Friend of the site, fellow author, and newest addition to the BL ‘writers of ruin’ took a little time out of her busy schedule to sit down with me for a chat.  Our inaugural Author Interview here on TFF is also Sarah’s first official interview as a published writer. It’s a wonderful chat about life, liberty and the pursuit of… word count?  Have a look!

Interview with author Sarah Cawkwell

Commissar Ploss: I’m pleased to have the opportunity to sit and chat with you Sarah. It’s always nice when we get to chat, and i always love every minute of it.

Sarah Cawkwell: What’s not to love? Seriously though, I love talking about all this. It’s all exciting stuff.

CP: Lets start by talking about writing in general. I’m interested to know, if you’d be so kinds as to elude, how you originally came into writing? Have you always been an auspicious weaver of words? Or has the knack for pushing pencils sparked within recent years?

SC: I’ve always enjoyed writing as a creative outlet. At school, writing stories was always my favourite thing to do and I was actively encouraged by a succession of great English teachers. All of them told me that I should keep at it; that I should read as much as I possibly could and expand my vocabulary. I didn’t find that side of learning to tell stories hard, of course: I grew up in a house where books were all over the place and was encouraged to read from a very early age. My mother was an avid fantasy and science fiction reader and so I came into the genre a long time ago and it’s formed the backbone of my library from as far back as I can remember.

I’ve always enjoyed having the ability to communicate well with the written word. I love to tell stories and more, I love when people enjoy what they’ve read. There’s something eminently satisfying about creating a story that people can lose themselves in, or watching their reaction as they read the thing you’ve formed from nothing. I have a very clear memory from when I was five years old and had just started school. Our teacher challenged us to write a story that made her laugh. Obviously, she laughed at everyone’s (because you know, what sort of malicious teacher would destroy five year olds?) but when she read mine, about a man standing in his garden waiting for a tree to grow, periodically tapping his watch impatiently and laughed, I thought ‘this is what I want to be. The person who makes the reader react’. Only I was five. So I probably thought something like ‘I made her laugh!’ But the desire to do it again was there, certainly.

I dabbled with poetry in my teen years, but that’s a period of my life I think we should gloss over quickly. Did you ever read teen poetry? Cripes. I now keep my lyrical leanings towards Doctor Seuss-style comedy Christmas poems for my work colleagues. It’s safer that way.

I’ve been a tabletop roleplayer for many years and always enjoyed writing up my character backgrounds. More recently, perhaps in the last ten years or so, I started writing stories to go with them. This developed into something more solid. I dabbled for a while in the murky waters of fanfiction (although there’s a lot of that which terrifies me). Then we started playing a game of Dark Heresy and I discovered writing in the 40k world was something that not only I enjoyed, but suited my particular style perfectly.

CP: I can only assume that you’ve been a player/lover of 40k for quite some time now. When did you first discover the hobby?

SC: I’ve been well aware of Games Workshop for many years. In fact, during what we shall refer to as ‘the wasted years’ (what other people call adolescence), I frequented Games Workshop to purchase Citadel miniatures. I harboured this great desire to become a fantastic painter of fantasy figurines. I subscribed regularly to White Dwarf, was laughed at by my peers at school for being the resident ‘nerd’ and discovered a great ability to lose interest in painting after the base coat! It was no fluke, either – this happened model after model until I finally realised that my days as super-painter had come to an end.

I still have some of those figures somewhere. In a box, half-painted. Perhaps I might dig them out someday and finish them. I wouldn’t hold your breath, though.

40k was but a spark in the design eyes of the creative team back then, so my introduction to that world didn’t really come until about five years ago. My husband and I were talking about science fiction books and he mentioned the Horus Heresy. He painted such a vivid picture of this world with primarchs and super-human warriors that all of a sudden, those misshapen figures in the window of Games Workshop took on an entirely new appeal for me. I sat down with his copy of ‘Horus Rising’ and was riveted from the outset. I have no shame in acknowledging a complete crush on Garviel Loken. Since then, I’ve played the Fantasy Flight Games W40K roleplays – indeed, we’re part of the playtest team now and we playtested both Rogue Trader and Deathwatch – both of which I love as much as Dark Heresy.

Since then, we’ve introduced my son to the hobby as well and he’s an avid collector and painter of orks. I’m ashamed to admit that, but yes. Orks. Still – at least he actually gets past the basecoating stage. The painting talent skipped a generation there. So all in, I’ve only really been a part of the 40k-verse for about five years.

CP: I’m sure everyone wants to know, how did you end up landing this spot as an author at BL? Was it by chance, or did you go through the full submission process?

SC: My work was submitted, in the same way as everyone else who wants to be published, with a wing and a prayer. Only on this occasion, it worked. I was contacted by one of the BL editors who said that my stuff was ‘almost there’, with a few hints as to how I could improve on it. I took the hints on board and resubmitted the piece… and the next thing you know, he’s buying it off me and I’ve realised a lifelong dream.

CP: All authors have an influence in their writing, now matter how much they would like to admit to the contrary. Who, if you can recall has been the biggest influence in your writing author wise? Do you find yourself emulating a certain style at all?

SC: Strangely, when I started writing in the 40k-verse, I found myself unconsciously trying to emulate everyone who currently writes for them! Best bit of advice I’ve had so far came from Nik Vincent, who very firmly told me not to live my life doing impressions of other authors and just be happy being myself. I tried applying that to my writing and it flowed a lot better.
 
Of course I’ve been heavily influenced over the years – I was an avid reader of Enid Blyton when I was growing up and although she may be a children’s author and her books are hardly literary classics, I loved her ‘Enchanted Wood’/’Magic Faraway Tree’ books. Latterly, Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett were huge influences in the more light-hearted stakes, along with Jim Butcher, Robin Hobb and – in the 40k stable – James Swallow. I’m a particular fan of his work. I’m sure he won’t mind me admitting that publicly. More pretentiously, I love Charles Dickens. I love how quirky he was, particularly with the way he named his characters. And he made his name writing serialisations – something a lot of people forget.

CP: Aside from influences, i’m sure you’ve got a favorite author or authors. Who might they be?

SC: Lots, actually. I love Jim Butcher’s ‘Dresden Files’ series and was riveted from book one. I also love Mike Carey’s ‘Felix Castor’ books. Robin Hobb is a definite favourite. She gives you such richly detailed worlds and characters – I adored her Liveship trilogy. My bookshelf is a mish-mash of all sorts of things, really. My taste in reading is a little like my taste in music – if I read it and I enjoy it, then I consider it a good book.

If I was forced to pin down my favourite book of all time, one of the hardest questions ever, it’d probably be a kid’s book which I think has long gone out of print called ‘The Land of Green Ginger’ by Noel Langley. It’s the sequel to Aladdin. The villains in it are Prince Rubdub Ben Thud and Prince Tintac Ping Foo. How can you go wrong? Our teacher read that book to us when we were ten years old and I have great affection for it. In terms of ‘grown-up’ books… I love Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, as much for what it was and what it represents for women in literature as the story itself. I will gladly chew the fat with anybody over that book.

And that does it folks. Make sure you come back for more Author Interviews! Hope you enjoyed this one.