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MEET THE AUTHOR
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Interview with Joanne Hall, Do you recall how your interest in writing began? For those who really want to know, I decided I was going to be a writer when I was six, having gone through astronaut, train driver, and Luke Skywalker's girlfriend. I come from a family of big readers and grew up surrounded by books. My granddad used to tell us stories he made up, so the urge to become a storyteller might have come from him. It wasn't until I read David Eddings' Belgariad. and Lord of the Rings when I was about eleven. that I knew for sure I wanted to write. I was a bedroom kid and always had my head in the clouds or in a book. I wrote the first draft of Hierath for an English project when I was fourteen and had been thinking about it for at least two years. I've been writing about knights and castles and feisty damsels since I was nine—the age I stopped writing about dogs. The New Kingdom Trilogy has been rattling around my head in various forms since I was about nine, getting progressively more bloodthirsty and complicated until it became the beast it is now. I actually first put serious finger to keyboard about three years ago, having written for Venue in Bristol and spent about four years running Manic Street Preachers fanzine, where I honed my typing skills and received the occasional death threat, which was nice. In July 2004, my short story King of the High Castle was Highly Commended in the Lymm Writers Castles in the Air Competition, and since then I have had an historical fiction story published by Gorlan (www.gorlan.co.uk). What is Hierath about? Love, betrayal, death, loyalty, madness. It's about a fisherman's daughter who falls in love with a king, and how they suffer the worst kind of betrayal from one they trust. I hope people will want to read it to be entertained, that's why I wrote it. It's a big fat fantasy romp! What are your current projects? I'm finishing off my New Kingdom Trilogy, which has been keeping me occupied for the last six years or thereabouts. A sensible person would be thinking of taking time off, but I'm already in the planning stages of a stand-alone prequel, so no rest for me! I've got ideas for at least four more New Kingdom books, and I'm sure that writing them will spark off new ideas. There's too much to explore to get bored of it just yet. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work? Hard question! There are so many authors I like. I think I'd probably say Isaac Asimov. I know he wrote in a different genre, but there's a real humanity and poignancy to his work that you don't always find in SF. I think he illustrates the importance of character, no matter what genre you're writing in. My favorite book is Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, which makes me cry buckets every time I read it. If you never experienced publication, would you keep writing? I can't imagine doing anything else. I've always written, I love it. Publication is a lovely bonus, but if I never earned a penny from writing, never even saw my name in print, I'd do it anyway. My brain is crammed with stories, all demanding to be told, and if I don't let them out, my head could very well explode. I was brave enough, or mad enough, to give up two jobs to be a full-time impoverished writer. I used to work in a record shop, which paid peanuts. I decided I needed to be able to save up enough money to take a few months off to write full time, so I quit and got a horrible job in a call center, which I managed to stick out a year and then quit to write a book, which appalled my more sensible colleagues. When I left my record-shop job, my mum was very pleased that I was getting a "real job" at last. So of course, when I quit, she wasn't exactly overwhelmed. It took a lot to convince her that I wasn't "unemployed" and that I did have a job even if I was getting absolutely no money for it. I guess technically it is still not a "real job." --rolls eyes— My friends seemed to be of the opinion that because I am home all day and don’t work set hours, I could just drop what I was doing and go shopping or to the cinema, or just "pop into town and get them stuff" at a moment's notice. But once everyone got their heads around the idea that just 'cause I was living like a bum didn't mean I wasn't working, they've all been very supportive. I live with my partner, who can't work because of a chronic medical condition. Luckily, due to some fortunate biochemical coincidence, I'm a morning person while he most definitely isn't. So I write until he eventually surfaces from bed at some time in the afternoon, and then I take care of him. I find it easier to concentrate in the mornings when it's quiet and I'm not likely to be disturbed for a couple of hours. Financially, my partner's benefits manage to support us both in a hand-to-mouth way. We're not starving, but there's not much to spare on luxuries. My mum worries a lot that we are starving (she gave us a food hamper last Christmas!) but we're not. We just have to watch the pennies. I earn slightly more an hour than an Uzbekistani cotton farmer, which makes me feel good. Harsh, I know, but at least someone in the world is paid less an hour than I am! And compared to Uzbekistani cotton farming, what I do is a doddle. Do you wish you led the life of one of your characters? No. I give them a hard time too often! But I wish I lived in that world, maybe just as an observer to events. My characters live in exciting times, and have good clothes! I'm small and dark haired and live in Bristol, and that's about as interesting as it gets. What Terry Pratchett says about living behind a keyboard is true. It's hard to have a life when the one inside your head is so much more interesting. Contact Joanne with more questions at hierath@hotmail.com or hierath@btinternet.com. Her website is located at www.btinternet.com/~hierath. Eagle of the Kingdom
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