Interview With Author Linda Pullman
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a retired teacher. I run a small author group called ‘Aylesbury Writers’ in Buckinghamshire, England. I have just published my first collection of poems.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Roses in December. I’ve been writing poems all my life but this is my first published collection – completed 2022. I had a brush with cancer in 2020. That and the COVID lockdowns inspired me to get my work over many years, published.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t write every day, just when the mood takes me. I don’t need silence to write; in fact, I find it easier with low-level background noise.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have been influenced by Sylvia Plath, Carol Ann Duffy and also Robert Frost.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a novel, a who-dun-it psychological story.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use social media, particularly Facebook, word-of-mouth and thirdly, my own website.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Finish that novel or non-fiction book you started years ago. Retrieve it from the bottom drawer and get writing!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Be willing to listen to advice given on your writing-in-progress. You don’t need to take it necessarily but bear it in mind.
What are you reading now?
The Creative Writing Handbook by Singleton and Luckhurst
What’s next for you as a writer?
Keep adding to my poetry stash, perhaps publishing a second collection. Oh and finishing the novel.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Skellig by D. Almond
Any poetry collection by Sylvia Plath or Robert Frost
Middlemarch by Thomas Hardy