Ask the Author: Angela Wren
Answered Questions (9)
Angela Wren
Hi there, nice to e-meet you and thanks for getting in touch.
As for Yorkshire - I could not agree more. It's a beautiful county, especially the moors and the northern coastal area. I wouldn't say I was a rebel but I always question injustice. Am I exhausting? Hmm, interesting question! I suppose my answer is - also straight from the hip - I sincerely hope not, but I know I can be testing, especially when things are not going as I had planned or hoped.
As for travelling being exhausting, in some respects I agree with you. But mostly, I find travelling an everlasting adventure. It's such a great opportunity to meet new people, to see different 'worlds' and to value new experiences no matter how insignificant they may appear. I have no plans to stop travelling in France, or anywhere else for that matter.
As for Yorkshire - I could not agree more. It's a beautiful county, especially the moors and the northern coastal area. I wouldn't say I was a rebel but I always question injustice. Am I exhausting? Hmm, interesting question! I suppose my answer is - also straight from the hip - I sincerely hope not, but I know I can be testing, especially when things are not going as I had planned or hoped.
As for travelling being exhausting, in some respects I agree with you. But mostly, I find travelling an everlasting adventure. It's such a great opportunity to meet new people, to see different 'worlds' and to value new experiences no matter how insignificant they may appear. I have no plans to stop travelling in France, or anywhere else for that matter.
Angela Wren
That's a toughie! Narnia would be good but I'm afraid I would want to be the White Witch so that i could wear those gorgeous clothes that Tilda Swinton wore in the film! And yes I know, that's very shallow! The only other place I would want to go would be Hundred Acre Wood. As a child, I loved the stories of Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore and playing Pooh-sticks. If I was there I would totally embrace my inner child and have nothing but fun!
Angela Wren
I've got loads of books on my TBR pile. Where should I start? I've got some Frances Brody - Death of an Avid Reader is one. Linda Stratmann's, An Appetite for Murder, Midnight Sun by Jo Nesbo and Stef Penny's, The Tenderness of Wolves.
On a lighter note I've got Sarah Morgan's, Suddenly last Summer, The Tea Planter's Wife, by Dinah Jefferies, French Rhapsody by Antoine Laurain and a stack more.
There's Peter James' Dead Simple that I need to read for my book club and I've got some David Baldacci and Praticia Cornwell too.
And if that isn't enough to keep me occupied I've also got The Unfree French by Richard Vinen and Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada to read for research purposes.
Hmmmm...I think I'm going to busy this summer!
On a lighter note I've got Sarah Morgan's, Suddenly last Summer, The Tea Planter's Wife, by Dinah Jefferies, French Rhapsody by Antoine Laurain and a stack more.
There's Peter James' Dead Simple that I need to read for my book club and I've got some David Baldacci and Praticia Cornwell too.
And if that isn't enough to keep me occupied I've also got The Unfree French by Richard Vinen and Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada to read for research purposes.
Hmmmm...I think I'm going to busy this summer!
Angela Wren
I think there are for more experienced writers out there who can provide very sound and detailed advice based on their extensive experience. I'll just say 'never give up'. In my limited experience, if you really want something, then you can acheive it. You just need to work out how to do it!
Angela Wren
I suppose it is the intellectual workout that writing gives my mind. When I'm working out a plot or a plot line I sometimes have to think in obscure ways.
When I'm planning a murder - and because I write mystery I do think and talk about murder a lot - which takes a while, I have to look at the problem from various character's points of view. As a result, I'm often moving from one character's head space to another and back again. That can be quite challenging mentally. And I like to be challenged and to feel that I've got to the solution honestly and through my own effort.
I suppose that, underlying that intellectual workout is the knowledge that, because I'm writer, I can make anything happen in my books. Such a realisation means that I understand how powerful the mind and the imagination can be. And that's awesome!
When I'm planning a murder - and because I write mystery I do think and talk about murder a lot - which takes a while, I have to look at the problem from various character's points of view. As a result, I'm often moving from one character's head space to another and back again. That can be quite challenging mentally. And I like to be challenged and to feel that I've got to the solution honestly and through my own effort.
I suppose that, underlying that intellectual workout is the knowledge that, because I'm writer, I can make anything happen in my books. Such a realisation means that I understand how powerful the mind and the imagination can be. And that's awesome!
Angela Wren
I'm currently writing book 3 in my Jacques Forêt series of mystery stories. I'm also collecting together some research for book 4 in the same series.
Book 2, Merle, is part way through the editing process and so needs me to drop everything else I'm doing at each stage of the process as required.
In addition to all of that I also work with other writers in local writing groups and undertake talks about my books and writing in general.
Book 2, Merle, is part way through the editing process and so needs me to drop everything else I'm doing at each stage of the process as required.
