Hermione Laake video interview with transcript

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Hermione Laake: VOICE

Hermione Laake is an awards-nominated writer, also writing as Wilds. Laake is associate editor for content with OPEN:Journal of Arts & Letters. Laake was chair and secretary for competitions for Hampshire Writers Society 2012-2013. Laake has an MA in creative writing with distinction from KU, and a BA (Hons) from Winchester. Laake wrote her first two children’s books aged 18 years, DERBOLD THE WASP (a picture book), and WOEDY BEAR, a novel. Woedy Bear is published as an ebook on Kindle. Laake’s award-nominated chapter book MY FRIEND ALIEN is available as an ebook on Kindle and as a comic style chapter book without illustrations on Amazon. You can follow Hermione Laake on Goodreads and you can listen to her interpretations as reader-in-performance here

Do you Write all Year Round?

I write all year round. Recently, I started a gardening business to give me the time to focus on promoting my books for three months of the year.  I garden from March to November and query November to February.

What do you Write?

I write experimental fiction for adults and stand-alone fiction for children. My debut novella was a literary sequel to Jane Eyre. It is out of print now. There is a copy in London and a couple of copies in south west England too. I left some copies in cafes. So there are a few around.

Do you Read Books in the Genre you Write In?

You might call some of my books SF, as there are aliens in them and robots. My favourite author for conjuring up that surreal atmosphere would be H.G. Wells. I was nominated for the H.G. Wells Grand Prize in 2013 for MY FRIEND ALIEN. I am very proud of My Friend Alien.

Best Thing About Being an Author

Reading as a way to improve my craft. Reading is part of the work of being a writer. I enjoy reading the sample pages of Indie books on Kindle, and if I like the sample, I will buy the book. You can follow me on Goodreads and I would really appreciate your reviews of my children’s books.

Worst thing about being an Author VIDEO

I think it is well known that family and friends don’t take you seriously unless you are making huge sums of money from writing. Although, I have won my mum over in recent years. Mum takes me seriously as a writer now. This took years. I think this journey is a little like when your child hands you a bad drawing and you pretend it is amazing. I did this with all the scribbles of my children, and at least two of them ended up amazing at drawing. I know I am their mum, but it is true. Mum reads a great deal and I take this as a compliment. Money seems to be something that people use as a reference for quality, which is a shame. There are plenty of works out there that didn’t get any attention until the authors were deceased. Wuthering Heights, was one such work. I finally got around to reading Mrs Gaskell’s THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE this year. I was really surprised by the story of Emily Bronte’s life and death, and the way Wuthering Heights was first received. I was quite shocked by her Emily’s situation and her death, which was so close to finishing the book. I got the impression the family were quite hungry as Charlotte refers to a lack of meals when she is travelling to promote her book in her correspondence.