Interview with Debut Author Sara Crowe

Sara Crowe is best known as an actress. She has appeared on television, stage and film, including the iconicFour Weddings and a Funeral. She has won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Variety Club Best Actress Award and the London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Newcomer. Sara’s West End appearances include Private Lives, Calendar Girls and Hay Fever. She has also toured with Acorn Antiques: the Musical, and appeared in The City Madam for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Campari for Breakfast is Sara’s first novel, inspired by a crumbling old house and a love of English eccentricity. She began writing as a child and has also written comedy sketches for television and stand-up. But in the tradition of late developers‚ she recently re-opened the notebooks of yesteryear and some of the characters climbed out. We had the pleasure to talk to Sara Crowe about her experience of getting published!

1. How did you get published?

I think finding my literary agent is really the answer to that. I sent off three chapters and a synopsis to her and it was a great blessing that she liked it.

2. Was your published novel the only one you have ever written?

Yes. I have started other things, but never seen anything through right till the end.

3. How many drafts did it take to be accepted by an agent?

Many! I wrote several drafts before it was ready to send out to people. This was partly lack of experience on my part. It was a huge learning curve. But I do believe that you learn to do something, by doing it.

4. Would you tell us more about the writing process?

I sometimes think writing is an evolutionary process! You start with dinosaurs and gradually they evolve and walk about on the land. I wish there was a way of cutting to the evolved bit! But that is the process, it is part torture, part bliss.

5. What was the hardest part of the process for you?

I found working on the editorial notes difficult, because it involved re-arranging the story to bring some of the drama forward. So that had a knock-on and a knock-back effect, which was tricky for my poor brains. But, ultimately I think it made for a much better story, and story telling is something I really wanted to learn about.

6.  What advice would you give to fellow authors striving to get published?

Write about what you know, make a habit of writing at the same time each day or night, and never, never give up! I keep inspirational quotes about my desk too to help when things get difficult. Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’ is a great help!

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