Ask the Author: Marion Grace Woolley
Answered Questions (7)
Marion Grace Woolley
There was a game a couple of years back where you had to choose where you'd rather live: Narnia, Neverland, Wonderland, Hogwarts, Camelot, Middle Earth or Westeros. I gave them all careful consideration, but ended up picking Neverland. Here's why: http://bit.ly/2u6KhXW
However, if I could go anywhere, I'd like to visit Howl's Moving Castle because then you would be able to open doors to absolutely anywhere you wanted to go. Also - Calcifer.
However, if I could go anywhere, I'd like to visit Howl's Moving Castle because then you would be able to open doors to absolutely anywhere you wanted to go. Also - Calcifer.
Marion Grace Woolley
Living near the equator, I don't really get a summer or winter, more a wet season and a dry season. We're just coming to the end of the Long Wet Season, so this will be my Long Dry Season reading list, taking me up to September-ish.
I'm just finishing up A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (not that brief at almost 700 pages), and Treasure Island, which I started reading after watching Black Sails.
Next, I'm delving into Haunted Futures, an anthology by my publisher Ghostwoods Books, and possibly Antiartists by Ralph Pullins. I've also got another anthology on the go called Shaking the Tree: A Collection of New Fiction and Memoir by Black Women, and I've downloaded The Palace of Illusions, another title by one of my favourite authors, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.
I'm trying to put a cap on buying new books until I get through my current TBR pile.
I'm just finishing up A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (not that brief at almost 700 pages), and Treasure Island, which I started reading after watching Black Sails.
Next, I'm delving into Haunted Futures, an anthology by my publisher Ghostwoods Books, and possibly Antiartists by Ralph Pullins. I've also got another anthology on the go called Shaking the Tree: A Collection of New Fiction and Memoir by Black Women, and I've downloaded The Palace of Illusions, another title by one of my favourite authors, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.
I'm trying to put a cap on buying new books until I get through my current TBR pile.
Marion Grace Woolley
I don't think there have been that many mysteries in my life. Perhaps because I tend to look quite closely at the things that feel mysterious and try to unravel them. However, something did happen recently that I thought might make a cool start to a story.
I've recently started fixing pianos, and I began with my own - a Russian Lirika from the 1960s. It's almost fifty years old now. Whilst working on it, I removed several of the keys. Lying on the key bed (the bit beneath the keys), I discovered a cocktail stick in the shape of a Christmas tree. This was quite sweet, as it was Christmas, and I was sipping a G&T at the time.
But it got me thinking.
Firstly, how did a piano from Soviet Russia end up in Rwanda in the first place?
Secondly, who did the cocktail stick belong to? What had they been drinking, and how did it end up down there?
Thirdly, imagine if I had found something even stranger hidden beneath the keys. Perhaps a letter written in a strange language, or a ring with an inscription, or something else that might lead to an adventure.
I've recently started fixing pianos, and I began with my own - a Russian Lirika from the 1960s. It's almost fifty years old now. Whilst working on it, I removed several of the keys. Lying on the key bed (the bit beneath the keys), I discovered a cocktail stick in the shape of a Christmas tree. This was quite sweet, as it was Christmas, and I was sipping a G&T at the time.
But it got me thinking.
Firstly, how did a piano from Soviet Russia end up in Rwanda in the first place?
Secondly, who did the cocktail stick belong to? What had they been drinking, and how did it end up down there?
Thirdly, imagine if I had found something even stranger hidden beneath the keys. Perhaps a letter written in a strange language, or a ring with an inscription, or something else that might lead to an adventure.
Marion Grace Woolley
What a lovely question. Also a difficult one to answer. I do enjoy incendiary pairings, those that bring out magnetism and a dash of destruction, like Catherine and Heathcliff. However, I think my favourite is probably Howl & Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle. Something I really enjoy about Diana Wynne Jones’s characters is that Prince Charming is usually rather flawed and liable to trip over himself, whilst her heroines are often kick-ass and quite capable of saving the day. Despite all that, her couples each bring something to the table, and make for more interesting times together than apart. I even named my cats Sophie & Howl.
Marion Grace Woolley
Right now, as of February 2016, I have a couple of projects on the go.
I'm at the completion stage of the first draft of The Secret Order of the Literati. I've always fancied writing a trilogy, so this is the first book in my first trilogy - hopefully.
