Interview with Author Marianne Castle

Tell me a bit about yourself…

I am a qualified canine behaviorist/dog groomer/dog walker. I have written a book called

Two Dogs One Bone. It is an anecdotal account of my experiences in

my career and this book (there will be others to follow) is set from

1983 to late ‘90’s in the period where training was transitioning

from negative reinforcement to positive reinforcement methods of

training. I have written the book in a creative, non-fiction style to

make it an entertaining read whilst the reader can still learn things

about canine behavior. I no longer work in that field these days

but am sculpting pets from clay and working on my next book.

What genre/s do you write in?

Creative non-fiction and fiction.

How long have you been writing?

Right from childhood.

Do you have any published books or articles?

Tell me a bit about

these and what publishing route you took. I have written numerous

articles over the years and had them published in magazines and

newspapers. I also wrote a play for our local college, Nelson

College, which was performed by some of the pupils of the drama

class.

Did you use an editor?

If so who? Lesley Marshall from Editline NZ.

She was one of my tutors for the Diploma in Applied Writing course

I did in 2004-2005.

Did you use a book formatter and cover designer?

Yes. CopyPress in

Nelson who designed the cover and took care of the printing

process.

Did you self-publish or get traditionally published?

How did this go for you?

I self-published. I do need to get better with my marketing

skills and I’m working on this.

How do you market your work and promote your brand? (Include

links)

Mostly through my website www.mariannecastle.nz

alongside my sculpting work.

What social media and writing platforms would you recommend?

I’m a bit of a novice at that, but I do recommend joining the Indie

Authors NZ Facebook page.

Do you use an agent?

No, but I would quite like to find one.

Do you use paid advertising? If so what?

Not so far but I may look at that soon.

Do you have a blog or website?

Yes, I have a website.

www.mariannecastle.nz

What inspires you most to write?

I love writing and getting my ideas out of my head and onto paper.

What do you do to help with writers block?

I don’t actually suffer from that. Ideas are always pestering me. If a bout of insecurity

pounces on me and I find it difficult to get on with the job at hand I

simply write to my friends, which usually does the trick (I always try

to write entertaining emails) and I’m on form again.

How do you plan your writing and start?

I absolutely swear by having a daily word count goal. It’s a brilliant kick up the pants to

get the book written. Decide on a count that you know is easy to

achieve and compete with yourself to better it each day. If you find

that some days you can’t but you still achieve your chosen word

count then you still win.

Is writing your full time job?

If not what else do you do? No, my full-time job is sculpting people’s pets from clay.

What are you working on at the moment?

In my book Two Dogs One Bone my dog Ben features heavily in it so I am writing the book from his point of view. In the style of books like Anna Sewell’s Black

Beauty and Bruce Cameron’s A Dog’s Purpose.

What is your target audience?

People who love dogs and people who don’t necessarily like dogs but know someone who does. My book makes an ideal gift for dog lovers. It suits anyone from about

age 15 onwards.

How long does it take you to write a book?

Depends on my daily word count goal. Because I’m working hard with my sculptures at

the moment my word count can’t be as ambitious as I would like.

I’m quite keen on remaining sane and cruising through life without

too much stress.

When did you first discover you enjoyed writing?

When I first started school and learned about those yummy things called words

but instead of spoken, even better, written down.

What does your writing schedule look like?

I tend to write best in the mornings after I’ve taken my dogs out for a walk.

What does your family think about you writing?

Very supportive.

What do you do when you are not writing?

I sculpt bespoke sculptures of people’s pets.

Where do you get information and ideas for your writing?

From life itself. It’s absolutely teeming with ideas if you observe it closely

enough. And of course, how lucky we are these days to have the

internet for doing research.

What do you think makes a good story?

Learn how to write well and you can make a story from just about anything.

https://www.mynzdreamblog.com/mentoring