writing to entertain others.
Madeleine Mitchell
Another time slip novel this time set in West Virginia, Mingo County. I can't seem to get away from writing about the States! This one follows the adventures of midwife, Marianne, and is kind of like a tale of how one shouldn't never judge others purely by what you perceive through your own reality. It's more based upon personalities and character definition, exploring the human psyche and heart. I love injecting a slow burn to the sexual tension in my books.
Madeleine Mitchell
I've been writing since I was a kid, and used to write horror stories for small underground press in the 1980s. I then began writing articles for newspapers and magazines. I then stopped for about 15 years as I concentrated on my work as a professional dancer/teacher. Then one day I got a reading off a spiritual medium, who told me I would be writing about America and getting a book published. At that time I didn't believe him as I knew nothing about America, and had absolutely no interest in writing about either that or anything else at the time. But then, out of the blue, I saw Lewis Powell's photo and everything changed. It was like it my destiny to write about him and bring him to life on the pages. And as cheesy as that sounds, I felt as though he needed to be depicted as a human being rather than the monster he's mostly been written about.
Madeleine Mitchell
I was reading an English newspaper about the Lincoln Assassination one day and I saw a photo of Lewis Thornton Powell sitting in manacles awaiting trial for his part in the Assassination attempt on William Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State. For some odd reason, the expression on his face intrigued me and I couldn't seem to accept that this young man was a monsters as depicted in history. I made my mission to research his life and find out more about him. I did this with the help of his official biographer, historian Betty Ownsbey, who very kindly became my technical adviser for the novel.
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