“It's entirely possible to base an entire book on a long-forgotten letter.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Whereas Mirabelle is tall, thin and sad, Vesta is physically and emotionally her opposite.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I'm a novelist by trade and my job is to write a story rather than reconstruct actual events.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
Writers of novels live in a strange world where what's made up is as important as what's real. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“The telling of any character is what they do in a different situation.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
The writer is a mysterious figure, wandering lonely as a cloud, fired by inspiration, or perhaps a cocktail or two. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I have no problem in moving a date one way or another or coming up with a subplot that gets my characters… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I am completely unflustered by whichever medium people choose to read my words. I'm just delighted they're reading them at all!” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
Writers are a product of where we come from but by looking at alternatives to the culture in which we live, we… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“One of my favourite parts of writing is doing the research. It's the door into that magical reading/writing state - the raw… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I know a lot of writers, and everyone works differently, but this is something that we truly have in common across all… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“If you put Mirabelle into some of the situations she gets into, there is only one way Mirabelle can behave.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I'm a professional writer and I consider it part of my job to publicise my work and these days part of that… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
Copywriters, journalists, mainstream authors, ghostwriters, bloggers and advertising creatives have as much right to think of themselves as good writers as academics,… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Google maps are one thing but there's no substitute for pounding the beat and I spent quite a bit of time figuring… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
Historical fiction of course is particularly research-heavy. The details of everyday life are there to trip you up. Things that we take… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“In crime books it's possible to chart forensic technology by how well it has to be explained to a reader. In mid-Victorian… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
The digital revolution has wrest a little control away from corporate publishers and white, male, middle-aged critics, but the financial value put… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I hope that, whatever happens within the publishing industry, because of the increased control writers have of their own careers, better sales… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
The new contract between writers and readers is one I'm prepared to sign up to. I've met some fascinating people at events… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I remember calling the council's cemetery department to ask about body decomposition in different soil types. Once they had verified that I… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
Something I notice speaking to writers from south of Hadrian's Wall is that the culture is different. At base, I think Scotland… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I am a storyteller, not a historian, and it's my ambition to create something compelling - something unputdownable and riveting - that… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Mirabelle and Vesta have plenty in common because they are facing descrimination in different ways, but they're also a nice contrast.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Most people do a good deal of whatever they do motivated by love. For me, few stories are truly complete without it.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“There are as many different kinds of books as there are writers - as many different responses as there are readers.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Archive material is a fabulous starting point - individual documents are like signposted roads, heading to a variety of intriguing possibilities.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Being able to read well in public and talk about your work in an engaging fashion is part of most writers' job… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Small details are a vital part of allowing a reader to make an imaginative connection with long dead historical figures.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
Research material can turn up anywhere - in a dusty old letter in an archive, a journal or some old photographs you… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I'd never be where I am if more successful writers hadn't taken an interest in me and done me a good turn.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
I wanted to find something I could do at home. I sat down with a friend and made a list of all… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
For me, writing stories set, well, wherever they're best set, is a form of cultural curiosity that is uniquely Scottish - we're… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
Writers have it easy. If you write a bestseller or have your book made into a movie, you'll never have to work… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
Everyone assumes writers spend their time lounging around, writing and occasionally striking a pose whilst having a think. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Kissing her is like drinking salted water, he thinks. His thirst only increases.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
Those who have not been stung will hardly fear a bee the same as those who have. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“We are in the middle of the biggest revolution in reading and writing since the advent of the Gutenberg press.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
The sky was a sparkling succession of black diamonds on black velvet made crystal clear by the blackout. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
History is full of blank spaces, but good stories, invariably, are not. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“The mass communications that could enable our politics for good have instead turned it into a bland conglomeration of stinted opinion cloaked in the… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
I've found myself moved by letters and diaries in archives as well as trashy, summer blockbusters. It's possible to make a connection with any… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
As an historical novelist - there are few jobs more retrospective. I dumped science at an early age. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Crime writers, I've noticed, can be jumpy. They live in a world where there are murderers on the loose and they haven't been caught… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
