This week, we welcome author Annie Harris, whose short story ‘Sweet As Honey’ appears in Special 276, on sale Wednesday April 30.
Welcome! Please tell us about your writing life – have you always written? Do you write only short stories, or also in other formats?
In the days when hopeful authors submitted paper manuscripts to editors I used to say that I could wallpaper a room with rejection slips.
I still remember the first time I had a story accepted. Our daughters were members of the local Brownie pack, and I submitted a story to the ‘Brownie’ magazine. I received a £2 postal order, which seemed amazing that I’d actually been paid!
I have never tried a serial. A friend has one in the magazine quite regularly, and I admire the way she builds up the story then neatly ties all the seemingly disparate plotlines together, but I’m happier with short stories.
Your short story, ‘Sweet As Honey’, appears in our Special 276. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind this story?
Well, I’ve been a member of Friends of the Earth for years and of course through all that time they have prophesized all the many problems now facing our beautiful planet and the people who live on it. The plot came to me in our garden last summer. Ten years ago, we planted a purple buddleia bush, and I would sit near it watching the peacock butterflies, which fed on it. But I realised that I had not seen a single peacock all summer and that the honeybees which used to be endlessly foraging among my herbs, especially the borage plants, which they adore, were not such frequent visitors.
Your story is set on a specific date (World Bee Day). Do you find setting stories seasonally, or on a particular date, is a good starting point for a story? What are your other ‘starting points’?
The story came fully grown into my mind – one of those rare ‘light bulb’ moments, which authors love. Usually, plots come in all sorts of ways – something I read, something I see, something I hear. I do like plotting stories round a certain date and through the years I’ve done quite a few – the day of the signing of Magna Carta, the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, Florence Nightingale’s funeral from the viewpoint of one of the Crimea nurses – and the most recent, set in the first performance of a Shakespeare play.
How long does it usually take you, from an initial idea to a submitted story?
How long does a story take to write? In the case one set on Dartmoor a long time ago, I wrote the first part months ago and I know the second half but I just can’t get the ‘link’. I’m hoping there will be a ‘light bulb’ moment when we go back to the Moor in a few weeks!
What would you say are potential pitfalls for aspiring authors, and how can they be overcome?
As regards pitfalls, I think if an aspiring author has a great original idea, plots it out and reaches a satisfying ending for the reader they can’t go wrong. And I always try to remember the advice an editor gave me long ago – ‘Show. Don’t tell.’ For example, don’t say a character is nasty, show it by their words and actions.
Who are your own top three favourite authors? Any era!
My top three authors? Well, Charles Dickens is always there in top place, then Barbara Pym, almost forgotten now but I love her novels. The third is variable but at the moment it’s Kate Quinn. How I wish I’d written ‘The Rose Code’!
Lucy Crichton Better known as “Fiction Editor Lucy”, I am always on the look-out for the very best short stories, poems and pocket novels. As well as sourcing enjoyable content, I enjoy working with our established contributors, encouraging new talent, and celebrating 155 years of “Friend” fiction!
