Losing a Mentor
Anna Castle in Austin, Texas, dressed as Sir Francis Bacon and holding a copy of her first Sir Francis Bacon mystery, Murder by Misrule. Image by Susan Kung, 2016 (January 24)
My friend Anna Castle died on Wednesday, February 2nd. She was my friend, mentor, and fellow writer for twenty years.
We had plans to meet via Zoom to look at book covers and talk about writing on Thursday. I got the news that she had died unexpectedly about an hour before we were scheduled to meet. We planned on talking about book covers and my WIP struggles, among other things.
The last communication I had with Anna was an email where she enthusiastically asked if she could beta read for me. I had beta’d for her, and she had proofread my essays, grant proposals, and short stories for years. But I hadn’t wanted to take advantage of her generosity and ask her to proof a whole novel. She offered with such eagerness, I don’t know why I thought it would be a bother.
That was Anna. She was my number one fan since the day I decided to start writing and publishing fiction. Even before that.
Anna and I met in 2002 when I began working at a digital archive that preserved Indigenous language recordings. She was a friend from the moment we met. She had lots of advice about my graduate research. I listened. I contacted the people she suggested. People that would also become influential in my life. She wrote my recommendations. I became a Fulbright scholar and produced an award winning dissertation. Her guidance early on contributed to many of my successes.
She was an avid reader, and we shared a love of fantasy and science fiction. If we weren’t talking Indigenous languages or digital archiving, we were talking books. We traveled to conferences together. She knitted my son a baby blanket with all her left over yarn lengths. A gorgeous, functional hodgepodge of colors. She was also talented with needles and sewing, and a zillion other hobbies. She adored her dog, and we sometimes took our dogs on doggie play dates.
www.annacastle.com
Anna began writing and successfully publishing her own books as an indie author when she retired from the archive a decade ago. She wrote historical mysteries set in Elizabethan England, and her love of research shone through in her clever and entertaining stories. Her tagline was “mysteries with heart and wit”. A perfect description of her work!
Before becoming an author, she earned a Ph.D. in linguistics, she documented an Indigenous language in Mexico, and she wrote the first grammar of that language. She was manager of an Indigenous archive that pioneered digital archiving for Indigenous languages, and she worked internationally with other archives to establish protocols and best practices in the field.
Anna Castle at the 50th anniversary tour of Jesus Christ Superstar in Austin, Texas. Image by Susan Kung, 2019 (October 9)
I was fortunate that I got to work with Anna in arenas that stretched beyond linguistics and archiving. It wasn’t so long ago that I told Anna that I was writing sci-fi and fantasy romance, and she was thrilled and supportive. Ever pragmatic, she got me thinking about the practicalities of writing and publishing. We met regularly to talk plotting and crafting. She had great advice about blogging, which prompted my inaugural blog post, and what I need to do to become a successful author.
It took about a day for the question to form in my mind, but when it came, it hit me hard: What I am I going to do without her?
I went through her website, scanning her bio and gathering details about her writing career to include in her obituary, and I found her HANDOUTS page. That was Anna. Always a teacher, her author page had a handouts page with presentations about writing, publishing, and marketing. Here’s a great one about how Novel Writing Builds Character. Everything I would need to know about publishing once my WIP is finished.
She was active in local mystery writing and indie publishing groups. She organized events and taught classes for local aspiring authors. While her publishing how-tos were intended for a broader audience, I can’t help feel she was looking out for me. This is one of the many ways that her influence on my work will carry on.
Anna was a brilliant, bright star in this world. I will miss her dearly.
Header image: A perspective view of the Abbey and Palace of Westminster as they may have looked in the time of Henry VIII, prepared by H. W. Brewer for The Builder magazine. Vol. 47, No. 2180 (November 15, 1884). (This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer.)