Katie Munnik – Author Q&A

Katie Munnik

Katie Munnik

Katie Munnik is a poet and novelist living in Wales. Her poems have been featured by Poetry Wales, the Cardiff Review and Bywords and longlisted for Nine Arches Primer and the CBC Poetry Prize. Her debut novel The Heart Beats in Secret was a USA Today Bestseller, and her most-recent novel, The Aerialists was Waterstones Welsh Book of the Month. Katie is represented by Evan Brown at Transatlantic Agency.

Katie can be found at:
Website: www.katiemunnik.com
Instagram: @KatieMunnik
Twitter: @messy_table
Facebook: facebook.com/katie.munnik/

What kind of reactions have you had to your book?

The Heart Beats in Secret

The Heart Beats in Secret

My readers tell me they enjoy how I describe place, and I’m thrilled about that as landscapes are vital to me in how I approach storytelling. I want to know where my characters are and how the land makes them feel. To hear that readers feel immersed in these places through my writing is wonderfully encouraging. That’s a moment when storytelling works.

I also have readers who respond to my work by offering their own fantastic stories. After reading The Heart Beats in Secret, one woman got in touch to tell me about her mother’s pet – a paralysed pigeon – who used to go on family camping trips. An amazing detail, isn’t it? Story-worthy, to be sure.

What’s the favourite reaction you’ve had to your book?

I was once offered a pair of bloomers at a reading. The real deal, Victoria bloomers with buttons and lace detailing. (I said yes.) Admittedly, the offer was in context and appropriate. I had just read a passage from The Aerialists in which my central character climbs across a rooftop in search of lost undergarments.

How hard was it to get your first (debut) book published?

I wrote my first book during a mentorship through the Humber School for Writers in Toronto. When I was finished and happy with it (or rather, ready to stop editing it for a while), I spent about a year sending it out to agents, getting silence, then getting feedback, trying rewrites and trying again. Then I spotted a post on Twitter about an open submission contest for unagented writers that the Borough Press was running. So, I entered and was delighted to win. The result was a book deal and representation from a topflight agent. It felt a bit like an arranged marriage after a long spell of dating, to be honest, but worked out well as the Borough Press went on to also publish my second novel.

What can you tell us about your next book?

I’ll simply say briefly that it is about early 20th C expat women artists living in Paris. And parrots.

How much (if any) say do you have in your book covers?

The Aerialists

The Aerialists

With my first novel, I officially had a vote, but in actual fact, it was in the hands of my publisher. Which was fine. As a writer, you think you know what your book should look like, but it’s important to remember you are a writer, not a book designer. There are professionals who know about these things.

I did have more influence with my second novel, which was lovely. I wanted to include some of the Victorian newspaper illustrations I found in the archive, and the designer incorporated them beautifully. We had a good back and forth about that cover. One version ended up being quite Monty Python steampunk, which I loved, but it really didn’t fit the literary novel I had written. What we settled on is absolutely perfect for the story. I’m thrilled with it.

Were you a big reader as a child?

I’m honestly not sure I had any other personality. Always had a book under my arm or my pillow. And it could be pretty much anything. Adventure stories, classics, fantasy, sci-fi, poetry, murder mysteries. I spent one summer inseparable from the complete libretti of Gilbert and Sullivan. (I am a middle child…)

Do you have a favourite bookshop?

As a child, it was a small shop called the Bookery in downtown Ottawa. An exclusively for-children shop. I’d timetravel there now, if I could.

For second-hand books, I’d need to say all of Hay-on-Wye. A charming book town on the Welsh border, rabbit-warrened with bookshops. It would be easy to spend a year lost there and utterly happy.

But I’m also a sucker for a huge North American big box bookstore. Last summer, I was particularly impressed with the well-organised poetry section at Chapters Indigo in Toronto’s the Eaton Centre. A hard place to leave emptyhanded. (I didn’t.)

Any books that you’re looking forward to in the next 12 months?

