What genre would you
say your novels fall into, or do they defy classification?
I guess you would call them contemporary fiction.
What made you choose
that genre?
I am not sure I chose exactly – I wrote the stories that
demanded to be written.
How long does it take
you to write a book?
A long time. An
embarrassingly long time.
What is your work
schedule like when you're writing?
I’m not the good at scheduling. Once I have walked the dog in the morning, I
would be quite happy to sit down and bury myself in work until it is time to
cook dinner. But real life rarely seems
to let me get away with that. So I work
in snatched corners of time - all very well when I am writing non-fiction or
when I’m editing; not so great for being creative. I used to do my best creative work on my
commuter train – 45 minutes of uninterrupted bliss each way!
Where do you get your
ideas for your books?
I am often inspired by real events from recent history – I
plant my characters on the fringes of those situations and let them ride the
storm.
When did you write
your first book and how old were you?
I’ve been writing stories since I could hold a pen, or so my
mother says. I can remember trying to
write something in the style of Cynthia Harnett when I was about 14. But my first (bad) full length novel was a
pretentious tome I wrote in my twenties.
I looked back at it recently and there were one or two decent ideas in
it – but a lot of it made me want to give myself a good slap.
What do you like to
do when you're not writing?
Walk the dog (as noted above). Read (voraciously). Avoid doing housework. I also really like
research. Probably too much, if I’m
honest: it turns into a displacement activity.
What was one of the
most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
Through writing, and with the help of the Internet, I have
connected and made real friendships with other writers from all round the globe. The connections I’ve made have led to work
for the literary magazine Words with Jam
and authors’ collective Triskele Books.
They’ve changed my life.
How many books have
you written?
Two that I’d admit to in public.
Which is your
favourite and why?
Ghost Town, my
full length novel published on November 16th this year, is what Joni Rodgers
calls ‘a soul project’. I’d had an idea for
a story and was casting about for setting, and remembered a time when I was
working in a homeless shelter in Coventry. I knew there had been tensions
between the Asian and skinhead communities, but as I began to research the
background, I unearthed things I had had no idea about at the time. It turned into a story I simply had to tell,
and I worked and reworked it until I finally hammered it into a shape I was
happy with.
As a child, what did
you want to do when you grew up?
A writer, no question.
I’m living my dream.
What are you working
on now?
I have a couple ideas kicking around but the non-fiction
work has rather taken over for the moment.
BIO:
Catriona Troth was born in Scotland and grew up in Canada
before coming back to the UK. She has now lived in the Chilterns longer than
she has ever lived in anywhere, a fact that still comes as a surprise. After
more than twenty years spent writing technical reports at work and fiction on
the commuter train, Catriona made the shift into freelance writing. She now
writes a regular column for Words with
Jam literary magazine, researches and writes articles for Quakers in the World and tweets as
@L1bCat. She is very proud to be the latest member of the Triskele Books author
collective.
She is the author of two books both of which explore themes
of identity and childhood memory: Gift ofthe Raven, a novella set against a backcloth of Canada from the suburbs of
Montreal to the forests of the Haida Gwaii; and Ghost Town, set in Coventry, during the Two Tone era.
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Catriona-Troth/e/B00CWFT6UG/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1369167936&sr=1-1
Twitter: @L1bCat
Triskele: www.triskebooks.co.uk
Words with Jam: www.wordswithjam.co.uk
Critique Service for Writers
Flash 500 Home Page: Flash Fiction, Humour Verse
and Novel Opening Chapter and Synopsis Competitions
Ah, I like doing research too. Sometimes ideas to research for my next novel, and the one after that, can tempt me away from my writing. SD
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