Ask the Author: Anthony Hill
Answered Questions (6)
Anthony Hill
The idea for my latest book The Story of Billy Young , came from a woman at my bookstall in Canberra's Old Bus Depot Market. She was looking at my military books when she said, "You ought to write a story about my husband's cousin Billy Young, who was a teenage prisoner of war at Changi and Sandakan during the Second World War."
I took her name a phone number. When I was finishing the book I was then writing I made contact with he,r and began the search for Billy. He's still alive, now 89, active and living in Sydney. I rang him up, introduced myself, and within 15 minutes knew that I had my next book.
http://www.anthonyhillbooks.com/billy...
I took her name a phone number. When I was finishing the book I was then writing I made contact with he,r and began the search for Billy. He's still alive, now 89, active and living in Sydney. I rang him up, introduced myself, and within 15 minutes knew that I had my next book.
http://www.anthonyhillbooks.com/billy...
Anthony Hill
The inspirations for stories are all around us: in an anecdote somebody tells ... a word ... a name ... a sentence from a book ... in a place we've visited ... a character we've met ... an idea for a book that somebody gives us.
Everywhere we turn there are stories. It's the way human beings communicate with each other. The important thing, for a writer, is to have a receptive mind – and to recognise the Muse's inspiration when we find it.
Everywhere we turn there are stories. It's the way human beings communicate with each other. The important thing, for a writer, is to have a receptive mind – and to recognise the Muse's inspiration when we find it.
Anthony Hill
I've just finished the first draft of a long historical novel "For Love of Country", about a soldier-settler family in Australia after the First World War.
It's a saga spanning two generations and is in two parts: First War – Between the Wars – Second War.
I'm lucky that the family has made available a wealth of archival material to me ... letters, diaries, photographs ... and that the surviving daughter (now 93) has been so generous with her time and answering my many questions. She's also been reading the typescript as we've gone along, correcting any obvious errors of fact or interpretation.
"For Love of Country" took three years to write. I'm now at the first stage of the editorial process: revising and cutting back the length, before sending it to my editor for a first read and her comments on structure, content, and advice what first needs to be done. From now on it's a very collaborative journey.
"For Love of Country" is due to be published by Penguin Books Australia in 2016.
It's a saga spanning two generations and is in two parts: First War – Between the Wars – Second War.
I'm lucky that the family has made available a wealth of archival material to me ... letters, diaries, photographs ... and that the surviving daughter (now 93) has been so generous with her time and answering my many questions. She's also been reading the typescript as we've gone along, correcting any obvious errors of fact or interpretation.
"For Love of Country" took three years to write. I'm now at the first stage of the editorial process: revising and cutting back the length, before sending it to my editor for a first read and her comments on structure, content, and advice what first needs to be done. From now on it's a very collaborative journey.
"For Love of Country" is due to be published by Penguin Books Australia in 2016.
Anthony Hill
There are a thousand pieces of good advice one can give: on the need to be disciplined in the day's work ... committed to the work in hand ... open to criticism and editorial suggestions ... to have broad shoulders when it comes to rejection... But really it all comes down to one thing – to have something worthwhile to say ... an idea that is so urgent, the only way to get rid of the obsession is to write it out.
Anthony Hill
Being able to express myself in words and stories ... and hearing from readers that I have been able to touch their inner lives as well.
Anthony Hill
By always stopping the days' writing when I know what the next sentence will be. I'll write to the end of a section or a train of thought – and then I stop, knowing how to go on. The rest of the day is spent thinking about those next words, so that when I sit down the following morning the material is there in my mind. I never, NEVER write until I fall into the black hole of not knowing what comes next.
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