It was inspired by the scientific evidence that has recently shown the effect fiction has on the brain. How reading fiction can change our neural pathways almost as though we've lived that story ourselves. How it affects our emotions, empathy levels and decision-making process.
I started to wonder what would happen if you could get the right book in front of the right person at exactly the right time - how might that change the decision they're about to make?
That was the initial inspiration which sparked the story. It's since taken on a life of its own.
The second project is in its infancy. It's a ghost story set in David Southwell's Hookland.
Hookland is a sort of open source playground for artists and writers, a collection of Britain’s wyrd folklore. A well of eccentric inspiration, if you will.
The working title for this one is Creeper's Cottage, and it's all about the spirits within the bricks and mortar of a building. If you move the building, do you take the genius loci with it?
I'm at the completion stage of the first draft of The Secret Order of the Literati. I've always fancied writing a trilogy, so this is the first book in my first trilogy - hopefully.
It was inspired by the scientific evidence that has recently shown the effect fiction has on the brain. How reading fiction can change our neural pathways almost as though we've lived that story ourselves. How it affects our emotions, empathy levels and decision-making process.
I started to wonder what would happen if you could get the right book in front of the right person at exactly the right time - how might that change the decision they're about to make?
That was the initial inspiration which sparked the story. It's since taken on a life of its own.
The second project is in its infancy. It's a ghost story set in David Southwell's Hookland.
Hookland is a sort of open source playground for artists and writers, a collection of Britain’s wyrd folklore. A well of eccentric inspiration, if you will.
The working title for this one is Creeper's Cottage, and it's all about the spirits within the bricks and mortar of a building. If you move the building, do you take the genius loci with it?
Marion Grace Woolley
The most recent book that I've completed is an adult retelling of The Children of Lir. It's been signed to Ghostwoods Books, but I'm not sure what the final title will be.
I've always loved myths and legends. When I was a kid I went on a family holiday with my mum to Ireland, tracing her relatives back to Cratloe, County Clare. Along the way we stopped off at a gift shop and I picked up a copy of Michael Scott's Irish Folk and Fairy Tales Omnibus. It was the first time I'd really read those stories without large illustrations, and he told them so well, you felt as though they had recently happened. That was also the first time I read The Children of Lir.
There have been many tellings of that legend, but to my knowledge it has never been turned into a full-length novel. I've always been interested in breathing new life into old tales. So much of folklore relates to anger, jealousy, heroism, love... all the best ingredients of a story. They still speak to our minds and our hearts.
The original translation, The Fate of the Children of Lir, by Lady Gregory was only about 6,500 words long. It was a challenge getting my first draft to 120,000 because the main characters spend almost six hundred years sitting on the sea.
Yet the story seemed to want to be told. The more I researched, the more characters and events began to unfold that added to the depth of the original story.
I've always loved myths and legends. When I was a kid I went on a family holiday with my mum to Ireland, tracing her relatives back to Cratloe, County Clare. Along the way we stopped off at a gift shop and I picked up a copy of Michael Scott's Irish Folk and Fairy Tales Omnibus. It was the first time I'd really read those stories without large illustrations, and he told them so well, you felt as though they had recently happened. That was also the first time I read The Children of Lir.
There have been many tellings of that legend, but to my knowledge it has never been turned into a full-length novel. I've always been interested in breathing new life into old tales. So much of folklore relates to anger, jealousy, heroism, love... all the best ingredients of a story. They still speak to our minds and our hearts.
The original translation, The Fate of the Children of Lir, by Lady Gregory was only about 6,500 words long. It was a challenge getting my first draft to 120,000 because the main characters spend almost six hundred years sitting on the sea.
Yet the story seemed to want to be told. The more I researched, the more characters and events began to unfold that added to the depth of the original story.
Marion Grace Woolley
It's not that I never get stuck for ideas, but I very rarely suffer writer's block. If I sit down and start typing, 90% of the time the story will start to work itself out. If it doesn't, I don't stress myself. I read a book, watch a movie, hang out with friends. Life is full of inspiration, so when you get stuck - live.
I recently spoke with Year Seven at Sir Harry Johnston International School in Malawi. Writer's block was one of the main questions that came up: http://bit.ly/1XprdZm
I recently spoke with Year Seven at Sir Harry Johnston International School in Malawi. Writer's block was one of the main questions that came up: http://bit.ly/1XprdZm
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