Ask the Author: Stacey Dighton
Answered Questions (10)
Stacey Dighton
Have a nap. A lot of my best ideas come to me when I'm in a dream state (a bit like Luke Raven, really). I'll often get inspiration while I'm asleep or I'll wake up thinking 'no, that bit of the story is wrong!' or 'this character needs to be written completely differently'. I suppose that all of the obstacles your conscious mind puts in the way of creativity are completely removed when you are unconscious or semi-conscious and so, yeah, new stories can be born or existing stories can be improved or expanded upon. Of course, alcohol also works (although I'm not endorsing abusing it).
Stacey Dighton
Being in control of where the story is headed. You can literally write anything you want, when you want and how you want. The whole world that you put down on the page is entirely controlled by you - although, I often get the sense that the story is pulling me along rather than me pushing it onto the keyboard. I always say that it feels like when the tracking on your tyres goes a bit awry and the car starts gradually dragging you right or left - when the story starts to do that my sense it to let it take me where it wants to go. Whenever I've tried to fight it I've been pretty dissatisfied with the results. So, yeah - the creativity. That's the best thing.
Stacey Dighton
Be prepared to put in the publicity leg work. I really, really underestimated how much time authors spend not writing. That was a real learning curve for me. When a book is in production, and particularly nearing the release date, I spend almost all of my time connecting on social media, making ARC packages, talking with the marketing team or visiting book shops, organising book launches etc. It's fun but I was under-prepared for it. Secondly, get an editor. When I received my first edited copy back it was a real shock to the system - how dare anybody cross out big chunks of my work - but what a huge difference it made. Don't be precious about it. Receive and relish all advice positively - you don't have to act on all of it, but be open minded.
Stacey Dighton
I'm working on a fantasy-horror called 'The Rotting Place'. I was inspired to write it when my wife and I spent two weeks in Cornwall this year. It's such a magical, mysterious place full of history and folklore. My story is about a fractured, makeshift family that heads to the southern-most part of Cornwall for a week away, in order to escape from a sour turn events back home. The cottage they hire is located within a small, isolated community, and as they come to familiarise themselves with the residents of Bodhmall's Rest they learn that something is not quite right about their new neighbours. Think Deliverance meets Midsommar meets Doc Martin.
Stacey Dighton
There's two answers to that really - one is reading. The more good books I read, the more I get inspired and want to write my own - whether it's a good novel or novella, or even a short story or piece of flash fiction. There's so much good writing out there that you can't help but be inspired by it. The second is good TV. That sounds odd I know, but there's so many quality films and series out there since streaming took off. I love series such as Better Call Saul, The Ozarks, You, The Maid etc - such great writing with so many complex characters and intricate plots. We're living in a golden age, really.
Stacey Dighton
The latest book, 'The Hawk and the Raven', is a sequel to a novel I self published in 2019, called 'Pale Face and the Raven'. While it is a sequel, it also works really well as a standalone story. I was inspired to add a cannibalism element when I read about the story of Sawney Bean, the head of a family of cannibals that lived in a cave in the south-west of Scotland in the seventeenth century. The myth actually inspired the film, 'The Hills Have Eyes'. I used it as a platform to launch the various elements of the story from.
Stacey Dighton
They had started at the wall of his swollen, inflamed stomach and then had worked their way along his upper intestine, munching their way through the maze of fleshy ooze and sinewy tissue and emerging, mouths dripping, at his mottled, but still beautifully alive, liver. She had told him the bugs would cure the lingering, agonising pain caused by his IBS, but it turns out you should never trust a homeopathic doctor with one eye and a hessian sack full of flesh eating bugs.
Stacey Dighton
I'd definitely head to the Shire from Lord of the Rings. It looks like an old English village with its pubs, fairs, live music and dancing. It's just just full of small people, which is fine by me as I'm only 5' 8". In fact, it's a lot like where I live but without the traffic - so maybe I'll just stay where I am. Just get rid of the cars - Gandalf's horse and cart is where it's at.
Stacey Dighton
Well, an upside of being part of a Bookstagram tour to promote my new book, The Hawk and the Raven, is gaining an insight into all of the cool works on offer. The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward looks really good so I'm probably going to check that out. I'm currently reading Edge of the Grave by Robbie Morrison, a serial killer story set in Scotland in the 1930s - I'm really enjoying it.
Stacey Dighton
Mmm....maybe why our elderly Bassett Hound, Lily, likes to stand and stare at the corner of the room for what seems like hours. What is she seeing there - a ghost? A portal to another dimension? Invisible dog biscuits? Who knows, but maybe I'll write about it one day - it could be called 'What Lily Saw'.
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