BLOG TOUR: Deity (Six Stories) - Matt Wesolowski

A shamed pop star

A devastating fire

Six witnesses

Six stories

Which one is true?

When pop megastar Zach Crystal dies in a fire at his remote mansion, his mysterious demise rips open the bitter divide between those who adored his music and his endless charity work, and those who viewed him as a despicable predator, who manipulated and abused young and vulnerable girls.

Online journalist, Scott King, whose ‘Six Stories’ podcasts have become an internet sensation, investigates the accusations of sexual abuse and murder that were levelled at Crystal before he died. But as Scott begins to ask questions and rakes over old graves, some startling inconsistencies emerge. Was the fire at Crystal’s remote home really an accident? Why was he never officially charged? Are reports of a haunting really true?

Dark, chillingly topical and deeply thought-provoking, Deity is both an explosive, spine-chilling thriller and a startling look at how heroes can fall from grace and why we are willing to turn a blind eye to even the most heinous of crimes…

What did I think?

I am completely addicted to Matt Wesolowski's Six Stories books as I absolutely love the podcast format they are written in.  The conversational writing style really feels like the book is speaking to you and it's amazing how clear each individual voice comes across.

With accusations of sexual abuse against a dead popstar, the subject matter is quite dark although it's never too difficult to read as podcaster Scott King doesn't interview anyone who has first-hand details of the abuse.  As Scott interviews six people linked to Zach Crystal it's quite eye-opening to see how one person can be seen in so many different lights.  I guess all famous people have a public and private persona so it must be almost like having a split personality; no wonder their brains get fried sometimes, although I'm not excusing anyone's unsavoury actions.

Following Operation Yewtree, we saw allegations about and convictions of many famous figures from our childhood.  You can't help but think about this when reading Deity as fame really does place rose tinted glasses on fans.  As the news came out I remember being both surprised and unsurprised by some of the accused, purely because of how I perceived them from the face they chose to show the public.  Matt Wesolowski also touches on the guilt we feel for still liking a particular song when the singer is not who we thought they were.  I found this really interesting to consider and could totally relate to it simply because of a particular classic Christmas song that I find myself singing along to then stop midway wondering whether I'm still allowed to like it now that the singer is a convicted sex offender.

I love Scott King's interviews and I sometimes forget that he's fictional; I would definitely subscribe to his Six Stories podcast if it was real.  As facts and opinions are laid out before us, I felt like I was part of the race to uncover the truth and I found myself making various judgements about Zach's guilt along the way.  I flipped so often between guilty and not guilty so I was definitely right at one point or another.

So very relatable and current, Deity is a dark, addictive and shocking thriller that really makes you think about the person behind the idol.  Highly recommended.

I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour; this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

UK.Bookshop.org

Amazon

About the author:

Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK. He is an English tutor for young people in care. Matt started his writing career in horror, and his short horror fiction has been published in numerous UK- and US-based anthologies, such as Midnight Movie Creature, Selfies from the End of the World, Cold Iron and many more. His novella, The Black Land, a horror set on the Northumberland coast, was published in 2013. Matt was a winner of the Pitch Perfect competition at the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in 2015. His debut thriller, Six Stories, was an Amazon bestseller in the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia, and a WHSmith Fresh Talent pick, and film rights were sold to a major Hollywood studio. A prequel, Hydra, was published in 2018 and became an international bestseller. Changeling, the third book in the series, was published in 2019 and was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. His fourth book, Beast, won the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Independent Voice Book of the Year award in 2020.

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BLOG TOUR: My Sister's Bones - Q&A with Nuala Ellwood

This is one blog tour that I didn't want to miss.  I think My Sister's Bones will be one of the top books of 2017; it was absolutely impossible to put down and kept me riveted from start to finish.  You can read my review here but for the blog tour I was so lucky to be given the opportunity to put some questions to the super-talented Nuala Ellwood about her wonderful debut, My Sister's Bones.

Q: My Sister's Bones is certainly one of the best debut novels I have read and it is sure to be a big hit in 2017. For anyone who hasn't read it yet, can you tell us a little bit about it?

A: Thanks so much for those kind words. I’m thrilled that you enjoyed My Sister’s Bones. The novel tells the story of Kate Rafter, a troubled war reporter, who returns from a harrowing experience in Syria to her hometown on the Kent coast after the death of her mother. On her first night back in the house she hears a scream. At first she dismisses it as a nightmare, a manifestation of the PTSD she has developed since the events in Syria. But then she hears it again and this time she convinces herself that it is real. Has Kate uncovered a dark secret hidden in the house and is she strong enough to uncover the truth?

