Ask the Author: Bill Aitken
Answered Questions (6)
Bill Aitken
The key is to keep writing. By that I mean - get it on the page. Don't mess around trying to get it perfect as you go. Get it written down and then it's edit - edit - edit. You should also put the book away for a couple of months when you think its complete and then re-read it. You'll make acres of changes. Get some family friends to read it and give their honest opinion. My wife was brutal in her assessment of the first draft of the first chapter. Still recovering from that one.
Bill Aitken
Playing around in a world that's far away with characters that you begin to recognise as though you had actually met them. For those of you who have read Blackest, you will remember the scene where Henry Farmer first enters the book, stumbling in through the door trying to get out of his lab coat. When I was writing that screen, he came in exactly like that, fully formed, as though I was watching it on a movie.
I love that.
I love that.
Bill Aitken
So far, I have not experienced it. And, you know, I think it's less likely to hit the writer of historical fiction, since you have a known framework within which to work. To be candid, my biggest problem is getting down to the work after a hard day's grind!
Bill Aitken
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Bill Aitken
Reading ... reading ... oh, yes, and some more reading. I'm particularly drawn to the quirky and unusual corners of history. And if you really want quirky, the best place to look for it is in British military history. To be honest, if you have characters clear in your mind, they really do take on a life of their own and you begin to see them become restless for more action.
Or perhaps I just need to get out more ...
Or perhaps I just need to get out more ...
Bill Aitken
I'm currently writing the sequel to "Blackest" - Sweet Sorrow. It is commonly-known that Germany was the first to use gas as a military weapon in WW1 but what is less well-known is that they used biological weapons, too. They were waging bio-warfare on three continents simultaneously and one of their more frightening proposals was to drop anthrax on London from Zepplins.
In the 1940s, Britain's Porton Down carried out some experiments with weaponised anthrax on a little island off the Scottish coast called Gruinard. The result was that the island, previously a picnic visit from the mainland, was deadly until the late 1970s when techniques were finally developed to clean it. Even now, it would be a risky business to much on a chicken leg on Gruinard.
Imagine, then, the state London would be in today, if the plan to use the Zepplins had been carried out. "Sweet Sorrow" takes historical records of the time and follows MI5 as it thwarts the plans of Germany's spymaster - Gustav Steinhauer - and prevents the catastrophe of the century.
In the 1940s, Britain's Porton Down carried out some experiments with weaponised anthrax on a little island off the Scottish coast called Gruinard. The result was that the island, previously a picnic visit from the mainland, was deadly until the late 1970s when techniques were finally developed to clean it. Even now, it would be a risky business to much on a chicken leg on Gruinard.
Imagine, then, the state London would be in today, if the plan to use the Zepplins had been carried out. "Sweet Sorrow" takes historical records of the time and follows MI5 as it thwarts the plans of Germany's spymaster - Gustav Steinhauer - and prevents the catastrophe of the century.
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