Ask the Author: Ann Royal Nicholas
Answered Questions (2)
Ann Royal Nicholas
Inspiration isn't really my problem. As a working mom, my issue is carving out the time to write. I've discovered I need about 3 hours to move my story forward in any real way. That's one hour to look at the assorted emails or pieces of paper gathered on my desk and clear them (or put them in piles to deal with later), one hour to move deeper and focus and actually write something and then half an hour to come back to reality. If I look at my daily to-do list and find I don't have that time, I'll often just open up what I'm working on and take notes on what I need to do when I sit down to work next. As for inspiration, I read a lot--NY Times, biographies, whatever--and there's almost nothing I read that doesn't provide inspiration. I might read a story about a murderer in the American South next to a story about a family devastated by a lightning strike in California and my brain starts spinning a story. Juxtaposing two completely different ideas and figuring out how they might go together works for me as a starting point.
Ann Royal Nicholas
My most recent book, "The Muffia," grew out of my real life book club, also called The Muffia. We've been a club since 2001 and we read a book every 6 weeks or so, taking turns picking books and hosting the club. A few years ago, at one particular raucous gathering involving too many pomegranate margaritas, during which we might have discussed "Little Children" if memory serves, somebody suggested we could be a book ourselves. Because I'd had a novel published, the Muffs looked at me and I jumped at the chance. There were challenges: fictionalizing us enough--in case the book ever became a TV series--to protect everyone's privacy; layering in more plot to drive story--because I realized I wanted a mystery element; not losing the silly, loving stuff that really happens when we get together. The real life Muffs continue to provide lots of entertaining material, which I'm grateful for because there are more books to come in the Muffia series.
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