Ask the Author: Howard Linskey
Answered Questions (8)
Howard Linskey
I'd quite like to join Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. You know, hang out with them, chat, see new worlds, that sort of thing. The occasional brush with death would be terrifying of course but you can't have everything.
Howard Linskey
Generally, I feel the need to write, though sometimes I put it off and can become distracted. I find many authors are like this. On a good day, we love writing and on a bad one we would rather clean the house than do it. What inspires me most is the thought of a reader buying my book and I want to make sure they are never disappointed with it. That spurs me on to make it as good a book as possible. Deadlines are pretty inspiring too. They inspire a combination of fear and motivation. I've never missed one and I don't want to start now.
Howard Linskey
My next crime fiction novel for Penguin Random House. Can't tell you too much about it though because it is early days and may well change between now and publication. I'm enjoying writing it though, which is a good sign.
Howard Linskey
Keep at it. Most published authors were aspiring authors for years before they were published. They are the ones who did not give up, following all of the rejections. They just wrote something else instead and sent it off again. You need the skin of a rhino and the persistence of a marathon runner to be an author.
Howard Linskey
Seeing the finished work as an actual book. Something you dreamed up in your head now exists as a thing, because you took the time and trouble to create it. That's a pretty good feeling. It's even better when that first box of books arrives from the publisher and then you finally see it on a shelf in book store for the first time. That's lovely.
There are nice lifestyle aspects to being a writer too. My commute is undemanding as it is just yards to my office. I can wear what I like, so it's T shirts instead of suits and I can work when it suits me, whether that is morning, afternoon or evening. I don't really have a boss either, just an editor and he leaves me alone for 99% of the time. Bliss.
There are nice lifestyle aspects to being a writer too. My commute is undemanding as it is just yards to my office. I can wear what I like, so it's T shirts instead of suits and I can work when it suits me, whether that is morning, afternoon or evening. I don't really have a boss either, just an editor and he leaves me alone for 99% of the time. Bliss.
Howard Linskey
Thankfully, I don't really get it. My biggest problem is trying to find the time to fit in all of the books I want to write. Actually, that's not strictly true. My biggest problem is procrastination, caused by all of the distractions of social media and global news on the web. Wanting to know stuff can be a curse.
Howard Linskey
I'd really like to read Hilary Mantel's third book in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy 'The Mirror and the Light' but it's nine hundred pages long and I keep getting sent lots of other great books to read by my publishers. This might well turn out to be my summer read at this rate.
Howard Linskey
The idea for 'Ungentlemanly Warfare' came about when I was researching a different book and I started to learn more about the incredibly brave men and women of the SOE and the OSS. I really wanted to tell a story about this small but incredibly effective group of courageous people who caused havoc behind enemy lines during WW2.
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