Name/authonomy screen name: Anthony SaundersLocation: Devon, the county with two coastlines and lots of rain
Occupation: Author and military historian
How long have you been on authonomy?: Since October 2008
How do you use the site – are you a reader or a writer?
I am a writer
What are you working on at the moment?
I completed The Spectacle that is Jack Coq and his Amazing Anatomie – A Tragedie in Diverse Acts earlier this year. A thousand words of what is now Chapter 1 was shortlisted in the Telegraph’s A Novel in a Year competition in 2007. I’m currently working on the sequel. And I’m also working on two non-fiction commissions. My fiction and my non-fiction are diametrically different in style and content.
How does writing fit into your life? When do you make time for it?
Writing is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do. I like words and what you can do with them.
I get up at 6am and work for an hour before going out with Lucy, my rough-coated lurcher. My writing day revolves round taking Lucy out four times. I often develop ideas and solve problems when I’m out in the countryside with her, even in the driving rain. I often work late in the evening and usually seven days a week.
My fiction is best described as eccentric and idiosyncratic. It is heavily influenced by the theatre. My first non-fiction book was published in 1999. My most recent was published in March 2010. These are concerned with the First World War which is my speciality as a historian. In the 1980s and 1990s, I wrote a number of plays, one of which was nearly put on by the Royal Court Theatre (in London).
Describe to us where you write
I write at a very cluttered desk next to a window, surrounded by shelves of books and piles of stuff. I have a lot of books, ranging from current fiction to eighteenth-century handbooks on fencing. And a lot of books on warfare.
What are your ambitions as an author, what would you like to achieve?
My ambition is be a successful novelist and a successful playwright, whatever successful means – financially, critically. But fame for its own sake? No. I’m too awkward and outspoken for that.
Which book on authonomy should we all be reading?
Souvenirs and Base Spirits and The Scattered Proud are my recommendations.
4 comments:
Anthony, youand your book are super, but Lucy is just gorgeous
Anthony is one of Autho's gentlemen and I'm proud to say he's one of my dearest Authonomates. A real class act!
Thanks, Dan. Lucy is a lovely dog and well known in the town.
Lilian, that is kind of you to say so.
Anthony, how strange I've not yet come across you on Authonomy! You sound like the person that has the real stuff to be a full-blown writer. You deserve your dreams to come true. I know how taking the dog out in the vaste polderland where I live inspires my writing. Best of luck, Hannah (Holland)
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