I was such a wuss as a kid, and hated horror movies. But one of the most disturbing was not horror movie at all: *batteries not included. It’s a family film with Jessica Tandy, for chrissakes. The decrepit building, the palpably unstable slumlord, the erratically flying aliens with glowing eyes made a very unsettling ride for little Jenny.
As for books, there are two that stand out: The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright and The Secret Bedroom by R.L. Stine. I still read them, that’s how much impact they had on me. The idea that dolls move about when you’re not looking and recreate scenes of an unsolved murder was unnerving enough. But Stine’s tale of a girl with a secret bedroom (an introvert’s dream!) inhabited by a spirit that can not only invade your mind, but contort reality until you’re just a shell to possess, was enough to keep me up nights.
What was your biggest fear as a child?
For some reason, fire. I was never in one, I was never burned, but I’d get anxious even going near a building in the aftermath, much less look at one on TV. I found the blackness and destruction terrifying, the gaping windows and shredded wood and plaster hanging beyond the frames monstrous.
In *batteries not included, there’s a scene in which some characters take a blissful walk home after a fun night out, only to find their apartment building ablaze. I think that’s what is so upsetting: fire is such a simple, vital element, yet it can destroy your home, kill your loved ones, erase every memento from your past.
Do you like scary movies? Which one is your favourite?
Now I do. I met (and eventually married) a horror movie geek (his descriptor) and I think he was secretly disappointed that I avoided the genre altogether. But little by little he introduced me to older movies like The Seventh Victim (1943), Brides of Dracula (1960) and Masque of the Red Death (1964), and now I seek them out. I begged him to take me to The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2017).
Ghosts are guaranteed to creep me out. Have you ever had a paranormal experience in real life?
No, and I’m sure if I did I would freak right out and move. But I’d like to think we’d be pals, Casper-style. As long as he’s not the chatty type.
Has a book ever really scared you?
In adulthood, no. I’ve gotten the shivers, I’ve been creeped out, but mostly, I applaud the writer for eliciting a visceral response. Ha! Perhaps writing has ruined me for raw terror!
Can you share with us an example of fear in one of your own novels?
Certainly. My protagonist in my novel, Edge of Sundown, is an author too, and much of his motivation comes from fear. The fear he’ll be forgotten, the fear that his creative well has run dry. Turns out it’s much worse: the world moved on and didn’t leave a forwarding address, and his reality is more fiction than his book.
In real life what is your biggest fear? Do you use that when you write?
I have the same fear as my poor protagonist: that one day I’ll be out of ideas and I’ll lose my ability to write.
But also bugs. Even helpful ones, like centipedes and common spiders and crickets. There’s regular ol’ roaches, but also hissing, flying frickin’ roaches. There is no God. Yet I’m writing a picture book about a girl who’s airlifted by a horde of butterflies, or as I call them, Satan’s biplanes. Go figure.
Thanks so much for sharing – am totally with you on the cockroach front – they are pure evil. Also I really want to read some RL Stine books now, I seem to have missed those when I was growing up!
If you want to know more about Jennifer, check out her links below!
Hopefully you are on the other side of a wonderful Christmas day – safe and happy wherever you are and however you spent Christmas. Its Boxing Day – a day of leftovers and a turkey and stuffing breakfast that lasts all day, punctuated with the occasional chocolate. As always I’m ready to head back into the scarier side of things and continue my quest to search peoples brains for what they find scary. Today I am very glad to have author Charlie Tyler to visit – she’s a huge fan of The Cure like me so she can stay as long as she likes – she’s also the author of super creepy novel ‘The Cry of the Lake’ – a gruesome tale of murder and madness- so lets face it she fits right in here at Creepy Central. Welcome Charlie, tell us about what scares you….
I hated The Twits by Roald Dahl. Even though they were really horrible, the way they died at the end really, really upset and bothered me. I used to have terrible nightmares involving beheading. This was down to the fact my parents had the brochure for Madame Tussauds out on their coffee table, and I looked through it and saw a picture of someone being guillotined. That marked the beginning of my night terrors and sleepless nights (for both me and my parents). I still have to go to sleep with a story playing – I’d sleep with a nightlight on if my husband would let me. In the right mood I love a scary movie, but I’m not as bothered by horror as I am ghosts. I know it got a bad press, but The Blair Witch Project frightened me, especially the ending. However, The Woman in Black, all versions including the theatre production, absolutely terrifies me. Susan Hill is a genius.
I’ve never had a paranormal experience, but in my late teens I lived in an old vicarage and there were gravestones lining the cellar and it was a really noisy house at night, with lots of clunking and rattling window panes. I was relieved when my parents moved. Someone bought me The Collected Ghost Stories by MR James but I never got beyond ‘Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book’ – it was just too scary to read before bed. Maybe, next year (fingers crossed), I’ll take it on holiday to read on a sun lounger by a pool. In ‘The Cry of the Lake’, one of the main characters, a teenage girl called Lily, suffers from night terrors because of something she witnessed as a child but then buried in her thoughts. She experiences nightmares, where she sees the same thing; a ghastly skeletal mermaid looking up at her from the bottom of a lake. The dread of falling asleep I had as a child is something I’ve definitely drawn upon in this novel. I’m on my own a lot and my biggest fear is being woken in the dead of night by a noise and realising there is someone or something in the house. I’ve got quite an overactive imagination and would naturally jump to the conclusion that whatever caused the sound was out to get me. I think it only fair to bestow this gift of paranoia to at least one of my main characters!
