Ask the Author: Alison Brodie
Answered Questions (7)
Alison Brodie
Brake Failure is my recent release. I lived in Kansas in the months leading up to Y2K "meltdown". It was easy to write cos I met everyone in the book and also experienced everything that happened. Even the big event in the last chapter actually happened - I still have the Kansas City Star dated 2 Jan 2000 to prove it! Some reviewers say it is quirky - but that was how it was like in Kansas at that time: totally quirky. I loved Kansas, I loved the people and I miss it dreadfully.
Alison Brodie
The story and characters just come to me. I am unable to sit down and say to myself, today I will write about zoo-keeping or mountain-climbing. I just have to wait for a story to come to me, usually when I am ironing or walking the dog! I think most of the time, the seeds for an idea are planted in my brain without me knowing it, and then suddenly it flowers and I have to get it down on paper - fast!
Alison Brodie
I am making improvements to Wild Life. This is my favourite out of all my books. My next book is: Zenka. "When Zenka is saved from a human trafficker by a grumpy London ganglang boss she is determined to become his guardian angel, whether he likes it or not.
Alison Brodie
When I was a model, I did a 7Up commercial with a group of other models in Barcelona. On the last night we were invited aboard a super-yacht, which was amazing. But not as amazing as the mega super-yacht berthed further out to sea. I borrowed binoculars and saw one solitary figure on this palace of an ocean-liner: a beautiful black haired girl lounging on deck. This was the seed that would eventually grow into The Double. My family is from Glasgow, so writing about Beth, a poor nurse, was easy. I also have a Ukrainian friend who told me about the war of Transnistria (which is now, sadly, part of Moldova). so, that is how The Double came together. Brake Failure is set in the months leading up to Y2K in Kansas. I was living there at the time and everything that happened actually happened and everyone in the book existed: the Survivalists, the Evangelists that burnt Harry Potter, the bull-riders and even Mr Schoettler who used to get me up with the cock ... ??? You have to read the book. :)
Alison Brodie
My advice for aspiring writers is: enjoy writing! It's tough, very tough, to write a novel, but if you have the guts, the tenacity to improve, improve, IMPROVE, you will do it.
In my mind I write for only one person, a person I will never meet: a single mother in a council flat overlooking the Westway Flyover in London. When I drove past the council flats years ago, I saw a tricycle on the dilapidated balcony and imagined the mum inside. When I am writing, I picture her reading my book and it makes me determined to help her forget her life and to take her somewhere far from poverty, depression and hopelessness - if only for a few hours.
In my mind I write for only one person, a person I will never meet: a single mother in a council flat overlooking the Westway Flyover in London. When I drove past the council flats years ago, I saw a tricycle on the dilapidated balcony and imagined the mum inside. When I am writing, I picture her reading my book and it makes me determined to help her forget her life and to take her somewhere far from poverty, depression and hopelessness - if only for a few hours.
Alison Brodie
The best thing about being writer is to lose myself in another world.
Alison Brodie
I never get writer's block. This is because I don't force myself. I let the characters and story come to me then I scribble it all down without stopping, without revising, without looking back on what I've written. Then I have something to work with - even though it all looks like a bit of a dog's dinner! Sometimes I lose the flow, or I get tired, then I go for a walk or swim. At the end of the day, I stop when I am in full flow - that way I can pick up where I left off more easily the next morning.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more