Sometimes I create a character from a scrap - a mere mention that has been left behind.
A book is a story, even if it's non-fiction, and once I've read it, I have the story with me inside my head always.
Books have a vital place in our culture. They are the source of ideas, of stories that engage and stretch the imagination and most importantly, inspire.
If we don't value the people who inspire us (and money is one mark of that) then what kind of culture are we building?
Very often the characters people respond to best have little parts of reality they can relate to.
My father could talk about the Romany way of life and its culture. He could talk about freedom and the Scottish spirit. But that was all he could talk about. I was desperate for someone to talk to but there was just nobody there.
Often we don't notice the stringent rules to which our culture subjects us.
Writers are a product of where we come from but by looking at alternatives to the culture in which we live, we can find ways to change and hopefully improve it.
It may take a village to raise a baby, but hell! it takes an army to produce a book.
I had loved poetry and the theatre. Now I loved adventure more.
Scotland just isn't terribly Tory.
Writers need each other.
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