Huge thanks for visiting Charlie – you had me at skeletal mermaid….
If you’re desperate to find out what happened at the Lake, check out Charlie’s links below.
“Of all base passions, fear is the most accursed” – William Shakespeare, King Henry VI Part One
So very happy to welcome Jennifer Wilson to my blog during the festive season! As you may know Jennifer loves writing about spooks as much as I do, only hers are a tad more regal than mine. Author of the Kindred Spirits series, Jennifer has raised the dead monarchy so many times she deserves a spot on Most Haunted. I think her stories are awesome so I’m very excited to have her here to talk about fear…..
Hi Anne-Marie, thanks for inviting me to your blog today. It’s fair to say I’m a naturally jumpy and easily-frightened individual, so I’m confident that of all your guests, my responses are at the coward’s end of the fear scale…
What movie/book scared you as a child?
I have really vivid memories of reading a book from the ‘upstairs’ library, for the upper juniors in primary school, which really freaked me out. I can see the cover, with two boys running, and I’m sure it was called ‘The Runaways’ or something similar. In one scene, a wall fell over, almost crushing either one or both of them. That image stuck with me for a long, long time, and gave me nightmares about being crushed. Horrific. I should have stayed in the ‘downstairs’ library, where I belonged, but I’d finished all the books it had to offer!
What was your biggest fear as a child?
Well, apart from walls… I’ve always had the most random fear of dust-bin lorries. That, and dinosaurs. Both stem from films. I watched the Turtles live-action film, where Shredder is, well, shredded, in a dust-bin lorry, and from that day, I’ve hated them. We used to have to walk up a really narrow wynd to get up to college, and on dust-bin day, I’d be petrified of accidentally slipping into the back of it. As for dinosaurs, that’s the fault of Jurassic Park. I had this terrible fear that if I opened my curtains at night, I’d see the eye of a t-rex, just staring back at me…
Do you like scary movies? Which one is your favourite?
As you can probably guess from the above, no, I do not like scary movies… I’m not really a film person anyway, but the most I can tolerate is a bit of a ‘jump scare’ which at least is over quickly!
I am usually scared the most by ghosts when I’m reading a book. Have you ever had a paranormal experience in real life?
Yes, and the most recent was in Greyfriars Kirkyard, in Edinburgh. As it’s the setting for part of my own book, Kindred Spirits: Royal Mile, and it was a lovely, quiet morning (I was early for an exhibition), I decided to pop in and get some nice photos of the blossom. There was one guy sitting having a coffee on a bench as I walked in, but that was it. Around the front of the church there was a lovely view down the graveyard of blossom, which I snapped, but as I went to put my phone away, I felt somebody touch my handbag. I panicked slightly, and put my own hand down to the zipper / strap, whilst turning to my left to confront them. Out the corner of my eye, I saw a tall gentleman in a dark suit and a white shirt, with dark hair. Later, I thought he had also been wearing a hat, but I cannot swear to that, and may have added it in my imagination afterwards. But the man himself was clear as day. Heart racing now, I turned fully around, only… Nothing. Nobody anywhere near me. Anyone who knows the site will know that if you’re in the middle of the paving in front of the church itself, there’s not enough time to get somewhere hide in the second it took me to turn around (Usain Bolt himself wouldn’t make it). The only other thing I felt was the strangest sensation of cold.
Greyfriars Kirkyard
I got out of there quicker than I’ve ever done anything in my life! Once out the gates, I did what every self-respecting thirty-something who has had a scare would do, and called my mum. She laughed initially when I told her, but then admitted she believed me, because she could hear the genuine fear in my voice. I was very glad to get away into the safety of the museum after that…
Has a book ever really scared you?
Other than the one I talked about above, not really, but that’s partly down to the fact that I can usually sense when something is about to get too much for me, and I skim / skip appropriately. It’s the same technique I use with overly-graphic crime novels!
Can you share with us an example of fear in one of your own novels?
Since the Kindred Spirits series follows the adventures of the ghostly communities inhabiting some of Britain’s most famous landmarks, fear definitely plays a part in my novels. For the most part, this is the ghosts instilling fear in the tourists who visit their homes, such as George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, rising from a barrel of malmsey in the Tower of London, or Katherine Howard haunting ‘her’ corridor at Hampton Court Palace. In one of the closes off Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, some students ready to play a trick on those taking part in one of the city’s famous ‘ghost tours’, the students themselves become the victims, terrified as Mary Queen of Scots enjoys herself in the occasional haunting. In these situations though, I think it’s fair to say that the living are almost-willing participants in the game. After all, you wouldn’t go on a ghost tour along a famously haunted street, at night, with somebody dressed as a ghoul, if you weren’t at least partially expecting to be scared witless, would you? So can the ghosts really be blamed, when they’re practically giving the tourists what they’re expecting?
