Bestselling fantasy writer, Fiona McIntosh in an in depth interview with Uma Thakar. Fiona publishes crime novels as Lauren Crow. She has remarkable success in shifting into different genres and here she shares some of the secrets of her success as a writer. Uma: You write in a variety of genres, as Fiona the fantasy writer and as Lauren the crime writer. You've written books for children. You also have a mainstream novel based in India, in the offing. How do you manage to change from one genre to another with so much ease? FIONA; I'm actually very comfortable about switching genres.  Because I am juggling up to four manuscripts in a year (2008 is an unusual year I'll admit!), I think there would be danger if they were all fantasy for instance.   In genre writing there is a 'sameness' to stories.  Readers are essentially looking for a fresh spin on an accepted - and loved - story style.    In fantasy there are many sub-genres but in the area I mostly work, these are epic stories with many characters, big landscapes, medieval style setting in a world we recognise and above all a good v evil base to the tale.     Now, how I handle those elements is obviously where the differences emerge but for the most part if you pick up a McIntosh adult fantasy, these are the elements you tend to expect and if I suddenly delivered a contemporary story set in New York for example, I would need to warn readers and booksellers (and my editor) well in advance.     So, keeping in mind that my stories share many common qualities, I think I would run the risk of tedium if I were to set myself the task of producing three of these books in one year for example.  Plus there would be the very real consideration that I would not generate sufficient creativity or story power.    By mixing it up, it keeps me fresh and sharp.  In a sense it invigorates my writing to move from historical to contemporary, from stories that involve magic and high fantasy elements, to stories that are gritty and feel perfectly real; from sprawling epic landscapes to a couple of grimy neighbourhoods in London.    To shift into children's fiction challenges me in different ways and that keeps me interested and looking at my work with fresh eyes.     The mainstream area I'm moving into is so different to anything I've tackled before that it brings its own electricity; there's a buzz surrounding it for me that is filled with excitement, anticipation, fear and passion.   My intention is to continue juggling these genres because it ensures my working life is never dull and that my creativity is allowed to roam in many directions.     I'm not sure I've actually answered your question.     I think the moving with ease comes from the change in headspace required to tackle the different genres.   I suppose I look forward to the change and when you enjoy something and approach it with vigour and enthusiasm, you tend to make it appear easy.       Uma: You credit a lot of your research to 'Tony', your friend from Scotland Yard. Tell me how you came to meet Tony and also about your visit to Scotland Yard. FIONA: Tony contacted me.   He had read my fantasy books in the UK, loved them and decided on a whim to contact the author and thank her.     I love reader mail and I particularly relish the opportunity to talk to readers one on one and naturally I wrote back and we simply got chatting via internet because I sensed we were of similar age and interests.     At around this time I was toying with the idea of having a go at a crime novel but I guess I was subconsciously searching for a catalyst.     Tony became that for me when he told me that he was a senior police officer based at Scotland Yard.    We have become very close friends and I've had the privilege of walking those corridors of Scotland Yard - what an eye opener - and Tony has since become a supremely valued source of police procedure and background information.     Tony is a writer anyway and so he knows exactly what I need from him.     These days we meet up in London and spend a week trawling around locations and chewing over my plotline, going over how police handle certain situations and essentially Tony educating me about what goes on behind the scenes.   Uma: You're based in Adelaide and your Jack Hawksworth crime novels are located in London. Yet despite the distance, your novels have a very strong sense of place. How do you go about researching your locations? When I decided to write crime it was always going to be Britcrime.     I read crime through choice and my favourite writers are British.     I prefer the less sensationalist style story and one without guns and too much forensics.     I'm more interested in characters, their relationships and that the plot reflects their involvement and that their decisions drive the story along.  Britcrime seems to suit this approach.     I've lived in Australia for 27 years but I'm originally from the UK and I find it easy to 'think British' and my sense of place of where I'm from and how it looks and feels, smells and sounds, has never left me.   Your homeland is always in your blood or blueprinted on your mind you could say, so creating the feel of the stories is not hard.     However, today's England is very different in parts to the one I left behind two decades ago and so I do have to do my homework.   I spend 10 days or so in Britain before each novel and make sure I do some detailed location work so that my story has authenticity down to cafes or bus numbers.     I take lots of photos to prompt my memory for when I'm back behind my desk because it's often only several months later that I get down to writing the book. Uma: You started writing late. Apart from the workshop you attended by Bryce Courtenay, what triggered your need to write? FIONA: My need to write could only be measured as some sort of mid life crisis.   