Violet-Anne Smith
Author
Like many people, I always felt that I had a book inside of me ready and waiting for the right moment to emerge. Over the years, I have dabbled in poetry and short stories, which always had a twist, not something die hard fans of romanticism appreciate, and neither did the magazines I pestered at the time with my writings on a regular basis. And all of this while holding down a full time job, looking after the family and its animal collection, oh and studying - always studying, at the same time. So when a serious illness came along and I was encouraged to do some creative writing to kick start the recovery of my brain, I took full advantage of the down time and slowly and painfully produced my first SciFi/Fantasy novel - every cloud as they say!
Having tried my hand at other genres, and unwittingly produced work that was more comedy than fantasy, I decided to stick with what I knew, understood and liked, and so I dipped my toe into the murky waters that readers know and love as SciFi/Fantasy. As a youngster, I hung around our local library and devoured my regulation five books at a time. And this was the genre that I enjoyed the most. Pure escapism, with a little bit of...could it really be true?
As an avid reader of the best writers in the UK today of these types of books, I wouldn't have the audacity to compare my basic style to any of my heroes, such as Sir Terry Pratchett, Robert Rankin, Neil Gaiman etc so I will happily settle for: my first novel is the kind of book I would loved to have read when I was younger and faced with books about boarding school adventures and other middle class stuff!
As I said, all of the current greats in the SciFi/Fantasy genre have been my companions over the years, but that said, I have also enjoyed crime fiction, Biographies, TV series and films and the usual trashy holiday reads, over too many years to mention. So in a way, the very fact that they have had the discipline to sit down and write has been the biggest influence on me.
When I began my first novel, I always knew there would be others following in its wake. And the way my head works now, I found myself writing notes for the second book and the ending of the third whilst crafting the first! So we'll have to wait and see. What are your plans for the future?: My future plans are not set in concrete as any sort of future would be wonderful. So, in a nutshell, as long as I can bash away at the p.c., I shall be writing...and hopefully, will have the common sense to know when to stop before I make a complete fool of myself.
My first novel is called Seeds of the Nephilim - Angels on Earth and is
available as a download from Amazon. I was ' encouraged' to publish it
under a particular genre, and use chapters for the benefit of the readers,
but good stories are never recounted in chapters and slotted nicely into
genres....so conspiracy theory/sci-fi/fantasy descriptions could all fit
the bill. I don't do romanticism or erotic fantasy stuff, simply because I
can't. Others do it so much better and good luck to them. If that's your
bag then so be it. I doubt if you will like my work - but you never
know.....
Je suis comme Je suis