In some instances though, I’ve wanted to explore things a little ‘bigger’ than just ghosts jumping out at unsuspecting visitors. I’ve talked about ghostly characters finding their ‘white light’ and moving on from their haunting, but this is by choice – if the white light appears, then a ghost can choose to move on, or stay. But I also wanted to give the ghosts something to genuinely fear, otherwise, they seemed a bit too invincible. I had this idea that if a ghost was injured too many times, they would gradually fade away to nothing. That would stop characters fighting each other – there had to be a consequence of their actions.
In Kindred Spirits: York, I pushed things a little further, and actually introduced a ‘bad guy’ into things, rather than just an unpopular character. Here, the ghosts didn’t quite know what was going on, which, for characters who can slip through walls and overhear almost any conversation without being observed, was something unknown, and for a lot of people, isn’t that one of the most frightening things?
In real life what is your biggest fear? Do you use that when you write?
If you take away dust-bin lorries and dinosaurs, then being very serious for a moment, I’m always scared of letting people down, or disappointing them. Perhaps this isn’t quite as relevant in the Kindred Spirits series, but in The Raided Heart, Meg has a strong sense of wanting to do the right thing, and not let her family down, and in the WIP I’m currently working on, loyalty and needing to work together are strong motivations for the key characters, as they try to do their best in difficult situations.
Thank you so much for joining my study of fear Jennifer. I too fell foul of Jurassic Park, had several T Rex nightmares after seeing that at the cinema! And your Greyfriars experience deserves a blog post of its own! How creepy was that? Feel free to stop by with ghost stories again please!
All of Jennifer’s books are currently in the big DarkStroke Halloween sale over on Amazon, you can get all titles for 99p/99c this weekend! Go go go!
About Jennifer C. Wilson
Jennifer C. Wilson stalks dead people (usually monarchs, mostly Mary Queen of Scots and Richard III). Inspired by childhood visits to as many castles and historical sites her parents could find, and losing herself in their stories (not to mention quite often the castles themselves!), at least now her daydreams make it onto the page.
After returning to the north-east of England for work, she joined a creative writing class, and has been filling notebooks ever since. Jennifer won North Tyneside Libraries’ Story Tyne short story competition in 2014, and in 2015, her debut novel, Kindred Spirits: Tower of London was published by Crooked Cat Books. The full series was re-released by Darkstroke in January 2020.
Jennifer is a founder and host of the award-winning North Tyneside Writers’ Circle, and has been running writing workshops in North Tyneside since 2015. She also publishes historical fiction novels with Ocelot Press. She lives in Whitley Bay, and is very proud of her two-inch view of the North Sea.
This week I’m joined by mystery writer Angela Wren (yep back to where I’m most at home – murder mystery!) Her novels are set in beautiful France which is enough to get me wanting to read for a bit of escapism. As always I’m fascinated by why people choose the locations they use and what the connection is to that place.
Tell us the basic premise of your novel?
At its most basic level, the central plot revolves around the death of a woman. That’s were the book begins and there is a short description of the crime scene included below.
‘la fête des morts
It was the tightly scrunched ball of paper that captured the attention of Magistrate Bruno Pelletier. His trained eyes swept around the room, only glancing at the naked body in the bath, and came to rest once more on the small, ivory-white mass, challenging and silent against the solid plain porcelain of the tiles. He stepped over the large pool of dried blood, iron red against the white of the floor, and, with gloved hands, he retrieved the object. Carefully prising the paper back into its customary rectangular shape, he stared at the contents and frowned as he read and re-read the single six-word sentence printed there.
Je sais ce que tu fais
After a moment, he dropped it into an evidence bag being held open for him by the pathologist.
all hallows’ eve, 2009′
Did you take any inspiration from any real life crimes?
No, I’m really not that interested in reading about real-life crime. To do so seems quite voyeuristic to me. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t take inspiration from real life and everything around me. I do. The scenario in Merle uses my extensive business knowledge in order to create the project management team that the dead woman worked for when she was alive. My experience working in that field enabled me to build a whole office organisation to provide the appropriate, and I hope believable, background within which my investigator, Jacques Forêt, had to work. Some of the scenes in the office were built from a remembered remark or conversation, and by asking myself ‘What If?’, I was able to work up a number of aspects of the central plot. Naturally, some of it was also pure imagination. Trying to get the blalance right is difficult but I tend to look at that kind of detail once the story is finished and I’m working through the various levels of edits required.
Why did you choose the setting you chose and do the locations hold any real life significance to you?
The office environment was critical to the central plot, so the plot really dictated the setting. The location of the Cévennes, in south central France, kind of came about by accident. I spend a lot of time in France and I was in the Cévennes when the very first idea for a story came to me. Although it was only September, I woke up one morning to find that it was snowing and the whole countryside had taken on a new white blanket. The idea that snow could cover someone’s misdeeds had taken root in my head and in December 2015, Messandrierre (Book 1 in the Forêt series) was published. Merle follows on from Messandrierre and begins a few months afterwards.
As for significance – yes the Cévennes is very important to me. It’s a fabulous upland area of France. The village where I like to stay is about 1000m above sea-level, so that’s the equivalent of camping at the top of Snowden, but with better weather! The area is sparsely populated and the villages are tiny and few and far between. The principle city of Mende, sits in a valley about 400m further down the mountain and has a population of around 13,000. Over here, we’d call that a small town! The scenery is stunning, the weather can change in a moment and there’s a silence there that I can’t seem to find anywhere else. It’s a location that I will always go back to.
