Ask the Author: Annette Laing
Answered Questions (4)
Annette Laing
The last book of The Snipesville Chronicles. When I started the series, with "Don't Know Where, Don't Know When", I was a history professor stuck in a stressful job, who was at the beginning of a period of bad health. The novel was my midlife crisis, and it began purely as self-indulgence. I had no intention of shopping it around agents and publishers. I published it myself, assuming that my family and friends might buy a few, while the rest would end up in the garage.
I am ending the series having changed my life. Writing "Don't Know Where" led me to look backward, reconnecting with people who had been important to me in my youth in Britain. I enjoyed traveling to museums and historic sites, and writing books 2 and 3. I started bringing my "Non-Boring History" programs to schools and libraries. And I have met so many kind and enthusiastic readers of all ages, which is just amazing for a self-published author. Now I live in the Big City, and it is time to say goodbye to the small town in Georgia, and my characters. I will miss them all very much.
I am ending the series having changed my life. Writing "Don't Know Where" led me to look backward, reconnecting with people who had been important to me in my youth in Britain. I enjoyed traveling to museums and historic sites, and writing books 2 and 3. I started bringing my "Non-Boring History" programs to schools and libraries. And I have met so many kind and enthusiastic readers of all ages, which is just amazing for a self-published author. Now I live in the Big City, and it is time to say goodbye to the small town in Georgia, and my characters. I will miss them all very much.
Annette Laing
There is no such thing as an aspiring writer. Either you think like a writer all the time, and hit the keyboard as the muse takes you, or you're simply not a writer. Wanting to get published is not the same thing as writing, and an awful lot of angst and colossal waste of energy is expended by people who want to call themselves writers, while never once actually writing something. Just do it. You don't have to write daily, or even often, but once you start, you won't be able to stop.
Annette Laing
It doesn't matter if I'm sitting in my own front room, I am also somewhere else, and it can be anywhere I want to be, being anyone I care to be. In my case, of course, it can also be whatever year I want it to be. I have control of my world.
Annette Laing
I read history. It usually helps: The weightier and more complicated, the better! I also take a break from my usual routine, and travel whenever possible.
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