Casey asked Sherwood Smith:

Which of your books has been your favorite to write? (And why? - if you'd like to answer a two-for-one question)

Sherwood Smith One of the toughest lessons I had to learn was that the most fun ones to write were not necessarily the most successful to readers. Yow, that hurt. But so it goes!

The favorites to write are the ones that wrote themselves, my subconscious having done all the work beforehand without my knowing--so all I had to do was "live" it while the words channeled through my fingers. I call those "white fire" stories because the story so burns in me I'm pretty much *there*, not so much *here*, until they are done. And they go fast, like mere weeks.

Among those were CORONETS AND STEEL, FLEEING PEACE, THE SPY PRINCESS, SENRID (the latter three when I was very young) and THE TROUBLE WITH KINGS. CROWN DUEL came in two spurts, a couple of years apart.

flag