Ask the Author: Helena Sorensen
Answered Questions (6)
Helena Sorensen
Hi, Rachael!
I've made a bookshelf on my page with favorite books, but there are at least 60 in that list. Maybe I haven't narrowed them down quite enough? :)
The Great Divorce, Till We Have Faces, The Hobbit, Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief Series, The Tombs of Atuan, The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown, The Eyes of the Dragon, To Kill a Mockingbird, Wuthering Heights, Revolutionary Road, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Persuasion, Great Expectations, East of Eden, The Remains of the Day, Twice-Told Tales, Edith Hamilton's Mythology, anything by Buechner, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Evangeline...
I'm not cutting the list at all, am I?
I've made a bookshelf on my page with favorite books, but there are at least 60 in that list. Maybe I haven't narrowed them down quite enough? :)
The Great Divorce, Till We Have Faces, The Hobbit, Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief Series, The Tombs of Atuan, The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown, The Eyes of the Dragon, To Kill a Mockingbird, Wuthering Heights, Revolutionary Road, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Persuasion, Great Expectations, East of Eden, The Remains of the Day, Twice-Told Tales, Edith Hamilton's Mythology, anything by Buechner, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Evangeline...
I'm not cutting the list at all, am I?
Helena Sorensen
Being a writer is a little like having a super power. I can choose a few words...just a few...and arrange them carefully in a particular order, and suddenly, out of nowhere, you can see worlds that don't exist, meet people who have never drawn breath. With a few words (if I'm doing my job), I can make your muscles tense in fear or surprise, I can plumb the depths of your sorrow and longing, I can bring tears to your eyes and make hope rise in your breast. Is there anything better?
Helena Sorensen
The world is full to bursting with people who can probably write it better and faster. Don't give any of those brilliant folks a moment's thought. You have a unique voice, a story that not one person who has ever breathed can tell in quite the same way. Tell it.
Helena Sorensen
I'm currently working on the last book in the Shiloh Series. It's called Songbird, and I'm awfully close to wrapping it up.
Helena Sorensen
I don't believe in writer's block. I think it's a myth that writers keep alive so they can rationalize their fears. (I'm not exempt from said fears, not at all. But sitting down and putting my hands on a keyboard usually takes an axe to even the worst of them.)
Granted, if you're one of those people who believes you have to produce a certain number of words on every single calendar day, what you call "writer's block" may just be a need for rest or reading or some variety in your creative pursuits. As a mom of two small kids, I'm not sure I could write at all if I didn't take breaks and piddle with other pursuits.
Granted, if you're one of those people who believes you have to produce a certain number of words on every single calendar day, what you call "writer's block" may just be a need for rest or reading or some variety in your creative pursuits. As a mom of two small kids, I'm not sure I could write at all if I didn't take breaks and piddle with other pursuits.
Helena Sorensen
Good question!
When I started writing Shiloh, I had no idea where I was going. There was no master plan. So when I finished book 1, I knew the story wasn't over, but I felt that it was almost over...too close to the end to fill three books (which felt like the right length for a series).
Also, I was intrigued by the connection between Evander and Amos, and I wanted to explore the question of what happened to the Lost Clan. It seemed like a nice, nuclear story. More than that, it was destined to be a tragic story, and the second book in a series is always the darkest. I had a few scraps of information from Shiloh: Evander as the Father of the Sun Clan, Valour, the lantern, and the awful fate of those brave clansmen and women. It was so much fun to build a story on top of that, especially discovering Mina, this unbelievable young woman who appears in none of the legends, but who played such a vital role in Evander's story.
One last reason I chose this story as a follow-up to Shiloh: this series is about more than physical darkness. Pain and loss and fear and despair are woven into the fabric of that world, and to rush from one adventure to the next to the next without pausing to honor the things that were lost felt wrong to me. I don't know how readers will react to the book, but I make no apologies for the grief in this story. The Lost Clan, and all loss, needed to be honored, and Seeker was how I chose to do it.
When I started writing Shiloh, I had no idea where I was going. There was no master plan. So when I finished book 1, I knew the story wasn't over, but I felt that it was almost over...too close to the end to fill three books (which felt like the right length for a series).
Also, I was intrigued by the connection between Evander and Amos, and I wanted to explore the question of what happened to the Lost Clan. It seemed like a nice, nuclear story. More than that, it was destined to be a tragic story, and the second book in a series is always the darkest. I had a few scraps of information from Shiloh: Evander as the Father of the Sun Clan, Valour, the lantern, and the awful fate of those brave clansmen and women. It was so much fun to build a story on top of that, especially discovering Mina, this unbelievable young woman who appears in none of the legends, but who played such a vital role in Evander's story.
One last reason I chose this story as a follow-up to Shiloh: this series is about more than physical darkness. Pain and loss and fear and despair are woven into the fabric of that world, and to rush from one adventure to the next to the next without pausing to honor the things that were lost felt wrong to me. I don't know how readers will react to the book, but I make no apologies for the grief in this story. The Lost Clan, and all loss, needed to be honored, and Seeker was how I chose to do it.
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