Peter Glassborow

AUTHOR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Tell us your latest news.
I have my first book ‘A Fateful Legacy” published by Solstice Publishing. They also have short story ‘Weighty Words’ in their free fiction section.
2. What initially inspired you to become an author?
I remember writing my first story when I was thirteen. My father took one look at it and called it “Rubbish!”. He was my first critic, and it was rubbish. I spent the next forty years making up stories in my head or making rough notes sure that I could tell as good a story as those whose books I read. After all it seemed an easy life to make up stuff and get paid for it. About ten years ago I undertook a correspondence course in writing stories. My aim was to write action/adventure stories, but I seem to have ended up writing a ghost story based on a long love affair.
3. What is your favorite book and why?
I don’t have a favorite book as such. The first book I ever bought was ‘Spartacus’ by Howard Fast. And I still have it. My two favorite authors are Bernard Cornwell and C.J. Sansom but I will read anything that interests me from Sci-Fi to military history.
4. Do you have a particular time of day to write? We love to hear about a writer’s process
I write at all sorts of different times. Sometimes I squeeze in ten minutes at six in the morning before going too work. Any day off work or evening I try and write something. I also make notes during the day when something occurs to me. It might be a line of dialogue or a detail to the plot of what ever I’m working on. At might even be a weird sounding book title. If it is not required for what I am currently working on then I save it in a notebook in case I want to use it later. Some of the plot details in ‘A Fateful legacy’ were noted down well before I wrote the book and I came across them later when looking for ideas

5. What do you find to be the most difficult part of writing?
Grammar and spelling. Then there is the perpetual question when to stop rewriting something. I’m sure if left unchecked most authors would rewrite everything for eternity. Even after numerous rewrites it is still necessary to have someone professionally edit your work. When Kate Richards edited mine she saw a flaw in the plot that I had missed after three or four rewrites. Currently I have a problem with my computer because the man who fixed a problem on it decided to upgrade me to Windows 2007. Upgrade is supposed to mean improving but I have spent three weeks trying to get the word processor part to do what I want. Why is it labelled new and improved if it is harder to use? Bring back thick nibbed pens and carbon paper I say.

6. Do you have a favorite author?
As mentioned before Bernard Cornwell and C.J. Sansom are authors whose books I buy without even looking to see what the blurb on the cover says. They both write historical novels, but in totally different areas. Bernard Cornwell writes historical action books and C.J. Sansom writes a series of mystery/who-dunnits using the same character. I also like H.G Wells, but only his sci-fi stuff like War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. An ambition I have is to come up with some original theme as Wells did with those two books.

7. Tell us about your first published work.
A Fateful Legacy came about as I was thinking of writing a series of short stories about a ghost hunter. Or more accurately someone who released unhappy spirits from their earthbound haunts. That evolved into a story of several haunted houses that the main character inherits. That turned into the final book. In the book John inherits three houses spread across the UK. In each there are ghosts, sometimes form different eras. With the help of Kathryn, a psychic, he finds there is something common in each house, that of murdered lovers. John and Kathryn set out to free the spirits of the lovers.
Oddly enough it wasn’t until Kate Richards was doing the editing with me that I realised that if I had to give a label to the theme of the book I would have to call it a love story, spanning over a thousand years. Now it has come out my ghost/love story is in the thriller/mystery categories on the web sites. Now that I find confusing.

8. Do you have a favorite of your own works?
Obviously this one as it is the first published it is the favorite at the moment. But I have other books and short stories that I hope will see the light of day sometime. The short stories cover humorous, sci-fi and the paranormal. The finished books cover sci-fi, a historical action/adventure trilogy and two children’s books. The latter pair are perhaps my abiding favorite. They concern the adventures of a group of fairy dancers. However my fairies are not the normal sweety-pie goody-goody type fairies. They argue and squabble and if they have been drinking one of them is likely to thump you.

9. Where can our readers find you on the web?
www,peterglassborow.webs.com. As well as an intro to the book and a section of it to read there is a short story under the free fiction if you are interested. It concerns a would-be writer (where have we heard of one of them?) who is struggling with poor spelling and a cynical husband. To solve both these problems she sets out to buy a dictionary-a big one.

10. Where can they buy your books?
www.solsticepublishing.com is my company’s site. Also www.amazon.com and www.scribd.com/ and www.lulu.com and www.smashwords.com

11. Anything you would like to add?
If there are any other would be authors out there then please keep plodding on, but do it faster than me. From my first dream of being an author to being published took me fifty years with ten years of actively sending off submissions. To any readers who would like to read a ghost/love/thriller/mystery novel (delete anything non-applicable) then please try my book.
Thanks for the invite to be here.