I’ve been saving Anne Michaels’ Held until I hit my next deadline. I can hear it waiting for me.

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Shy

Max Porter. Faber & Faber. (128p) ISBN: 9780571377312
Shy

Shy

Max Porter is one of the few authors I will preorder as soon as I hear about a book coming out from them, and this didn’t disappoint.

Set in the mid 90s the story of a young man, Shy, who has gone down a road of anger and disruption with his life lived in a series of highs and lows without him seeming to have much control over his thought or emotions.

Raw and harrowing set to a pace akin to the music that is referenced throughout, we’re taken into the mind and world of Shy, Max uses different forms of text to mark time and beat. Poetry, formatting, concrete areas, separate tones, separate thoughts, past and present are all mixed together deftly as an MC would, layering it to produce a coherent whole at a breakneck speed.

Shy eventually inhabits a space called “Last Chance”, a school for troubled teens, set in the countryside (middle of nowhere) and full of similar kids and staff who want to help (do gooders) and his thoughts start to feed in on themselves with what could be an expected solution though the end is exciting and so fast it had to be read twice and closely to get the best out of it.

As an aside I worked in a similar space as a do gooder for about 28 years and could see similar process going through young mens minds at the time, taken out of their home environment and suddenly in a place that is so quiet that they have no option but to listen to their inner voices.

Another excellent book from Max and glad I finally got around to reading it.


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Book Lovers

Emily Henry. Penguin Books. (384p) ISBN: 9780241995341
Book Lovers

Book Lovers

I’m sorry, I’d disparaged romance writing for way too long without trying it again, really sorry.

Two friends keep telling me how good Emily Henry’s writing is and I just ignored them, but eventually thought I like these two people, they are intelligent, and usually have good taste. What have I got to lose?

Several hours of my life, that’s what? Several hours of my life in a really well written, engrossing love story, but also a story about loss, the need for control, family, friendships, misunderstanding, and trying to be true to yourself.

I got so invested in these characters straight away and was so desperate to find out where the various twists and turns of the story would take us, secrets coming out and a very passionate love affair is where it led, but it also led to people being far truer to themselves in the end and dreams being realised.

I’m really feeling these books where people are nice to each other (OK in the case of Nora in her own idiom) and where people fall in love and are happy.

Though I did think my preferred ending would have worked as well I was happy with the ending in the book, but then again my heart is black and scarred.

I loved this so much that Emily Henry is going to be an end of month reading treat as all her books are on the library app.


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Tony Williams – Author Q&A

Tony Williams

Tony Williams

Tony Williams is a poet and fiction writer based in rural Northumberland. His first novel Nutcase (2017) is a rewriting of a medieval saga set in Sheffield, while Cole the Magnificent (2023) dreams up the early life of Old King Cole. His most recent poetry collection is Hawthorn City (2019). He is Professor of Creative Writing at Northumbria University.

Tony can be found at:
Website (Salt): Cole the Magnificent
Twitter: @TonyWilliams9

Tell me what inspired you to write your novel?
Cole the Magnificent really came about because I had unfinished business after my first novel, Nutcase, was published. Nutcase is a very different book – it’s a retelling of the Saga of Grettir the Strong, set on a modern-day housing estate in Sheffield. I was trying to write in a medieval style but with modern subject matter. It’s very violent and bleak (although it’s also supposed to be a black comedy). But it also ended up being basically realist in approach. The sagas have trolls and ghosts and magic halberds and stuff like that, but that didn’t translate into contemporary Sheffield very well. So after I’d finished Nutcase, I wanted to write something that took on the more fantastical elements of medieval saga – something which wasn’t just trying to be realistic but which was a bit more playful and out-there.

