I’m
so thrilled to welcome the absolute dream that is Tanya
Landman to
the How, What, Where and When series!
I asked her a few questions about her recent release with the babes
at Barrington Stoke, ‘One Shot’; the story of Maggie, a young
girl who, after losing her beloved father, seeks to support her
family doing what he did – hunting. She horrifies her family and
the locals by doing this, is branded ‘unladylike’, and subjected
to a young life full of cruelty. She soon learns the only person she
can count on is herself, and begins to fight for survival.
Hey,
Tanya! Thank you so much for being a guest on this (still relatively
new) series. Let’s start with a quick How – as
in, how did you come across Annie Oakley?
I
read an awful lot of history books when I was researching for Buffalo
Soldier.
I became intrigued by how quickly the history of the American West
had become romanticized and turned into a showbiz spectacle by people
like ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody. It was while I was reading about him
that I came across the star of his Wild West show – Annie
Oakley.
And what inspired
you to write a re-imagining of Annie’s story?
It
wasn’t so much what as who –
Annie
herself inspired me. She was an extraordinary person, coming from
such a tough background with so much tragedy in her past yet
overcoming it all to become America’s first female celebrity.
Where
did you find you struggled and
triumphed most in
writing this book?
To
be honest, I didn’t struggle at all – it
was an absolute joy to work on. Once I sat down to write Maggie’s
voice started to flow very easily through my head. She just
told me her story and I wrote it down.
When
can we expect another fabulous
novel from you, in the future?
If
all goes according to plan, there should be two new books coming out
in 2020!
Thank
you so much for answering my questions, Tanya. You’re a gem. I hope
to see you at an event or something soon!
Readers,
you can grab this brilliant book from Barrington Stoke, or on The Book Depository, OR order
it into Big Green Bookshop, perhaps. (also the big book
stores/websites, but let’s give the littler guys some love,
yeah?)
(Thank you so much to the bookstagrammers who let me embed their photos in this; I'd have taken some, but I've already donated my copy to my old school!)
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