SC Hamill discusses her novels’ blend of romance, environmental themes, and cultural exploration, her narration and songwriting, and the challenges and joys of writing for diverse audiences.
SC Hamill, a versatile author and songwriter, seamlessly blends romance, environmental themes, and cultural exploration in her work. In Saving Eden, she highlights global warming through a compelling love story set in Kentucky. Brick Lane explores the dynamics of communal living in London’s diverse neighborhoods, while The Market Lads and Me nostalgically captures teenage life in the 1980s.
Hamill’s narration of her audiobooks adds depth to her characters, and her songwriting experience enriches her prose. Writing for various age groups, she combines thorough research with authentic storytelling, making her a beloved and impactful author.
In this interview, SC Hamill discusses her inspirations, challenges, and the joys of connecting with diverse audiences through her stories. Join us as we delve into the creative mind of this remarkable storyteller.
Your novel Saving Eden intertwines romance with environmental themes. What inspired you to focus on ecology and conservation in your storytelling, and how do you balance these important messages with the development of your characters and their relationships?
When writing Saving Eden my aim was to highlight the issues of global warming on our planet. I decided that the best way to do this was to write a love story that intertwined global environmental issues and a local Kentucky community struggles to retain their identity, jobs and the way of life that they were used to in the hope that people would be actively engaged in reading a book that had all the elements of real life that they might be able to identify with. Adding love to the mix sort of made it more inviting and interesting instead of sad.
In Brick Lane, you explore the dynamics of communal living and friendships. How much of this story is drawn from your own experiences, and what do you hope readers take away from the portrayal of shared living spaces and the bonds formed within them?
Brick lane was and continues to be a melting pot of different races of people who co-exist in the same area of London. I wanted to show how people who have different roots, cultures and backgrounds from a multitude of places from around the world can live successfully together, as one. This is why I used so many different races living together.
Your book The Market Lads and Me captures the essence of life as a teenager in the 1980s. What motivated you to write about this period of your life, and how do you think the themes of youthful adventure and coming of age resonate withtoday’s readers?
So many things in The Market Lads are different than today. I wanted to show the then and now aspect if life in Lancashire. It was quite a personal journey for me to write about myself so honestly. It was also a learning curve because it was my first book and it was just a short story I wrote to learn how to use a computer as we didn’t have computers when I was at school. It was only their inception at that time.
As an author who also narrates some of your audiobooks, how does the process of narration influence your writing? Do you find that voicing your characters helps you understand them better or adds new dimensions to your storytelling?
Voicing characters is so much fun. You can take the character anywhere in a book and you can further build and embellish the characters orally in an audiobook.
You have written for children, adults, and young adults, and your books have been translated into other languages. How do you approach writing for different age groups, and what challenges and rewards come with creating stories that appeal to diverse audiences?
I do have ecology themes running through most of my writing. Sometimes this is just under the surface and other times (Saving Eden) it is the main focus. I enjoy writing for different age groups and in different genres to keep things interesting for myself. I also enjoy learning and knowledge and research. The amount of months of research I do to make things as real as they can be is quite time-consuming as well as astonishingly fun and interesting. There’s so much about the world I have yet to learn.
Your song Celebrate is a tribute to healthcare workers. How does your experience as a songwriter influence your prose writing, and what parallels do you see between crafting a compelling song and writing an engaging novel?
Sometimes songs come easily and sometimes they don’t. Writing books is very hard work. I try to write songs and books in a way that people can relate to as if they have been through a similar circumstance or can correlate the words of a song to a situation, they themselves may, have, or would like to experience.