In addition to all of that I also work with other writers in local writing groups and undertake talks about my books and writing in general.
Angela Wren
From what I see around me or things that I hear. We live in amazing times and in a stunningly beautiful world, you just need to look. For example, its April, and the trees are in blossom, the spring flowers are out in gardens, but we are all so busy and, because these things are so familiar to us, we perhaps don't see them in the right way. If I stop and open my eyes and really look out at my garden I can see the pink umbrella of the cherry tree, the blood red tulips and the reflected sunshine of petals on the daffodils... And I just need to jot those thoughts down now, in my little notebook. I'm sure they'll be used at some point in the future!
It's the same with overheard conversations - and these are the kind of conversations one can't help overhearing. I'm not suggesting for a minute that we should all eavesdrop on each other! On trains, busses and planes, people talk and sometimes they say things that you just can't script yourself! And yes, those little snippets get noted in my trusty little notebook too.
Inspiration to write is everywhere.
It's the same with overheard conversations - and these are the kind of conversations one can't help overhearing. I'm not suggesting for a minute that we should all eavesdrop on each other! On trains, busses and planes, people talk and sometimes they say things that you just can't script yourself! And yes, those little snippets get noted in my trusty little notebook too.
Inspiration to write is everywhere.
Angela Wren
The very first idea for Messandrierre came whilst I was travelling in the Cévennes in September 2007. The Cévennes is an area of south west France that is mountainous and sparsely populated. The villages are small, the land is rugged and wild and the weather can change in a moment. As it did, overnight on September 28th/29th, 2007. I woke that morning to find the landscape covered in snow and it was that white covering that kept my mind exercised until I had formulated the idea of using snow to cover someone’s misdeeds – and the first paragraph of my story was born.
‘I died beneath a clear autumn sky in September, late in September when warm cévenol afternoons drift into cooler than usual evenings before winter steals down from the summit of Mont Aigoual. My shallow grave lies in a field behind an old farmhouse. There was no ceremony to mark my death and no mourners, just a stranger in the darkness spading soil over my body. Only the midnight clouds cried for me as they carried their first sprinkling of snow to the tiny village of Messandrierre. My innocent white coverlet allowing the earth around me to shift and settle unseen and become comfortable again.’
‘I died beneath a clear autumn sky in September, late in September when warm cévenol afternoons drift into cooler than usual evenings before winter steals down from the summit of Mont Aigoual. My shallow grave lies in a field behind an old farmhouse. There was no ceremony to mark my death and no mourners, just a stranger in the darkness spading soil over my body. Only the midnight clouds cried for me as they carried their first sprinkling of snow to the tiny village of Messandrierre. My innocent white coverlet allowing the earth around me to shift and settle unseen and become comfortable again.’
Angela Wren
I'm not sure there are any mysteries in my own life that could make a good plot for a book. My life, thus far, although it has been very interesting, fulfilling and never dull, has always been quite ordinary. I can't think of a single thing that could be construed as mysterious... Unless you count that odd occassion when I was in London undertaking some family history research and a terribly tall guy insisted on opening all the doors for me as we progressed in silence from the tube platform to the street. I did thank him when we got to street level and then just went on my way only to find myself later, in the Docklands museum, wondering what it all meant!!
My ancestors, on the other hand, have plenty of things in their histories that would make a good plot. One was a potboy in a coffee-house in the Strand and on the 1841 census all I know about him is his name, age, that he lived at the coffee-house and that he was not born in the county. It's a brick wall I haven't been able to break down, but just think of the possible story that it could make if I could time-travel and meet him!
Then there's the mysterious death in another part of my family tree that I can't seem to resolve. Perhaps it was a murder, maybe fuelled by jealousy or avarice, or even better, an undetected murder masquerading as an accident!
And then, a little closer to us here in the 21st century, is the family story of one of my ancestors being somehow involved in the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. Perhaps he was, perhaps not and perhaps I will never know the truth. Never the less, one of the greatest things about being a writer is that you can invent or re-imagine a situation by simply asking yourself 'What if?'
My ancestors, on the other hand, have plenty of things in their histories that would make a good plot. One was a potboy in a coffee-house in the Strand and on the 1841 census all I know about him is his name, age, that he lived at the coffee-house and that he was not born in the county. It's a brick wall I haven't been able to break down, but just think of the possible story that it could make if I could time-travel and meet him!
Then there's the mysterious death in another part of my family tree that I can't seem to resolve. Perhaps it was a murder, maybe fuelled by jealousy or avarice, or even better, an undetected murder masquerading as an accident!
And then, a little closer to us here in the 21st century, is the family story of one of my ancestors being somehow involved in the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. Perhaps he was, perhaps not and perhaps I will never know the truth. Never the less, one of the greatest things about being a writer is that you can invent or re-imagine a situation by simply asking yourself 'What if?'
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