Marina Pacheco
Carcavelos, Portugal
Good morning, Marina, and welcome to Vision and Verse, the site for art, authors, and inspiration.Can you tell us a little about what you’ve written?
I have six books published so far that are all either historical fiction or historical romance. Sanctuary, Duchess in Flight and Duke’s Heart are all historical romances, the first two with a bit of adventure thrown in, the third is a straight up Victorian romance. My other three, Fraternity of Brothers, Comfort of Home and Kindness of Strangers are historical fiction, they’re a series of short novels centred around the life of an Anglo Saxon monk, Galen, at the turn of the first millennium who becomes a saint over the course of the series. There will be ten books in total and I am currently rewriting book 4.
Aside from what’s already published, I have a back catalogue of around 30 first draft manuscripts (I say around, because I might split some of these into trilogies). When I started writing it was for my own pleasure and entertainment. I had no plans whatsoever of publishing, so I wrote a lot of stories, polished them to a point and then moved on. Amongst these are fantasy novels, historical fiction, urban fantasy, supernatural whodunits and science fiction.
What is your favorite genre to write?
I have many favourite genres, I really enjoy delving into history and often when I’m reading historical non-fiction it sparks story ideas for me. That’s why I have historical fiction running the full range of history from Roman times to the Second World War and including eras that aren’t so popular like the Byzantine era and the Renaissance.
I really enjoy writing science fiction and fantasy and blending the two. I am about the publish a fantasy novel set in a future Rome that is now a 6km high city/ tower where magic is actually just highly advanced physics.
Lately I have also become fascinated by Korean melodramas and that has inspired me to write a contemporary romance (Scent of Love). It was a lot of fun to do. I also realized how easy it is to write the detail of everyday life. Usually with my historical fiction I don’t really know about the little daily details that I found myself writing about without even considering them in the contemporary romance. Things like frantically swiping your phone to answer an important call, but it won’t click on so you keep swiping and swiping, or digging amongst the sofa cushions to find the TV remote and then scrolling through the multitude of shows on Netflix without ever picking one because you can’t decide what to watch. It made me wonder what those little details of life might have been for my medieval protagonists and I’m going to try and work some possibilities into my future texts.
Favorite food.
This is a tough questions because I’m a real foodie and I’m not sure I can pin it down to just one thing. I love prawns at one end, and cherries as well. I would eat cherries in preference to chocolate (which I also love) any day. I also love sitting down with a fantastic, chewy, freshly baked bread, salted butter and a range of fabulous cheeses. I could go on but I’m making myself hungry.
Tea or coffee?
Coffee. I do enjoy a nice cup of tea, and, having spent 22 years in England, I have drunk a lot of tea, but I think my Portuguese ancestry prefers coffee. Having said that, I always start my day in the French manner with a big mug of hot chocolate (made with unsweetened cocoa, stevia, and cream). It’s very rich so I rarely have more than two cups a day, but it’s my perfect start to the morning.
Pizza or ice cream?
This is a tough choice, as I love both, but I’d go for pizza over ice cream as I tend to prefer savoury food over sweet.
Wine or beer?
Wine, although I’m not crazy about it and usually only have a glass or two if I’m out for a meal. I never drink it at home. I can’t stand beer – I find it too bitter.
Where would you like to visit?
So many places! Because of my current obsession with K drama I’ve found myself wishing I could visit Korea and see the places I get glimpses of on the TV. This is a surprise to me because until I’d discovered the shows I hardly knew anything about Korea (aside from what I’d seen in MASH). I’ve also always wanted to visit Japan. Aside from that, I’m keen to explore more of Europe. I grew up in South Africa and much of Europe is still fascinating and new. Currently, because of what I’m writing I’d like to visit Merida and the Alhambra in Spain. The first for its magnificent Roman ruins and the second for the amazing Moorish architecture. I’d also love to visit Switzerland and experience the Alps, and tour Germany, especially the medieval villages. My list goes on, the more I think about travel the more I want to see. Italy is also on my list, I’ve been to Rome and Venice which were both fabulous and now I’d like to explore more of the countryside.
