Ask the Author: Alan Veale
Answered Questions (7)
Alan Veale
Curiously that is my current project! I am nearing completion of a non-fiction piece that is effectively a part of my own family history. Three years before I was born my parents and older sister emigrated to Australia. That was in 1949, and the world was a very different place to today. All manner of things went wrong and my family returned to the UK a year later. My father died after another seven years while I was still very young, and my mother rarely talked about her experiences down under. My sister was also too young (3) to remember much about it. It was not until after our mother died in 1985 that we found a whole batch of letters she had written from Australia to relatives, and the human story they contained is what has finally inspired me to set down as a memoir. I've learned a lot about my own family background in the process, so you could say I've been exploring a mystery there. Thanks for the opportunity to plug my next piece, currently titled 'A Kangaroo in My Sideboard'. And watch this space!
Alan Veale
Hi Edward. Let's just say that "Gone Girl" was the last book I read before feeling ready for a rant of some sort! My comment therefore applies to other authors too, although Flynn's book failed to grab me in the way that the hype promised. Personally, I found her treatment of her central characters a tad distasteful, and I was left feeling distinctly UNsatisfied at the end - but at least I did see it through to the end. There have been at least three previous volumes on my list that got put aside less than a third of the way through - either because I was bored, irritated at the plot structure or characterisation, or simply found that the storyline was of no interest. Collectively, these are all the subject of my wrath because they fail to deliver in some way - and if I'm parting with good money for my books, I somehow feel cheated. Have I explained myself to your satisfaction?
Alan Veale
In the case of 'The Murder Tree' it was by reading someone else's book, but anything can prompt that eternal question 'What if...?' When I first started penning scripts around my work colleagues I was inspired by the characters and personalities around me. I just wanted them to laugh, and I created a courtroom drama and cast them as defendant, prosecutor, jury, police etc. So I can be inspired by people just as much as by ideas for a plot.
Alan Veale
A personal interpretation of part of my family history: In 1949 my parents migrated to Australia and found themselves in a vastly different world. Letters that my mother wrote home over the next twelve months (until they returned to the UK) form the core of my story. Told through my mother's eyes, the story of life in a distant world, pre-television, pre-internet, pre-smartphone is now shaping up as a drama that I hope will appeal to a wider audience.
Alan Veale
Whatever it is that you write, someone else has probably already done it. But don't let that put you off because yours will still be unique, and (guess what?) it could be better than anything written to date. So just go for it!
Alan Veale
Being allowed to exercise the vivid imagination that I've had all my life. Having an opportunity to write something of my own creation makes me feel like a kid being set free in a toy shop...
Alan Veale
Ignore it! I write when I've got something to write, and if the idea is sound enough, then there's no such thing as 'writer's block'. So long as SOMETHING goes down on the page, I have a starting point. It can be edited later - that's what the 'delete' button is for!
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