Ask the Author: Janis Cooke Newman
Answered Questions (6)
Janis Cooke Newman
Free writing really helps. Telling myself I can just write anything and no one will see it. Also, when I get stuck in my story, it's generally because I've lost touch with what my character wants. I go back and think about that. Once I've figured it out, the words come back.
Janis Cooke Newman
You get to be the god of your fictional world and decide how things will go. Where else do you have that kind of control? It's so much fun!
Janis Cooke Newman
Write. Write. And then write more. You only get better by doing it. I free write every morning when I wake up, because I believe our stories come from the same place in our brains where I dreams come from. And even if my day gets so busy I can't get back to writing, I've at least touched base with the world of my novel that day. Even 10 minutes counts!
Janis Cooke Newman
I am nearly finished with a first draft of a new novel! It takes place both in Ireland and New York, during the Irish War for Independence and Prohibition time. It's beginnings came from material that was cut from 'A Master Plan for Rescue.'
Janis Cooke Newman
I love writing--spending all day with imaginary characters! And I am inspired by stories. I love writing--and reading--historical fiction, because it allows be to experience what it must have been like to live in another time and place.
Janis Cooke Newman
The inspiration for this book came from two sources. One was the true story of the St. Louis, the pleasure boat that left Hitler's Germany in 1939 with 900 Jewish refugees bound for Cuba. That boat was never allowed to land in Cuba--or the US--and those refugees had to turn around and sail back. I always wanted to put a character on that boat. The second inspiration was my own 12-year-old son. I love the way boys of that age stand equally in childhood and adulthood, and I wanted to write from that imaginative place. How, I wondered, would such a boy cope with the loss of the person who meant the most to him in the world?
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