Q: What inspired you to write My Sister's Bones?

A: My father was a journalist and his reports on the aftermath of the civil war in Beirut really struck a chord with me when I was a child. I was brought up around reporters and have always been fascinated by female war correspondents such as Marie Colvin, Janine Di Giovanni and Martha Gellhorn, not least for the way they made themselves heard in such a male-dominated world and always sought the human story within the chaos and horrors of war. When I set out to write My Sister’s Bones I wanted to pay homage to these women. I also wanted to explore the impact of war on the psyche of the reporter. In the course of my research for the novel I looked into the link between PTSD and war reporting and found that the subject had been woefully overlooked. This inspired me to shape the character of Kate Rafter and to show, through her experience in Syria, the traumas faced by war reporters in their work and how this affects their mental state.

Q: Kate is a war reporter in Syria. How did the events in Syria affect your writing?

A: The war in Syria has had a huge effect on the writing of this novel. As a mother I have been extremely moved by the suffering of children trapped in Aleppo and the desperation of their families as they try to flee on flimsy boats towards hostility and uncertainty. As I watched these horrific scenes unfold on my television screen all I could think was that this could happen to any one of us at any time. This inspired me to create the character of Nidal, the boy Kate meets in Aleppo. Through him I wanted to tell the story of a little boy who just wanted to play football, to go to school, to be safe. Simple things that every child deserves.

Q: Have you always wanted to write a book and how long did it take for My Sister's Bones to go from idea to publication?

A: Yes, I’ve always wanted to write books. When I was a little girl I spent all my spare time writing plays and stories and ploughing my way through the books in my dad’s study. My parents introduced me to literature and the power of the written word at an early age. Dad was a journalist and I grew up listening to the sound of the typewriter bashing out scripts to deadline. To me writing was as normal and necessary as breathing. At first my writing came out song shaped – I spent my teens putting bands together and writing songs and my early twenties working as a session singer – but then after completing an MA in Creative Writing I took the plunge and started to write a novel. My Sister’s Bones required quite a lot of research so it took around two years from coming up with the initial idea to securing my publishing deal with Penguin.

Q: I've always admired authors and their ability to portray their ideas in such a way that captivates the reader. Do you have any writing tips for budding authors?

A: Every writer is different and there is no ‘one size fits all’ advice to give to aspiring novelists. I have always been inspired by landscapes and for me visiting Herne Bay, the place where My Sister’s Bones is set, really helped bring the story to life. I spent a week there and during that time I not only got to absorb the place, the people, the atmosphere, the key locations, but I also had uninterrupted time to write. I was lucky enough to secure funding from Arts Council England for the research phase of the novel and this proved invaluable as I could really immerse myself in both the subject matter and the location of the novel. So my advice would be to create as much space as you can for your writing, explore possible funding routes (the Arts Council England website is a great starting point), book yourself onto a writing retreat or a Creative Writing course. If this isn’t possible then be selfish with your time and set aside a portion of the day – first thing in the morning or in the evening after work –that is dedicated wholly to writing. I wrote a lot of the first draft of My Sister’s Bones in snatched moments in between work and looking after my little boy. It can be exhausting but it’s worth every second when you hold your finished novel in your hands.

Q: What are your writing routines and where do you do most of your writing?

A: My writing day starts around 9:30 a.m. when I return from dropping my little boy off at school. We live by the river and the walk to school follows the river path where, on any given day, we can see swans, herons, geese and clusters of pretty canal boats. The lack of road traffic and pollution really clears the head and prepares you for the day. When I get back I’ll make a cup of coffee and take it up to my desk that overlooks the river. The activity of the riverbank outside my window seems to dictate my day as much as the clock. As soon as I see the first of the pleasure boats sail past on its way to pick up tourists from the city centre I know it’s time to get writing. I’ll write until 1pm then stop for lunch, which is usually whatever I can find in the fridge. If I want some fresh air and to escape from the house I sometimes pop out to the café round the corner. Then it’s back to the desk to edit whatever I’ve written in the morning. If I’m doing the school pick up then I’ll stop at three. If not then I’ll carry on until about five. I very rarely work in the evenings unless I’m on a deadline or teaching a Creative Writing class at the university. I use the evenings to catch up with my family around the dinner table and then I’ll curl up to bed with a book.