Favorite musical artist.
Another tough choice. I love singing and have spent many years in choirs and I have so many musician I love. Tom Waits popped into my head first, I love the story telling in his songs and the strangeness of the music he produces. I’m also a huge fan of the Blues, BB King and John Lee Hooker in particular. I was blown away by the Po’ Girls and their lovely blend of voices and unusual instruments including a clarinet, which you don’t get on many pop albums. A few years back a friend introduced me to Electro Swing it’s a marvellous blend of the modern and the old and a great pick me up as well a fun music to dance to. If you’ve never heard of the band Caravan Palace I highly recommend them.
Do you listen to music when you write? What?
I tend not to listen to music when I write because I get distracted by the lyrics, or particularly strong melodies. On rare occasions, to get me into the mood, I might listen to music that’s appropriate to the era, like Gregorian plainsong when I’m working on my medieval fiction.
Because I live in a fairly noisy block of flats, I will often put on ambient sounds to block out the noise of barking dogs, next door’s TV or the almost constant DIY. My favourite is the sound of a thunderstorm. I use its so much that I’m wondering if one day, like Pavlov’s dog, I might get into a writing mood simply by turning on the sound of falling rain.
What makes you laugh?
Conversation with friends. Something I have really missed during this pandemic is getting together with friends to just sit around and chat, which always results in a good laugh. You don’t get the same atmosphere with Zoom, although it is certainly better than nothing.
Favorite work of art or sculpture.
Another tough questions I love art, paintings and sculptures. There is something particularly wonderful about sculpture though, freezing a moment or a feeling into a three dimensional artwork. My favourite sculpture was a really simple life-sized wooden sculpture of a cat curled up sleeping. Sadly there was a sign above it saying please don’t touch but the temptation has never been greater.
How old were you when you started writing?
I can’t really remember. I have always told myself stories, I remember making the first one up when I was about six. Other kids may have had imaginary friends, I had my imaginary characters off on imaginary adventures.
I had never really considered this question till I started following other writers who would say things about when they started writing, and how they had always been the writing sort. I didn’t think I had been, but looking back, my teachers liked my short stories and I even had one entered into a national competition. My step-gran also paid for me to go to a writing camp one summer, so the grown ups around me obviously thought it was something I enjoyed, but I don’t recall making much of it. It never even entered my head as a possible career. When I went to university I was deciding between studying music or zoology and plumped for zoology because animal behaviour fascinates me and I was more likely to get a job in science than in art.
My stories stayed in my head until I got to London. That was where I discovered that practically every Londoner was writing a novel, including my boss. That’s when the thought came to me that if he could do it I could too and I started writing everything down. That was in 1999. Since then I’ve produced 35 first draft manuscripts. I’m now slowly working through my back catalogue and publishing them (as well as writing new stuff at the same time).
Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write?
I used to be a total pantster, just writing what came into my head and seeing where it led, no outlines and no clue of where I was going. Over the years I have read books on story structure and planning and at first the thought of planning filled me with gloom. I felt as if all the fun of exploration and discovery would be sapped out of my writing if I had a plan. Later I realised that story structure can work as a guide and an aid to prevent writer’s block. Now I am so aware of story structure that I know where my story needs to go next, be it a climax or a set back, so as I write I am considering what could happen to my characters that would fit in the structure. These days I guess you could say I’m a slightly planning type of pantster.
Describe your perfect evening.
I am an introvert and enjoy my own company so my perfect evening would be curling up in front of the TV to watch a heart wrenching romance with an excellent pizza to keep me company.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Many of my ideas come from reading and mostly, but not exclusively, from non-fiction. As I’ve already said I really enjoy reading history and some historical detail or other will start an entire “what if” series of questions for me, that may get so intriguing I feel compelled to write it down and start exploring the concept.
Another source of inspiration is people overcoming trauma. Many novels have characters with emotional wounds and part of the hero’s journey is about overcoming those wounds. I find myself coming back to this theme time and again. I once saw an interview with a child soldier from Angola on the news. The poor boy was probably only around twelve but he’d been forced to do the most horrific things in his short life. It got me thinking about what a person would be like after that. My book, Sanctuary, is a story about a man who was a child soldier and has finally escaped from that life, although my story is set in the middle ages.
