Ask the Author: S.C. Skillman
Answered Questions (7)
S.C. Skillman
The greatest mystery is the mystery of the human mind: my observations of the words, actions and behaviour of others, and my insights into the truth of how they feel and what is really going on inside. Insight into the human heart is one of the most valuable things we gain from writing fiction.
S.C. Skillman
Yes, I recommend you read Mystical Cicles first and then A Passionate Spirit, which follows on from it. Both books are set in the same lcoation but the events of A Passionate Spirit take place three years later. Thank you for your query!
S.C. Skillman
The joy of creating characters and taking them through a story, building up a world for them and seeing how they respond to the challenges I set them. When characters take on a life of their own in a novel, it's very exciting, though of course there are difficulties to be faced when characters take over in unexpected ways! I also love writing dialogue. It's very thrilling, too, to read your own work and discover messages coming through from the subconscious, in the way characters behave and speak, and in the tone of the narrative. It is a very dynamic process, writing fiction; there is enormous potential for self-knowledge as well as for great emotional and psychological vulnerability especially when you first start to seek feedback from others. To write fiction, and keep on doing it for many years, you need to have a compulsion to write. This can be a source of great joy and also a source of anguish and despair.
S.C. Skillman
I was inspired by my sister Julia's account of her paranormal experience; by true ghost stories I read in a number of books; by the BBC TV series "Merlin" in which I was fascinated by the character Morgana, and by the idea of evil hiding behind great beauty. This was a theme that intrigued me years ago when I read the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I have also been inspired by esoteric and new age philosophies and eastern religions.
S.C. Skillman
People and events and settings inspire me. I listen to conversations, I study group dynamics, I observe life, and ideas then spring up. Ideas can often come when you are engaged in a wordless activity, like listening to music, or daydreaming, gazing out of the window, or going for a solitary walk. It's good to have some method of noting down ideas as they come. If an idea has real potential there is usually a strong emotional engagement with it. Ideas can also come through dreams. An idea should excite, or move an author - just as JK Rowling's first idea for Harry Potter excited her when she was on that train without pen or paper, and she kept the idea and all that followed from it in her mind throughout the journey.
S.C. Skillman
I'm working on my next novel which will be a thriller, set mainly in London, and will star as main protagonist Alice Nazari, the young actress who featured in my second novel "A Passionate Spirit."
S.C. Skillman
Read a lot, listen to people’s conversations, be observant about the details of your world, and especially about human behaviour and interaction, and persist in your writing, being single-minded to the point of obsession. Never give up, always believe in yourself despite all evidence to the contrary, and hold out for what you first dreamed of.
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