Andrea Chapin asked Sally Kilpatrick:

Has Shakespeare influenced your writing? How?

Sally Kilpatrick A lot of my stories start with a "What if?" What if your name was Beulah Land, but you thought for sure you were headed for hell? What if you inherited a job at a funeral home, but you didn't really want to be a part of the family business? What if your family and that of your neighbor were like a mashup of Romeo and Juliet and the Hatfields and the McCoys? As you can see, Shakespeare really influenced that second story more than the others, but I think having read so much of his work, it still sneaks in sometimes to other things.

What's really interesting is that I have at least five other ideas that go back to Shakespeare thanks to this week-long celebration. Also, I've realized that I should cut back on some of the swearing in my books and take a page from the Bard to come up with more creative swears/insults/interjections that aren't quite as vulgar. I'll have to give them a country spin, of course.

Thanks for the question because it really gave me a chance to think through how I'm evolving as an author. As for the Bard, he's influenced all of us. Here's just a few of his phrases that have sneaked into our everyday language: http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia...

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