Did it take a lot of research for your locations and story line?
I suppose the truthful answer to that is Yes and Yes. I’ve been visiting France since I was a teenager, and although I didn’t know it at the time, the research about the country began way back then and has just continued constantly. I have a book-shelf full of journals created on my many visits, I have acres of photographs and a whole forest full of leaflets, pamphlets, maps, and books about France, all of which I refer to from time to time as I’m writing.
However, specifically for Merle, I did need to get some expert advice. Luckily I know some very kind people who were willing to put up with my constant questions. The workings of the office IT system was one issue that I needed to research along with the detailed advice that I required from the West Yorkshire Fire Service – my next door neighbour is a fireman!
When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
When I announced to an elderly aunt one Christmas that I wanted to be Shakespeare when I grew up. My defence in making such a rash, and now cringlingly embarrassing, statement is that I was very young at the time. And as you can probably work out, I’m still striving to achieve that particular goal!
Oh didn’t we all want to be Shakespeare at some point! If you could choose a detective to go crime solving with who would you choose and why?
Wow! That’s a really tough question. I’ve always been an avid reader and I grew up on a book-diet of Agatha Christie, Conan-Doyle, Wilkie Collins, Allingham, Sayers and many more besides. I think it would be fascinating to go sleuthing with Gordianus the Finder in the Stephen Saylor books set in ancient Rome. That would give me the opportunity to look at Roman life and times first hand. But then there’s Jane Marple isn’t there? I wouldn’t so much want to go sleuthing with her but I would want to have tea with her and quiz her about herself and her life before she became the astute, elderly observer that she is in the books. But there’s also the gutsy Vera Stanhope, she may not have much dress sense but she’s a down-to-earth solid character. I would probably have to tidy her up before we got down to any detective work!
The more I think about this question, the more I realise that perhaps I should just count myself lucky and say Jacques. Afterall, in creating each of the books, I go sleuthing with him at my side every time I sit at my desk to write.
What are you working on next?
I’m working on the third book, Montbel. Jacques has an old case that he’s asked to review and once he starts to look at it, the more unanswered questions he finds. In time, this book has moved on almost 2 years from the previous one and Jacques is living in the apartment in Mende that he bought during the course of book 2. But, he still comes across the villagers in Messandrierre and spends time there. Gaston and his wife still run the village restaurant and bar and Pierre Mancelle, although a little older, is still keen to be a policeman when he’s an adult. It might be a new and intriguing case but there are still some familiar characters around.
A huge thank you to Angela for stopping by….although I kind of need a holiday in France now….
You can keep up to date with Angela and find out more about Jacques Foret and the next mystery he will be embroiled in here –
Sticking with my look at romance novels, and how woefully ill informed I am on them, I had the great pleasure to chat with author Sue Roebuck about her latest novel, Forest Dancer, a romance set in Portugal (somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit).
Tell us the basic premise of your novel?
It’s about overcoming self-doubt and having the courage to take life by the horns if necessary.
This is a short blurb: Forest Dancer is set in the magical forests just outside Lisbon, Portugal. Classical ballerina with a London company, Flora Gatehouse, has just recently lost her father, but she has also suffered a devastating blow in her career: her failed audition that sees her moving to a small cottage in Lisbon, Portugal, the only inheritance left to her by her father. She embraces the life of a small village with its dark secrets, and falls for the forest ranger, Marco. But the questions are can she totally become part of this little hamlet and can she ever reconnect with her dream to become a principal ballerina?
What was your main inspiration for the story?
I live close to Sintra (which is about twenty kilometres south west of Lisbon). ( Find out more about this gorgeous locations here ) Being British, I’ve always appreciated how cool and green Sintra is in the boiling hot summers of Lisbon and I’ve often been to ballets and concerts which are held on summer evenings at one of the many monuments in this magical place. Mind you, it was so misty one night that the ballerinas kept slipping about all over the damp stage.
I also love trees and forests (Sintra has its own national park) and I wanted to portray the beauty of them – and their mystery.
I have a thing about trees too…..(endless scary forest scenes in Purgatory Hotel)
When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
The answer’s going to be what all writers say: Always! When I was fourteen I entered a writing competition and won! Goodness knows what was going through my head but the little novelette was set in World War II (of which I knew nothing) in a small village in England. The inhabitants hated the fact that the army had built a training barracks on their land and were trying all sorts of ways to get rid of them. Sounds quite ambitious, doesn’t it? One day I’ll have to read it again. I think my brother gave me a bit of help – he gave me names for the characters, one of which was called Willy Wormtongue.
I’d love to read that!
If you could spend an evening in a Portuguese cottage drinking wine and eating good food, with any famous people – alive or dead- who would you choose?
Well, Byron visited Sintra and I think he would have to be one of the guests. We’d have a riotous time, I think, and drink all the wine that was on offer. Another guest would be Vasco de Gama who was the first explorer to navigate from Europe to Asia. I might have a go at him about his treatment of the natives he came across. Then I’d invite Saint Anthony of Lisbon because I like him and I think he and Byron would have a great discussion. And, also for Byron, I’d invite one of Portugal’s most famous poets and writers. I’d eavesdrop on their conversation for hints.
