Rosemary Edghill

answers the Usual Questions

Rosemary Edghill

Rosemary Edghill is a working writer. She shuts herself up in her writing space for up to 12 hours a day writing. This makes a change from her beginnings as a reader when she shut herself up for 12 hours a day reading.

Of her beginnings as a writer, she says on her web site: "I had settled myself down in front of my venerable IBM Selectric III ... How hard, I thought, could this be? (Did I mention that I didn't know how to type at the time?) I had the collected works of Jane Austen. I had the collected works of Georgette Heyer. I had Will and Ariel Durant. I had no idea what I was in for."

Has your interaction with fans, for example, at conventions, affected your work?

In the sense of "moving my work in a specific direction", I'd have to say it really doesn't have much effect. In the sense of getting real-time positive feedback from readers, it's wonderful egoboost.

Is there any particular incident (a letter, a meeting, a comment that stands out?

Yes! Many years ago I got a letter from a young boy who'd read one of my stories, THE EVER-AFTER, in DRAGON Magazine. He wrote that his mother was very negative about the whole fantasy and D&D thing, but he'd showed her my story and she read and enjoyed it. I'm very proud of that.

Do you have a favourite author or book (or writer or film or series) that has influenced you or that you return to?

Far too many to count! I love the Darkover series, and the Liaden series, and the anti-heroes of Scott Lynch and Matthew Woodring Stover very dearly. But I'd have to say that my ultimate go-to guilty pleasure is Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles. The language is absolutely gorgeous.

Who is the person you would most like to be trapped in a lift with? or a spaceship?

My girlfriend, of course!

Who is the person you would most DISlike to be trapped in a lift with? Or a spaceship?

Anybody who insists on proselytizing on behalf of their particular viewpoint, no matter what it is.

What would you pack for space? (Is there a food, beverage, book, teddy bear, etc that you couldn't do without?)

Aside from the instruction manual for the ship, asking me to pick just one book is very very cruel. I'd take my laptop so I could write and play Spider Solitaire, a lot of chocolate and tea, and all of my music! And a hat. I can't write without a hat.

What is the most important thing you would like to get/achieve from your work?

Getting paid is nice, but everybody who writes for a living says that! What I want is to get BETTER at it: to do exactly what I mean to do with the words on the page, and elicit the exact response from my readers that I'm hoping for. It's an ongoing process of discovery...

What is the special satisfaction of your work?

Getting to be other people. A lot of other people. Writing, to me, is like acting: you put on another persona and think his or her thoughts, and you do it compellingly. I've gotten to be a lot of interesting people in my career.

submitted by Rosemary Edghill

27 August, 2013

For other answers to The Usual Questions Click here

Just the facts:
Born: Birmingham, Alabama, but it doesn't really count as I was only there for eight days.
Resides: Maryland USA. I'm a recent transplant (from New York State), so I'm still getting used to the regional culture
Bibliography/Awards:About half my bibliography is here: http://www.sff.net/people/eluki/titles/index.html
Unfortunately, I'm really bad about keeping the page updated.
Awards? Well, I got a Romantic Times KISS (Knight In Shining Silver) award for the character of Paladin in Hellflower, and my short story The Wild Hunt For Grey November was shortlisted for the Rhysling Awards once. That's about it...

Web site: http://www.sff.net/people/eluki
DREAMWIDTH JOURNAL
FACEBOOK
FACEBOOK AUTHOR PAGE (I think this is the right link)

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