Ask the Author: Elizabeth Kelly
Answered Questions (6)
Elizabeth Kelly
My advice to aspiring authors is to write whatever you feel passionate about because it will come across in your work. Join a writing group to get feedback on your writing. And look online for free writing courses to hone your skills in plotting and characterisation. It can also be helpful to analyse the writing of authors you admire to see how they created their dramatic effects.
Elizabeth Kelly
The best thing about being a writer is the sheer pleasure of creativity. A novel encapsulates a fictional world in which the writer and the reader can immerse themselves. The challenge of building the world of the Tudor court in a convincing way and exploring the lives of its leading character has been hugely satisfying.
Elizabeth Kelly
I don't write sequentially but episodically about whatever scene is inspiring me the most at the time. Then I fit the episodes into chronological order. Gradually, the story emerges like the picture on a mosaic floor - one piece at a time. It avoids the dangers of writer's block and of becoming disenchanted halfway through the novel.
Elizabeth Kelly
I am currently writing a novel about Anne Boleyn called The Dark Lady. It is told from her own point of view to give an insight into her own thoughts and feelings about her tempestuous life. I think she is a fascinating character and the most interesting of the six wives of King Henry VIII.
Elizabeth Kelly
I find inspiration through my research including visiting Tudor sites, reading Tudor books and looking at Tudor portraits. Recently, I found inspiration from the discovery of a Tudor heart shaped pendant bearing the initials H and K and the pomegranate emblem of Katherine of Aragon. I knew I had to include such an amazing item in the narrative. One excellent source of material is the archive of Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. It is available to read online and is full of remarkable details including a plea for mercy for a thieving pageboy who had stolen the gold ornaments from the court clothes of his mistress.
Elizabeth Kelly
I read a commission in a magazine for an author to write a series of six books following the story of a lady in waiting who served the six wives of King Henry VIII. I thought it would make an ideal subject for one novel and offer an interesting point of view on the Tudor court. When I began to research the topic I found that there really were some ladies who had served all six queens including Anne Parr whom I used as the confidente of the fictional Lady Margaret de la Roche.
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