Ask the Author: Jan Andrews
Answered Questions (7)
Jan Andrews
I am very much drawn to a book called The Shield Ring by English writer Rosemary Sutcliff. The descriptions of the countryside are so vibrant and I'd love to be walking those hills. I'm very drawn to the two central characters, Frytha and Bjorn for their various strengths and vulnerabilities. I'm not quite sure what I'd do with the fact that this is a world of battles and warfare but those things are so much of how life is for so many people and I believe I would learn to manage as others have to do.
Jan Andrews
First my apologies for not getting back to you more quickly. I broke my arm just before Christmas and that has made keeping up with everything difficult. I don't like telling my readers what to think or feel about my books. I believe it's one of the wonders of literature--that there's an openness that allows for a rich variety of responses. I would say that there is an underlying theme to all my work, however. It has to do with my conviction that, as people, we have within us what is needed to manage even in extremely hard times. We also always have choices. We cannot always control what happens to us but we can always choose how we will respond. I'd be interested to know if you have any thoughts about this. Thanks for your interest, Jan
Jan Andrews
To be honest this is not something I've ever thought of so I have no idea how to answer your question. I think overall I'm not much into favourites. Times change and so do I and as that happens different books affect me in different ways. Right now I'm re-reading Thomas King's Green Grass Running Water--a book I love and highly recommend.
Jan Andrews
The answer to this one is that I really don't know. I've been writing so long it's part of who I am. Things rattle about in my head, they begin to shape themselves into stories. Eventually I have to start the process of giving them physical form. Will I always be writing? I don't know about that one either. I think most writers live in a constant of state of fear that whatever it is within our beings that makes this happen will one day go away.
Jan Andrews
That's a tough one. My problem is that I'm horribly obsessive. When I'm stuck I can't walk away. I tend to keep worrying and worrying at a problem, working the same passage over and over again. Sometimes that does bring me the answer but often I find that walking away and giving myself permission simply to make space in my brain by doing other things is the best medicine. I think there are actually studies on this--studies that have shown that time away from your desk can be amazingly productive.
Jan Andrews
Writing! I love to make words work. I love to see it all coming together on the page. That said, I have to admit I am incredibly slow and prone to fits of frustration and despair. I start out thinking I know the story but taking the words from my head and setting them down changes everything. They become the compost from which the story grows.
Jan Andrews
To See the Stars. It’s a collection of five short stories, linked by the central character, a young woman named Edie Murphy. She starts out little more than a child, living in an outport, in 1906. Life takes her first to St. John’s and then to the garment industry in Lower Eastside New York City. She’s caught up in some major events of the era--the first ever strike of women, a terrible factory fire. She goes places I haven’t but I know her, not just because I’ve created her but because she was born of my family’s history, far off in England but feeling so much the same. Editing is about to start. I'll keep posting about developments on my blog.
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