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Anne was born in Guyana, a country in the north of South America. Being a lady, she doesn't discuss when exactly this was, but apparently she's had enough time to a be a stage and TV actress, an English teacher, a missionary, a radio talk show host, a writer, a gardener, a model, a wife and a mother of three. After leaving Guyana she's lived in Paris, London, Alabama, Ireland and Bristol. Nowadays she divides her time between her family, working at a local youth center, gardening, modeling, promoting her novel and pounding out an immense amount of smart, snappy or zany articles.
A quick tally tells she writes most often about social issues, and slightly less often about humorous things. Roughly one in six of her articles has a scientific topic. And once in a while she publishes on writing, religious issues, housekeeping, health issues, movies, music, sports and tele-watching. She's also been spotted on Fabulously40.com, a website "for women in their 40s" (ahem).
Anne's literary style is strikingly friendly and compassionate. As she submits her many insights she never seems haughty but always generously sharing her great wealth.
Jonestown
On her blog we find a description of an event that may have formed her: the Jonestown massacre, which occurred in her country when she was ten years old. It was the most extensive mass suicide since the fall of Masada in 73 AD, neared only by the Demmim events of 1945. But where these two tragedies can be explained by the mechanisms of war, the Jonestown massacre can't. Little Anne was baffled. While she and her family were starving, a large group of wealthy Americans had thrown their lives away like laundered rags. They had even killed their children.
“...the feeling that gripped my tiny malnourished throat when I heard of the mass suicide will stay with me until my hair turns grey.”
Her novel Sunday's Child describes her childhood. Its powerful angle of a child's perspective allows Anne to list atrocities without having to explain them, and get away with chapter titles such as "the curious incident of the body in the latrine pit" and "how to cook human flesh." Excerpts show a bounty of literary craftsmanship:
“Who's Ann?” Big puffy said, and my heart leaped into the wall of the visibly bony chest which held it inside my body.
“Me niece here” she said, pointing at me.
Reluctant Celebrity
Even though she has appeared on fashion shows, the stage and TV shows such as Dr Who, Torchwood, Skins and Casualty, Anne seems a reluctant celebrity. Her Triond avatar has no head but is obviously shot by an artistic photographer. On her website we find another photo from the same shoot. And it has a head, this time. Her website also lists an email address. I decide to be bold and see if she replies to fans. It turns out, she does!
I ask her whether she would prefer to be a famous author or a famous actress. She replies, “Easy! A famous author. A couple of years ago I did a fashion show at The London Fashion Week. People in the streets recognized me instantly, and it took a drastic hair style make-over to make people forget who I was.”
Arie: What do you aim for when you write: entertainment, your own diversion, the world's redemption, your honorarium...?
Anne: All of them! I love writing humorous articles. If they make me laugh, I'll write them. My last collection of humorous verses, (and here I'm going to plug my piece) “The Naughty Old Woman's Wicked Revenge”, I laughed when I thought about the idea and wrote it in a matter of an hour on pieces of paper as I cooked in the kitchen. Later, as I typed it up, I couldn't stop giggling.
Arie: Your articles are equally often serious.
Anne: Humor provides me with fun, but I also write articles about how to make life work because I've had to, despite obstacles. I know that this form of my writing is truly altruistic, and I would do it even if it helped just one person. On the other hand, I can't honestly say that I don't feel proud when people admire my work and my creative abilities, so I also write for fame.
Arie: Does your husband read your articles? How is his response to the articles that deal with marriage and husbands?
Anne: My husband is a writer (an academic writer) himself. He understands that writers have to give something of themselves if they are to be believed or trusted. I wouldn't reveal anything too personal about our relationship because we're both private people and he trusts me with this. But if the materials aren't for his eyes, then they aren't for anyone's.
Arie: Is the Anne Lyken-Garner we know from Sunday's Child, your remarkably revealing blog entrees and your articles a fictional character or are you honestly describing yourself, your Ph.D. husband and your three children?
Anne: Ha! Yes it's all me. The only time I write as someone else is when I write fiction and I don't do this very often.
