Ask the Author: Lisa Medved
Answered Questions (4)
Lisa Medved
Writing is a solitary pursuit, so it’s crucial to have a support network of like-minded people who you trust will provide honest feedback and much-needed encouragement.
Reading widely across all genres and styles can provide you with inspiration and the impetus to continue developing your own writing. Reading fiction and non-fiction can be comforting, inspiring and provoking; it exercises your brain in the same way walking and yoga exercises your muscles; it introduces you to new concepts, broadens your perspective, encourages you to consider your views on certain issues.
Improve your writing techniques and skills by participating in online or face-to-face writing courses, or being an active participant of a writers' group. Giving feedback to other writers' work (when they ask for it) is a fantastic way for you to improve your own writing skills.
Reading widely across all genres and styles can provide you with inspiration and the impetus to continue developing your own writing. Reading fiction and non-fiction can be comforting, inspiring and provoking; it exercises your brain in the same way walking and yoga exercises your muscles; it introduces you to new concepts, broadens your perspective, encourages you to consider your views on certain issues.
Improve your writing techniques and skills by participating in online or face-to-face writing courses, or being an active participant of a writers' group. Giving feedback to other writers' work (when they ask for it) is a fantastic way for you to improve your own writing skills.
Lisa Medved
Fin-de-siècle Vienna and post-WWI London are fascinating eras which are the dual-timeline settings for my second novel, which I'm currently writing. Weaving a story around the art, life and times of Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt, the story focuses on two women with a linked past, both searching for where they belong in the turbulent decades of the early twentieth century.
Lisa Medved
The inspiration for my writing comes from everywhere – from ordinary and also extraordinary people, places and objects. Travelling, visiting museums, reading history, talking to people, watching movies, researching about a particular person, place or object. Often a simple phrase or object will spark an idea and my mind goes off on a convoluted tangent. Inspiration!
Lisa Medved
The idea for 'The Engraver’s Secret' came when I was in Antwerp, visiting the Rubenshuis, the former home of the Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens. An engraving by his chief engraver, Lucas Vorsterman, was on display alongside a brief description, which suggested the two men were close then had a falling out. Intrigued, I did some research and came upon a little-known story about a disagreement over who owned the original copper engraving plates and who had the right to reproduce the images. Intellectual property wasn’t widely considered in the early seventeenth century. I began dreaming up a story of hidden treasures remaining undiscovered for four hundred years until an art academic stumbles on a clue for their whereabouts.
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