Ask the Author: Maggie Holman
Answered Questions (7)
Maggie Holman
I haven't seen my aunt since 1963, when I was three years old. No-one in my family discusses her or why they haven't seen her since the 1960s either. If she's still alive, she just turned 82.
Maggie Holman
My most recent book is 'A Cat for Christmas', which is set in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, where I used to live. There are rumours that a black panther lives wild in the forest, and now and then people report sightings, take photographs or find sheep that it might have killed. I started with the mental picture of a young child being saved from the panther, and then I back-tracked to tell the story of how he got to that point and why he needed to be rescued.
Maggie Holman
Most of the time I get ideas from something visual. Sometimes it's something real that I see outside or in a book or a photograph and so on, and sometimes it comes in a dream. The challenge is to work out the story that is going to grow from the image. Occasionally I hear a phrase and the words of that phrase will grow into something, but my starts are usually visual.
Maggie Holman
Read a lot and write a lot. The more you write, the more you will find your own voice and your own style.
Maggie Holman
There are 2 things I love about being a writer. One is being able to explore all the possibilities of what you can do with words. The other is being able to connect with creative people and people who also love what words can do.
Maggie Holman
By writing anyway and not setting any particular deadlines or goals.
Maggie Holman
At the moment I'm working on a set of six short stories. They all have urban settings and have a magic realism or paranormal twist. The theme running through them is about women who breathe under water.
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