Ask the Author: Sarah Stuart
Answered Questions (14)
Sarah Stuart
I would love to live in one of my own fictional book worlds and be a singer on concert tours. Unfortunately, although I can write songs I can't sing well, Perhaps I should opt for travelling to a fantasy world where anything is possible.
Sarah Stuart
I read books mainly for Readers' Favorite and, as only 4 or 5 star reviews are published, I can't list them in advance. It does give me a great opportunity to read different genres so not many are my own favourite, romantic suspense. For fun, I do like Tom Benson's books and often recommend them to friends.
Sarah Stuart
Donna and Sam in Mama Mia The Movie. Meryl Streep is a marvelous actress and I can never resist Pierce Brosman. (I have been known to watch a Bond film if he's playing 007.) Together, they are dynamite. No way can they be together, but he persuades her into a happy ending.
Sarah Stuart
Hi Zara-Jo. I'm enjoying the discussion on Illicit Passion very much. More than that, I'm learning a lot from it. Answering the questions can often take half an hour or more, and I don't always do it immediately I read them. If people care enough to ask they deserve a proper answer. Thank you for your questions and comments. I'm still waiting to find out which character you like best -)
Sarah Stuart
Yes, I do. It's a fascinating job I enjoy very much.
Sarah Stuart
Initially a lot of reading about one of the lesser-known Tudors, Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII. She was perfect with an unexplained gap in her children before the birth of an heir to the Scottish throne. After that the research was mainly into life at court, where she lived and when, and making sure the language was correct for the dates.
Sarah Stuart
Thankful I still have to read through it several times before I send it to be edited and proofread, and that I must read it yet again and make the final decisions about any changes. The heartbreak comes when you upload to Amazon and hit publish: the characters you've come to love aren't yours anymore.
The cure is to start writing the next in the series and, this time, with ILLICIT PASSION only weeks from publication, I've already begun to plot the next, DYNASTY OF DECEIT. (That's the working title but I probably will keep it.)
My trouble is loving Michael far too much :-)
The cure is to start writing the next in the series and, this time, with ILLICIT PASSION only weeks from publication, I've already begun to plot the next, DYNASTY OF DECEIT. (That's the working title but I probably will keep it.)
My trouble is loving Michael far too much :-)
Sarah Stuart
"This book could use an editor." It came from an anonymous reviewer and I didn't believe it at first. Hadn't I, and a writer friend, gone through my debut novel three times each? We had, so what could possibly be wrong with it?
Not a lot as it turned out, but having it professionally done improved it in so many little ways I would never publish again without employing a professional. it isn't cheap but it's worth every penny.
You can safely save money with DIY formatting and the photograph for my lovely new cover cost $11, but not with editing and proofreading.
Not a lot as it turned out, but having it professionally done improved it in so many little ways I would never publish again without employing a professional. it isn't cheap but it's worth every penny.
You can safely save money with DIY formatting and the photograph for my lovely new cover cost $11, but not with editing and proofreading.
Sarah Stuart
I'd most like to meet Clement: there's so much I'd like to ask him. I might even wait 4 days and a bit to catch him, and I guess that's what it would take, just as it did Lizzie. Surprised? So was I when I read your question and imagined where and when I might meet any of them. Lizzie, walking in Green Park, scuffling autumn leaves and wishing she had more than one life? Michael frying fish and chips and singing along to the radio? Lisette dropping off her date at the station? (Lisette is so well guarded later I can't think of anywhere else I might meet her.)
Sarah Stuart
I’m glad you liked the Tudor thread. It’s a period of history that’s always interested me and it was the strange gap between births, given James IV’s desire for a living heir, that opened the way to giving his queen a fictional “secret life”.
I can’t say too much about the stage without marking this as “a spoiler” for people who have yet to read Dangerous Liaisons. Observing actors obviously played a part in getting the setting right, but there is more to it than that. There are technical and business sides to staging musicals and I needed to know more than I actually used in the novel to be sure the detail I did use was accurate.
I can’t say too much about the stage without marking this as “a spoiler” for people who have yet to read Dangerous Liaisons. Observing actors obviously played a part in getting the setting right, but there is more to it than that. There are technical and business sides to staging musicals and I needed to know more than I actually used in the novel to be sure the detail I did use was accurate.
Sarah Stuart
No, but I wonder if writers sometimes create the person they would like to be. Obviously the heroine (or hero). Nobody would want to be the villain, would they?
Sarah Stuart
Check every detail as you write the draft a novel rather than relying on what you think you know, and recheck all of it before you publish. Laws change... car manufacturers release new models, and it matters if your character would have the latest... train times change... airports close... products go off the market... new discoveries are made about a multitude of things you may have referred to... Updates take seconds. If you don't do it your book is out of date before the first reader opens it.
Sarah Stuart
Love of the theatre, and knowing how many of the actors and actresses I've met got their break into showbiz.The more I talked to, the more I understood that however good their training, those who make a reasonable living, and especially the stars, are talented people who also have the luck to be in the right place at the right time. In Dangerous Liaisons, Lizzie takes action on the premise that you make your own luck..
Sarah Stuart
Reading part of a novel that lacked something... emotion... drama... rewriting it and knowing the whole book has been improved by the change.
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