Harrie Blake interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

I have been reading since I was 11, and I think it is safe to say I was a prolific reader as a child, sometimes 2 to 3 books today. One of my greatest gifts was to grow up in a large, loud household that I wanted to escape from while having parents and a brother who loved books and valued reading—a perfect storm. 

When did your love of books begin?

I struggled to read as a child, a mild form of a learning disability, so my favourite memory is of CS Lewis's Magician's Nephew being read to me. By 11, we had it under control, and I could read myself, and well, let's say I might have gotten a little over-excited and pretty much started reading everything. This was assisted by the fact that my eldest brother also read and had a massive sci-fi fantasy collection. He would recommend books for me to read, which resulted in me finishing his entire collection by the time I was 13 and building my own. I also had school libraries and second-hand bookstores. When I got a bit older, my favourite thing to do was get on the bus, by myself, I would have been around 16 by this point, and bus hop between second-hand book stores, selling back the ones I had finished the week before and using it and any money I had managed to make to buy the following week's worth of reading.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

To be honest, I was better at music and maths than I was at writing. I struggled a little with English at school, so I was never marked as a brilliant writer or anything. Still I had a go and would always fail at chapter 5. Build the world, introduce the characters and then have them all stand around, not knowing what to do. 

I decided that I didn't have anything interesting to write about, so I put it aside and just kept reading, working (which required professional writing skills) and studying (which required me to develop academic writing skills). After multiple degrees and postgraduate studies, I decided to put off having a real go at writing long enough. I started to study it as if it was (as it is) an art form and let go of that image of myself, just magically touching my fingers to the keyboard and a story appearing fully formed.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

For me, I sat down and wrote out a bunch of ideas for books I would like to write. I chose one and then set about writing it that year. I attended every event my writer's centre had, watched all the free webinars I could, and listened to books about how to write. To be honest, I treated it like an assignment that needed to be done, abet a lot more fun to do 😊

 

I love the world we live in now with all the online tools to help, the platforms you can use to make your work available to the readers and the multiple format options.

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

It is a skill. There are so many fantastic resources out there. Connect with your closest writers centre, attend webinars, find good books on writing (2000 to 10000 words by Rachael Aaron is a good one to start with) and write. Don't worry about it being good. As Bob Ross said: 'Talent is a pursued interest. Anything that you're willing to practice, you can do.'

 

It takes time. You can be effective with your time with a bit of daily planning or just choosing a direction and going, but at the end of the day, you need to find space for it to happen as it takes hours and hours and hours. Of course, it is a lot of fun (though it hurts the brain sometimes!).

Tell us about your book/books:

I finished my first book last year and have two works in progress at the moment.

 

My first book was Books to Blood: a murder mystery, and it was a contemporary take on a whodunnit (warning: Alba sometimes needs to use mature language!).  

 

I love the mystery genre, and while my next two books are going to have urban fantasy and steampunk settings most of my stories will be based on untangling mysteries with a bit of murder and mayhem thrown in.

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

Isn't there a saying that meeting someone who loves the same book you do is the best kind of reference? I love reading, and I love that I can now contribute to this world that has played such a big part in my life. The fact that technology helps us connect globally has shown how much kindness and sharing there is in this community. I love my online book clubs and meeting people who like to talk about what we love about books and recommend others. I am also very grateful to my online writing communities where we can discuss different types of tenses and character points of view as all my 'in person' friends get slightly glazed looks when I start going on about it!

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

If you like stories that include mysteries to be uncovered by characters that solve them with humour, build friendships and occasionally kick ass, then I hope you will enjoy my work.

Where can people connect with you?

My website is best: Home - HarrieBlake (pubsitepro.com). There is a newsletter (don't worry, it is very low volume!) and has all my different social media tags. 😊