Ask the Author: N.S. Cooke
Answered Questions (6)
N.S. Cooke
That’s the conundrum. I’ve looked through my reading list and most worlds are dangerous, violent or disease ridden places. People die! A lot! Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall - the loss of Cromwell’s darling daughter, for example, reduced to a ghost. And I’m not meeting the beasts of Stephen King! Oh and I’ve toyed with the notion of taking technology back in time - to be a god amongst men - the odd machine gun into Pillars of The Earth. But it’s just ego and silly. So I think I might take the opportunity instead to right a wrong. I shall stop off at Waitrose for some fresh cake, perhaps some macaroons and Twinnings, on my way to visit Estella and Miss Havisham, in the old house, and sing and weave my praises of Pip, to rescue those lost years. Time is too precious to waste; they ought to be together, before that last scene in the garden beneath the moon. For Estella’s sake, because we each carry for far too long the expectations and baggage of others before we truly know our own hearts. That’s my answer and I’m sticking to it!
N.S. Cooke
A bucket of vomit, some tins of White Lightning and a dirty tea-towel with a hole in it for a CPR barrier, to save a life. Then I got my lips caught! All true. Naive, me ...
N.S. Cooke
I can’t tell you because ‘Nike’ got there first! Okay ... Just do it! I saw this guy surf once - no legs but he did it, with the biggest smile on his face. Then he said something: ‘If you don’t try, you don’t get. Those are the rules! - If you don’t try, you don’t get.’ He surfs regularly, and he Gets; tumbles in waves and comes out laughing. It’s the same with anything you like to do: writing, painting, whatever. So many reasons not to do, but when you surf ... or you write, you just feel better.
I’ll tell you about success when I get some, but the best writer’s the one that’s having the most fun in my book. (Just not written a book about that yet.)
I’ll tell you about success when I get some, but the best writer’s the one that’s having the most fun in my book. (Just not written a book about that yet.)
N.S. Cooke
For me it’s just escape - trying to get to the point of making something from nothing. Ordering one’s thoughts in a world in which, for once, you set the rules, right or wrong. I suppose in that place you can start to work through the issues in the outside world: put some things right, tell it how it ought to be, correct injustices. That is until you run dry of inspiration and parachute back to reality. I guess for other ‘best things’ you need some success - mine’s the cheaper version: walks on beaches, surf a wave, go fishing ... If I had the money of course, I guess I might surf a bigger wave or catch a bigger fish.
N.S. Cooke
Inspiration is all personal experience, amongst which there are things that I feel strongly about: politics of the day, inequalities, ‘emotional stuff’. These then inspire plot or characters. Then the detail is added during draft after draft. Lots of little written notes to me and entries on my mobile phone scrapbook, so I don’t forget; ideas and lines that just pop out of thin air during the day or through interaction with others.
N.S. Cooke
Got to write when I feel like it. I don’t know why, but early morning seems most productive. And coffee ... I purchased one of those hand grinding things to make quality coffee with fancy beans and a French press. But I just keep going back to the cheap granular stuff! ... (Hang on a minute, kettle’s boiling.)
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