Author Q&A: Anna Rashbrook

Today we’re interviewing Anna Rashbrook, who writes short stories and tales of all length about horses.

Born in Winchester, England, Rashbrook grew up with dogs and a passion for horses that was fulfilled when her family moved to the countryside and she had her first pony.

After school, she spent a year in Switzerland, then came home, met her future husband, settled, and raised a family. She later took a degree with the Open University, graduating with a First Class honours in English and history.

Rashbrook worked for five years at the Fortune Centre in Hampshire as a riding therapist. Married for thirty-seven years, she has two adult children who wouldn't move to Austria when she moved there in 2007.

Maybe a victim of watching too many editions of "A Place in The Sun" and "Grand Designs," she loves Austria and has no plans to leave!

She now runs the village library, looks after holiday homes, and is concentrating on writing novels.

Rashbrook rejected faith until her own family went through the trauma of an eviction and homelessness in the 1980s. It was through these events that she found God again.

Since then she's been involved in Baptist, Anglican, and Free churches, she's now in the Anglican Church in Austria.

However, she says she is just a Christian who happened to be in these churches and wouldn't wish to be labeled.

SADYE: What have been the most surprising, rewarding, and challenging parts of your writing career?

ANNA: I think the biggest surprise that I’ve had in writing is the author community that I have found.

There is such support and camaraderie, that I’m often overwhelmed. This is only made possible by the internet.

I wonder how many authors got on in the past, but I guess they had publishers!

This in turn has made it the most rewarding career I’ve had since I stopped working professionally with horses.

The most challenging part is finding the readers!

SADYE: What historical figure would you most like to meet and why?

ANNA: I would love to go back just a short time to meet and chat with author Elizabeth Goudge – I hope she counts as historical as she died over thirty years ago.

I would so much like to chat to her about her books, her influences, characters and her faith.

SADYE: What message or theme would you like readers to take away from your work?

ANNA: I am a Christian, and so my faith informs my writing.

I would never write “preachy” stuff, so my books all have a gentle, underlying theme about God’s love for us.

I hope my readers may reflect a little after they have read the books.

SADYE: What advice, as relates to your writing career, would you give your younger self?

ANNA: Not give up in 1991 when my first book couldn’t find a publisher!

SADYE: What experience in your past or general aspect of your life has most affected your writing?

ANNA: As I said earlier, my faith is the most important part of my life and past.

However, I am a lifelong horse lover and have worked with them, especially in equine-assisted therapy.

The effect they have on us, as they do indeed pick up on our innermost emotions, is incredible.

Hence, the horses in my books are key in reflecting the characters and their struggles to the reader.

I don’t think I could write without God or horses being key — oh and dogs too!

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Learn more about Anna Rashbrook on her blog, where her books can also be purchased; like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter. 

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