Today's Chat with Sarah features Susan Hancock author of Antsey's Revenge.
To view the official review, click here.
To view the book on Amazon, click here.
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1. How did you get into writing?
As a former University Lecturer and researcher, I became used to writing as a compulsory part of my work. My books during that time were non-fiction, of course, and published by Routledge and others.
2. Who or what has been the biggest influence on you?
Being partially housebound (a mix of cancer and radiotherapy damage to the nerves in my spine) left me looking for a purpose in life. Writing now fulfils that need.
3. What is your ideal writing environment?
Anywhere I can perch my laptop.
4. Let's talk about your book Anstey's Revenge. How did you come up with a science fiction book set in Elizabethan times?
Working in SFF is an effective way of presenting contemporary issues from a distanced perspective. I wanted to talk about the vulnerability of refugee populations fleeing war and, out-of-the blue, came up with the idea of them arriving from a far planet and encountering a population from our own past times.
5. What was the hardest scene for you to write?
I think that has to be the writing of my MC Thomas’s despair when he fears his wife Kat has forgotten him and that he may have to give up his children. I cried.
6. Which of the characters do you relate to most and why?
Again, it has to be Thomas. Dealing with depression makes him vulnerable, whereas Kat, his half-human wife, is much stronger than I am.
7. If you could meet your characters, what would you tell them?
Trust in yourselves and each other more...share your worries.
8. This is the second in a trilogy. Can you tell us about the third?
In Anstey’s Legacy: No Greater Love, the military regime, which has won the war on the refugees' home-planet, has sent out soldiers to repatriate everyone hiding in time and space. They are also looking for ‘expendable’ workers… Kat and Thomas can never resist trying to save everyone, but attempting to do so comes with a high price.
9. What's next for you after this series?
I have written a sequel (working title: The Children of Auriga) set some twelve years after the events in Anstey’s Legacy. It follows the lives of Kat and Thomas’s children. This should be out by the end of September. I am also working on a prequel, the story of Kat’s mother Elizabeth and her relationship with the eponymous Anstey.
I like to end with some fun questions.
10. If you could spend a day with another popular author, who would you choose?
That’s difficult. Perhaps any of those authors who have written the books I’ve reviewed on my website: [url]https://www,susanjenniferhancock.com[/url]. If I could have a fantasy duo of authors - one sadly dead, one alive - I would choose a Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman combo.
11. Would you rather be run over by a car or burnt by scalding oil?
Hmmm! That’s fun? As long as the scalding oil only burnt the extreme tip of my little finger, I think I could cope with that.
12. As a science fiction author, I have to ask, what's your favorite science fiction book? TV show or movie?
I’m assuming this question rules out fantasy from the equation, so, for TV shows? Stranger Things ranks high. I’m reluctant to pick just one science fiction book. Two I’ve really enjoyed recently: Jonathan Nevair’s Goodbye to the Sun and Vidar Hokstad’s The Year Before the End.
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