What do you do when you get a writer's block?
I am very lucky that I don’t really suffer from writers block. This may be for a couple of reasons.
1.I am always working on multiple manuscripts. I have a total of 12 unfinished first drafts, when I get stuck on one I will just move onto another. Ultimately they all get done.
2. I am a binge writer. I don’t have a daily writing habit. Sometimes I’ll write loads, sometimes I won’t write at all. I once wrote a 98 000 word first draft in 2 months and 4 days (my record for most words written in the shortest time). Then I didn’t write a thing for the next 4 months.
At times my work had been too busy or mentally draining to write, and at other times the compulsion to write has been so great I’ve been sneakily writing at work. Now I am a full time writer, and I still find that there are some months where I don’t write a thing, although nowadays I certainly write more than I used to.
Not having anything to write doesn’t stress me though because I know I’ll get the urge to write again sometime soon.
Who is your favorite author?
I have many favourite authors, but if I go by the authors where I have bought their whole back catalogue and kept all their books the two that qualify are Terry Pratchett and Georgette Heyer. Terry Pratchett is great for his historical accuracy (albeit set in a made up world) and the social dilemmas he addresses. They are so disguised in fantasy that you hardly notice him smuggling in the heavy concepts. My brother once said he was a modern day Dickens and I think he was right. Georgette Heyer is also great for her historical accuracy, something I find irritatingly lacking in many modern Regency romances. I also enjoy her robust plots and sense of fun. I have heard from many sources that if you want to learn about writing great dialogue Georgette Heyer is worth studying, and I think they are right.
Best book you ever read.
This is an impossible question for me to answer. For one, I have a terrible memory, books that made huge impressions at one time will just vanish without trace after a few years. Usually when I am asked this kind of question my mind just goes blank. I certainly don’t carry a formative novel around in my head. But a couple of books that did make an impression were – Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson that is a fantastic and highly enjoyable read about English and its peculiarities. I think it should be required reading for all high school students. I also loved all of Gerald Durrel’s books about his childhood on a Greek Island. I remember spending one summer in a hideout I’d made from tree branches devouring the entire set.
On the fiction end, one book that made a big impression when I was eighteen and spending a year in Thailand where I was somewhat adrift was, Orlando by Virginia Wolf, aside from that I loved all the Isaac Asmov, the Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. LeGuin and JRR Tolkien. I’ve read the Lord of the Rings twice with a gap of about 20 years and I was struck by the excellent writing the second time around, while still being absorbed by the story.
Last book you read.
The Humans by Matt Haig – it got great reviews, and maybe I was expecting too much from it, but I found it a bit flat.
What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?
Probably what I was doing before I left it all behind to be a full time writer – nature conservation. I spent most of my professional life working for environmental charities, and aside from the terrible pay, it is a very rewarding job.
Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
I have no idea. If I was forced to pick somebody I’d say my parents. People often say that they were influenced more by their friends, and people outside of the home. That is definitely not the case for me. All my values and my work ethic come straight from my parents, equally from my mom and my dad.
If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
This isn’t really something I’ve thought about before, but, if I had to pick somebody, they would definitely be a writer. Most likely Terry Pratchett because he seemed to be a very interesting person. I’d ask him about writing and what he’s learned about the craft because it’s a subject that fascinates me and I could talk endlessly about it.
What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?
Do it and don’t worry about how horrible your work sounds to you when you first start. It will improve with practice. Just as you can’t play Beethoven’s Sonatas the first time you sit before a piano, you won’t be able to write beautifully on your first attempt. So practice, practice, practice. It will improve the more time you spend on your craft.
Do you have some links for us to follow you?
Online home: https://marinapacheco.me – where you can download my free book: Sanctuary
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/100bookschallenge/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marina-Pacheco/e/B07D5H2PDG/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
email: hi@marinapacheco.me
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