Q: When you aren't writing, what do you enjoy doing?

A: I love music and singing. I used to be a session singer and still like to unwind by sitting at the piano and playing for a few hours. I also love going for long walks in the countryside. I live in York and am lucky to have some of the most spectacular hill country right on my doorstep. I grew up in the countryside and always feel better after getting my hiking fix.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started writing?

A: I live with my husband Nick, an illustrator, my nine-year-old son Luke and our eccentric but lovable cat Toby in a house by the river in York. I have always loved writing but spent my teens and twenties writing songs instead of novels. The change came when I decided to take an MA in Creative Writing after we moved from London to York. Then two years ago I secured Arts Council England funding to research a novel based on a war reporter. That novel became My Sister’s Bones. When it was signed up by Penguin last year in a two-book deal it was a dream come true.

Q: I love finishing a book and feeling the need to share it with the world and I will definitely be recommending My Sister's Bones to everyone I know. Do you have any favourite books or book recommendations?

A: Thank you so much. You’re right. A lot of the books I have enjoyed recently have come through word of mouth recommendations. I would definitely recommend Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter, a beautifully written meditation on family, love and loss. I also loved The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle. It’s a gripping thriller with a truly shocking twist. If you like Patricia Highsmith and John Le Carre then you’ll love this. I would also highly recommend Rosamund Lupton’s The Quality of Silence, a wonderful literary thriller set in the Alaskan Tundra where a woman and her young deaf daughter appropriate a monster truck and set out to find her missing husband in the depths of the Arctic winter.

Q: Congratulations on signing a two book deal with Penguin Viking, I certainly can't wait to read your next novel. Can you tell us what you're currently working on and when we might be able to read it?

A: Thank you. It was an absolute dream to sign with Penguin. I’m just working on my next novel at the moment. It has the working title of Little Shadow and is set between West Yorkshire and Switzerland. I can’t say too much about it yet, only that it explores the subject of assisted suicide and has an even more shocking twist than My Sister’s Bones!

Thank you so much to Nuala Ellwood for not only taking the time to answer my questions but for her honest and considered answers.  If you haven't read My Sister's Bones yet, I strongly urge you to do so although it may keep you up all night as you can't put the book down once you start it!

Nuala Ellwood moved to London in her twenties to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter, but ended up writing novels instead. She comes from a family of journalists, and they inspired her to get Arts Council funding to research and write a novel dealing with psychological trauma in the industry. My Sister's Bones is her debut thriller.

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BLOG TOUR: The Honey Trap - Mary Jane Baker

I read The Honey Trap by Mary Jane Baker a few months ago and thought it was a great book.  You can read my review here.  To celebrate the release of The Honey Trap in paperback, I am posting a Q&A with Mary Jane as part of the blog tour.

Congratulations on your fabulous book, Mary Jane!

Q: Have you always wanted to be an author? If not, what did you think you were going to be when you grew up? 

A: As a kid I always wanted to be a writer like the ones I most admired (CS Lewis and Enid Blyton), although after seeing Flight of the Navigator I briefly toyed with becoming a space explorer. The first proper story I remember writing, age 7, was called The Red Unicorn, about a tiny unicorn that could shrink and grow at will (heavily plagiarised from the Mrs Pepperpot stories!).

Q: What inspired you to start writing?

A: Good question! After a brief attempt to write a romantic novel at university (in fact a very early draft of The Honey Trap, sort of), I lost confidence in my writing for a long time and gave up altogether. I did eventually return to non-fiction writing, but it took me a while to dust off my fiction writing skills. There were two catalysts for this: first, the publication of a popular erotic novel that shall remain nameless, which convinced me I could do just as well, and secondly the discovery of the NaNoWriMo event and forums, which gave me the support I needed to get over my confidence problems.

Q: When did you realise your potential as a writer? 

A: When I first let other people read my writing and received some lovely compliments – and when I opened your acceptance email!

Q: What was the inspiration for your novel? 

A: I suppose the characters came to me first, with only a sketchy idea of the plot. I wanted to create a heroine who was realistically flawed and complex, with a wry, pithy sense of humour and a strong sense of her own worth, and a hero who was a person rather than a type, generous, funny, capable of a range of emotions and steering far clear of the alpha stereotype common in some romance. I also wanted the secondary characters to have range and not just be plot props. Once I had the characters I let them guide the plot, and was surprised where I found it going. The charity ReelKids, for example – a workshopping project for disadvantaged young people run by the hero which features heavily – didn't exist at all in my plan!

