1) Please tell us a little bit about yourself?
Starting with the hardest question is unfair. Writers are pretty boring really. Unless they are the hard drinking, witty ones who don’t get much done. I hate the between books stage. I like to be knee deep in writing a novel, ideally just before half way in – outlining chapters, researching facts, probably trying not to read too much as that gets in the way of writing. That’s the best me – writing, thinking, stressing, becoming the characters, finding their voices. Letting them tell me what they want or don’t want. I like the surprises that characters throw up you didn’t know about them.
I like to write in favourite coffee shops, surrounded by a wall of noise and conversations I can’t hear. I don’t tweet. I don’t blog, although I review. Publisher is always in despair I’m not doing this, but when I’m writing I don’t want to be distracted. When I’m not, well what’s to tweet?
The rest is living – making sure I go for walks (the best cure for blockage or word-blindness). I have just moved to Lincolnshire for a year or two, living right by the beach and the biting cold winds. I go to the movies as often as possible. I’m thinking about getting another dog. Gripping stuff really. Mostly I read and think about what I might write next.
2) At what age did you write your first book?
It’s a very sad story. I was about 16. Handwritten. Gave it to my mother to read, she forgot where she put it. I sulked for about two years. It was probably rubbish so just as well never saw light of day.
3) What was your inspiration for writing your book(s)?
The idea came to me pretty much whole some time ago. Two kids running away getting caught up in a flash flood and arriving at an abandoned scientific institution. That and one girl in particular who waited impatiently for each chapter to be completed and gave instant valuable advice. It’s the very best kind of inspiration for a writer. She is my Genie Magee.
4) Are there any parts of the story you feel particularly close to?
The scene when Genie goes up to the reservoir with Moucher I think. It’s moment of discovery and then tension. It’s a place I used to go to think and watch Eagles soar. I very much like to include real personal places in my stories and know where everything is.
And perhaps the last part of Book Two. It’s kind of sad beginning with Genie in the woods sketching- but I felt very close to the atmosphere and the change that comes over my characters. It will probably upset some readers, but not everything runs smoothly in friends and relationships.
5) How can our followers connect with you?
My email address is on the Sam Hawksmoor website
UK related Questions:
1) Where’s your favourite place?
That’s hard. In the UK probably a simple walk along the River Wey in Guildford (never straying too far from the coffee shops in town)
*But actually one of my real favourite places is sitting on the rocks that jut out into the wild ocean at Llandudno Beach in Cape Town as huge rollers come on spraying everything
2) What’s your favourite thing about living here?
The country roads in Lincolnshire. You can still have some pleasure in driving here unless there is a tractor ahead of you and a cop with a speed gun. Crossing Dartmoor in Winter/ An amazing warm sunny New Years Day at Portmeirion in Wales.
The smoke free pubs.
3) Is there one place you would like to visit, that you haven’t yet?
Never been to Chester
4) Do you have a favourite British band?
Bat for Lashes – Eagerly await new album from Natasha khan
5) Do you have a favourite British movie?
Too hard: Toss up between the original ‘The Ladykillers’ and ‘In Bruges’ (although that’s Irish).
6) Do you have a favourite British actor/actress?
Alec Guinness/ Tuppence Middleton
8) When you think of Britain, what’s the first thing you think of?
Rain (I used to live in Cornwall, all you ever need to know about rain)
9) Which place in Britain would you most like to live other than where they do live?
Guildford or Holland Park.
(That’s what lottery tickets are for).
10) What's you're favourite British saying?
’When one door closes another one slams in your face’
*I just love the positivity of that.
The Repossession34 kids missing. Vanished without a trace.
Believing she is possessed, Genie Magee's mother has imprisoned her all summer encouraged by the sinister Reverend Schneider. Beautiful Rian, love of her life, sets her free, and their escape washes them up at Marshall's remote farmhouse downriver. But why are there newspaper clippings of the missing kids pinned to Marshall's bathroom wall? And should they believe his stories about the experiments at the Fortress, an underground research station nearby?
Genie meets Denis. Missing two years now, but hasn't grown an inch. Rian is haunted by Renée, who insists she's not actually dead. Soon they discover the terrible truth about Reverend Schneider and worse, Genie is next ... and Rian can't do a thing to prevent it.
The Repossession is just the beginning.
- Just fill in the form below. One free entry plus a ton of extra entries.
- UK/IRE only
- Ends 30th November
Author Bio:
Sam Hawksmoor started writing after careers that involved travel, photography and teaching. Add a smattering of gold prospecting in British Columbia, working on radio in Africa, not to mention being a tour guide in America and Europe; he likes to collect people and stories. His heart belongs to Vancouver, a city that is changing so fast the past is disappearing almost before it happens. Sam believes that the 21st Century will be so different to the last, people will look back on our lives now and wonder how it was we could be so primitive. On the other hand... Hawksmoor hopes that you will enjoy The Repossession and stick around for part two, The Hunting.
1 comment:
Great interview :) Ive wanted to read this for awhile now :) Thanks so much for the chance!!
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