At 39 I felt the driving desire to do something very different, very selfish and indulgent.     At the time I was running an incredibly busy travel publishing business with my husband and our magazine was monthly, national, a 32-page glossy that seemed to control our lives, and we were raising twins.    Our sons were eight at the time.   I don't know where the notion to write a book came from but it had arrived, taken hold and refused to let go and by the time I was staring down the barrel of turning 40, it was shrieking at me.    So I answered my selfish inclinations and flew down to Hobart for this one week course with Bryce and an epiphany occurred.  It felt like I'd found the missing piece of the jigsaw to my life.     I came home, wrote my first manuscript in about 12 weeks and the rest is history.    I now have 15 novels published and two being released next year and a further two in the pipeline.   We sold our business and then in 2006 I moved into full time writing.     I was meant to write popular fiction it seems and hopefully story ideas will continue to flow. Uma: How do you and your family cope with the demands of being a writer? FIONA: For me, being a writer is no different to any other self-employment.     It's extremely demanding, has a whole set of tensions relating to cash flow that only other small business owners understand, and there is a danger that you can be overwhelmed by the workload and want to give it 24 hours a day attention.     The trick for me is to treat it as a daily job.  Writing is my work.     I sit down behind my computer at 08:15 most mornings and I wrap up the moment my sons return from school.   I will return to the desk around 7pm to tidy up a few things but essentially my writing day is done by 2pm and my working day is over by 4.30pm.    The family experiences no trials and tribulations simply because I'm a writer.   I don't bring my work to the dinner table or into the house.     I don't find writing stressful anyway so my husband and sons don't see me wringing my hands with worry over a chapter.    I treat writing as a business.  It's how I earn my income and so everything is approached professionally and in a very business-like manner.    I answer emails, talk to editors, communicate with booksellers, ensure I visit my messageboards several times a day, I write blogs, answer reader mail diligently, stay in touch with my publicists, keep up the dialogue with overseas publishers,/translators, I organise events such as signings, talks, conventions, motivational seminars....the daily business of writing is an iceberg and the creative part is just its tip that you see beyond the surface.    Below is a lot of background work going on.     I run writing workshops, a book club, I help school students, I judge writing contests, I prepare endless speeches....and so it goes.    I am extremely disciplined about the writing though.     I have a daily word count, which is a contract I make with myself at the outset of each novel and I stick to it like glue.     the moment I reach my daily word count, I move onto the next project - usually another manuscript in structural edit or copy edit or perhaps even writing another manuscript.     I can switch off each manuscript with ease and because I don't plan any of the books that I write, I don't worry about them until the next working day at 08:15.   The family has it good! Uma: Where do you see yourself in five years time in terms of your personal life and career? FIONA: Hmmm.  Good question.  My sons will be 22 and presumably well on their way through university and their chosen career paths and so I will not need to be offering quite the same amount of dragon-like supervision or offering the same high level of support that I do now as they push through Year 12.     My husband and I are great travellers and we both have a fascination for the idea of living abroad for a while.     I would like to think that we will be spending more time in Tasmania - our favourite region of Australia - and possibly doing short stints in some of the cities we fancy living in - Paris, London, New York, Glasgow, Rome ... they're all on the list!     I will have the time and freedom presumably to do even more research for my novels and this means I can linger in some of the fantastic destinations we sometimes only have a chance to glimpse.     I want to spend more time in the Eastern Med for instance and in France.  I want to do a lot more walking tours.     Career-wise I'm hopeful that the mainstream storytelling takes off and that I will continue to pursue this area alongside fantasy, crime, children's.  I would love to produce a cook book and I feel my writing will not be complete without writing a grand romance!    I do want to get into some screenwriting but that's a desire at this stage and I'll have to wait and see what opportunities come my way.     Perfect situation would be the BBC wanting to use the crime stories and it can't possibly face producing a script  without my input - yeah right - and Hugh Jackman will play the lead role of DCI Hawksworth!    Or Peter Jackson can't call his life complete without making The Quickening into a superb, award winning movie series and I get to help him choose the actors and consult on site!     Finally Colin Firth contacts me direct to say he'd like to buy the rights to my mainstream novel for a future project and could I help him off with his wet white shirt because he's just climbed out of a lake!     Ah, I'm dreaming again..... On a more realistic note, I have a very strong urge to do something very practical for the community.     I'm researching some ideas to pursue for 2011 when I reckon I'll have my first opportunity to come up for air from books.

READ MORE ABOUT FIONA ON HER WEBSITES AT:
www.FionaMcIntosh.com and www.LaurenCrow.com