Literary Birthday – 9 January – Gail Schimmel

Happy Birthday, Gail Schimmel, born 9 January 1974.

Quotes

I have always written – from the time I could string an ill-spelt sentence together… My father – who was himself an artist and would have been expected to support me – pointed out that there is a lot of editing involved and that in those days of typewriters, this would involve a lot of hard work. Being rather hard-work adverse, I decided to become a lawyer instead…
But the reality is that if you are a storyteller, there’s not a lot you can do to fight it – and I am a storyteller. I needed to write, and if I was going to write anyway, I was pretty determined that I would also be read!
The only way that you will write a book is by sitting down and writing. It’s not going to land in your lap ready written, waiting for you to take the credit. (via)
[My greatest ideas for writing come from] Watching people, and imagining “what ifs” about my own choices. (via)
The first story I remember writing was an adaptation of Cinderella, I think. All I can really remember is that my mother’s friend Ruth – who is a lovely, kind woman – featured as a witch. The ugly sisters had names adapted from real people, and my mom got quite worried that I’d show it to the people concerned. (via)
I read a lot – and by some people’s standards I am a fairly intellectual reader – but I read to escape. I want a story, and I don’t want to have to work hard to get my story. So that is what I try to write. I went to a talk by Jeffrey Archer and he said that you get literary writers and story-tellers, and very seldom do the two meet. I agree with that, and, like him, I see myself as a story-teller. (via)

Gail Schimmel is a South African author of four novels – Marriage Vows, Whatever happened to the Cowley Twins?, The Park, and The Accident. She is also CEO of the Advertising Regulatory Board. Visit her website.

Read our interview with Gail Schimmel

Source for quotes

by Amanda Patterson