Ask the Author: Marsali Taylor
Answered Questions (12)
Marsali Taylor
What a wonderful question! Well ... I'd love to see Narnia, and travel on the Dawn Treader to the far islands ... still with CS Lewis, his Perelandra (Mars) is wonderfully described. I'd love to attend a soiree in Georgette Heyer's Regency world, or help Carter Dickson's grumpy H.M. investigate a murder.
Marsali Taylor
Dear Patricia, I'm delighted you're enjoying the books. Thank you for your positive reviews. Yes, indeed, I'm just in the middle of the editorial process for 'Death in Shetland Waters', which will be released by Allison and Busby in the autumn - I think they're looking at late October / November. best wishes Marsali
Marsali Taylor
My summer reading list... but I read all year round! My next reading project is several books by the wonderful Orcadian writer George Mackay Brown.
Marsali Taylor
Oooh, interesting question ... well ... here's one. When I was a child we had a rowing dinghy at our summer cottage, and seven or eight years ago I got the dinghy back again - the theory was she'd be a tender for our 'big' boat. Inserted into the thwart was a photo of a girl aged 11 or 12, blond, slightly Nordic looking, with the name, age and date on the back, in Danish-style writing. She's nobody we know - and the boat was my dad's, he was the last person to have varnished her. An unknown half-sister? Or just a photo he'd found in a second-hand book that he'd decided would be the boat's guardian spirit? Who knows...?
Marsali Taylor
Oh, a difficult one ... Elizabeth and Darcy, of course - I love the way their relationship progresses from interest masked by dislike to mutual respect and understanding. I also love Anne and Wentworth in Persuasion - the real love that has been separated, and comes together again. Less highbrow, my favourite Dorothy L Sayers novels are the Lord Peter / Harriet Vane ones - I love the way they spark off each other. And how about Leonie and Avon in Georgette Heyer's These Old Shades? Or George Felse and Bunty in Ellis Peters' contemporary crime novels - such a lovely, united couple... the list could go on and on...
Marsali Taylor
I really enjoyed it, particularly the last 'written for TV one' - I thought the earlier ones didn't do Ann's plots justice. I loved the way they used the Shetland landscape as a presence in the story (even if we Shetlanders had fun saying 'She got off the bus in Tingwall and walked to Eshaness? Good going!) I'm so pleased another series is on the way.
Marsali Taylor
My most recent book, A Handful of Ash, was linked to the history of witches in Scalloway - it was the last place in Scotland to burn witches. It was sparked off by a friend mentioning that the burning site on Gallow Hill was still visible - a great circle of ash. It's since been ploughed over. The other inspiration was 'The Confessions of Isobel Gowdie', extraordinary documents detailing her devil worship. Since Cass was moving to Scalloway to go to college, I thought it would be exciting to mix her up with a modern coven. As far as I know that's completely my imagination - there are practising pagans, but I've never heard of witchcraft in Shetland nowadays.
Marsali Taylor
Watching other people … listening to stories … unfortunately I can't use some of the best ones, as other people in Shetland would instantly say, 'That's so-and-so.'
Marsali Taylor
Work at it. I just keep asking myself questions: why would someone do this? What would make this person do that? Being an early waker helps too - I ponder my plot from6am until 6.30, when the alarm clock goes and my husband brings our morning cup of tea - then, when we get up, I'm all ready to go to my desk and write.
Marsali Taylor
Being your own boss … lovely colleagues to meet up with a crime festivals … dictating to the universe in your head … doing fun research (I'm booked to crew on the tall ship Sorlandet from Kristiansand to Belfast this summer, for Cass 6, and I can call it work!)
Marsali Taylor
Edit, edit, edit … but don't get so bogged down in editing that you lose the flow of your story. Write it first, then go back and improve it. My first editor told me to lose 10% of my words - five lines each page - and the book was the better for it.
Marsali Taylor
Cass5 - Cass 4 is in the editing pipeline at the moment. It begins in France, with Cass and Gavin at the opening performance of Maman's touring company, which is then going to come to Shetland. The storyline will involve Viking treasure … and of course a murder.
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