On writing very fast.......

Five of the Angel Mountain novels were produced at the rate of one per year. That was a very ambitious schedule.  Do you write very quickly?

Yes, I do.  I work straight onto the computer, banging away with two fingers, making lots of mistakes, and correcting as I go along.  If I am working on a difficult passage I may keep going for twelve hours or more, with very few breaks;  but I do seem to have the knack of getting away from writing for days -- or sometimes weeks -- and then picking up again where I left off. The critical thing is to keep the creative process going inside my head even when I am gardening or travelling or doing building work.........  My greatest output in one day was about 11,000 words, but a more average output would be around 4,000 words.  On Angel Mountain took me about eighteen months to write, but the other books were written much more quickly -- in about four months each.  That was probably down to increased confidence, greater knowledge of my characters, and greater efficiency in my research and writing.

You mention research -- how much research and preparation goes into the books?

A considerable amount.  Because I am writing historical fiction I have to get the social history -- and all sorts of other things -- right.   For example, I have had to study folk traditions, the events of the farming calendar, beliefs, political issues of the day, the details of women’s clothing, and the timing of great events on the world stage.  If you get anything wrong in historical fiction, you can be sure that somebody will jump on you from a great height!  Luckily I have a considerable library of relevant books at home, and that has saved me from long hours spent in public libraries.  The internet has been a boon.   But a lot of the detail in the books was in my head already, from years of reading and writing about folk tales and local geography and history.  The background detail is enjoyed by many readers, and there is of course a “learning” aspect to the reading of historical fiction.   By the same token, as an author I enjoy the “teaching” opportunities that come in the quieter parts of the novels, and they serve a useful technical purpose too in permitting me to vary the pace of my storytelling.