Ask the Author: Anna Valencia
Answered Questions (5)
Anna Valencia
My advice would be to give yourself permission to write. Let the million other claims on your time go, and make the time you set aside to write sacrosanct. Whether it's ten minutes, an hour, or an evening, make sure you protect that time.
Anna Valencia
For me the best thing is the total escapism while I am writing. I literally forget everything about the real world and am totally immersed in my story. I had to set alarms to remind to collect my children from school when I was writing The Chestnut House!
Anna Valencia
The Chestnut House was inspired by stories from my neighbours, when we lived in the tiny mountain-top village of Montaltissimo. Many of them lived through the Occupation of 1944-1945, when the Gothic Line was drawn right through the village. Our own farmhouse, now renovated, is a very special place that has sat abandoned for fifty years. As soon as we saw her we fell in love, and I knew that she held some very special stories within her walls.
Anna Valencia
I'm constantly inspired by the characters and stories that are all around me in daily life - there are so many more stories than I could ever tell. The wonder of the world has always inspired me, and challenged me to capture it in written form. Can I transport someone to this view, this sunset, this feeling, with my words?
Anna Valencia
I am currently working on the sequel to The Chestnut House - where we follow Emma and her family as they renovate Stazzana, and we also return to the Second World War with the mysterious partisan priest Don Franco...
The ideas have been buzzing around my mind for over a year now, but the birth of our son Felix made it hard to put pen to paper!
The ideas have been buzzing around my mind for over a year now, but the birth of our son Felix made it hard to put pen to paper!
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