Bláithín O’Reilly Murphy interviews Helen Pugh

Author to Author Interview between Bláithín O’Reilly Murphy [@whatbladidnext] and Helen Pugh [@Intrepidudettes]

1. We’re meeting for this chat in your favourite cafe/ bar/ pub/ restaurant/ hotel lobby. Where are we and why is this your favourite? And what have you ordered for us?

Anywhere warm and cosy will do! I’ll have a hot chocolate and you can pick what you’d like.

 

2. What name[s] do you write under?

Just my actual name: Helen Pugh.

 

3. When was the last time you wrote?

A few minutes before starting this interview!

 

4. What is your most recently published book or current work in progress? Who is most likely to read it?

My latest book is ‘Cuentos incatásticos’, aimed at Spanish-speaking children and parents as well as adults learning Spanish. It’s a way to introduce children to a fascinating Indigenous society through a series of short stories and fact sections. It’s also available in English as ‘Inca-tastic Tales’.

 

5. What is your writing Kryptonite?

Stress and being busy certainly make writing tricky, as does hitting a wall with research.

 

6. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?

Buying paperback copies of my books makes me very happy. And printing out my books to proofread on paper and printing out vital research articles are both necessary expenses.

 

7. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal and why?

Given that I’m not Indigenous, I cannot claim a spirit animal. I do have this mad dream of having a pet llama one day, though.

 

8. What did you [or would you do] with your first advance or payout from your first book?

I’ve never had a huge amount of money come in at one time. If I did and it was a big enough cheque, I’d put it towards owning a house.

 

9. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? Care to share the [working] titles with us?

I have two. I’m working on a children’s book of Amazonian legends and historical stories as well as a book about women throughout the ages in the county I live in (Somerset).

 

10. Describe your perfect writing location/set-up?

I’d love an office… actually I’d love just a desk!

 

11. What is your actual writing location/set-up like?

Currently, I use the kitchen table or the sofa.

 

12. How long, on average, does it take you to write a book?

It really depends. ‘Intrepid Dudettes of the Inca Empire’ took 2 years, a lot of which was pouring through books, articles and online resources to piece together the fascinating lives of the Inca women I was studying. ‘Inca-tastic Tales’, which borrowed a lot of the research from my first book, took about 6 months. I imagine my latest book about Somerset will take well over a year. The research has to be meticulous.

 

13. How do you select the names of your characters? Would you ever let someone else, say a reader name one?

Most of my characters are real historical figures so I don’t choose their names, although sometimes I refer to them in specific ways to avoid confusion. There are a lot of similarly named people in my Inca books and so I used terms such as Francisco Junior to distinguish him from his father, who had the same name, or Clara Coya instead of Beatriz Clara Coya to set her apart from Beatriz Huaylas. When I do add the odd fictional character, I choose the name based on the time period and culture at hand to make sure that it is authentic.

 

14. What’s your favourite underappreciated book?

The Mistress of the Art of Death series follows a female autopsy expert from Sicily who works with an Arabic eunuch in England to solve murders in the 1100s. It’s both original and surprising but not historically inaccurate.

 

15. Do you ever Google yourself or your books? If so, what's the most surprising thing you’ve found?

It’s necessary to Google my paperbacks to find all the links. I found someone offering my paperback on ebay, which was odd. But when questioned, they claimed they weren’t because it said the book was out of stock. Perhaps they were planning to buy copies from Amazon to sell on at a profit. I wonder if any other indie authors have experienced that.

 

16. What or who are you currently reading yourself?

A book about Joan of Navarre, a Queen of England who was accused of witchcraft!

 

17. What other books are in your ‘to be read’ pile?

The de Staël Escapades by Saga Hillbom (a fellow indie author).

 

18. Where and how can we all stalk you and your great work from now on? Leave us all the links below!

All links are available here: https://linktr.ee/intrepiddudettes

Please do follow both Bláithín O’Reilly Murphy @WhatBladidnext and Helen Pugh @Intrepidudettes