Ask the Author: Alec Hastings
Answered Questions (9)
Alec Hastings
My reading list for the summer of 2017:
Mississippi Blood, Greg Iles (the final novel in the Natchez Burning trilogy).
Before We Sleep, Jeffrey Lent.
The Mountain Shadow, Gregory David Roberts
MacGregor's Gathering, Nigel Trantor
The Marches, Rory Stewart
The Lively Lady, Kenneth Roberts
Mississippi Blood, Greg Iles (the final novel in the Natchez Burning trilogy).
Before We Sleep, Jeffrey Lent.
The Mountain Shadow, Gregory David Roberts
MacGregor's Gathering, Nigel Trantor
The Marches, Rory Stewart
The Lively Lady, Kenneth Roberts
Alec Hastings
Right now, the first couple that comes to mind is Jamie Frazier and Claire Beecham from Diana Gabaldon's epic historical novels, the Outlander series. Like all people, they have a few flaws (making them authentic), but on balance they are strong, brave, intelligent, honorable, handsome, exceedingly generous, and passionately in love. What more can we ask from a fictional couple?
Alec Hastings
You're welcome, John. I guess you can send a message... cuz you did. Have a good trip!
Alec Hastings
I ignore it and write anyway. Sometimes, I realize I have a specific fictional problem I have to solve, and I think and think and think. Usually, the problem gets solved AFTER all the conscious thinking happens. When I don't expect it, the solution comes to me, maybe in the early morning when I come slowly awake or at some other moment when I have allowed my mind some quiet.
Alec Hastings
The best thing about being a writer is when the famous muse of old actually does enter your head as you are writing and helps you create some story magic.
Alec Hastings
My advice? The usual. Read, read, read and write, write, write. Don't get sucked into fantasies about "being a writer"--just write. Lastly, if you (like me) have a voice in your head that says you're not good enough, DON'T LISTEN. If you like it, do it.
Alec Hastings
The setting of my next novel is the upper Connecticut River valley during the log drives of the late 19th century. The two main characters are Bill Three-Rivers and Amos Waters, both taken from my first novel, Otter St. Onge.
Alec Hastings
I read, drink coffee, and fantasize. I love stories, and my daily life is lived somewhere between reality and wonder, between "what is" and "what if."
Alec Hastings
The idea for Otter St. Onge and the Bootleggers came from my love of boys' adventure stories. That dates back to the stories I heard growing up and to the books my dad gave me as a kid, books like Don Sturdy Among the Gorillas, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Tom Swift and His Airship, and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I LOVED, and still love, Huck Finn. He is one of my favorite characters in fiction, and he was certainly part of my inspiration for Otter. Even though Otter and Huck are different in many ways, I think they both have the same innate goodness.
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