The newest mystery from Delacorte Press, THE WHOLE WORLD, is also author, Emily Winslow’s, fiction debut.  Her life’s experience on both sides of the Atlantic Pond bring a ring of firsthand knowledge to the characters and the university life at Cambridge.  Busy bogging, signing, and gearing up for the US release rush, we’re lucky to have snagged our 5 minutes in all the hubbub.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Emily: A logic puzzle for Games magazine. I’d grown up reading the magazine, and ended up writing for them after college. The editor gave me a lot of freedom to experiment, which was wonderful.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Emily: THE WHOLE WORLD is set in Cambridge, England, narrated by five characters affected by the disappearance of a popular graduate student. It’s a mystery, and it’s an exploration of how expectations and assumptions limit what each characters is able to perceive and understand about the circumstances they share.

I loved writing it, and researching it. We had just moved to Cambridge from the States, and there was so much I wanted to tell everyone back home about this strange place. And so much I needed to figure out to be able to navigate life here! It’s British, but more specifically it’s “Cambridge”: academic, international, and with a population in annual flux, as students arrive and graduate and fellowships begin and end.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Emily: My husband. We homeschool our kids, and he teaches/plays with them until noon most days, which is when I write. Then he goes to work, as CTO of a technical company, and I take over with the boys. We meet up in the evening, on the couch, after the kids are in bed. Skyping the California office for him; TV for me; and footrubs! I love the footrubs.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Emily: I used to do my best writing at night, after ideas percolated all day during my dayjob. I guess the energy I used at work and the energy I needed to write with were different. Now that my dayjob is my kids, I find my creative energy is all used up after a day with them. My nights are no good any more. So, morning it is.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Emily: Join the AbsoluteWrite Forums.  Get educated about the business of writing, so it doesn’t take you by surprise when you’re ready to leap into the professional fray.

THE WHOLE WORLD hits bookstores in the US this week.  Find it here, there, and everywhere with this handy link.  And keep up with Emily with the latest updates on her website and blog.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 4:20 pm and is filed under *Jamie's Posts, 5 Minutes Alone, AuthorScoop Exclusives, The Writing Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.