Q: What is the best advice anyone has given you about writing? 

A: “Push on into the white space” was my mantra when finishing my first draft, provided by someone on the NaNoWrMo forums. This was the advice I needed to finish - don't worry about quality, don't go back to edit and obsess. Just tell your story and worry about the tidy-up later. And remember Hemingway: all first drafts are s**t, so don't expect yours to be any different!

Q: Aside from writing, what is your favourite thing to do? 

A: I love rambling, and I'm also a crafter (knitting and crochet). I like to read, especially the classics, and (unsurprisingly) I love vintage film!

Q: What are your top ten favourite books?

A: Wuthering Heights – absolute classic, and written only four miles from my house! The one book I can read over and over and still find something new.

Catch-22 – very powerful, funny and harrowing, a masterpiece. Never known anyone able to combine humour and poignancy in their writing as seamlessly as Heller. An emotionally draining read though.

Mrs Dalloway – always get this out in the summer as an uplifting read (odd for a book about existential angst, maybe). Love the way the domestic dramas play out in the characters' heads.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – never fails to make me laugh out loud, and love the quintessentially British tone in a science fiction setting.

Pride and Prejudice – Lizzie is a standout character in literature for me. Not sure we realise now what a brave (even foolish) thing it was to turn down proposals willy nilly in Regency times!

Vanity Fair – again, another standout character, Becky Sharp. The wry, darkly comic tone of this book and the contrast between the two heroines draw me back to it on a regular basis.

Soul Music (Discworld) – my favourite of the Terry Pratchett Discworld books. Like Hitchhiker's Guide, I love the placement of a very British sense of humour in the environment of a Tolkienesque fantasy world, and Pratchett's witty tone and tight plotting.

Jane Eyre – another locally written book I come back to a lot. As stated below, I love the equality between Jane and Rochester, and the hero's willingness to display vulnerability with her.

The Awakening – this was the book that first made me identify as a feminist I think, and consider a woman's right to make her own choices.

To Kill a Mockingbird – very powerful exploration of justice and social isolation through a child's eyes, and I love Scout as a character.

Q: What are your top three romantic books and why?

A: Jane Eyre – I love the equality between Jane and Rochester that she defiantly claims for them, despite the difference in social station and gender; the way she always stands up to him and he loves her for it.

Wuthering Heights – essentially a love story between two highly dislikeable people, but very powerful in its portrayal of that, and again, the characters of Cathy and Heathcliff have a very equal relationship.

The Hunger Games – I read this trilogy recently and very much enjoyed the portrayal of the love story between Katniss, Peeta and Gayle, the way it was coloured by their experiences and the way the two men respect her right to choose. Always love a love triangle, and I think she made the right choice in the end!

Q: What are your top three romantic movie/TV kisses and why?

A: Tim and Dawn in The Office – love the choreography of this, his thumb on her cheek, the tears, and the way we all had to wait so long for it.

Katniss and Gayle in The Hunger Games – I don't often cry over kiss scenes but when Katniss kisses what she thinks is an unconscious Gayle and he later tells her he'd have to be dead to forget it, awww!

George Bailey and Mary Hatch in It's A Wonderful Life – when they're on the phone together and can't seem to keep their hands off each other despite trying to resist, always gets my heart fluttering!

Q: If you could ride off into the sunset with a fictional character, who would you choose and why?

A: Tough one. Probably Han Solo from Star Wars, 1977 edition of course...

Excellent answers!  Han Solo - obviously!  Thank you for visiting my blog, Mary Jane, and good luck with your book.

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Author Interview: Q&A with Jon Rance - author of Dan and Nat Got Married

I recently had the pleasure of reading and reviewing Jon Rance's new novel, Dan and Nat Got Married.  If you didn't catch my review, you can read it here.  If you haven't picked up a Jon Rance book yet, you are missing out on an amazing experience.  Dan and Nat Got Married has the perfect mix of humour and real life drama; I can't believe this is my first Jon Rance novel, but it certainly won't be my last.  Jon has very kindly offered to answer some questions for my blog, so without further ado...

So that readers understand the reason for some of my questions, can you tell us a little bit about your new book, Dan and Nat Got Married?

