BackStory: Five Questions with MaryPat Campbell Author of Love in the Margins How much research did you do while writing and editing this piece? Did you discover anything that surprised you? I follow a medieval manuscript site which gives me…
BackStory: Five Questions with Peter Burns
BackStory: Five Questions with Peter Burns Author of The Fur-puller What inspired you to write ‘The Fur-puller’? This flash piece started off as an activity on my MA in Creative Writing with The Open University. We were to write an…
BackStory: Five Questions with Christine Collinson
BackStory: Five Questions with Christine Collinson Author of A Piecer’s Tale What inspired you to write “A Piecer’s Tale”? It was inspired by Quarry Bank Mill in Styal where they have some working machinery. We also spent some time in…
BackStory: Five Questions with Michelle Hemstedt
BackStory: Five Questions with Michelle Hemstedt Author of The Essex Girl What inspired you to write ‘The Essex Girl’? I grew up in Witchfinder General country close to the Essex/Suffolk border. I went back to that part of the world…
BackStory: Five Questions with Steve Campbell
BackStory: Five Questions with Steve Campbell Author of Senna Were there any interesting facts, details, or turns of phrase that didn’t quite make the final version of ‘Senna’? In an early draft of this flash, I split the narrative into…
BackStory: Five Questions with Aileen Hunt
BackStory: Five Questions with Aileen Hunt Author of A Falling from the Sky What inspired you to write ‘A Falling from the Sky’? I’ve been working on a series of flash pieces about the Famine in Ireland. The impetus came…
BackStory: Five Questions with Jan Stinchcomb
BackStory: Five Questions with Jan Stinchcomb Author of Ice Man What inspired you to write ‘Ice Man’? This is loosely based on the Ice Man (Ötzi) found in the Ötzal Alps in 1991. While scientists were busy doing their work,…
BackStory: Five Questions with Clio Velentza
BackStory: Five Questions with Clio Velentza Author of The Convert What inspired you to write this piece? The word ‘convert’. I had been turning it over in my mind for more than a year, looking for the story in it.…
BackStory: Four Questions with Diane E Tatlock
BackStory: Four Questions with Diane E Tatlock Author of Hidden in Darkness What inspired you to write ‘Hidden in Darkness’? This piece was inspired by a visit to the caves at Beer Stone Quarry in Devon. I had to overcome…
BackStory: Six Questions with Elizabeth Burton
BackStory: Six Questions with Elizabeth Burton Author of Promiscuous What inspired you to write this ‘Promiscuous’? I first became interested in eugenics and forced sterilizations several years ago when I heard a report on the radio about individuals who had…