Ah Byron, I’d love to meet him, can I come too?
What are you working on next?
On another in the Portuguese series (the first one was called “Rising Tide” and set in the Alentejo region of Portugal – which is between Lisbon and the Algarve – in a small fishing village that time and most of Portugal has forgotten). “Forest Dancer” is the second. The next one is called “Joseph Barnaby” and takes place in Madeira. Joe is a farrier who prevents the favourite steeplechaser to run in the Grand National because he believes the horse isn’t fit enough to race. The aftermath of hate-mail, death threats and blackmail send him whirling into a deep depression and all he wants is to go to the end of the world. He finds just the place in Madeira.
So very happy to be welcoming author Isabella May back to my blog today. Her new book The Cocktail Bar will be out on the 13th February and I love the front cover! So apparently there’s more than just cocktails on the menu here and a mystical undercurrent that has caught my attention…..
Welcome back Isabella!
Thank you so much for inviting me again, Anne-Marie! I come bearing gifts (well, one gift): a Tor In The Mist… one of the uniquely created cocktails found in the pages of my new book, The Cocktail Bar – created by author Vanessa Couchman. Enjoy. Just watch the dry ice (fog)… it creates a beautiful effect but is enough to induce frostbite…
Tell us the basic premise of your novel?
Rock star, River Jackson, is back in his hometown of Glastonbury to open a cocktail bar… and the locals aren’t impressed.
Seductive Georgina is proving too hot to handle; band mate, Angelic Alice, is messing with his heart and his head; his mum is a hippie-dippy liability; his school friends have resorted to violence – oh, and his band manager, Lennie, AND the media are on his trail.
But River is armed with a magical Mexican elixir which will change the lives of the Three Chosen Ones. Once the Mexican wave of joy takes a hold of the town, he’s glad he didn’t lose his proverbial bottle. Pity he hasn’t taken better care of the real one…
Tell us a bit about why you used Glastonbury as a location? Is it anything to do with the area’s magical reputation?
I have long thought that the UK’s (arguably) most mystical town isn’t featured as a backdrop in mainstream novels anywhere near enough. So, yes, Glastonbury popped up in my first book, ‘Oh! What a Pavlova’… and here it is again in ‘The Cocktail Bar’. There’s nowhere quite like it, and, having grown up on the ley lines of Avalon, I can (hopefully) offer a unique perspective in terms of scene setting and characters!
What inspired you to write this story?
Honestly, a distinct lack of cool places to hang out as a late teen (ie. an official drinking age teen) and an early twenty-something. I was still living in the town during that period of my life and a night out on the town consisted of scarpering north, east, south or west to somewhere more ‘happening’… frequenting the local working men’s pubs… or putting on a pair of fairy wings and engaging in tantric yoga.
In other words, Glastonbury’s high street has been screaming out for a delectable cocktail bar (such as River Jackson’s) for a very long time.
Are your lead characters based on anyone? River Jackson is loosely based on any one of the indie singers who hail from the town and its surrounding areas. Very loosely though… for his rival in the book is Gary Stringer from local-band-gone-global, Reef. Gary actually went to my high school!
I’m a big fan of cocktails – mine’s a Pina Colada by the way – what’s your favourite cocktail and did you do a lot of research for the drinks on offer at the Cocktail Bar in your story? You and me both. I love a well-made Pina Colada. It really is hard to beat. But just like a Tiramisu… or a Carrot Cake, the mixology of said tipple can be very hit and miss. I do recommend the Waldorf Astoria’s version in NYC though.
But I digress.
Yes, I had to do a fair bit of research to write The Cocktail Bar because River, as a mixologist, is the antithesis to all things Sex on the Beach and Screaming Orgasm. Rather he’s all about the unusual and sophisticated. If I had to choose one of the cocktails gracing his menu (other than the unavoidable lure of the ‘Magical Mañana), I’d plump for the Frisky Bison; liquid alcohol apple pie in a glass. It sounds delectable.
If you could throw a cocktail party who would be on your guest list? What a great question… hmm. This requires a cuppa and some thought. Okay, I’ll go for a handful of different personalities who could fast create a party atmosphere:
Prince would be in a number one on that list. I know that would require something of a miracle, but he just has to be there. Then I reckon we’d need Nigella to make sure we were getting some decently exciting drinkies. Janet Street Porter because I love her wit and sarcasm and we need some good (heated) discussion. Leonardo DiCaprio for the eye candy. And Lee Evans for the comedy. Yeah, I think that would make the perfect mix.
What are you working on next? I’m just finishing off the first round of edits for ‘Costa del Churros’ (trying not to eat too many of them in the process), and that will be released in the autumn. It’s an exciting year.
