Ask the Author: Richard Masefield
Answered Questions (6)
Richard Masefield
A comic novel set in a provincial English repertory theatre during the 1960s. Entitled INTERPLAY, it's in some ways a sequel to my Edwardian/First War story, CHALKHILL BLUE. I'm hoping it will be with the publisher very soon.
Richard Masefield
Publishing is tricky these days. It’s a saturated market. One bit of advice I was given when I started writing was to look at the high street and the airport bookshops to see what’s selling, and consider whether you could write something in those genres. But that’s about selling rather than writing. The best books are originals, and I’d say that if you have a story to tell and the urge to tell it, then go on! DO IT! Nobody else can, not in quite your way. You might hit the jackpot, more likely you won’t. But you will have created something that’s yours, and isn’t that what you wanted?
Richard Masefield
Hearing that someone has enjoyed your book and understood what you were trying to do with it.
Richard Masefield
In the traditional way, by applying the seat of one's pants to the computer chair and STAYING seated until words begin to appear on the screen - although in my case any attempts to create anything memorable in the late afternoon or evening are almost bound to end in failure!
Richard Masefield
I come from a family of authors. So from childhood onwards I found it natural to experiment with writing – although it wasn’t until, as a strapped-for-cash dairy farmer I needed desperately to make a profit from my writing, that I decided to get published if I possibly could. Chalkhill Blue was the result.
Richard Masefield
Long ago a history teacher at school introduced me to the early medieval novels of the French writer, Zoé Oldenbourg, which inspired me to attempt something in that period myself if I ever had the chance. Later, a literary agent encouraged me to write something ‘bigger and bolder’ than I’d tried before’. I thought of the Third Crusade, of how it has been misrepresented. I thought of Zoé Oldenbourg. The three things conspired and I wrote The White Cross.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more