Hello and thanks so much for having me on your blog today! Dan And Nat Got Married is a romantic comedy that asks the question - can marriage between two relative strangers work?

It’s the story of two people, Dan Fox, 34, and Nat Howard, 32, who wake up after a very messy drunken night in Las Vegas married. Dan was jilted at the altar two years before and Nat is living back at home with her parents after her perfect boyfriend dumped her and she had to move out of his bespoke flat in Putney. Both of them have a lot of emotional baggage, but decide that giving their marriage a shot might be the cure for their broken hearts.

We follow Dan and Nat as they attempt to be married without really knowing anything about each other. And when Nat’s ex-boyfriend Charlie comes back into her life, she must decide between following her heart with Dan or reliving the past with Charlie. Set in London, Dan And Nat Got Married, is a funny and full of heart modern romantic comedy about marriage, relationships, and giving love a second chance.

It’s my attempt at writing the perfect British romantic comedy.

Dan feels like he is living The Hangover film in your book. What was the inspiration for Dan and Nat Got Married?

The inspiration came about because I was trying to find a unique way my two characters could meet. I got married to my wife in Las Vegas - I must add that my marriage was planned and we definitely knew each other - but I thought it would be a good starting point for a romantic comedy. Next I had to figure out what would make two people, who barely know each other, give their marriage a go. The answer quickly became obvious - because they’re both looking for love and have been hurt so badly that they’re willing to stake everything on this because they already did it the “proper” way and it didn’t work out. I was also inspired in part by my own story of meeting my wife. We met travelling in Sydney and fell in love and decided to get married within months of meeting each other. It made me realise that there are no right or wrong ways to meet and fall in love.

What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done when drunk (or even sober)?

Oh God where do I start! I have many drunken stories that are very embarrassing, but I think I’ll go back to sixth form college for my most embarrassing sober story. There was a girl - isn’t there always - who I really liked. She was gorgeous, probably about a million miles out of my league. I didn’t really know her because she was in a different class. I was obsessed by her, but completely out of my depth. Luckily - or unluckily, I’ll let you be the judge - a good friend convinced me that I should ask her out. It couldn’t be worse than loving her from afar, surely? And maybe - he convinced me again - she might say yes. He was obviously far more confident about this than me. So one day I walked up to her in the middle of class and asked her out. I was red, sweaty, and could barely speak a word of English, but I somehow managed to squeeze the words out. Horribly, painfully, and very embarrassingly, but I did it. She very kindly said she’d let me know. She didn’t.

You can never have too many rom-coms, in my opinion, so if Dan and Nat Got Married was made into a film, who would you cast in the starring roles?

Totally agree, I love a good rom com and for my dream cast I’m going to go British! For the roles of Dan and Nat, I would go with Domhnall Gleeson, as he was superb in the Richard Curtis film, ‘About Time’. For Nat I would go with Carey Mulligan because I think she’s such a brilliant actor. My two other favourite characters in the book are Dan and Nat’s best friends, Adam and Ellie - who rather steal the limelight in most of the book. For Adam, I would have to go with James Corden. He’s such a funny man and a very underrated actor. For Ellie, I would go for the comedian, Aisling Bea, who has that perfect mixture of beauty and humour. I think this would make an amazing romantic comedy film by the way! If only we could get Richard Curtis interested!

If you were going on holiday and could only take 3 books, which books would you take?

Blimey! That’s a hard one. Definitely ‘One Day’ by David Nicholls because it’s one of my favourite books ever. Nick Hornby’s, ‘High Fidelity’, because it was the book that inspired me to be a writer and lastly, the complete ‘Adrian Mole Diaries’ because they’re just the funniest books ever!

When you aren't writing, what do you enjoy doing?

Putting aside things like reading and watching TV because they’re all related to my work in some way, my biggest love is travelling. I met my wife travelling in Australia and now we have two kids we still love to travel as much as we can. We went to Mexico this year and it was incredible!

What are your writing routines?

I’m not sure I have many routines other than lots of tea! I always go over the work from the previous day before I start writing and I always try and finish a first draft as quickly as I can. I believe first drafts are all about getting the words on the page and that’s it. I generally try and write from about 8am until about 12pm. I find any more than four or five hours a day and the quality drops. I spend a lot of the time between thinking and making notes. I make a lot of notes - thank goodness for the notes app on my phone!

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started writing?

