'It's all in your own mind'

 

“Every reader re-creates a novel -in their own imagination, anyway. It's only entirely the writer's when nobodyelse has read it.” – Susan Hill
Hill, born on this date in1942, is an English author of “mostly ghost stories written in gothic style to create maximum suspense and the right atmosphere." Among her works are TheWoman in Black, The Mist in the Mirror, and I'm the King of theCastle, for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award – named for British writer W.Somerset Maugham and a really coolaward that can only be used for foreign travel to do more research for yourwriting. 

An only child she said she was bornto be a writer.  “I was never really goodat anything else,” she explained.  “I hadno other option.  I could write; I wantedto write; I wrote.  Otherwise, I wasunemployable.” 
    In addition to the "Maugham" award, Hill was named by Queen Elizabeth as a Commander ofthe Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2012 and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2020 for her lifetime achievement and services to literature.      “Don’t overwrite," Hill says about the writing process that has led to her own success.  "Onceyou finish a book, just let it go out into the world to seek its fortune.”