Indie’s Questions with Cym Lowell
Name: Cym Lowell
Occupation: I am a writer of fiction (international thrillers) and non-fiction (international tax and finance). The non-fiction knowledge inevitably finds its way into the thrillers.
Website: www.cymlowell.blogspot.com
Who is your favourite author? Jon Land, Willa Cather and Elizabeth Kostova
What is your favourite book? The Professor’s House by Willa Cather
What was the first e-book you read? The Summoner by Layton Green
What is your favourite book cover? Riddle of Berlin (my own book; since I worked with the design artist to come up with the cover)
If you could be a character from any book, who would you be and why? I believe it to be inevitable that characters devised by fiction writers have significant elements of their own personality. Our characters end up in positions of conflict. How they deal with the situation at hand must reflect the life experience of the writer, to a greater or lesser degree.
I enjoy reading all kinds of fiction and seeing how authors handle their characters. When I really enjoy a book, I find myself imagining that I was in the shoes of the protagonist. While I may enjoy the story, I may also wonder why the character handled something the way he or she did.
For example, in The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova, there are groups of characters more than 100 years apart. I loved the story but was mystified at how the psychiatrist in the present time, and the male artist in the Impressionist time reacted to their struggles. I could not imagine reacting as they did. The same was true of the Professor in Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House. He hid from the conflict with his wife, addressing it via dress mannequins, as opposed to handling it straight away.
This is a long way around to answering your question. My favorite character is John Jaegerman in my book Riddle of Berlin (as well as sequel that is coming along, entitled 30,000 Camels). Why? Because the character largely comes from my own feelings about me and, in fiction at least, this character reacted to his crises in a manner that I would like to think I would.
