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Frequently Asked Questions |
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No, I have never lived in England . I was nineteen what I first visited the United Kingdom and I’ve been there many times since, traveling from Land’s End to John o’Groats by rail, automobile, bicycle, hiking boot, and thumb. I’ve had hypothermia on the top of Mount Snowden , food poisoning in London , and a root canal (my first!) in Haslemere, Surrey, so I must love this place because I keep going back for more. Is there an Aunt Dimity in your Life? There are dozen’s of Aunt Dimitys in my life. I’m blessed with the best friends on earth, which may explain why I write the kinds of books I write. Whenever I hear my stories described as fairy tales, I shake my head and murmur, “If I told them how splendidly the real-life people in my real life behave, they’d really never believe me.” My books are, to a large extent, a way of thanking the people who’ve been so kind to me in good times and bad.Where do you get your ideas? From books, film, people, places, scents, sounds—ideas come from everywhere. A chance comment or a lovely vista can strike a spark of inspiration that flares into a full-blown story. Lighting strikes rarely happen to me, however. The sparks lit in my brain tend to smolder for a long time before igniting, which is why it’s difficult to identify sources. Lori Shepherd’s character, for example, is based on me (except for the inherited fortune, alas), but I have no clue as to where Aunt Dimity came from. I don’t, as a rule, “create” characters. More often than not, they simply show up and start talking (bless them). I get to know them as you do, bit by bit, as the story progresses. By the same token, I rarely plan storylines. I don’t want to know what’s going to happen before it happens—where’s the fun in that?—so I let the story unfold as I go along. I don’t recommend my method—it’s slow, inefficient, and disorganized. But it keeps my energy up, holds my interest, and piques my curiosity—I can’t wait to find out what happens next—so it works for me. |