Ask the Author: Philip Casey

“Ask me a question.” Philip Casey

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Philip Casey See previous answer. I didn't get an idea as such. When I finished my last (most recent) novel, I turned to history for relief, much as I'd done having finished The Water Star, my second novel. (The reading of African history, and the realization that many Africans featured in European Renaissance art, along with several other streams of thought, had indirectly led to my third novel, The Fisher Child). I began querying what I thought I knew about Irish history, and also passages in book which I'd taken for granted. This interrogation resulted in notes, the notes were expanded, and then some of the notes reminded me of the middle section of The Fisher Child. So it's a process, rather than an idea, and it never ends up how one intends, in my experience!

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How do you get inspired to write?

Philip Casey See advice to writers above. I hate the idea of getting an idea of what to write, as in "Where do you get your ideas?"That sounds like a school project to my ears. Pirandello's play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, says it all in the title. I must, above all, be open. Even writing non-fiction, as I have been doing, I can't work with a pre-conceived idea. Of course you're asking me; other writers will have a very different approach.

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What are you currently working on?

Philip Casey I have recently become an independent publisher of my backlist and as I like design and typesetting, it's quite time-consuming. I've just published my selected poems, and am about to publish my three novels, previously published by Lilliput and Picador. When I've done that I'll return to a project I've been working on, with several breaks, for about ten years, namely a history of Ireland and its diaspora. I hope to publish it in 2016. I also want to make a final draft of a children's novel, while I'll hopefully also publish under my lable, eMaker Editions, in 2015.

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What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Philip Casey Read everything, not just literature. Overcome any prejudices about people of a different class, religion, race etc and try to see them as they are. (It may take some practice!). When a story comes to you, listen to the characters. Give yourself over to them completely and let them lead you into uncomfortable territory. Let them tell the story or play, and let them finish the first draft. Only then is it yours to work very hard to shape it and eliminate the false notes you heard on the way. Oh, and if a poem comes to you (lucky you), listen to the rhythm, completely.

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