
HM-Incredibly hard! Not so much the style of writing change but the marketing side of things and also because this was so much more personal I felt much, much more vulnerable about what people said.
MP-In Finding Anna, Alex is looking for adventure. As a world traveller yourself, where was your most adventurous place?
HM-Gosh, there’s a question! I think one of the best adventures has to be in Lesotho. We stayed overnight one night in a Christian mission high in the mountains and we got a ride in the back of a pickup into Mokhotlong early in the next morning.
As we came rattling up the hill into town a light aircraft was making its landing in the field that constituted the landing strip for the local airport. My friend and I looked at each other and without a word we banged on the roof of the pickup and he screeched to a halt, the dust racing to catch us up. We jumped out and ran down, backpacks bumping like mad, to the field and as the Cessna taxied past to the airport we stuck our thumbs out and pretended to hitch a ride.
The pilot stopped, flipped open the window and asked where we wanted to go to. Anywhere, we shrugged, as long as we could go by plane. Sure, he said, let me pick up my passengers and I’ll take you with him through to Maseru…
His passenger turned out to be a local priest who was utterly petrified of flying and sat with fists clenched rigid for the entire flight. His other passenger was a diamond dealer!
That was an amazing adventure!!
MP-Has a cartoon animal ever changed your life like it did for Anna?
HM-No, but lots of strange things have!
MP-A non-fiction writer research is key, how much research did you do for this book?
HM-Hours and hours and hours. The book covers a lot of subjects like sailing, the north west pacific, environmental issues and I had to make sure I got my fact straight.
MP-Do you have any books in the works?
HM-I have two underway as I type. Running lights – romance and The Red Balloon – a non fiction. And I have two more in the pipeline after that!
MP-Where can we purchase Finding Anna?
HM-Amazon.com! http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Anna-ebook/dp/B004EYUHT2/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1322735634&sr=1-2