Welcome to the Author Interview. This time, it features the lovely Prue Batten, author of Passage.
If you’re an author who’d like to take part in the series, email me: debbie@myrandommusings.co.uk
Now over to Prue.
1 Firstly, tell us a little bit about yourself
Ostensibly a journalist and researcher with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, but amongst other things I’ve also been a bookseller and a cosmetician. I usually write historical fiction sagas which have won awards here and there and I hope to return to the twelfth century in due course, but my sights are currently set on closer timeframes.
Periodically, I’m commissioned to write short stories for a high-profile miniature book-press in the United States. For me, this is one of the most unique and rewarding collaborations that could ever happen to a writer.
I’m also honoured to be a member of Inkslingers’ Veterans – a group who write and publish purely to raise money for cancer research. We’ve all been touched by cancer in some way – friends, family – and this is our way of trying to help.
But when the pen’s laid aside, I garden, attend ballet class, embroider, walk my dog for miles, work with my husband on the family farm and cook too many cakes.
Life’s too short for sitting, I reckon!
2 Tell us a little bit about your books.
It’s a cross-genre list. The first four books published were actually historical fantasy and it’s still a favourite genre because it’s filled with rules and no rules, a genre where I get to fling paint around like an impressionist.
But the historical fiction list is my most solid, with two award-winning trilogies published and more to come. I love the twelfth century with a passion – an age where its fellows sit on the cusp of enlightenment, and where trade is rich, vengeful and explosive.
This last year, however, I’ve written a contemporary fiction. More about that later…
3 Where do you find your inspiration for your books?
For the fantasies – inanimate things like thick embroidery, miniature books, a paperweight and even cloth called shifu. All are partnered with the energy of secrets.
For the historical fiction – twelfth century trade, trade, and more trade rubbed over with a patina of revenge!
And for Passage, the new book (a contemporary fiction), it was quite simply a challenge from highly regarded fantasy writer, Juliet Marillier. Juliet challenged me to write a contemporary fiction about a woman of later years.
The task sounds easy, but finding something that would create tension and heart (beyond marital breakdown) inevitably led to the loss of partners. Passage (with love and a touch of whimsy and humour) is Annie’s journey to the other side of grief.
4 What, for you, is the best thing about being a writer?
Telling a story. Drifting with the current of the story as it moves. And then, when the story is released, being able to entertain readers.
5 And the worst?
Having to finish the story. I feel as if I’m saying goodbye to loved ones. You know when you finish reading a book that you never want to end? That feeling…
6 If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?
To convince the world that we need to cherish every green and blue inch of it.
I love the natural world. It’s a wonder every time we breathe, every time we see clear sea, blue skies, raindrops, green trees, the living world in all its facets. We need to protect it. We need to fight rampant profit-mongering and despoiling and let governments know that we are educated, and sick of manipulation.
Sorry. Will step off the soap box now…
7 Do you have any tips for anyone wanting to write their first book?
Write what you love and love what you write. Edit, edit, edit. Take advice, no matter how shattering!
8 Tell us one random fact about you
I was a swimming champion…
9 Who is your favourite author?
Dorothy Dunnett.
10 And your favourite book(s)?
All of Dunnett’s list.
11 What book are you reading right now?
CJ Archer’s The Magician’s Diary. EXCELLENT historic fantasy. Highly recommended.
12 Where is your favourite place to write?
On the coast with the sounds of seabirds and waves because I think I might have been a mermaid, a smuggler or a fisherman in a past life…
13 Do you prefer to write in silence or do you have a writing soundtrack?
Ambient sound from the garden and beach.
14 What can we expect from you next?
A collaboration between myself and highly successful British writer, Simon Turney – it’ll be a raw saga set in Britain and Tasmania during the grim time of convict transportation.
I also have an idea for a follow-up to Passage, the contemporary fiction.
And there’s also the twelfth century waiting not so patiently.
And a story about The Cabinet of Curiosities. It’s most definitely a fantasy and set back in the world of Eirie that I first wrote about in The Chronicles of Eirie.
15 Anything else you’d like to share with us?
Just that Passage has made me feel like a first-time writer all over again because it’s a genre I NEVER thought to write. I hope I’ve done the genre proud and I hope I’ve respected the intimate feelings of grief that catastrophic loss incurs. I also hope Annie (my protagonist) shows that there is light at the end of the tunnel. For any who see the words ‘grief’ and ‘loss’ and think this book isn’t for them, trust me, there’s wry humour, a dog that doesn’t take life sitting down, and maybe even a happy ending…
16 Where can we find you?
My website, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.
Great insight – look forward to reading more