I was born in Southampton and went to university in London to study English Literature. After university and a few years getting “life experience” I went travelling, which is where I met my American wife. I now live in California and have two kids. I’ve always been a writer. When I was younger it was cartoons and short stories, but I always knew I wanted to write. I wrote two unpublished novels before my third novel, ‘This Thirtysomething Life’, got me a two book publishing deal with Hodder and Stoughton.

Dan and Nat Got Married is your fifth romantic comedy novel. What inspired you to write in the romantic comedy genre?

I think as writers we tend to write what we read and what we love. I love comedy and I love romance so it just seemed natural to me to write that. I’d also be horrible at writing crime thrillers or science fiction!

Can you give us a sneaky hint of what you are working on next?

It’s in the very early stages of development at the moment and I probably won’t start actually writing it until after, Dan And Nat Got Married, is published. I can’t say anything about the title or story yet, but I will say that it’s going to be the biggest book I’ve tried to write. So far all of my books have been comedies, but for my next I want to write something bigger with more scope. It’s still in the same genre, but it’s going to have a lot more drama and definitely more room for emotional development. Sorry, that’s all I can say at the moment. Thanks so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure.

Thanks so much for answering my questions, Jon!  I think you have written the perfect British comedy and Richard Curtis should definitely snap this one up!

The British romantic comedy you need to read this year.

From the bestselling author of This Thirtysomething Life, Happy Endings and Sunday Dinners, comes a brilliantly funny romantic comedy, perfect for fans of Love Actually, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones.

Marriage can be difficult. Especially when you've only just met. Meet Dan Fox, 34, an online marketing manager from Clapham, who was jilted at the altar two years ago by the love of his life and hasn’t dated since.

Nat Howard, 32, is living back at home with her parents in Dorking after her perfect boyfriend dumped her and she had to move out of his bespoke flat in Putney.

On separate Stag and Hen weekends in Las Vegas, Dan and Nat wake up married. Both too drunk to remember what happened, they return to England and try to get on with their lives. But there was something about Nat that makes the usually cautious Dan think they should give their marriage a go. Nat’s still in love with her Ex, but maybe Dan can help mend her broken heart.

Can marriage between two relative strangers really work? And when Nat's ex-boyfriend - the gorgeous Charlie - comes back into her life, she must decide - something old or something new?

Set in London, Dan And Nat Got Married, is a funny and full of heart modern romantic comedy about marriage, relationships, and giving love a second chance.

About Jon Rance

Jon Rance is the author of four novels: the Kindle top ten bestseller, This Thirtysomething Life, Happy Endings (both published by Hodder and Stoughton), This Family Life and Sunday Dinners. He's also the author of the short story prequel, This Twentysomething Life and the Christmas novella, A Notting Hill Christmas. His fifth novel, Dan And Nat Got Married, will be out this October!

Jon studied English Literature at Middlesex University, London, before going travelling and meeting his American wife in Australia. Jon loves comedy (especially sitcoms), the films of Richard Curtis, travelling and tea. He just turned forty, which is a terrifying time, so his books might get a bit edgier and possibly angrier as a result.

Jon writes dramatic, romantic, comedy fiction similar to the work of Mike Gayle, Matt Dunn, Nick Spalding and David Nicholls.

Please visit his website: www.jonrance.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @JRance75

Author interview: Q&A with Graham Masterton about Scarlet Widow

I recently read Scarlet Widow by Graham Masterton and I jumped at the chance to put some questions to this well known author.  You can read my review of Scarlet Widow here and you can buy the book for yourself from Amazon by clicking here.

Q: Can you tell us a little about Scarlet Widow, the first book in the Beatrice Scarlet series?

A: Scarlet Widow opens in London in the mid-18^th century. The heroine Beatrice is the only daughter of an apothecary, and her father teaches her all he knows about medicines and other scientific experiments. When her parents both die, Beatrice goes to Birmingham to live with her aunt, where she meets the boy who she will eventually marry. He becomes a preacher and is appointed to take care of a parish in New England. Beatrice, being an obedient wife, goes with him. Not long after they have arrived, however, the animals of local farmers begin to die in mysterious circumstances. Beatrice’s husband and most of the local populace believe that it is the work of Satan, but Beatrice, with her knowledge of chemistry, begins to suspect otherwise.

Q: What was your inspiration for Scarlet Widow and what made you set it in America?

