Yesterday, I wrote a post called Missionary Position, a post about a writer’s aims, which was introduced to the world of the writer by acclaimed commentator Joanna Penn. It occurred to me that the questions Joanna asked were perfect for the Big Red Chair which hasn’t appeared on the blog for quite some time …. being re-upholstered as it were.
I’ve known Jane Nicholas for a number of years since I met her when I enrolled in a ‘how to’ class for stumpwork at our local embroidery shop, A Stitch In Time. In the course of conversation, she found out that I was a book and paper-artist and our friendship developed on a number of levels because we have similar backgrounds and we both deal in forms of communication and creative expression. I felt the ringing of those kindred spirit bells, – a sure sign there is a good friendship in the offing.
Posie Graeme-Evans is a rather special person to me – one of Australia’s top TV drama producers, her largest claim to fame is a much-loved TV drama based around a family of farmers who just happened to be women. Everyone in Australia knew McLeods’ Daughters and waited with baited breath for each episode.
It seems odd to have a Red Chair feature so soon after that brilliant last, but I could not ignore the chance of talking to a favourite and highly successful author as he prepares to release his new book.
I first met Jennifer Stevenson
in a Bookclub online… she’s always made me smile with some of her witty comment and when I asked if she’d jump in the Red Chair for interrogation, she agreed. Her early life in swamp country in the USA brings archtypical images to mind and I needed to know more.
In the beginning Katharine Eliska Kimbriel was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New SF/Fantasy Writer. Katharine’s work has long straddled the line: “too literary to be commercial, too commercial to be literary” — she has a list of itinerant occupations to prove it. What urged me to invite her to Red chair was that she had a pet gargoyle! Yes, really!
My guest today, Stuart Aken, says that he was born against the odds to a widowed mother in a neighbour’s bed. Then raised in a number of homes by an artist mother who knew what love meant and a step-father who lacked imagination but made up for it with affection and education in things natural. Stuart maintains he wrote all the wrong things for a lifetime until he learned who he was and I thought that apart from the initial burst into the world, all we writers have done exactly that: written all the wrong things until we ‘grew up’. Stuart welcome,
Louise Wise is another writer who is reaping the benefits of the e-revolution. She and I ‘met’ at YouWriteOn.com as part of their print-published stable and I’ve always enjoyed her wit, not only in the forums but in her novels as well. I thought it was time she sat in the Big Red Chair, so here she is…
Shéa MacLeod once told her mother she wished life was more exciting. It was only later she realized you should be careful what you wish for. Her adventures have led her from the Scottish Highlands to the shores of Maui. She’s tried belly dancing and samba. She’s been a soap maker and candy seller. She even tried her hand at massage therapy. And she knows how to milk a goat. Shéa is the author of urban fantasy post-apocalyptic scifi paranormal romances with a twist of steampunk. I met Barbara Silkstone through the effervescent (and suddenly very quiet) Mark Williams. She bravely (some would say foolishly perhaps) agreed to interrogation in my 
Red Chair which is working overtime with some high-end ‘Indie’ authors right now.
