I Wrote it My Way - Anneli Purchase

Today we welcome another tempting writer from way across the pond, in Western Canada! If ever anyone enjoys writing about 'what they know', Anneli Purchase certainly does!

I must say my preferred kind of book is one where I feel somehow different from when I started reading it; so Anneli and I are in perfect sync. Isn't it wonderful how we can all find each other, no matter where we all live?! I like, for example, the novels of American author, Anita Shreve; their background or setting adds a whole new dimension to the story and characters. So many good new novels are sweeping us away to other cultures and countries, or else present a new angle on a familiar world.

Anneli explains how her books came about:

'Living on the coast of British Columbia I’ve been very lucky to have forests and the ocean handy for pursuing my interests– fishing, camping, mushroom picking, and boating. Over the years, my husband and I had many funny adventures and a few near disasters. Often I emailed to friends and told of some of these experiences. One day a friend wrote to tell me that his computer crashed and he lost all his files. Did I still have those emails that I’d sent him.

“Well, no,” I said. “Why would I want to keep those?”

He groaned and said, “They were little treasures. You should write a book.” So after a while, I gave this idea serious consideration and my real life adventures became intertwined with imaginary ones.

When I read, I like to feel that I’ve learned something new by the time I finish the book. When I write, I like to think that the reader will glean some tidbit of new information from my stories as well.

In The Wind Weeps, the reader will want to know if Andrea can escape the intolerable situation she finds herself in, but at the same time he will incidentally learn something about boating, or fishing, or life on the coast, without it being a lecture or a chore.

In Orion’s Gift, the drama plays out as two lovers, Kevin and Sylvia, are beach camping at various places in Baja California. While reading about their vindictive ex-spouses hunting them down, the reader inadvertently finds out all about surviving in a harsh desert situation.

My third book, coming out in the spring, is different again. It will take us from post WWII times in Europe to modern times in Canada.

In all three of my books, the time and place settings may vary, but the common threads are the relationships of people like you and like me, and the circumstances in which the characters might find themselves. Very often the dilemmas are about love. Naturally, because what would we do without love in our world?'

 

A fascinating insight into how you found your genre, Anneli! What a particularly good friend you have there, too. Thank you.

 

Well, folks, are you thinking of all those old emails you archived or carefully deleted (dammit)?

 

Links for Orion's Gift: 

On Amazon.com http://amzn.to/UhJE00

On Smashwords.com http://bit.ly/MFOcOX

Links for The Wind Weeps

Amazon http://amzn.to/RclGVT

Smashwords: http://bit.ly/yPQvEP