MoAA Interview #22: Sylvia Spruck Wrigley

Happy Monday, all!

Today, MoAA is proud to present author Sylvia Spruck Wrigley!

You can read her most recent story “Alive, Alive Oh” now at Lightspeed Magazine.

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Sylvia Spruck WrigleyPrincess Alethea: What’s the best thing about writing?

Sylvia Spruck Wrigley: Finishing. I’m easily distracted and find it hard to see projects through. I enjoy having written more than I enjoy writing.

AK: What’s the worst thing about writing?

SSW: That there’s no excuses. You either put the time in or you don’t. If I cook an exciting new dish and it doesn’t work out, it might be my ingredients weren’t right or the recipe wasn’t well written or that the oven isn’t heating correctly. If something I’ve written doesn’t work out, it’s personal. It’s *me*. That’s hard to deal with because I don’t like failing. I have to fight against the urge to play it safe.

AK: Finish this sentence: “Writing is like…”

SSW: Writing is like a trip. There’s places and people and sights and smells waiting to me to discover them. It’s up to me to try to write it all down, though, to make it appear (or easy to understand) for other people. When it is going well, it feels like I’ve been away. When I’ve finished, I feel like I’ve accomplished something real.

AK: If you could write anywhere in the world, where would it be?

SSW: Everywhere on a laptop! I struggle to write if I don’t have a full sized keyboard and I am so jealous of people who can travel and still write. I take a notebook and pen with me but I never get a lot written because I think, it’ll be so much easier when I get home. I could never pick a single place (even right now I live in two places with two computers set up for me) but if I could have anything in the world, it would be to be able to write on the go and then I could travel more.

AK: Pick five words to describe your latest work.

SSW: Does this mean work in progress? I’m revising a fantasy novella right now: Dark, amusing, twisted, genuine, silly.

AK: Pick five words to describe you.

SSW: Flighty, friendly, intense, disorganised, drunk.

AK: What’s your favorite type of tree?

SSW: Chestnut tree. Chestnut trees are pretty easy to recognise, they are big and green and busy, and they have fun spiky pods to play with. Just don’t make me eat roasted chestnuts, those are vile.

AK: What were you like in high school?

SSW: I was a poor student and often in trouble. I got suspended twice: once for getting caught smoking and once for “overt defiance” in my psychology class. I was a heavy metal rocker with spiky hair and black t-shirts. I left when I was 16. I hope my son doesn’t read this!

AK: If you could give one piece of advice, what would it be?

SSW: If you want to create, then you have to keep at it. Find reasons, find motivations, find people who support you. It doesn’t have to take over your life, just so long as you let it continue to occupy a quiet corner
of your world.

AK: The Colin Harvey Memorial Question: What are 3 things you’d like to do before you die?

SSW: 1) I have outlines for novels which I have not written, I’d like to finish them.
2) Do outdoorsy things that I haven’t found time for in the last few years: go swimming in the sea, climb up a mountain, fly to a small island, go snow skiing, sleep in a tent in the middle of nowhere, go hiking across the desert.
3) Fly a Spitfire.

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Sylvia Spruck Wrigley is an aviation and fantasy writer (but never both at the same time). Born in Heidelberg, she spent her childhood in California and now splits her time between South Wales and Andalucia, two coastal regions with almost nothing in common. You can find out more about her at http://www.intrigue.co.uk/