Literary Birthday – 9 October – Jacqueline Carey

Happy Birthday, Jacqueline Carey, born 9 October 1964.

Nine Quotes

It’s hard to give advice on writing, because the best way to learn is through doing. No two writers work the same way, and everyone has to find their own path. So… write. Write a lot. Build a world and explore it.
Create characters and break their hearts.
Take risks, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Experiment. All the methodology — whether to outline in advance or wing it, write in a linear fashion or skip around, follow a rigid schedule or go with the flow of inspiration, edit as you write or worry about it later — emerges with experience. As you write, you’ll discover what works for you
Inspiration comes from everywhere and anywhere. I’ve been inspired by landscapes, by vivid dreams, by other books, by movies, by art history lectures, by passing comments, by a fleeting emotion, by misremembering an entry in a dictionary. Beyond that, I couldn’t say. How it all coalesces into fiction is a mystery, even to me.
We speak of stories ending, when in truth it is we who end. The stories go on and on.
It is a fine line, in all of us, between civilisation and savagery. To any who think they would never cross it, I can only say, if you have never known what it is to be utterly betrayed, you cannot know how close it is.
A nervous silence loosens tongues.
There are patterns which emerge in one’s life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation of a them.
I started a novel in the back of a notebook, and it was great because it looked like I was taking notes. And I just, I kept it up, it was sort of fantasy, it was part soap opera. It was utterly dreadful, but that’s how I got hooked.

Jacqueline Carey is an American writer, primarily of fantasy fiction. She is the author of Phèdre’s Trilogy and Imriel’s Trilogy. Her first novel, Kushiel’s Dart, was the recipient of the 2002 Locus Award for Best First Novel.

Source for image: JacquelineCarey.com

by Amanda Patterson