Ask the Author: Andra Watkins
Answered Questions (13)
Andra Watkins
I'd travel to Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Barcelona in "The Shadow of the Wind." Since I read it, I've wanted to visit the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, because I understand how each creator cleaved off pieces of their souls to make them. I'd sit in that tower for days and love as many as I could. Then, I'd go out into the old city and eat pinxtos.
Andra Watkins
I have a writing residency for part of the summer, so I'll be working on my novel "I Am Number 13." When I'm not writing, I'm reading The Sympathizer, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, The Rosie Project, and Hillbilly Elegy.
Andra Watkins
I'm actually working on it now. My father tells the same childhood stories over and over again. Before he's gone, I'm writing a novel that weaves those mysterious stories together into an imagined narrative. I'm not sure what'll happen, but I promise SOUTHERN GOTHIC MAYHEM.
Andra Watkins
Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. BECAUSE WHO CANNOT READ THAT BOOK WITHOUT IMAGINING COLIN FIRTH IN A WET SHIRT THE WHOLE FREAKING TIME?!?
Andra Watkins
Hey Mary Lou! Great question.
I thought song titles would give readers a soundtrack of sorts for each chapter, music that might provide background noise or set a mood. When I was writing NWMF, I asked my reading community for recommendations. Most of the selected songs came from that group.
Thanks for reading.
I thought song titles would give readers a soundtrack of sorts for each chapter, music that might provide background noise or set a mood. When I was writing NWMF, I asked my reading community for recommendations. Most of the selected songs came from that group.
Thanks for reading.
Andra Watkins
Hi Richard. No, I don't do book reviews, but I wish you the very best with "Ghosts." Andra
Andra Watkins
Great question! I acted in Charleston, South Carolina community theater productions through my mid-thirties and studied classical singing. These days, my author appearances fill my need to perform. They're like a one-woman show. :)
Andra Watkins
I write through it. Even if it's crap.
Andra Watkins
Meeting readers. Hearing their stories.
Andra Watkins
Writing a draft is like sowing a field, but bumper crops only come from weeding and watering, fertilizing and tilling. Harvest never comes as soon as we writers think it should.
Don't stop farming your words.
Don't stop farming your words.
Andra Watkins
I prefer this question as "How do you fill your creative tank?"
Because all creatives need to develop strategies to remain inspired.
I set aside time to yank myself out of my routine. I try a new place to eat or a dish I think I won't like. Or I pick up a book that's in a genre I usually wouldn't read. I wander through museums and take long hikes. I challenge myself with opinions that differ from my own.
Forcing oneself to try new things is one of the best ways to stay inspired.
Because all creatives need to develop strategies to remain inspired.
I set aside time to yank myself out of my routine. I try a new place to eat or a dish I think I won't like. Or I pick up a book that's in a genre I usually wouldn't read. I wander through museums and take long hikes. I challenge myself with opinions that differ from my own.
Forcing oneself to try new things is one of the best ways to stay inspired.
Andra Watkins
Would you believe me if I told you the ghost of Meriwether Lewis made me write To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis?
No?
Okay. Then I'll admit that I've always been fascinated with Lewis. His murder-or-suicide death on the Natchez Trace at 35 is one of America's great unsolved mysteries. He died too soon.
But what if he could have another chapter? Another chance? What would he do?
I started there and wove a story with Lewis as a ghost shepherding a nine-year-old girl from her madam mother to her father in Nashville. To get there, Lewis has to battle his arch-nemesis from life and cross his own grave on the Natchez Trace.
No?
Okay. Then I'll admit that I've always been fascinated with Lewis. His murder-or-suicide death on the Natchez Trace at 35 is one of America's great unsolved mysteries. He died too soon.
But what if he could have another chapter? Another chance? What would he do?
I started there and wove a story with Lewis as a ghost shepherding a nine-year-old girl from her madam mother to her father in Nashville. To get there, Lewis has to battle his arch-nemesis from life and cross his own grave on the Natchez Trace.
Andra Watkins
Not Without My Father: One Woman's 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace will be available everywhere January 15, 2015.
When I decided to be the first living person to walk the Natchez Trace as our ancestors did, I thought it would be a fun way to launch my debut novel. I planned to walk 15 miles a day for a month.
But I needed a wingman, someone to drop me off and pick me up fifteen miles later. To my horror, the only available person was my 80-year-old father. And his gas. The self-scratching. His sleep apnea machine. Sharing a bathroom with a man who couldn't aim.
Would I finish? Or would we kill each other?
When I decided to be the first living person to walk the Natchez Trace as our ancestors did, I thought it would be a fun way to launch my debut novel. I planned to walk 15 miles a day for a month.
But I needed a wingman, someone to drop me off and pick me up fifteen miles later. To my horror, the only available person was my 80-year-old father. And his gas. The self-scratching. His sleep apnea machine. Sharing a bathroom with a man who couldn't aim.
Would I finish? Or would we kill each other?
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