What came first the characters or the world?
It was the world really. I knew I wanted to do a kind of quest or pilgrimage narrative, where the characters started in a basically realistic home setting, and as they travelled further, things would get more and more outrageous and weird. That’s how it is in the Icelandic sagas – once they leave Iceland and go to, say, northern Norway, you know something outlandish is on the way. And other medieval travelogues are the same. It’s that orientalist thing where the traveller goes off to terra incognita and then comes back with all sorts of tall tales. Only I also like the way that medieval stories always come in different variants, and I wanted my narrator to be always telling us these other versions and casting doubt on the story, and going off on preposterous digressions. So the whole thing would also be a kind of shaggy-dog story. All that pointed to the idea of a picaresque, where you’d have this feckless knave wandering the world having ludicrous adventures. And the figure of Old King Cole seemed perfect for that. I’ve always loved nursery rhymes, and if you look up Old King Cole the scholarship basically says, ‘nothing else is know about him,’ so I decided to werite the story of Cole’s life before he grew old.

Cole the Magnificent

Cole the Magnificent

How long did it take to write?
About six years! It was meant to be a novella. I was just amusing myself while I waited to see if anyone would publish the other novel. But then I got caught up in it, and tinkered away with it for years. Wrote loads. Deleted loads. Got distracted writing poems and so on and so forth. I sort of envy those writers who can reel off a novel in a year and then get on with the next one, but what seems to happen with me is that I write a big chunk, don’t know what the hell I’m doing, and then gradually work away at it until, very late, it starts to come into focus. It’s agony at times, but I think you need the agony. That’s what makes it worth doing, what makes it so satisfying when it falls into place.

Do you have a writing playlist? If so do you want to share it?
No, I write in complete silence, preferably with no one else in the room!

What kind of reactions have you had to your book?
I’ve been a bit nervous about how readers might respond, partly because the book sits between a few genres – is it literary fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, or all three? I’m also well aware that it’s kind of overflowing with stuff, and doesn’t quite play by all the traditional story rules. It’s early days, but it’s been brilliant to see how generously readers have approached it. They’ve embraced the world of the book and got pleasure out of it, and that’s all I can ask.

What’s the favourite reaction you’ve had to your book?
Bernard Hughes reviewed Cole for The Arts Desk, and said it was ‘in its way, brilliant, but may not be for everyone’ – that seemed to me a thrilling summary because I think it won’t be for all readers and I’m OK with that, but I hope that it will really speak to some.

Do you take notice of online reviews?
I’m deeply grateful for any review, because what I want is for people to read my book, and a review shows that someone has done that and then taken the time to write about it. A review says, ‘Yes, this book exists’ – even if they hated it. As for taking any notice, I’ve been writing and publishing for long enough that I know you should not pay too much attention to either good reviews or bad ones, but I’m human and also an anxious parent, wanting my little book to bring pleasure to people. So looking at online reviews can be a way of gambling on your own vanity, as long as you never get too invested. Some reviewers might totally get what a book is doing, and then even if they give an ambivalent review, you don’t mind at all because at least they saw it clearly, it just wasn’t for them. Others might not seems to get it and those you just have to accept because there’s no guarantee a book will connect with any given reader. The dangerous reviews are the very positive ones – of course you want to believe they are perceptive and judicious!

Would you ever consider writing outside your current genre?
I don’t really think of myself as writing in specific genres at all. Maybe that comes from writing poetry, which is generally less commercial than fiction so it tends not to get parcelled up into marketable genres. In my prose fiction I’ve written flash fiction, a realist/comedy novel and then this (a mash-up of fantasy, picaresque, historical fiction, folklore, faux-scholarship, fairy tale, and so on and so forth). I suppose I did make a conscious decision to go beyond realism when I started Cole. In general I always want to do something that’s different in some way to what I’ve done before. That’s what makes it interesting. And I like to work across genres, taking a bit of this and a bit of that. But what you’re doing then is to try to put together a frankenbook, something never yet seen before that scares the townfolk a little. That’s maybe one thing that takes the time – you get some ingredients and fool about with them and try to create something which is alive, a vision, which you hope other people can see as well.

