Ask the Author: P.D.R. Lindsay
Answered Questions (18)
P.D.R. Lindsay
Definitely a Kiwi, Mairwen, (is your name Welsh or Irish?) But I've spent most of my working life in many different countries which fuel my stories. Old Japan being my latest creative muse. It's good to be home in NZ on a more permanent basis though I do miss the colour of life in countries like Japan.
I do like your quotes from Claire Fox. Can we get them posted in every person's message stream here and stop some of the silliness which goes on?
I much prefer discussion to shouting people down. My school always taught that one argues the point NOT the person!
Have a great 2025 and happy reading.
Kind Regards
p.d.r.
I do like your quotes from Claire Fox. Can we get them posted in every person's message stream here and stop some of the silliness which goes on?
I much prefer discussion to shouting people down. My school always taught that one argues the point NOT the person!
Have a great 2025 and happy reading.
Kind Regards
p.d.r.
P.D.R. Lindsay
How's this?
As the furniture van backed into her driveway; Cathy sighed, opening the kitchen door, the new washing machine at last. The van's rear doors opened and a huge pair of rubber hands reached for her, grabbed her and a giant axe descended on her head.
As the furniture van backed into her driveway; Cathy sighed, opening the kitchen door, the new washing machine at last. The van's rear doors opened and a huge pair of rubber hands reached for her, grabbed her and a giant axe descended on her head.
P.D.R. Lindsay
And on day I will learn how to get comments in the right section and not the wrong one!!!!
P.D.R. Lindsay
Either Middle Earth or Patricia McKillip's island of Hed.
I'd love gardening in the quiet peace of Hed, after I'd spent time being a woman warrior riding with the Rohan.
I'd love gardening in the quiet peace of Hed, after I'd spent time being a woman warrior riding with the Rohan.
P.D.R. Lindsay
Actually it's my winter list because I am in the Southern hemisphere and I really need something good to read at night.
I've got:
2 serious historicals by Hannah Kent
'The Good People'
'Burial Rites'
the 1st of a new historical hist-myst series by M.J. Carter
'The Strangler Vine' plus C,J, Cherryh's latest 'Convergence'
and because I am starting the research for a new novel set in New Zealand in 1900 I have a pile of reference books from the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
'Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria' is the one I'm making notes from right now.
I've got:
2 serious historicals by Hannah Kent
'The Good People'
'Burial Rites'
the 1st of a new historical hist-myst series by M.J. Carter
'The Strangler Vine' plus C,J, Cherryh's latest 'Convergence'
and because I am starting the research for a new novel set in New Zealand in 1900 I have a pile of reference books from the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
'Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria' is the one I'm making notes from right now.
P.D.R. Lindsay
I could write screeds about my childhood. Who couldn't? But I still have never plumbed the depths of why my mother disliked me so!
P.D.R. Lindsay
I hate questions like this because I start of thinking 'Oh, Tommy and Tuppence of course,' and then I remember Lord Peter Wimsey and wife. After that I started thinking of married couples in Victorian literature and then had another think.
You see couples in novels have to have problems or the story is too dull and I like happy couples!
You see couples in novels have to have problems or the story is too dull and I like happy couples!
P.D.R. Lindsay
Oh, that is an easy question to answer. Thank you.
Novels take a long time to write but are comfortable to write because I have space to spin words and thoughts.
Short stories demand fierce concentration because every word counts and I edit and cut until my head aches. A prize winning short story involves as much work as a novel for me.
So why do I write them? Because it is such a good discipline for me. I am forced to 'write tight' and any lazy habits I've been drifting into through writing novels are quickly nipped in the bud.
Novels take a long time to write but are comfortable to write because I have space to spin words and thoughts.
Short stories demand fierce concentration because every word counts and I edit and cut until my head aches. A prize winning short story involves as much work as a novel for me.
So why do I write them? Because it is such a good discipline for me. I am forced to 'write tight' and any lazy habits I've been drifting into through writing novels are quickly nipped in the bud.
P.D.R. Lindsay
That's a hard question, Yvonne, but thank you for making me think about it. I think it's the fact that I have things I feel are important to say but no other way of saying them, except through words written on the page.
