Interview Questions for Elisabeth Marrion -The Wight Thing
I’d lie to welcome award-winning author Elisabeth Marrion to Layered Pages today to talk with me about her upcoming new story, The Wight Thing.
Hello. Elisabeth! Thank you for chatting with me today at Layered pages about your book, The Wight Thing. First, tell me about your story and how is it different from your other books?
Hello Stephanie, it is me who has to thank you.
This latest novel is what we call a –‘chick lit, you know, the type of book a reader likes to take away on holiday. My previous books are historical novels. The Night I Danced with Rommel, Liverpool Connection and Cuckoo Clock-New York. Family life (my own family mainly) before and during WWII). In The Wight Thing, six retired friends find it hard to imagine living without each other’s company, since they have been friends from their uni days, and come up with the obvious solution. How about all moving in together? And their search for the ideal place begins.
How is your character(s) influenced by their setting?
This is a very varied group, each with their own desires and problems, Very different characters. Maybe that makes them such great friends.
Please tell me a little about Christine.
Oh dear, Christine, she involuntarily always finds herself in charge. She is a great ‘doer’. A fact her friends had on caught onto at an early stage in their relationships. Somehow, she stumbles into situations not realising she has yet again has been set up. No different on this occasion.
Who is Isabelle and can you tell me a little about her relationship with Christine?
Isabelle is one of the group. Altogether there are six of them. But Isabelle has recently lost her husband, Patrick. Maybe that was the instigator for their new venture.
Describe the setting of your story.
The friends live and have worked in the South of England, but that does not mean the story does not go further afield. It goes back and forth from the late sixties to today, therefore, quite a few actual happenings from the early part for their lives together.
Often times the best inspiration comes within us. How do you flesh out your characters to drive the plot?
Difficult to say. The characters sort of come to me and then develop a life of their own, they just grow. I can see them and watch them whilst I go along.
Was there any research or fact checking that went into your story?
Funny, you should ask that. A lot of places in The Wight Thing are actual places and I have either lived there or know them well. A lot of little ‘incidents’ in the book also really happened. Not of course, to the characters I allocated them to, because I made those up.
How has this story impacted you?
This might sound crazy, the story has become part of my life. But not surprising really since I know the places and little stories within.
How has your environment and upbringing coloured your writing?
I write from the heart and like to tell a good story. I was brought up in Germany right after the end of WWII. I know from that time in History how important it is to have a good group of friends you can rely on.
Were there any challenges writing this story? What was your process?
I had the idea about the story for a very long time. It that was something my friends and my husband on myself had contemplated at some time. All of us living together.
How did you come up with the title?
It was supposed to be called ‘No laughing out loud’. But then with comedy comes also tragedy, so the title did not really fit. And when the Characters decided to have a look for a place on the Isle of Wight, and we later find out Christine has a ‘thing ‘about the island, well, the title could not be anything else.
Where can readers buy your book?
I am glad you asked me that. You can already pre-order a printed copy from my Publisher
ELISABETH MARRION was born August 1948, in Hildesheim Germany. Her father was a Corporal in the Royal Air Force and stationed after the War in the British occupied zone in Germany, where he met her mother Hilde, a war widow.
As a child Elisabeth enjoyed reading novels and plays by Oscar Wilde, Thornton Wilder and never lost her love of reading novels by Ernest Hemingway, or short stories by Guy de Maupassant.
In 1969 she moved to England, where she met her late husband David. Together they established a clothing importing company. Their business gave them the opportunity to travel and work in the Sub Continent and the Far East. A large part of their working life was spent in Bangladesh, where they helped to establish a school in the rural part of the country, training young people in trades such as sign writing, electrical work and repair of computers and televisions.
For inspiration she put on her running shoes for a long coastal run near the New Forest, where she now lives.
Elisabeth Marrion’s book The Wight Thing is expected to be released sometime in March and Layered Pages has an interview with Elisabeth on March 9th! Don’t miss it!
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