A: To be totally honest with you, I don’t know what inspired me to write it, except that I thought that the idea of an 18^th century CSI was quite entertaining. Ever since my days as editor of Penthouse magazine I have been interested in women’s thinking and their role in society, and Beatrice gave me a good opportunity to write about a woman who was brought up to be obedient but at the same time was characterful and strong. I wanted to set it in New England to get that Salem Witch Trial atmosphere and also because I know New England well (and once almost bought a house in Connecticut). Not only that, I wanted to show that the goodwives who emigrated to New England were enormously hard-working and supportive and without them America would not have developed as quickly and with such prosperity as it did. They had to do everything: cook, clean, look after animals, help with the crops, sew and knit and make clothes, and at the same time have children and bring them up. Many of them were well-educated and could read and write and some were kidnapped by Indians so that they could write letters on behalf of the tribes to the colonists.

Q: Beatrice Scarlet is not your first female protagonist as your Katy Maguire series received rave reviews; why do you choose to write with a female lead?

A: I have written many novels with female protagonists, such as Lady of Fortune about a woman banker, Maiden Voyage about a girl who inherits a shipping line, and probably my favourite Trauma, about a woman crime-scene cleaner whose job and whose collapsing marriage almost drive her insane. I find it very challenging to write novels from a female point of view, but it gives me the added advantage of being able to describe my male characters through their perceptive (or sometimes besotted) eyes. When I was editing Penthouse I spent a lot of time getting to know the girls who appeared in the magazine and finding out what their ambitions were and how they coped in a world where most men would just look at them with their tongues hanging out and not care about their personalities or their anxieties or their self-esteem.

Q: Scarlet Widow delves into some weird and wonderful potions and remedies; how long did it take you to research?

A: Bloody ages. I don’t think I realised what I was letting myself in for. Every single tiny detail of everything needed intensive research. Food, drink, church services, housing, hygiene, transportation. The fact that everybody in England had to be buried by law in a woollen shroud to support the wool industry. The number of undergarments women wore (and didn’t wear…no knickers in those days!). There were many familiar acids and alkalis and other potions around in the 18th century but most of them were known by totally different names.

Q: Who is your favourite character in Scarlet Widow and why?

A: Of course it has to be Beatrice. I so much enjoy writing about the conflict between her natural feistiness and her respectful behaviour towards her husband and towards the church and her community as a whole.

Q: There are some disturbing and shocking scenes in Scarlet Widow, especially towards the end; how do you decide how graphic you need the scene to be versus how much should be left to the reader's imagination?

A: I could write a book about this alone. I have written some very graphic scenes but murder and sexual assault are horrendous and there is no point in being coy about it. You can read much more graphic accounts of butchery every day in your newspaper…the only difference being that I make readers feel as if they are witnessing it first-hand. I know many people enjoy what they call “cosy crime”, where the worst thing that happens is that the bishop gets beaten to death with a badger in the bathroom, but I wanted to face up to the true horror of taking somebody else’s life. Graphic horror has to be very well written and I have several times experimented with taking readers right to the very edge in order to test my own writing skill. My short story Eric the Pie had the first issue of the new horror magazine Frighteners banned by the retailer WH Smith. Then there was a Cemetery Dance chapbook Sepsis (woman eats dead cat) and another extreme Cemetery Dance chapbook is on the way…Cheeseboy.

Q: You're well known for your horror books; what made you move from horror to crime writing and which genre do you enjoy more?

A: Crime has a much wider audience than horror but I think I have managed to keep all of my horror readers with the Katie Maguire novels, simply because death in the real world is just as grisly as death in the supernatural world. I am still writing horror. My story The Greatest Gift appears in Grey Matter’s new anthology Peel Back The Skin and I have a new horror novel in mind to write this year. The reason I wrote the first Katie Maguire novel was that my late wife and I were living in Cork in Ireland at the time which is an extremely characterful city and I realised that very few writers had ever used it as a setting. I enjoy writing in all genres. I am just about to write a new family saga in which nobody dies.

Q: You can consider me in the queue to read the next book, so can you give us a hint as to what's next for Beatrice Scarlet?

A: The next Beatrice Scarlet will be set in London, and involves a bit of witchery.

*****

Well I certainly can't wait for the next instalment in the Beatrice Scarlet series.

Thank you very much to Graham Masterton for answering my questions and to Blake Brooks from Head of Zeus for giving me the opportunity to interview such a well known established author.

Find out more about Graham Masterton on the official site www.grahammasterton.co.uk