Ask the Author: Kristin Butcher
Answered Questions (9)
Kristin Butcher
Not my own life so much as mysteries in my family. I am into genealogy, which means I dig to find out about my family's history. Naturally there are many paths that seem to end, and when I can't find answers, my mind begins asking who, what, where, when, why, and how, which naturally leads me to stories. I am currently trying to bring a sort of closure to the horrible life of my great-grandmother through a novel titled Lady of Bethnal Green.
Kristin Butcher
I would love to spend an afternoon in Diagon Alley (Harry Potter books). I would visit all the shops and try all the goods. I can't help wondering what kind of wand I'd be given. Hmmm ...
Kristin Butcher
Truthfully, I cringe when asked superlative questions, because I find it nearly impossible to say something is better than everything else. My favourite fictional couple? There are so many -- human and otherwise. How does one choose? In comic strips (which are fictional) I have always loved Calvin and Hobbes -- Hobbes is so sweet and Calvin is so bad. I remember reading Wuthering Heights in university and being consumed by the impossible love between Heathcliff and Catherine. However, the couple my mind returns to again and again is Claire and Jamie from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. How can a reader not rejoice in their relationship? Theirs is a love we all aspire to.
Kristin Butcher
The Huldufolk Chronicles was inspired by a photograph I saw on the Internet. The photographer was looking out from an elevated cave onto a horizon of plateaus stretching far into the distance. The sun is setting and the sky is an unearthly colour. It was mesmerizing, and it tripped that switch in my mind that sets off my "What if ..." mechanism. It took ten years of letting the premise simmer in the back of my mind before I was ready to turn it into a story, but it was worth the wait.
Kristin Butcher
That's a secret -- even to me. For me, writing is an addiction. I can't not write. I'm always inspired.
Kristin Butcher
I am never working on only one thing. Basically, I devote myself to one project at a time, but that doesn't keep me from thinking about others, and that pre-writing think time is just as important as the actual process of creating the words.
At the moment I'm beginning the second book of a fantasy quest trilogy for teens, called The Huldufolk Chronicles. The second book is titled Of Ivy and Thorns.
However, I'm also halfway through an historical murder mystery fantasy called The Sentinel of Mabry Moor. I've been working on that book for several years -- between other projects. I love the story, and I know exactly where it's going, but it's like my own personal gift to me, and I think I'm dragging my feet, because I don't want to be done with it.
At the moment I'm beginning the second book of a fantasy quest trilogy for teens, called The Huldufolk Chronicles. The second book is titled Of Ivy and Thorns.
However, I'm also halfway through an historical murder mystery fantasy called The Sentinel of Mabry Moor. I've been working on that book for several years -- between other projects. I love the story, and I know exactly where it's going, but it's like my own personal gift to me, and I think I'm dragging my feet, because I don't want to be done with it.
Kristin Butcher
Aspiring writers -- those people who are REALLY drawn to writing, don't need my advice. They will write, because they are unable to resist, and the more they write, the more adept they will become at it.
Kristin Butcher
There are a lot of rewards to being a writer. Firstly, it is a creative outlet. It gives me a way to vent my imagination. Ideas are always showing up and moving into my brain. Writing helps me to clear space and keep them at manageable levels. Secondly, I am addicted to story. It's why I read, and also why I write. It's one thing to see a story in your mind; the challenge is to move that story from the images in my head to words on paper so that others can experience it too. Finally, writing is an adrenaline rush -- the feeling you get when you travel to exotic places, flip through a picture album, fall in love, or win a lottery. Writing allows me to experience all life's thrills, fears, hopes, and terrors for the first time -- over and over again.
Kristin Butcher
If writer's block refers to not knowing what to write, I can honestly say I have never had it. Sometimes I'm unsure how I want to proceed, and I handle that several ways. Rereading the previous chapter or two to get my head back into the game is often the only nudge I need. If it's an issue with the plot that needs to be resolved, I have to do some problem-solving, and that generally means taking a nap or shower, since those are the times I do my best thinking. Other than that, I just push on. Even if I write a page or two that I eventually chuck out, the act of writing gets me back into the groove.
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