Please introduce yourself, who are you and what do you do?
Hello and thank you for giving us independent writers an opportunity to introduce ourselves on your website. My name is Christoph Fischer and I write historical novels. My first one, “The Luck of the Weissensteiners” has been published in November and is part of the Three Nations Trilogy. The second part “Sebastian” is in the later stages of editing and will come out in June or July.
I am originally from Germany but I have spent the latter half of my life in the UK. I am also a dedicated writer and review as many independent books as I can. I take interest in history and politics, but also the cinema and spend a lot of my spare time outside with my lovely dogs.
What first inspired you to start writing?
I started writing less out of inspiration but out of curiosity what writing would be like and if I could do it. As odd as this may sound, I had not written anything in decades but have been encouraged repeatedly to do so by spiritualist mediums and tarot card readers.
Real passion came when I began researching some of my family roots in Central / Eastern Europe. Family history, old anecdotes I had picked up in my childhood and hard facts soon merged into a story that then took its own development.
And what was your first story?
A few years back I was having a go at writing a manual for a Reiki course and during that time I began to write the first short story about an experience with a mental health patient I had some years prior. The story became a complete novel that needed a lot of re-shuffling and amendments but it was curiosity if I could make this is into something worthwhile that made me continue.
I was quite fascinated by the challenges the disease constituted for the highly intelligent and kind hearted sufferer and their environment. The theme found its way back into some of my other books and their characters.
Do you have a favourite place to write?
Not a place as such. I can write in hotel rooms, on the kitchen table or my desk – as long as it is quiet and undisturbed. I prefer to get going with it early so when the world wakes up I am already truly wrapped in my story and can return to it easier if the real life needs me to interact with it. I love having a country view - which my desk has - but when I am in other environments and have only a wall to stare at - that can help me staying focused and does not stop me from having ideas and inspiration. I find I am more flexible where I write than where I read.
If you could write anyone's biography, whose would it be?
There are a couple of authors I find most intriguing ad I would like to know more about their life. Whether or not they would make a great object for research is of course questionable. I admire the rawness of Christos Tsiolkas and Lionel Shriver, so I do wonder how they became so sharp and observant. Then there is the great Paulette Mahurin whose biography data suggest a colourful life.
Most other objects of interest are historical figures about whom several books have already been written.
Where do you get your ideas from?
From real live in most cases and – as writer of mainly historical fiction – from a genuine interest about the subject, the country, the times and the historical developments. I read a lot of non-fiction which leads me to questions and consequently drives me to do proper and extensive research. I always have an arsenal of potential characters in my head. Once I saw a business traveller on an airplane and although I never spoke to him I felt as if knew everything about him. All that I associated with him from those few moments turned into the hero of my next book, the setting of which however still came from one of my “historical quests”.
What advice would you give new and aspiring authors?
Be true to yourself and confident. One bad review equals one personal opinion different from yours. Enjoy the writing experience, it is a worthwhile and great occupation and don’t worry about deadlines and what others think. Consider why you are telling a story.
Reviews and exposure are important, so keep pursuing them.
What are you working on at the moment?
A war drama (again) set mainly in Denmark and Finland. It is about the communist movement in all its facets and the benign intentions that were behind those ideas at first. It highlights Finland’s luck and its great tactical skills to have achieved independence where other countries failed.
Tell us about your latest work and how we can find out more.
My latest work is called “Sebastian” and is set in Vienna in the 1910s. It is the second book in my Three Nations Trilogy and focuses on the fall of the Habsburg Empire and the monarchy and how it affected various people. Sebastian might already be released by the time this article comes out.
Here are some links for Sebastian:
http://writerchristophfischer.wordpress.com/sebastian/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sebastian/489427467776001?ref=hl
http://www.christophfischerbooks.com/sebastian/
Here are my other links:
http://www.facebook.com/WriterChristophFischer?ref=hl
http://www.facebook.com/TheLuckOfTheWeissensteiners?ref=hl
My review website: http://writerchristophfischer.wordpress.com/
My author website: http://www.christophfischerbooks.com/
My Goodreads profile: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6590171.Christoph_Fischer
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Thanks to Christoph for sharing his thoughts, tomorrow we invite D A Lascelles to the hot seat.
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