You can follow Isabella May on her website and social media here:
Wuthering Heights Pictured: Heathcliff (Tom Hardy) photographer Matt Frost For further Picture enquiries please contact: Tracey Whitton: 0113 222 7115 Picture Editor 07767 247688 This photograph is (C) ITV Plc and can only be reproduced for editorial purposes directly in connection with the programme or event mentioned above,or ITV. Once made available by ITV Plc Picture Desk, this photograph can be reproduced once only up until the TX date and no reproduction fee will be charged. Any subsequent usage may incur a fee. This photograph must not be syndicated to any other publication or website, or permanently archived,without the express written permission of ITV Plc Picture Desk. Full Terms and conditions are available on the website http://www.itvpictures.com
Back in 1992 when I was a moody, misunderstood teenager, desperate to read all the literature I could lay my hands on, I bought a cheap copy of Wuthering Heights after seeing a poster for the movie adaptation starring Ralph Fiennes. I loved the book and not long after watched as many tv/movie adaptations as I could.
I studied it later for my GCSE’s and re read it countless times over the years that followed.
I was in love with the supernatural element of the love story, the fierce bond between Cathy and Heathcliff that seemed to survive beyond death, her childish rejection of him tying their souls together forever. It’s fair to say it influenced my own novel in part, just because I could never get past the drama of the fiery love affair.
When I heard that my fellow Crooked Cat Books author Sue Barnard was releasing a spin off novel I was intrigued, and very excited to learn more. And also to have a bit of a geek off about Heathcliff with a fellow fan.
Tell us the basic premise of your novel?
In the original Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff disappears from the story for three years and returns as a rich man. What might have happened to him during that time?
Wuthering Heights is one of my favourite novels. I recall being very affected by the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff. How would you describe it to someone who has never read the book?
In a word: complicated! She loves him (or claims to), yet she marries someone else – then expects her husband to welcome her old love back into their lives! Result: anger, frustration and heartache all round.
What inspired you to take on the story and create a backstory for Heathcliff’s missing years?
It was a chance remark by a former school friend. More years ago than either of us care to remember, we studied Wuthering Heights for English Literature O-Level (as it then was), along with Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The latter went on to provide the setting for my third novel, The Unkindest Cut of All (a murder mystery set in a theatre). My friend commented on the connection, and asked jokingly if my next writing project would also be based on something we’d done at school. I replied, equally jokingly, “How about Heathcliff?” At the time I laughed off the idea, but somehow it just wouldn’t go away.
Many people feel very negatively about Heathcliff; I have always had a sort of sympathy for him. How would you describe your feelings towards him?
When I started writing the book I promised myself that I would try to portray Heathcliff in a sympathetic light. I think he’s a very troubled soul, and I’ve tried to explore the possible reasons why. Pivotal to the story, of course, is that he never gets over Cathy’s decision to marry Edgar Linton.
To be honest, I’ve never really liked Cathy. She starts off as a spoiled little brat, grows into a spoiled big brat, and ends up as a spoiled dead brat. Heathcliff and Edgar are both devoted to her (in their different ways), but in my opinion she isn’t worthy of either of them.
One interesting discovery I made during the course of my research is that Heathcliff is only about sixteen or seventeen when he disappears. Having seen him portrayed several times on screen by actors who are in their twenties or thirties, I hadn’t previously appreciated how young he was.
Did it take a lot of research for your locations and story line?
Yes. It’s always important to get your facts correct, but even more so if you’re writing anything historical. You can be sure that if you get even the tiniest detail wrong, some eagle-eyed reader will pick up on it, and it will come back to haunt you for ever.
The dates in Wuthering Heights are very precise (Heathcliff’s missing years are 1780-1783), which proved to be extremely constraining. I originally wanted him to have spent those years as a pirate, or possibly to have made his fortune in the American or Australian gold rush. But when I started my research I soon discovered that I couldn’t use either of those ideas; the heyday of piracy was too early, and the gold rush years were too late. So I had find something which did fit with those exact years, and work my story around that. As to what that turned out to be, you’ll have to read the book to find out!
What is your writing environment like? Where is it etc?
It’s all over the place. My computer (where I do my main writing) is set up at a desk in the front room, but I have notepads and scraps of paper in just about every room in the house, because I find that inspiration can strike at any time. My smartphone, which lives in my pocket, is particularly useful if I need to make notes when no other option is available.
If you could sit down and have drinks with any famous writers (alive or dead) who would you choose?
I’d start by inviting all my fellow-authors at Crooked Cat Books. Then I’d invite Shakespeare (having written two novels and several poems inspired by his work), and Emily Brontë (though with some trepidation, in case she doesn’t like what I’ve done with her most famous creation!). Then I’d add some great crime writers, such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Josephine Tey and Val McDermid, plus some comedy writers, such as Ronnie Barker, David Renwick, Tony Robinson, Ben Elton, Stephen Fry, the Horrible Histories team and the Monty Python gang. And no writers’ gathering would be complete without Terry Pratchett and J K Rowling.
At this rate, I think I’m going to have to hire a whole pub.
Well that sounds like a great night out! I will definitely be there!
Big thanks to Sue for giving me a sneaky early interview about Heathcliff, I am very much looking forward to reading the book and returning to the world of the brooding anti-hero again.
Until then you can follow her on all the links below and read her other books while you wait to find out what became of the mysterious man during his missing years…..
This week I am delighted to welcome author Val Penny to my blog. Her Edinburgh based crime novel Hunter’s Chase is due out through Crooked Cat Books on 2nd February 2018.
