Ask the Author: September Williams
Answered Questions (8)
September Williams
I walked into the morgue to see if my dead by decapitation patient was presentable for his family to identify. I found him sitting upright on the stainless steel slab, legs crossed with his crushed severed head beside him smiling, just before I passed out.
September Williams
The House at Riverton -- because in a real way the fictional walls talk if you can stop and hear them. I've always believed that and Kate Morton always makes her houses live. I imagine I would be a kitchen maid in such a place -- but aren't those the people who know all the secrets -- and I think the house would talk to me.
September Williams
It's always there -- it's making room for other things that is the problem. If not stopped by physical limitations I will write for 12 hours a day ( Bless that Apple Watch for making me stand/switch writing desk every hour.) But seriously, a spark hits me, I recognize it -- something in the news "30 year old advocate for homeless people found facedown in the Red River, Foul Play Suspected." Then when I do a little research and find my suspicions about the incident are true-- I've built a story in my head -- then I have to write it down.
September Williams
I am a third of a way through the first draft of book 2 in the Chasing Mercury Series. It's called 'Weighing Lead.' (The name is subject to change.) It is about love in the time of 'lead poisoning.' In ancient alchemy lead was used, along with mercury as a catalyst, when trying to make gold. In modern times lead and mercury are related because industries and communities plagued with one are often plagued by the other. The main characters in Chasing Mercury return with their challenges in love lives and improving destiny.
I find it exciting to be back at the beginning of a novel. While I'm dancing or hiking, cooking dinner I am writing the story in my head. This was true with Chasing Mercury as well. So it's like having a friend along with me. Of course my real life friends (except for the dancers) and my family find it annoying!
I find it exciting to be back at the beginning of a novel. While I'm dancing or hiking, cooking dinner I am writing the story in my head. This was true with Chasing Mercury as well. So it's like having a friend along with me. Of course my real life friends (except for the dancers) and my family find it annoying!
September Williams
Two and a half years ago my English professor Robin Hoople passed. Thirty years ago he suggested that given my handling of a Beckett, and enough capacity for hard work required to advance in writing, that I should do a masters in literature with him. I went to medical school instead.
What can you say to aspiring writers? Don't expect to not be aspiring when you get older and even if your day job impresses everyone else but you. I once wrote a poem on the sheets of a call room bed when i was working overnight. I knew if I went to the nurses station to get paper I would be snagged for something else. That's when I started stashing mole skin blank book between the mattress and the frame in the call room. You can run but if you know you can't hide-- just figure out a way to write.
What can you say to aspiring writers? Don't expect to not be aspiring when you get older and even if your day job impresses everyone else but you. I once wrote a poem on the sheets of a call room bed when i was working overnight. I knew if I went to the nurses station to get paper I would be snagged for something else. That's when I started stashing mole skin blank book between the mattress and the frame in the call room. You can run but if you know you can't hide-- just figure out a way to write.
September Williams
Being a writer allows me to bank my daily observations and those of the past while trying to understand,the people and environments I've been blessed to see. It also allows me to look at history from the now and sort out a plausible idea of how we got to here from the past. The research grows my world view and I hope that of others who read my work and are entertained and enthralled.
September Williams
Good question! I try to write on schedule about 7 hours a day in three sessions --I'm slow. Sometimes writer's block is physical fatigue. So most of the days I was writing Chasing Mercury I did some exercise for my first break which gives me energy. I'm a morning person so I work 6AM -9:30 then I get coffee, speak to my son, sometimes make him breakfast. Sadly my best writing time is when the tide and the wind and the current are best for rowing (sculling.) But I go around 10AM when I have to fight the wind and current -- that makes me grateful to get back to writing -- voila no more writer's block.
Sometimes writer's block is mental fatigue. I'll watch an episode of Crossing Jordan, or dance in my living room listening to classical music. Then I'm ready to go back to work.
Sometimes I just need a new venue. I write in several places in my house. My desk, a standing work station I've built of boxes at my desk, and one in the dinning room too. The kitchen counter-- or the Mill Valley Library.
More often than being blocked I am annoyed by something else I should be doing instead of writing-- My Apple watch telling me to stand up for instance--or people wanting me to have or make dinner.
Sometimes writer's block is mental fatigue. I'll watch an episode of Crossing Jordan, or dance in my living room listening to classical music. Then I'm ready to go back to work.
Sometimes I just need a new venue. I write in several places in my house. My desk, a standing work station I've built of boxes at my desk, and one in the dinning room too. The kitchen counter-- or the Mill Valley Library.
More often than being blocked I am annoyed by something else I should be doing instead of writing-- My Apple watch telling me to stand up for instance--or people wanting me to have or make dinner.
September Williams
I have been interested in mercury poisoning as a physician and just a person for a long time since I lived in Canada in the 1970s where the first North American cases were discovered. But the very first were in Minamata Japan. In 2013 I heard there was a Minamata Convention on Mercury and I wanted to bring the story to the general community -- people who may not read a nonfiction book. I love romance, I love suspense and I wanted to honor the convention on mercury. By the way the Minamata Convention on Mercury becomes international law on this year, August 16, 2017!
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