If you read my review from a few days ago, you will know that I absolutely loved Lying in Wait, the new deliciously dark novel from Liz Nugent. It kept me riveted from start to finish and I devoured the whole book in just one day. I was given the opportunity to put some questions to Liz Nugent and you can read what she had to say below.
Q: What inspired
you to write Lying in Wait?
A: A man once
told me that he strongly suspected his father had murdered a
prostitute in the 1960s. He had no evidence or no way of proving it.
He never had the courage to challenge his father and went to his
grave wondering. He told me this story about 25 years ago and he is
long dead now. I always wondered what it would be like to grow up in
a house where you suspect your father is a murderer.
Q: Lying in Wait
has an amazing first line. Did you come up with that first and build
the story around it or did you think of it as the story went on?
A: Originally,
in the first draft, Laurence was the main character and the first
line was ‘We were all liars in my family but Mammy was the best
liar of all of us’. Then in the second draft when I had decided
that Lydia was the main character, the first line was ‘Technically,
it was manslaughter’ but it didn’t tell the reader enough about
the character so I cut that first line and made the second line the
first line ‘My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the
lying tramp deserved it.’ This way, the reader knows exactly what
kind of person they are dealing with.
Q: As reviews
often show that readers were 'hooked from the start', how important
do you think first lines are?
A: I like
to grab the reader from the get-go and I like to write first person
narratives so that the reader is automatically in the head of the
character. The first line should set the tone for the book and let
the reader know immediately what kind of book they are reading. I’ve
only written two books and the first lines of each are so often
quoted that I have quite a challenge ahead of me now for how to start
book 3!
Q: I had
a mental picture of the fabulous Bette Davis as Lydia whilst reading
Lying in Wait. If Lying in Wait is made into a film who would you
like to see playing Lydia?
A:
That’s
a great suggestion! I think it does have that film noir feel about
it. If they were to cast an Irish actress, I would suggest Cathy
Belton who can do charm and menace equally well, but if we’re
talking international, I think Julianne Moore would be great.
Q:
If you only had one chance to sell Lying in Wait, what would you say
to encourage people to read it?
A:
The strap line on the front cover is designed exactly for that
purpose and my editor and I came up with lots of suggestions but in
the end they went with the opening line which I hope is a good
selling point!
Q:
Lying in Wait is often very dark; how does the mood of your
book affect you when you're writing?
A:
It really doesn’t at all. As soon as I close the laptop, I am back
to my humdrum suburban life and my mood is completely unaffected. My
friends are so surprised that I write such sinister stories because
in real life, I am fairly light-hearted and up for a laugh.
Q:
What do you enjoy most
about writing?
A:
Inhabiting another character’s head for a while can be very
liberating particularly when they are really despicable. You get to
say things you wouldn’t dream of even thinking!
Q:
When you're not writing, what do you enjoy doing?
A:
I love going to the theatre and I love tv drama series. I just
inhaled Peaky Blinders and I’m catching up on Line of Duty. So, so
good.
Q:
I haven't yet had the pleasure of reading Unravelling Oliver
but which book did you enjoy writing the most and why?
A:
That’s like asking me to choose between my children! But I have to
admit that writing isn’t always enjoyable. It is work and like any
job, you can have good days and bad days. I wrote Unravelling Oliver
over the course of about six years while I held down a fulltime job,
whereas Lying in Wait was written in two years when I had no other
commitments.
Q:
Can you tell us a little about yourself and what we can look
forward to from you in the future?
A: I’m 48 years old, married, no
children. I live in Dublin. My background is in theatre and
television production. I am number 5 of nine children. I am an
atheist. I don’t like cats or coffee. I am more comfortable in
jeans than dresses. I love roast chicken dinners. I read across all
genres. I hate ironing but I don’t mind supermarket shopping. I am
very tidy. I love sunshine and wish we got more of it in Dublin. I
love France. I love going to the theatre. I’d like to live closer
to the sea. I have seventeen nieces and nephews and I adore them all.
Hopefully, I will keep writing books
with a sinister edge though sometime in the future, I’d like to
write a stage play.
Thanks
so much Michelle for the great questions and for taking part in this
blog tour!
Follow the rest of the tour: