Ask the Author: Richard Buxton
Answered Questions (8)
Richard Buxton
Hi Stacie. Wonderful to 'see' you too. I guess in Copper Road I already knew most of the characters. I think it's turned out to be a little more intimate with this main characters lives. So slightly more character driven than plot driven like Whirligig but still with plenty happening. Hope you enjoy it!
Richard Buxton
Hi Amy,
I dabbled in my teens but then let life get in the way. In my mid forties I realized I needed a creative outlet to counteract my day job in IT which at the best of times is still pretty dry. I started evening classes and the rest is history, well, historical fiction...
I dabbled in my teens but then let life get in the way. In my mid forties I realized I needed a creative outlet to counteract my day job in IT which at the best of times is still pretty dry. I started evening classes and the rest is history, well, historical fiction...
Richard Buxton
It was more of a collision than an idea. I knew I wanted to write about the Civil War in the west. I settled on the idea that the main protagonist would be English and see America with fresh eyes as I did when I was young. My father had some diary notes from working with the Shire horses on a Duke's estate in Bedfordshire when he was a boy. That's where the main character's name came from and it all flowed from there.
Richard Buxton
I go there. Wherever the story is or I suspect I might find one. My most successful and favourite stories have almost always come from going alone to somewhere evocative or haunting, in the wider sense of the word: an old battlefield at dusk; a train into the Appalachians; a riverboat on the Ohio. I start with place and go from there.
Richard Buxton
I'm currently working on my third novel, Tigers in Blue, the final installment of the Shire's Union trilogy following on from Whirligig and The Copper Road. I had hoped to get over to America and Tennessee to research in 2020 but that's not proved practical. Hopefully I'll manage it in 2021.
Richard Buxton
Above all, learn to workshop. Find, or start, a group that are developing like you are with one or two a little way ahead. Learn to give useful criticism. Listen carefully to what’s fed back. Stay in control and apply the advice that you think improves your work. You are the boss.
Richard Buxton
For me it started as a creative outlet from work, but as time's gone on it's largely become my work and I love it. The idea that at the start of the day you have some notion about where a chapter or a story might be going but by the end, by some unseen alchemy, you've created something with a depth and a meaning that is a complete surprise to yourself. That's the best thing.
Richard Buxton
I'm not sure I ever really get a full block. There are days where I realise that I'm shying away from writing or not hugely in the mood, but I find if I make myself start, I'm soon enjoying it. Also, when looking at it the next day, I find some of the stuff that felt awkward to write reads pretty well.
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