Barnaby introduces a friend

Barnaby would like to use this blog space to introduce a fellow writer, Suzy Dubot, an Anglo/American who has been living in France for over 30 years. Not only does Suzy write her own books, she also motivates and inspires a multinational group of like minded authors to produce regular compilations of short stories in aid of charity. This group, known collectively as Top Writer's Block, simply would not exist without her encouragement. Here, in her own words, is a small insight into Suzy's writing.

 

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A writer is only half responsible for what he writes. I promise you.

Once I have given my characters their names, they begin to take over. Their personalities emerge and have very little to do with what I had originally planned for them. The hardened hero often takes on a schoolboy vulnerability and my heroines have the colour of their hair changing several times before the end of the tale. Not one of your modern hair colour products either, because the majority of my people are ensconced in the Regency period with only the occasional time shift, if you're lucky.

Q. How did I begin you might ask?

A. It was a very bad Regency paperback that convinced me that I could do better.

Q. Why so late in life?

A. I admit that any urge I had to write earlier was stifled by the mystery of dialogue. How did an author create credible dialogue? Fool that I was, I never attempted it until that modern 'penny dreadful' pushed me to try. I know now. The answer is quite simple for me - I take dictation. My characters say what they like and often do as they like. I sometimes find them kissing or moving on to more serious acts, and there is little I can do without stepping away, without taking my fingers off the keyboard. I wonder if they knew we were reading about them, they might be a little more discreet but somehow I doubt that, in a moment of passion, they would give a damn!

Q. Have I lived a dull life, you might wonder?

A. My writings are not the fantasies of a drudge. I am an American who spent her younger years travelling back and forth between the US and Britain. The irony is that I have ended up living most of my life in France.

How that happened is another story.

I am a vegetarian and an active supporter of animal rights. It is difficult to know if I have influenced my three daughters or if it is they who have influenced me. My life still has many unexpected twists to it, for which I am grateful most of the time.

To sum up, I must just say that as an author I have had the amazing good fortune of crossing paths/ words/ lines/ stories with some pretty impressive writers. Contact with them has been an eye-opening experience that I would not have missed for anything because, not only have they encouraged me but they have shown me that writers the world around are just ordinary folk like me. They all have characters and plots in their heads waiting to get out. So now when I'm asked what I do for a living, I can answer without hesitation that I am a secretary who takes dictation! Just joking.

 I AM A WRITER!

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You can find out more about Suzy Dubot's books  here including two of her most recent books Tangling with Tania and Garnets

 

I can heartily endorse Suzy's credentials. SHE IS A WRITER!