I am a lover of crime fiction, from Jo Nesbo to Patricia Cornwall and Agatha Christie to Arthur Conan Doyle, my love of sleuthing has been firmly set from a young age (I blame my parents!) I grew up in a busy household full of brothers and sisters who also loved to read crime fiction and I would always grab what they had finished with. The Detective is always the greatest character (followed closely by their nemesis) and I always love the development of their personality and how they solve the crime in question.
So naturally when I heard about Hunter’s Chase and found I had the opportunity to ask a few questions I jumped at the chance!
Tell us the basic premise of your novel?
Hunter by name, Hunter by nature: in Hunter’s Chase, Detective Inspector Hunter Wilson struggles to ensure the crime in Edinburgh does not go unpunished. Hunter’s Chase introduces a new detective, DI Hunter Wilson into Tartan Noire.
I think all crime novels explore the triumph of good over evil. The readers know the criminals will not succeed. Still, the thrill of the chase and the problems overcome to achieve justice for the victims must enthral and satisfy the readers.
Did you take any inspiration from any real life crimes?
I did not refer to any specific real life crimes but I did want to explore power and politics. Also, as I have a large family, the importance and problems caused by family ties is interesting to me.
Big cities all have issues with illegal drug use. One of the hidden problems is the risk to the health and security by people who are functioning drug abusers, who may continue to study or hold down challenging jobs. I find this both confusing and fascinating.
Is your lead character, DI Hunter Wilson inspired by anyone?
Hunter Wilson, like all my characters in Hunter’s Chase, is a combination of several people that I have found interesting. I needed my main protagonist to have certain characteristics including patience, perseverance and a desire to achieve justice for those who could not attain that for themselves. Hunter is a compassionate man who fights for the underdog and is a fine team player. These are important qualities in my main character.
But I also needed Hunter to have flaws. Everybody has faults and to make Hunter believable, he had to have them too. He is not a saint. He is divorced, he is untidy, he likes to win, he bears a grudge.
Why did you choose the setting of Edinburgh and do the locations hold any real life significance to you?
Although I am originally from California, USA, I lived in Edinburgh, Scotland for many years, so it is a city I know well. I chose Edinburgh as the setting for Hunter’s Chase because it is a beautiful, multi-cultural city which is well-known and loved around the world. Edinburgh is a big enough city for any problem that Hunter needs to solve to plausibly have taken place. Nevertheless, because it is a city of only half a million people, in many ways it is like a big village: there is a feeling that everybody knows everybody else. That is an amusing conceit when I am writing.
Did it take a lot of research for your locations and story line, how did you research the police work?
I did need to do a lot of research for Hunter’s Chase. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed that.
When I was choosing places for action to take place in my novel, I needed to check that what I was asking of my characters could actually happen. That was fun. Revisiting and exploring again the beautiful city of Edinburgh is always a joy.
Also, you will not be surprised to know that I do not have first-hand knowledge of drug trafficking! I found the research for that quite exciting: of course it was all theoretical research.
I had to research the roles of Crime Scene Investigators too and received a great deal of assistance with that from my friend Kate Bendelow. Her book, The Real CSI: A Forensic Handbook for Crime Writers, is indispensable. I was also lucky to have good support when I was researching police procedures. This came from former Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Gibbon. His book, The Crime Writers’ Casebook is invaluable to those writing historical or modern day crime stories.
What are you working on next?
I am presently working on the sequel to Hunter’s Chase – Hunter’s Revenge. My publishers, Crooked Cat Books, have just confirmed that it will be published in August/September 2018, so I better get a move on and finish it.
Hunters Chase will be released through Crooked Cat Books on 2nd February 2018, pre order your copy here
You can keep up with whats happening with Val on the following links;
This week I was very fortunate to get to speak to Katharine Johnson, author of thriller The Silence. Ever since my early obsession with the Agatha Christie novel Sleeping Murder I have had an interest in stories about secrets and repressed memories, and this book fits that bill perfectly.
Naturally I wanted to get behind the book and find out where Katharine got her inspiration from for this dark tale.
Tell us the basic premise of your book?
Doctor Abby Fenton has a rewarding career, a loving family, an enviable lifestyle – and a secret that could destroy everything. When human remains are discovered in the grounds of an idyllic Tuscan holiday home she is forced to confront the memories she has suppressed until now and relive the summer she spent at the villa in 1992. A summer that ended in tragedy. The nearer she gets to the truth the closer she comes to losing her sanity. In order to hold onto the people she loves most, she must make sure they never discover what she did. But the reappearance of someone else from that summer threatens to blow her secret wide open
What made you choose the location of Tuscany and do the locations hold any significance for you personally.
I chose Tuscany because I love its multi-layered character. Beautiful locations often harbour a gruesome history. I wanted the backstory of The Silence to take place somewhere beautiful so that in Abby’s memory it would have a dreamlike quality, making it hard for her to decide if the events were real, and also somewhere hot so that as the temperature rises so do the tensions among the dysfunctional family she’s staying with.
I also felt that because many of these tiny mountain villages are so remote and the vegetation so fast-growing that it would be easy for a crime to remain hidden for many years. But with the trend for foreigners to restore old houses and turn them into holiday homes it was inevitable that the secret would be uncovered at some time.
