Interview with Keturah Scott
Published 2015-02-20.
What was the first story you ever wrote, and what happened to it?
I wouldn’t call it a story more a journal of facts, dates and who was there.
I was working as a.. lets call it a “Private Assistant” to an important man when we had incident that needed to be dealt with.
A person who has become a very important part of my journey through life arrived on the scene. He then told me to write down everything that happened including who we met and spoke with that night. He was so impressed with my outline. He hired me and thus began my career as a “fixer” cleaning up problems, and making sure things were kept out of the Press.
Because I signed a non-disclosure agreement that has me literally “bound in knots” I can never write about what I have seen and done over the years. This began to affect me. Almost to the point I thought about quitting altogether. My “Soulmate” who like me works in this “highly paid” Kingdom of secrets suggested I use those events in stories as a kind of therapy in between “the madness” like they have done. So I did! It worked.
When you sold your first piece of writing, how did you celebrate?
It was interesting really. I was on a job unwinding in Beirut over a drink with my “partner”. I clicked on my private email and saw a note from Smashwords telling me I sold a book. It was the first time in a long time I had smiled.
Tell us about your process: Pen, paper, word processor ... how do you write?
Like my life my books are a process map of chapters, people and cellphone numbers with large dollars signs. So my notes in my journals are a like a Time Capsule. I open up a page and each one is a story. I now write every chance I get. But planes are always the best places to do this. Nobody rings you on a plane!
What's the biggest mistake you've made as a writer?
Because English is my second language of seven that I speak I often miss things in translation. So even now I find mistakes. At first I published too soon. Once the work is out there, you can't reel it back in. The problem, of course, is that you don't realise that until it's too late. Also you think everything you write is wonderful, you're seduced by the act of building a world where the cast of characters! Truly can face justice! This isn’t always the case in the real world. So sometimes you need to take a step back and ask yourself if the story really works.
What kind of catharsis did you achieve from your latest work?
Hmm, that's a good question. My latest series of books is unrelentingly dark and it hurts like hell to be mired in it because it’s truly draws from what my life is like in the Middle East. As to where it came from well that goes back to a friend of mine who gave me a copy of Martin’s “Game of Thrones” once I had read it I asked them why they liked it so much. She said it because it was a journey that had political intrigue at its core and the fact that the real power lay with the women not the men in his stories.
I chuckled at the time and replied the sex in it is nowhere near as dark as real life but I could see she had a point.
So was born the idea of the Sheikh’s series only in a modern day fictional setting based on ancient Emirates and Kingdoms. I am going to have a lot of fun with the characters who inhabit King Faisal's life but also hopefully rest some of the demons that haunt mine.
Which fictional character would you most like to have a drink with, and why?
I have met one or two interesting people along the way. Some famous, some not so famous each has a story to tell. Good and bad. In terms of fictional characters I don’t have one in particular but the characters of the late Catherine Gaskin’s “The Ambassador’s Women” are the ones I enjoyed remembering reading the most.
It was 1991 and I was sitting by the Nile in Cairo. Basically, it is about two incredible women who meet by chance on a bridge in pre-war London. One is a hugely wealthy American lady, the other, the impoverished wife of a career diplomat. A friendship emerges that binds them over many years of privilege, love and political upheaval.
A person who had experienced that terrible time could only write the descriptions of London at the height of the blitz, which is why I enjoyed it. Catherine missed nothing
Although a dark secret threatens them all it is the young orphaned girl that touches three generations and unites them for all time. I liked it and never wanted it to end. It is a wonderful saga. There are lots of twists in the plot and some very good surprises
Where do you buy your books?
On my “Kindle” these days but before that in airport gift shops all around the world. I even managed to buy a book once at an airport in Iran that had a dirt runway in all places! - It was a "Mills and Boon" and it was brought out from under the counter in a wrapper like it was a "hot potato" LOL.
How do you handle a bad review of your work?
Doesn’t bother me if I am honest. I know some of my work isn’t to everybody’s taste. And if it a fair review with valid points. Then I take it onboard.
As “Only Allah is perfect” after all. LOL
As someone who writes within the erotica genre, what are your thoughts on the impact and importance of Fifty Shades of Grey?
I'm not sure there's much long-term impact or importance in Fifty Shades because ultimately its from a mainstream publisher who is always worried about the law. So it can't take steps that it needs to really make it dark enough. It's a product of the Public Relations world. Hell! The film even has product placement for nail vanish in it! That said it success though is something you really can't replicate and I do think it struck a cord with women at the time it was released. Although it seems to me that the author has tried to “pigeon hole” what she thinks a billionaire with dark secret acts like. Sex! Money! Helicopters and bondage! The real life of a billionaire goes much further than that trust me! Power certainly does things to people not all of it good!
At the end of day the world loves to read about fantasy and there’s nothing better than having a place to escape to in the pages of a book. I certain think that we should go all the way with our characterisations. Be extravagant and push the boundaries! I intend to in my Sheikh's collection.
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