Charlotte E. English: Interview + GIVEAWAY

Please, help me welcome Charlotte E. English for an interview at my blog today! Leave your comments and e-mails for a chance to win her two e-books: Draykon and Lokant (check the links for the blurbs). The giveaway is open until January 30, 2012.

How long have you been writing? Have you always wanted to be a writer?

I’ve been scribbling things since I was a child. At school I always loved English classes the best, because I got to write things. I tended to get carried away and write a lot more than I was asked to. I don’t know if my teachers loved or hated that.

I can’t say that I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Like many little girls, I desperately wanted to be a ballerina when I was about seven years old. I must have been somewhere in my mid teenage years when it occurred to me that writing was something I could actively pursue in the long term, and that’s when I started writing a bit more seriously.

Do you remember your first writing attempts?

The very first ones? No. I can remember bits and pieces; I was awarded a sticker with a unicorn on it during primary school, for writing a poem about poverty. I regularly got praised (I think) for having a wild imagination, every time I produced something else far too long for class. I scribbled stuff at home.

My first remotely serious writing attempts, shall we say? I was seventeen, lonely, bored and unhappy and I decided to create a fantasy world. It kept me occupied for months, though most of that consisted of drawing maps (badly; I’m a rubbish artist). I eventually worked out a plot that I never wrote – though I never forgot it either, and parts of it made it into the first novel I completed, Draykon.

What genres have you been writing in? What other genres would you like to pursue?

So far I’ve been writing fantasy more or less exclusively. I like to mix that up with bits and pieces of the mystery genre, though, and elements of romance. I have written short stories in the historical fiction genre, and I’d love to do some novels someday. I’m a history buff with a particular fondness for the Regency period. The best thing to do, perhaps, would be to combine fantasy with the Regency; that can work surprisingly well. But all that is for the future.

What are the main themes of your latest book? What was it inspired by?

My most recent publication is Lokant, the second book in my Draykon Series. A major theme of this series is finding out who you really are, discovering your natural place in the world (and having the courage to pursue it). I think many of us feel the pressure of expectations and I admire those who aren’t ruled by such things. It takes a lot of courage to make your own way.

What goals do you set out to achieve when you start writing a new book?

At the moment I’m writing a series; I’m about a third of the way through the third Draykon book as I write this. So some of the goals are merely practical, like making sure it’s of a length to fit with the rest. A trickier problem is making sure this book is a worthy sequel to the previous two; it has to carry through all the themes and ideas I started with in Draykon #1, bring all the various questions and mysteries to satisfying conclusions and resolve character relationships. Lots going on.

Are you a fast or a slow writer? How long does it take you to write a book?

I’m a fast writer. I think I can say that. I usually write at a pace of 3000 words per day, which gets a first draft done within two months. Of course, editing takes up a number of extra weeks after that. But I’m writing in a world I’m familiar with, about characters that I know well. When I start a completely new book, I may be slower at it.

Do you ever base physical appearance of your characters on people you know, portraits or actors? Any examples or images that you'd like to share?

I haven’t done that so far, or at least not consciously. I’m lucky with my cover artist, though. She’s produced some fabulous portraits of my characters based on description and discussion.

Introduce the main characters from your latest book. Who are they? Let them speak for themselves. What would they like to say?

Llandry Sanfaer isn’t very good at speaking for herself because she’s young and terribly shy. She’s getting better at it though – and it isn’t her fate to be able to hide from the world forever.

Lady Evastany Glostrum, on the other hand, is quite used to speaking for herself, and for a lot of other people too. She’s the queen of her social world, her talents are stretched when she’s taken out of it.

As for Tren, if he’s going to speak he’ll make it into a joke. How does he maintain that youthful good humour, no matter what happens? I wish I could make a better job of it myself.

Thank you very much Charlotte for stopping by! I enjoyed reading your answers a great deal and I found that we share a lot in common as writers: the origins of our fantasy worlds, the themes of the books, the wish to combine fantasy and Regency together...

Thank you for reading about me and my writing. I love to hear from readers and fellow writers, you can always find me at my blog or on twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/Charlottenglish).