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Posted by ruksat

January 14th 2010

Dear willian nicholson this is my first time i have ever come on your website.The question i would like to ask u is were do you get all your ideas from the book the windsinger.i am also the age of twelve and love your books!!!!!!!!

William Nicholson responded:

This may sound like a silly answer, but most of my ideas come when I'm stretched out on the sofa listening to music and not really trying to have ideas. It seems you have to relax the mind to let it play. Also looking out of train windows, and taking boring walks. But I suppose really the ideas are already there, stuck in my head from everyday life, waiting for me to stumble upon them.

Posted by Hafsah

January 12th 2010

how old are you

William Nicholson responded:

I'm 62 - yesterday.

Posted by David P. Hoadley

January 12th 2010

Dear Sir; I’m sure that you are aware that more than one viewer of Firelight has compared it to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Indeed, much of the basic setup for your story seems to have borrowed Jane Eyre as its template. However, both Charles and Elizabeth are clearly not based on either Rochester or Jane. Charles does though seem to have something fleetingly in common with another protagonist of Brontë’s, that of William Crimsworth in her novel The Professor. Elisabeth also seems to be somewhat influenced by William’s love interest in this book, Frances Evans Henri, not the least of which is that they are both Swiss (and yes, I remember that you said that you chose Swiss because you thought it was less sexy). Was there any cross pollenation going on here when you wrote your screen play? I ask this not in a derogatory sense, but rather because it’s piqued my curiosity. I would mention that Edgar Rice Burroughs, when asked a similar question as to what influenced his creation of Tarzan of the Apes, admitted to having read Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, although he also maintained that he was equally influenced by the legends of Romulus and Remus. Rudyard Kipling admitted to being influenced by the writings of H. Rider Haggard. I remain, Very truly yours, David P. Hoadley

William Nicholson responded:

Very interesting. I've read Jane Eyre, of course, but not The Professor. I'm sure my screenplay is heavily influenced by the great Victorians - they're in my blood. I wasn't consciously borrowing from any one novel. But who knows what creeps out?

Posted by Blake Nixon

January 12th 2010

William, Happy Birthday! Most excellent choice - its mine too. Just finished reading Seeker to my 16 year old daughters. When we visited Moctezuma at the BM reminded me of the Aztecs . We came to know your writing through the Wind Singer books, which my wife bought on audio to play on trips to my parents in law in Staffordshire. Some of the concepts gel with my personal view of the after life, and also are quite consonant with string theory of contemporary physics. I mentioned this to my author friend Kirsten, whom I've known for over 25 years, and lo and behold she almost immediately met you on a course at West Dean! Anyhow have a good one, and thanks for your books. Blake

William Nicholson responded:

Happy birthday to you, too. You're quite right about the Aztecs - monstrous people - who lie behind some of the ideas in Seeker. You'll find, if you manage to read on in the Noble Warriors, that the concept of the divine gets some interesting developments. You might approve.

Posted by Alex

January 11th 2010

Dear William, I am setting up a literary blog and would like to try and conduct interviews with writers and people in publishing. Would it be possible to interview you? I appreciate that you answer questions on this site and my blog won't provide great publicity but if I could ask, say, 5 or so questions and post the interview on my blog it would really help me get started. Best wishes, Alex.

William Nicholson responded:

Sure. Why not ask them via this site, and I'll answer them? Then when you've got them I'll delete the exchange from my site so it only exists on yours.

Posted by David P. Hoadley

January 11th 2010

Dear Sir; If you were ever to consider a sequel to Firelight, and if you were to have them follow John Taylor's suggestion of settling in the United States, you could set it against the growing North-South, Slave-Emancipation tension that was then there. If you were to settle them a little further west from Ohio, in Illinois, then you could their drama against the greater drama of the Lincoln-Douglas Prairie Debates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln#Lincoln.E2.80.93Douglas_debates_of_1858) then taking place. Yours truly, DPH

William Nicholson responded:

As it happens one of my many non-produced screenplays is about Lincoln. I like your idea, but I can't see myself ever managing a sequel to Firelight. My ideas proliferate in so many new directions.