Ask the Author: Sapha Burnell
Answered Questions (7)
Sapha Burnell
Sapha Burnell, we are writing to inform you your visa card balance is to be paid in full by next week. Sincerely, Fat Cat Bank of Catnada.
Sapha Burnell
I start with an image, or concept. With Usurper Kings, it was the juxtaposition of a search for God's existence with the treatment of women by global religion. Everything stemmed from that. My upcoming novella Son of Abel began when I wanted to answer the question of religious conversion in early Scandinavia. Telling that story through Caleb's latter search for the ultimate sin and looking for clues in an ancient Cardinal's remaining journals. My inspiration always stems from some form of question which needs to be answered so bad that it keeps me awake, distracts me from my work and condemns me to answer it.
Sapha Burnell
A serialized novella called Son of Abel for a literary journal, and a spec-fic space-busting novel called Hedonism Wholesale Inc.
Sapha Burnell
Writing is a craft, it takes discipline and moulding to follow it from the beautiful beginning inspiration to the edited, chopped, sutured, stitched and polished final product. Set short-term goals & follow them through. Find mentors & inspiring folk to be around. To become a consummate artist, one can't always work alone. Find ways of being disciplined & regimented while living a full and passionate life.
Sapha Burnell
Inspiring & inciting emotion in my readership. I love watching peoples' faces as they read my material and come to their own thoughts and conclusions. Poetry's so emotional & heteroglossic, it's no end of fun to hear interpretations and their views on an author's work. It's also a fantastic way of checking the pulse of a work and see how it's developed in a reader's eyes.
Sapha Burnell
Situations and culture shock! Usurper Kings came from studies in cosmology & gender roles through the ages predating scientific theory and how the religious authorities at the time explained the natural & sociological world.
Sapha Burnell
I research or read articles in Journals & magazines, then get back to work. My mentor taught discipline by training the brain to sequence ideas and work on anything else despite blocks. She'd give us a series of character studies, setting & plot studies to complete. There's always something to go over and work through, which usually lead me back to the block from another angle.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more