Gillian’s Comments (group member since Dec 03, 2012)

Gillian’s comments from the Q&A with Gillian Hamer group.

Sorry about the typo right/write! *blushes* Got carried away on my soapbox!

Getting characters right is vital and something I think I'm only just learning as I've always been plot driven.

I must quote you a line from an interview I did in Frankfurt recently with Sir Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop (the man behind the CGI, costumes, characters and makeup behind Avatar, Lord of the Rings, King Kong and the new Hobbit) ... and best friends of Director, Peter Jackson who we were discussing here ...


Peter always finds the intimate. That’s the heart of every great story and great film, and something that is sometimes missed in the great blockbusters. The spectacle films that are made these days, is that in the epic, they continue to show the epic. But of course you go to a movie to form a relationship, you read a book to form a relationship, with a set of characters that you can otherwise not get in your normal life. And that will only happen in the intimate. It will never happen in the epic.

So it doesn’t matter if it’s King Kong or if it’s Frodo, as long as you connect?

Yes, you have to offer a unique character, that we want to go on a journey with. A book, arguably, is even more difficult, because you’ve got to go on a multiple week journey, or however long it takes someone to read a book. Or in my case a very long time! And I need to love and even love to hate that character, because that character has to be that engaging. You know, why did we all love Harry Potter? It’s because we grew to have those people as family members in our lives.

And I totally agree!!

Full interview in Dec Words with Jam magazine out this week!

I've wanted to right about The Royal Charter since my childhood, and to begin with, Angelina only appeared in the Prologue. And then my agent said If I wanted her in there, she should have her own POV and feature throughout. From that came the idea to mirror her story alongside the modern day female lead, Sarah. I saw Angelina as a guardian angel, trying to protect Sarah from harm. And I wanted the ending to show them both finding peace through their interaction.

Does that make sense? And having read the book, do you think that came across?

Hi Ali

Storylines in the two books are totally different, but I am banging the cross-genre drum once more. Spooky crime seems to be my thing currently, and yes, there is a ghost/spirit in Closure too. Oh, and a shipwreck!

I don't think I am purposely trying to start a new trend, I just find it's something I enjoy writing. And I set out thinking it would be a bit different too. But then after I'd papered the lounge walls with rejections, realised 'different' equates to 'too risky' for traditional publishing - who are happy to look at my straight crime detective novels - but run screaming from anything that mixes genres.

I think it's mad, I think lots of people like to mix up what they read. And having just run a KDP promo for two days on The Charter with 15232 US downloads, I can't help but believe I'm right!

Thanks for the question and sorry for the rant!

Some of you will know this week I've published my second novel with Triskele Books, and part of my latest commitment is to raise my author profile on Goodreads.

So ... I thought I'd start a Q&A, see what kind of debate we can get going on any topic related to writing, publishing or whatever bugs writers on a day to day basis.

Please feel free to chip in if you've anything sensible (or not) to contribute! The thread is open to friends and authors from here and Facebook.