What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction???
Oh, I have lots of advice! But the first piece might be this: you have to love doing it. It?s likely to be much more work than you thought and much less money than you hoped; it will likely take you longer and you have to get used to people telling you they didn?t like it very much even after all that work, so if you don?t really love doing it, there is little point. I do love doing it, so I think it?s about the best way to spend your time. Imaginary people, especially the ones you?ve made up, are more tractable than real people ? there is much to be said in favor of spending your time with them.
[quote KarenJoyFowler]
What childhood book most inspired you?
This is a hard question as I read voraciously as a child and before that, I was voraciously read to. I don?t remember ever disliking a book until I was all grown-up. (Assuming I am all grown-up.) Lots of the books I encountered had animal characters ? Charlotte?s Web. The Wind in the Willows, Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, and Winnie the Pooh, later Big Red and Son of Big Red, both dog books. I was wild about dogs. Lots of the books had some fantastical element ? Mary Poppins and Half Magic and The Trouble with Jenny?s Ear about a little girl who could hear people?s thoughts. The Borrowers and Castaways in Lilliput.
For a long time my favorite book was The Green Poodles by Charlotte Baker. I?m not sure why I was so attracted to this book, but it did combine an English orphan who goes to live with her Texan cousins, an old painting with a mystery attached, and a general level of suspense with lots of practical information about dog shows and how and why poodles have the different cuts they have and how to clip a puppy?s tail. Every once in a while I run across someone who was also obsessed with this book. Not often, but sometimes.
But the book that inspired me the most came later, in my early teens and was inarguably TH White?s The Once and Future King. This book launched me on an Arthurian Quest from which I have never come home. Among the many many lessons it contained was that a book could be both funny and sad. No humor without sorrow; no beauty without ugliness; no magic without science; no past without future.
[quote TillyBookClub]
Evening everyone
Many thanks to those who have already posted messages and reviews - hope that you are all able to be here tonight and looking forward to hearing from many more of you over the next hour.
I?m thrilled to introduce our guest tonight, Karen Joy Fowler, author of the highly acclaimed WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES and the global bestseller THE JANE AUSTEN BOOKCLUB, amongst other books.
Karen, thank you very, very much indeed for giving us your time tonight. And congratulations on your recent Man Booker Prize longlisting and your PEN Faulkner Award win. We've already got a fair few questions to get through so I'll just add our standard Mumsnet ones and then off we go...???
What childhood book most inspired you?
What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction???
Over to you...