On Saturday 9 May the Birmingham Book Festival hosted the third Orange Prize Readers' Day.
Kate Mosse, Honorary Director of the Orange Prize for Fiction and best selling author headed a panel of winners, judges and previously short listed authors for an afternoon of readings and discussion.
For those who couldn't attend the event we attempted to live blog the event but due to technical problems we had to abandon this. However never undeterred, here are the bits we got with the rest of event taken from hand written notes.
I hope you that the for those of you who couldn't attend, reading the following four blogs will give you an insight into the day and access to the best comments and advice offered by the wonderful writers who appeared....
Session One: Francesca Kay and Joanne Harris: 'It's not about the sound of a character's voice, it's about their heart beating'
Kate Mosse begins by asking Joanne about writing across different genres...
Joanne: I write in different genres so that I won't be pigeon holed. A lot of my fiction features food and my readers were always asking about the recipes so I wrote the cookery books - with the help of former chef Fran Warde.
Kate: You are associated very strongly with writing about France, is that a blessing or a curse?
Joanne: Writing has enabled me to travel to the places I couldn't travel to when I was younger and dreaming about it whilst I was in Leeds Grammar School....I am never tempted to write about places I don't know however.
Kate asks the authors about writing about place...
Joanne: I always start with smell. For Paris it's things like the smell of a certain bakery or a certain street after the rain.
Kate to Francesca: Will you ever go back to a place in your writing like Joanna did in 'The Lollypop Shoes'?
Francesca: I greatly admire writers who write about where they know, like Anne Tyler who always writes about Baltimore. I'd like to go back to the Antartic, the setting of 'An Equal Stillness', one day - the door is ajar.
Kate to Joanna: Did you feel pressure to return to Chocolat, or did you want to revisit it?
Joanne: I didn't want to do it for a while, because I thought it would just be a 'Chocolat 2' and I didn't want to be stuck there like St Marys Mead! I wanted to give something new to the story, people kept asking me what happened to them....also my child who was a prototype for the child in Chocolate had grown to a new age...Writing Vianne again was like meeting a old friend after several years and wondering how they ended up in that place. I had lots of readers saying to me,'why did you do that to Vianne' and I said 'I didn't do that to Vianne, life did!'
Question from audience: What did you think of the movie of Chocolat?
Joanne: It was a different animal, it belonged to the filmmakers....but every word in it was mine, the cast was amazing and and people liked it! I have no niggles about the film.
Question from audience: How do you make characters real?
Francesca: You have to see them absolutely, know what they wear, look like, eat for breakfast and most importantly what they are feeling.
Joanne: I agree, it's a question of belief and the little details, you need to be able to second guess their reactions. I believe in the pasts of characters, lots of my characters are dragging their pasts around behind them! If you develop your characters, they will develop a voice of their own.
Question from the audience: How did you write as a man for 'Blackberry Wine'?
Joanne: I think of it as writing an individual, its like method acting - what makes them tick? What do they care about? It's not about the sound of their voice it's the sound of their heart beating.
Kate: What will you be working on next ?
Francesca: It's so lovely to be asked 'what are you writing next', instead of 'why are you writing at all'!
by Karen
Kate Mosse, Honorary Director of the Orange Prize for Fiction and best selling author headed a panel of winners, judges and previously short listed authors for an afternoon of readings and discussion.
For those who couldn't attend the event we attempted to live blog the event but due to technical problems we had to abandon this. However never undeterred, here are the bits we got with the rest of event taken from hand written notes.
I hope you that the for those of you who couldn't attend, reading the following four blogs will give you an insight into the day and access to the best comments and advice offered by the wonderful writers who appeared....
Session One: Francesca Kay and Joanne Harris: 'It's not about the sound of a character's voice, it's about their heart beating'
Kate Mosse begins by asking Joanne about writing across different genres...
Joanne: I write in different genres so that I won't be pigeon holed. A lot of my fiction features food and my readers were always asking about the recipes so I wrote the cookery books - with the help of former chef Fran Warde.
Kate: You are associated very strongly with writing about France, is that a blessing or a curse?
Joanne: Writing has enabled me to travel to the places I couldn't travel to when I was younger and dreaming about it whilst I was in Leeds Grammar School....I am never tempted to write about places I don't know however.
Kate asks the authors about writing about place...
Joanne: I always start with smell. For Paris it's things like the smell of a certain bakery or a certain street after the rain.
Kate to Francesca: Will you ever go back to a place in your writing like Joanna did in 'The Lollypop Shoes'?
Francesca: I greatly admire writers who write about where they know, like Anne Tyler who always writes about Baltimore. I'd like to go back to the Antartic, the setting of 'An Equal Stillness', one day - the door is ajar.
Kate to Joanna: Did you feel pressure to return to Chocolat, or did you want to revisit it?
Joanne: I didn't want to do it for a while, because I thought it would just be a 'Chocolat 2' and I didn't want to be stuck there like St Marys Mead! I wanted to give something new to the story, people kept asking me what happened to them....also my child who was a prototype for the child in Chocolate had grown to a new age...Writing Vianne again was like meeting a old friend after several years and wondering how they ended up in that place. I had lots of readers saying to me,'why did you do that to Vianne' and I said 'I didn't do that to Vianne, life did!'
Question from audience: What did you think of the movie of Chocolat?
Joanne: It was a different animal, it belonged to the filmmakers....but every word in it was mine, the cast was amazing and and people liked it! I have no niggles about the film.
Question from audience: How do you make characters real?
Francesca: You have to see them absolutely, know what they wear, look like, eat for breakfast and most importantly what they are feeling.
Joanne: I agree, it's a question of belief and the little details, you need to be able to second guess their reactions. I believe in the pasts of characters, lots of my characters are dragging their pasts around behind them! If you develop your characters, they will develop a voice of their own.
Question from the audience: How did you write as a man for 'Blackberry Wine'?
Joanne: I think of it as writing an individual, its like method acting - what makes them tick? What do they care about? It's not about the sound of their voice it's the sound of their heart beating.
Kate: What will you be working on next ?
Francesca: It's so lovely to be asked 'what are you writing next', instead of 'why are you writing at all'!
by Karen
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