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Felinity Interview – Clare Neilson

 

Hi and welcome to Team Grimbold! Felinity is set to be the first publication under the Kristell Inkling imprint, and we’re thrilled to have you on board. Tell us about yourself. (Please include links to blogs/sites/Twitter/published works etc)

My name is Clare and I lived in Bristol for six years of my life before moving back to my home city of Manchester to go back into education and became involved in food and nutrition. My friends in Bristol are heavily involved in the sci-fi and fantasy writing scene and I always like to proof read their work. I have started my own bakery business and my twitter handle is @c_confec

What inspired your story for Felinity?

I have a knack for telling made-up short stories, with an emphasis on the telling. Writing stories is hard as I tend to go back over the words and tinker with what I have already written rather than add to them. The word limit made it a challenge and I am very glad I finished it in time. The father in the story is influenced by the toy maker in Blade Runner, I thought about his collection in steam form, what large steam-powered toy cats would look like, and who would buy them.

How do you feel about having an illustration accompany your story?

Very excited! I cannot wait to see what visuals go with the words!

What writing projects are you working on at the moment?

Hahaha, a very silly story that is a present for a friend of mine. He complained there weren’t many steam-punk wizard stories, so I started writing him one. I’m trying to make it more of a novella size so the pacing is quite fast. Maybe if it’s good enough I’ll send it to my friends in Bristol and they can help me make it better.

The most important question – Cats or dogs?

Dogs used to scare me but now I know only some dogs need to be feared. I’m still going for cats though, they are the perfect fluffy companion for me.

 

Inkling Interrogation

1. How would you guide an alien through making a marmite sandwich? – I would tell him to make a peanut butter one instead. Marmite is disgusting!

2. What’s your greatest achievement? – Setting up my own business. Still in the early months but it’s getting on nice.

3. Who is the living person you most despise? – Rupert Murdoch

4. Do you take the shampoo and soap from hotels? – Nope, I don’t need to.

5. – What would be your motto? – There’s always room for beer.

6. What did you want to be when you were little? –  A lollipop lady. Every single one I met was always so friendly and helpful.

7. Who do you admire the most and why? – JK Rowling because every single thing I read about her is always positive. The best I heard was she gave so much money to charity she was no longer a billionare.

8. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4 – what is it? – “This was just the beginning of the spread, before anybody knew anything about what was coming.” World War Z by Max Brooks.