SD Crockett

About SD:

SD Crockett was born in 1969. She graduated from London University’s Royal Holloway and Bedford New College with a degree in Drama and Theatre Studies.

On leaving university she traveled to Russia as a timber buyer in the Caucasus Mountains but after the birth of her son in 1996 she returned to the East Coast of Suffolk where she spent five years restoring a derelict Ancient Scheduled Monument - a Martello Tower on the mouth of the River Deben.

After moving to a smallholding in Tunstall Forest and with her son now at school, she started a business selling walnut gunstocks from Eastern Armenia.

Currently living in the beech forests of the Montagne Noir of Southern France, she still regularly travels to Armenia buying timber. Her experiences in far-flung places inform much of her writing.

AFTER THE SNOW is her first novel.

www.sdcrockett.com

SD's Books:

AFTER THE SNOW

Author Interview:

Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? Who were your childhood storytelling heroes?

STRUWELPETER.

Can you talk us through the writing of your first book? What were the key moments?

I find the process of writing difficult. The story - the concept - is what gives me enthusiasm. And then I struggle. I have to see it and get it down whilst keeping the lightness and the play of it. I like editing. I like cutting. But it’s painting a big picture where you can only see the square inch you are working on at any one time. There’s a memory trick to it.

The key moments in AFTER THE SNOW were finding the voice and writing a last sentence that answered all the questions I had been fighting into an order throughout the story.

Was it hard to get an agent? Can you talk us through the process?

I was lucky in only approaching Julia Churchill and that has worked out very well. I did do my research first. Everything is out there. And you won’t read anything bad about Greenhouse who are fresh, enthusiastic and on both sides of the Big Water.

Describe your writing day. Where do you write? How do you organize your time? Where do you look for inspiration?

Time is a golden commodity as I have two children. I light a fire if it’s cold, drink coffee and write at a desk in my room, usually in the mornings. If I don’t start something before ten o/clock I tend to prevaricate for the rest of the day.

Inspiration comes from really seeing something in my head. Getting it down is the hard bit. But it’s good when it does and things just flow for a few minutes.

Can you describe three aspects of writing craft that have been most important as you’ve developed as an author?

To be deeply self-critical and to trust my instincts at the same time.

To have a solid idea embedded into every page.

Remembering to have a light and playful attitude.

Which favorite authors would you invite to a dinner party? What fictional character do you wish you’d invented?

Hilary Mantel for her take on this ‘historic occasion’, Anne Bronte (or the whole bunch) for my personal interest, George Elliot and Trollope for writing tips, Marlowe to get it a bit rowdy, (obviously Shakespeare too - so Hilary Mantel could write the definitive biography), Hemingway to get us the best window seats in town and George Macdonald Fraser for laughs. (Maybe JK to foot the enormous bill…)

Character? Harry Flashman: bully, coward, womanizer and hero. He would have been jolly good fun.