Coburn Palmer/Roundup, Victor Kamont/Roundup
A famous author with more than 50 novels to her credit happens to work at Pierce College as a history professor.
Barbara Hambly, an assistant adjunct professor in the history and humanities department, is also a historical fiction novelist although her students might never know it.
“They don’t need me to stand up there and tell them I am a famous writer,” Hambly said. “If they go to the faculty website, they can find out I write books.”
She trained as an academic historian, in order to become a professor and she became a writer because it is what she likes to do.
“Writers have to write,” Humbly said.
According to Hambly there are two kinds of writers. The first kind start writing as small children, and writing is a safe place for them to go. The second start writing later and writing is the dangerous place.
Every writer draws from their own, or others experiences, according to Hambly but not every character they write represents them.
“We’re good at making stuff up,” she said.
Hambly applied to teach creative writing at first but was later hired to teach history because of her degree.
“I know these periods backwards and forwards,” Hambly said. “I get the feeling of time and place very well.”
Meanwhile, Hambly’s students might never know she is a professional writer.
“I think that bringing anything from my writing life would be a distraction,” she said.
Despite her attempts to remain hidden some of her students do wind up reading her blog and discover her secret.
Her advice to beginning writers is to have someone they know read their writing and give them feedback.
“They can tell you if you are writing clearly,” Hambly said. “You are to close to it.
If writers get stuck at a crossroads, they should retrace their steps and have their characters take a different path, according to her.
” Your subconscious is telling you that you are going down the wrong path,” Hambly said.
She generally starts her books from outlines so she always knows where they are going but she doesn’t always know how they’re going to get there.
” I make my outlines short and lose,” Hambly said. “Point A or point B might end up as point Z.”
Hambly also says that beginning writers spend too much time describing their character’s worlds and not enough time describing the action.
“A common mistake is to put everything in one lump, you should divide your writing into little slivers and distribute them through out your book,” Hambly said.
Hambly believes that writers write because they have no choice. The only difference between her and another writer is that she gets paid.
“Every writer makes 10,000 mistakes, get started and get them out of the way,” she said.