Tuscany does have a personal significance for me. I’ve lived in Florence and have had a house near Lucca since 2003 where I wrote much of The Silence.
The book deals with secrets and the effects they can have on a person – did you find it difficult at all getting into the mind of your lead character?
The main character in my previous book was a 21 year old man with a violent temper living in the 1930s so by comparison writing Abby was a breeze! The thing about Abby is that because she’s very good at compartmentalising, her adult life is very normal – she could be any mum you see at the school gates and she has two little girls so I can relate to that. The dark secret obviously required imagination as my life is far less interesting but that’s what I love about writing – putting myself inside someone’s head and thinking, how would I deal with that situation?
What made you want to become a writer?
I’ve loved writing since childhood and wrote my first book aged nine about the adventures of a naughty chimp, probably influenced by Paddington stories which I loved. I’ve written for a living all my adult life but mostly as a magazine journalist. I’ve written about yachts, planes and automobiles but my favourite subject is houses. I’ve visited so many intriguing places with stories to tell although often these stories couldn’t be included in the feature, including a house that was haunted by Katherine, wife of John of Gaunt, one where a horrific suicide took place and one which the police interviewed me about because they were investigating the owner.
Do you have a favourite author?
So many! Overall it would have to be Barbara Vine. I love the way most of her characters are people on the outside of things and much more interesting than they appear
Who would you most like to sit down to dinner with to talk about books and solving crimes?
Patricia Highsmith – she could really get into the mind of a criminal
What are you working on next?
I’m really excited that my next novel The Secret will be published by Crooked Cat Books in 2018. Like The Silence it is about a secret harboured by Villa Leonida in the fictional mountain village of Santa Zita but this secret goes back to wartime. It’s about two girls growing up in Mussolini’s Italy. Their paths diverge after one of them marries into the family living in Villa Leonida where she discovers nothing is as she imagined, leading to a secret which has devastating consequences…
Well I am loving reading The Silence so I cant wait for the next book Katy! Thanks for chatting with me, look forward to another chat about your journey back to the sinister Villa Leonida……
Continuing my look at authors and the inspiration behind their books – this week I was lucky enough to talk to Nicola Slade about her new book. There’s a touch of the paranormal at work here and along with a historical mystery, I had to get involved and ask more about the background.
Tell us the basic premise of your novel?
Freya Gibson, PA to Patrick Underwood, a best-selling novelist, inherits an old, run-down house from an unknown elderly relative. She falls in love with the house but waiting for her is an enigmatic letter from Violet, the elderly cousin, telling her that she must ‘restore the balance’ of the house, beginning by reciting a Latin verse. Freya does so, while wondering whether it’s a prayer or a spell.
She learns that Ladywell was known as a place of healing and the house begins to work its magic on her as she discovers family secrets that shake her foundations.
Woven into Freya’s contemporary story are echoes of the family through the ages and although the reader learns why things happened as they did in the past, Freya is unaware of the house’s history.
What or who inspired you to become a writer?
My mother and grandmother were great readers and meals were always quiet as we all ate and read at the same time! I realised when I was very young that books came out of people’s heads and knew that was what I wanted to do.
Are your locations based on a real place? and do the locations hold any real life significance to you?
In this book my fictitious town of Ramalley is based on Romsey, in Hampshire, a bustling market town between Winchester and Southampton and about five miles from where I live, so it’s a place I visit frequently. When I was small I used to visit an aunt who lived not far from the town and I’ve always loved it so I was delighted when we moved to Hampshire back in the 80s.
Did it take a lot of research for your locations and the historical aspect of the story line?
I’m passionate about history so I mostly enlarged on historical events that fascinate me and I had a lot of fun reading up on them. The Lady’s Well – part of the history of the house – was inspired by the font at Mottisfont Abbey, a National Trust property not far away and I had a couple of interesting day trips to check out the Chalice Well at Glastonbury and the Wishing Well at Upwey in Dorset. I blogged about it here .
There’s a supernatural feel to the story, do you believe in ghosts?
I’d like to! But I’m not sure though I do think some places have a distinct atmosphere. It’s not a spoiler to say that some people can smell flowers in The House at Ladywell even where there’s not a petal in the place!
The House at Ladywell has legends about hares all through the book – partly because, like so many people, I find hares magical.
What is your favourite genre to read and to write?
I love historical mysteries and have written a cosy mystery series, The Charlotte Richmond Mysteries, set in the 1850s. I don’t like to read anything too gritty or gory and I do like a happy ending!
What are you working on next?
I’ve written the first draft of a cosy mystery set in 1918, actually in the same fictitious town of Ramalley as The House at Ladywell and I’m about to start on the serious revisions.
‘Three sisters struggle to keep the home fires burning but are hampered by wartime shortages, lack of money, demanding lodgers and a difficult mother. As though this isn’t enough, there’s a rumour that their late, unlamented father may not be dead after all and their lives are further inconvenienced by murder!’
paranormal at work here and along with a historical mystery, I had to get involved and ask more about the background.
The House at Ladywell has legends about hares all through the book – partly because, like so many people, I find hares magical.
All That Mighty Heart 