Ask the Author: David Williams
Answered Questions (8)
David Williams
So glad it was meaningful to you, and sorry for the delay in responding...somehow managed to miss this question in all the hurly burly of the last year. I tried my hand at an adaptation a few years back, but wasn't at all pleased with the result. I'd thought to break out a subsidiary character, and to have the screenplay track both inside and outside Jacob's settlement simultaneously. After the requisite month of setting it aside, I came back and was horrified. Did I write that clumsy mess?
That said, I did option the film rights to a wonderful and accomplished screenwriter/showrunner at the beginning of 2020. I trust him to do it justice, should providence shine upon the project.
That said, I did option the film rights to a wonderful and accomplished screenwriter/showrunner at the beginning of 2020. I trust him to do it justice, should providence shine upon the project.
David Williams
This answer contains spoilers…
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David Williams
That’s a tough one, because I wrote several endings for When the English Fall. The first ending, written when I self-published it back in 2013, is actually a part of the novel now. Without getting too spoilery, that scene, where the leaves fall and Sadie looks to her father and says, “Oh, Dadi?” That’s where it originally ended, with those words. But that left the book at just barely more than novella length. That, and it was utterly and intentionally ambiguous. So my editors said, hey, give us some options here.
The ending of the book is one of them, and was the first one I wrote up and sent to my editor. Totally solid, and very much open-ended for a sequel. I like it. My editor liked it. My wife loved it. But years have passed, and the story kinda doesn’t end that way for me now. There is another ending I drafted—grimmer, darker, harder, and yet strangely more hopeful. That one is how it ends in my mind, and it doesn’t work for a sequel. So I’m not sure if my muse will let me write one. But I might yet. Particularly with so many folks asking so nicely. ;0)
The ending of the book is one of them, and was the first one I wrote up and sent to my editor. Totally solid, and very much open-ended for a sequel. I like it. My editor liked it. My wife loved it. But years have passed, and the story kinda doesn’t end that way for me now. There is another ending I drafted—grimmer, darker, harder, and yet strangely more hopeful. That one is how it ends in my mind, and it doesn’t work for a sequel. So I’m not sure if my muse will let me write one. But I might yet. Particularly with so many folks asking so nicely. ;0)
David Williams
Hope you're enjoying it, Kate! As a non-native of Lancaster, I got all author-anxious about possibly misrepresenting that area. There's only so much that visits/research can inform an outsider. But when I went up to Lititz to start my book tour, the folks there really seemed to resonate to it. It's such a lovely region of the country, and Lititz was a remarkably pretty little town. Thanks for dropping me the note! Peace, David
David Williams
Yes, it was...but it was something I needed to update, as, well, my undergraduate degree in Religious Studies from UVA was quite a while ago. What's striking is that Amish life has evolved in the last 25 years. There's more use of technology in more settlements, and things like generators and washing machines are not uncommon. And where they can't do something (like take orders online, or drive), they'll get an English neighbor to work with them. There are also more Amish folk now working in non-farming jobs. This book was my "bible" on the subject...there's no better resource about the Amish: https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/conte...
David Williams
Narnia, during the thousands of years of peace between the stories. Mostly, I'd dance with trees and fauns, and eat delicious breakfasts, and hopefully find work as a wandering storyteller spinning tales of our strange, anxious, alien world.
David Williams
It's meant to imply that things haven't quite recovered, but that they're slowly, slowly coming back together under what has been a prolonged period of martial law.
David Williams
Glad you're enjoying it, Sarah!
I'd always found the Amish fascinating, ever since I studied their culture for my senior seminar in Religious Studies at UVA. I found myself out for a walk one lunchtime many years later, right after reading an online essay about the Carrington Event, the largest solar storm to hit the earth in modern history. As I contemplated the impact of such a storm and how it would devastate our tech-addicted culture, I suddenly thought, huh, how would that impact the Amish? And wouldn't that be a fun story to write? Then the title just popped into my head, and I knew I'd have to try to put it to paper. I sat on it for a few years...the kids were young, and life was crazy...but it always seemed like a story worth telling.
The good folks at my publisher had me write a longer essay on the inspiration for the story, which you're welcome to take a gander at on their website if you'd like:
http://algonquin.com/wp-content/uploa...
Again, glad you're enjoying it!
I'd always found the Amish fascinating, ever since I studied their culture for my senior seminar in Religious Studies at UVA. I found myself out for a walk one lunchtime many years later, right after reading an online essay about the Carrington Event, the largest solar storm to hit the earth in modern history. As I contemplated the impact of such a storm and how it would devastate our tech-addicted culture, I suddenly thought, huh, how would that impact the Amish? And wouldn't that be a fun story to write? Then the title just popped into my head, and I knew I'd have to try to put it to paper. I sat on it for a few years...the kids were young, and life was crazy...but it always seemed like a story worth telling.
The good folks at my publisher had me write a longer essay on the inspiration for the story, which you're welcome to take a gander at on their website if you'd like:
http://algonquin.com/wp-content/uploa...
Again, glad you're enjoying it!
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