HarperCollins Publishers
http://www.harpercollins.com.au/authors/author_interview.cfm?Author=0000535


On-line reader reviews of your books often cry for sequels. Do you have any sequels planned for any of your books?
Planned, no. Written yes.

What have you found to be the most gratifying part of being a professional novelist?
Without question it has been the reader response. Writing is such painful , tortuous work, and such fears overwhelm me when my blood is on the page and I think no one will get it, no one will care, no one will feel it, no one will understand because I've failed, I didn't do it justice, I did it wrong.

Readers have kind hearts. Those who don't enjoy the books by and large keep to themselves-bless them. And those who enjoy the books and let me know make what I do worth every drop of blood.

What do you think is the most common misconception people have about the life of a novelist?
That it's easy, that it's glamorous. That it's fun. I will say this-physically, it's not the hardest job you can do. In my experience, waiting tables is the hardest job you can do. But emotionally, writing is draining from first to last. The endless drafts upon drafts, 27 of them for The Bronze Horseman alone, and the endless scene revisions, the endless word revisions. I'm still sitting here embroiled in the U.S. first pass proofs, trying to figure out if Tatiana should say it "lightly" or just say it. Once Gutenberg and his metal plates gets to my book, that's it, for all centuries, for all eternity. Lightly, or not lightly. Forever on the page. Frankly I don't need that kind of pressure.

But then…when things work, when you cry, when you laugh, when suddenly your previously dead character springs to life, it's fantastic. All the isolation, all the loneliness is washed away for a few moments.

What is your work-day like?
When I'm writing is I get up at seven I go and write, I dress the kids, then I go and write, I write all day until dinner, I don't have lunch and I don't pay bills. I do nothing and think nothing, no phone calls, no online, no breaks no movies, nothing. I make dinner, I put the kids to bed and I go and write, from nine in the evening until two or three, or four in the morning. I get up at seven and begin again. That kind of heat can't be sustained for long, but with The Bronze Horseman it continued well into the sequels and the screenplays, and the revisions for the British publication and revisions for the American publication. When I'm not writing in earnest, or when I'm doing research as a method of procrastination, I am in my office from nine to five doing maybe a couple of hours of actual writing and other things like bills and Internet.

How big a part does research play in your writing process?
Research is a very handy tool for procrastination. I can't write this, I say, I don't know what they looked like in WWII or I don't know what they dressed like, or what language they spoke, or what the Germans were doing. I don't know this, and that, and suddenly a year goes by and I've written 235 pages of my novel and I'm still on the first day of war. I said to my husband, "But the siege of Leningrad lasted 900 days. If every day is going to take me 235 pages…" He said, yes, but maybe I could skip days 563 and 789.

I was writing the first day of war for a year because I was hiding behind the research, and I was hiding behind the research because I was paralyzed with fear. Finally when the fever got me, I was writing many pages a day, and I didn't care about any of the research. I made up what I needed, then went back and filled in the details. For Tully, I wrote the book first, then on third, fourth revision, found out something about the Kansas Social Services and was pleased that it didn't contradict with my story. For Red Leaves, I actually had to learn a little bit about police procedure in New Hampshire and about Dartmouth College because I knew nothing at all about them, and after all they were the story. Eleven Hours I wrote first, then talked to the SWAT guy and used only the details and asked him only the questions that did not contradict with my narrative.

Do you sometimes find your characters and stories invading your own life?
You could say that. It is hard to let go. With The Bronze Horseman, it was worse than with any other book, including Tully.