Ask the Author: Susan Hancock
Answered Questions (7)
Susan Hancock
I don't think that I have any great mysteries in my life! Perhaps it's more that I have encountered issues that some of my characters struggle with, so these do find their way into the books. I have no 'alien encounters' in my life to fuel the plots of my 'Anstey's Kingdom' books, but I do have a deep personal understanding, for example, of the depression which Thomas suffers from - particularly in the second book of the trilogy. Other problems will be surfacing shortly in my fourth book: The Children of Auriga. This will be released later in the month.
Susan Hancock
I am working on two projects at present.
The first is taking shape in my blog and will ultimately be a full prequel to the 'Anstey's Kingdom' trilogy. Set twenty years before the events of 'Surviving Anstey', it is Elizabeth Wrenn's story. If you haven't read the books yet, Elizabeth is mother of Kat - the female hero in my Anstey books. Elizabeth travelled through time and space from the Auriga constellation to sixteenth-century Earth and, although I had told of her arrival, I suddenly felt the need to flesh this out more. How could she have become involved with someone so evil as Richard Anstey? I had to let her give her side of things!
My second project takes up the story of three of Kat's and Thomas's children some twelve years after the events in 'Anstey's Legacy.' So, as you see, I have returned to the world I set in place in the Anstey's Kingdom trilogy.
You can read the prequel here on goodread in my blog, or on my website: https://www.susanjenniferhancock.com
The first is taking shape in my blog and will ultimately be a full prequel to the 'Anstey's Kingdom' trilogy. Set twenty years before the events of 'Surviving Anstey', it is Elizabeth Wrenn's story. If you haven't read the books yet, Elizabeth is mother of Kat - the female hero in my Anstey books. Elizabeth travelled through time and space from the Auriga constellation to sixteenth-century Earth and, although I had told of her arrival, I suddenly felt the need to flesh this out more. How could she have become involved with someone so evil as Richard Anstey? I had to let her give her side of things!
My second project takes up the story of three of Kat's and Thomas's children some twelve years after the events in 'Anstey's Legacy.' So, as you see, I have returned to the world I set in place in the Anstey's Kingdom trilogy.
You can read the prequel here on goodread in my blog, or on my website: https://www.susanjenniferhancock.com
Susan Hancock
Write in every spare moment...read aloud to yourself (or guinea pigs)... edit... edit... edit...x50. Oh - and have faith and determination.
Susan Hancock
Falling in love with your characters and feeling their lives unfold in your hands. Crying with them when bad things happen and making it alright again.
Susan Hancock
I don't really know what that is. Normally I enjoy writing: it's my pleasure and I begrudge taking a day off. If for any reason I sense any reluctance, I always know that I've sent my characters in a wrong direction. Then it's just a question of going back to the last time that everything felt good and working out a new way of proceeding. Take the delete button to the faulty part. I do think writers shouldn't be obsessively word count driven - it's OK to sit and meditate for a while and feel the ideas simmering in your mind when they're ready.
Susan Hancock
As a University Lecturer I became accustomed to the necessity of writing up research for work purposes and published, successfully, with Routledge. I enjoyed doing some creative writing, but was not inspired to write fiction until I stopped teaching (a cancer I was not expected to recover from took over my life at that point and I couldn't guarantee being around for postgrad students needing a supervisor for long periods of time.) Thanks to the miracle of a brilliant oncologist who supervised my chemo and radiotherapy I have survived so far (statistically I had a 13% chance and my body took it!!) The downside is being virtually unable to walk due to the effect of the tumours on nerves in my spine and radiotherapy side-effects. For a while I couldn't contemplate writing, but then, In February 2019 an idea came to me... I have no notion from where. Kat and Thomas, my first characters came into my mind together with a setting. Real world characters and problems transposed into an other world situation and time. I started to write, and found that the difficulty was stopping. It's less inspiration than obsession - I have to do it!
Susan Hancock
I had intended to leave the world of Anstey's Kingdom after the final book: Anstey's Legacy: No Greater Love (currently in the design and proofing phase - out in December) BUT my favourite beta reader begged me to create a story about one of the subsidiary characters in the Kingdom. I had thought the character's story was stable and complete, but the more I considered her situation, the more certain I was that her life was very far from settled. So... work is underway. Everything I write is character driven and once a character starts clamouring for attention I have to give it. I care about them and if I give them sufficient headspace they tell me their own stories disrupting meditation sessions and sleep until I comply.
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