P.D.R. Lindsay
Hello, Diana,
Thank you for your question. Oh yes, BOS - bum on seat - every day and no bedtime unless I have completed at least one page. The 3Ds - Discipline, Determination and Dedication - or the 3Ps - Patience, Persistence and Perseverance - are vital for writers. I know I have too many important things in my life to distract me so that the discipline of a page a day gets a novel finished within a year.
Thank you for your question. Oh yes, BOS - bum on seat - every day and no bedtime unless I have completed at least one page. The 3Ds - Discipline, Determination and Dedication - or the 3Ps - Patience, Persistence and Perseverance - are vital for writers. I know I have too many important things in my life to distract me so that the discipline of a page a day gets a novel finished within a year.
P.D.R. Lindsay
I think I have to say 'serious historical' as far as writing novels, My short stories have ranged through most of the genre except horror and romance. Writing horror scares me and writing romance makes me giggle.
I write because I have something to say to readers and I find historicals often give the necessary distance from our own time to allow readers to take on board the ideas.
Thank you for asking a question which is making me think.
I write because I have something to say to readers and I find historicals often give the necessary distance from our own time to allow readers to take on board the ideas.
Thank you for asking a question which is making me think.
P.D.R. Lindsay
Now that is a question, S.K.! I usually start writing a story or novel with a definite idea, a theme, and a strong character demanding their story be told. So that is what the piece is about. Alas, when I finish the first draft I find the characters have been wayward, the plot has warped and I have to ask myself again what am I trying to say.
I am still writing the first draft so I expect my next novel to be about making choices - I always write about that - it's about revenge and whether it should be physical, revenge through business practises or let 'what goes around come around.' However my characters are stroppy and insist on adding things. I don't mind, it makes a better book!
With a workling title of 'Revenge', set in 1872 Britain, India and New Zealand, so far I have my MC - Bryce Ackerman - leaving the UK for India in pursuit of a group of men who have cost him his beloved fiancee and caused distress in his mother's beloved Yorkshire.
Don't want to give away more but so far, as well as revenge, I have found justice, women's rights and coping with loss all emerging through various different characters' stories. Anger, love and hate make a potent mix which I am enjoying unravelling as I write.
I am still writing the first draft so I expect my next novel to be about making choices - I always write about that - it's about revenge and whether it should be physical, revenge through business practises or let 'what goes around come around.' However my characters are stroppy and insist on adding things. I don't mind, it makes a better book!
With a workling title of 'Revenge', set in 1872 Britain, India and New Zealand, so far I have my MC - Bryce Ackerman - leaving the UK for India in pursuit of a group of men who have cost him his beloved fiancee and caused distress in his mother's beloved Yorkshire.
Don't want to give away more but so far, as well as revenge, I have found justice, women's rights and coping with loss all emerging through various different characters' stories. Anger, love and hate make a potent mix which I am enjoying unravelling as I write.
P.D.R. Lindsay
It all started with a friend's tale of her Turkish grandmother who actually wasn't!
P.D.R. Lindsay
A novel set in 1872 in India and New Zealand. It's a bit tricky at the moment as my plan and plot line are being taken over by the characters who have hijacked the whole book!
P.D.R. Lindsay
You do not get inspired to write. You write because you have something to say and no other way to say it. You sit down and get on with it. Waiting for inspiration is fatal. You make sure you are inspired very day and stay inspired until you have written a page, a scene or so many words!
Writing, for me, is like breathing, I can't stop it and it's that vital.
Writing, for me, is like breathing, I can't stop it and it's that vital.
P.D.R. Lindsay
Read, read and read again. Read everything and make sure you read poetry, Shakespeare, and the classics as well as the lastest books in your favourite genres. It is only by reading that you can learn to write in your voice and in your style.
P.D.R. Lindsay
Ah! I can escape this difficult world into one I create. I love it for I can 'live' with people, my characters, I learn to know so well and I can tell stories about them without being called a liar!
Writing is a way to stay sane.
Writing is a way to stay sane.
P.D.R. Lindsay
Don't believe in it. Writers write, so you sit and write.
BUT
If your life is so full of creative energy draining events, and this happens to all of us, take a break and write reviews, read your favourite books and write a blog piece about how life is giving you hell at the moment.
Then the next day it's back to the computer and back to writing.
BUT
If your life is so full of creative energy draining events, and this happens to all of us, take a break and write reviews, read your favourite books and write a blog piece about how life is giving you hell at the moment.
Then the next day it's back to the computer and back to writing.
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