Which author(s) inspire you?
For this book, the anonymous authors of Icelandic saga, which is a literature of the highest order and which I’ve learned so much from. The sagas are mind-expanding for a modern writer – they operate like novels but also completely differently. I can’t recommend them strongly enough. Also the Mabinogion and other medieval tales for their amazing elastic whimsical treatment of the world. Umberto Eco’s Baudolino and Grimmelshausen’s Simplicius Simplicissimus are both medieval picaresques I love. Italo Calvino for the variety of his work and the way he just gets us to accept whatever he’s telling us. Jane Smiley for her monumental masterpiece The Greenlanders. And weirdly George Perec’s novel Life: A User’s Manual, which is about a Paris apartment building but was instrumental in showing me how richly you can stuff a novel and still not have it come apart at the seams. And then something like Martha Sanders’ Alexander and the Magic Mouse, a children’s book I vividly remember reading as a child (and then, a little bit older, going back to when I was off school ill). That book’s world is conjured so perfectly (partly by the illustrations) that it stayed alive somewhere inside me all these years. I read it again recently and it was still there, alive, waiting for me to find it again. It’s amazing that a book can do that. It’s what I aspire to with Cole – that someone should read it, and then find years afterwards that Cole has taken up residence in their imagination.

What is your biggest motivator?
Writing makes me happy. When I spend part of the day writing, and make some headway, I feel good. When I don’t write, I’m often glum. It’s a no-brainer, really, that I should write every day, although I don’t always.

What will always distract you?
Everything, and especially the internet. I think the important thing is to get started, because it’s easier to keep going than to start. And it’s easier if you’re in the habit. I know that things go much easier if I’m writing a bit every day. I aim for about 300 words, which you can reel off if 15 minutes, at a push, and if I can do more, great, but I don’t beat myself up about it. If I’ve hit that target every day for a week, I’m flying. It’s easy. Then I miss a day, which turns into a week. I can’t get going again.

Were you a big reader as a child?
Yes, I read a lot as a child and I think that was mainly because I loved it, but also perhaps because reading was a way of engaging with the world I felt confident in. I read Tolkein extensively and a lot of classics and Ed McBain and Commando and the Beano and Dandy, and War and Peace at an age when I could tell it was something else but didn’t get as much from it as when I read it again in me 20s. Also Emil and the Detectives – again, I have a very vivid memory of reading it when I was ill. Lying on a bed reading in the daytime – that’s paradise, isn’t it?

Do you have a favourite bookshop? If so, which?
I have conflicting feelings here because I grew up on the other side of the hill from Scarthin Books, a famous bookshop in Derbyshire that’s split over three or four floors and was always amazingly ramshackle and full of the most wonderful finds. But now I live just up the road from Barter Books, also famous and perhaps with a better café but a less esoteric selection. More and more I go to bookshops for the happy accidents, the books I didn’t know I wanted.

What books can you not resist buying?
I have conflicting feelings here because I The ones I don’t resist are the things I’ve never heard of, that someone recommends or that I suddenly read about, and I think, if I don’t buy this now, I’ll never remember it or hear about it again. So I order them then and there. With things I know I want, or the next book by a favourite author, I can be a bit more hesitant, because I know it’s there and I can always go back to it. Of course that means there are some authors whose work I love – Gwendoline Riley, Alice Munro, Russell Hoban – where I’ve not read everything they’ve written, because I’m complacently thinking, not yet, there’s still time.

Do you have any rituals when writing?
No, I’m reasonably flexible. I have to feel I’m alone, so I usually can’t write if a family member is in the same room, but I can write on a busy train if the people around me are strangers. (Most of my first novel was written on an ipad on the train to and from work.) I don’t usually write longhand, except brief notes when planning or editing. I need a computer on a tablet or sometimes just a phone, and I tap away, stopping often, and if I’m in the flow I’ll keep going to squeeze the last bit of juice out of the session. And then – try to write more the next day.

Nutcase

Nutcase

How many books are in your own physical TBR pile?
At the moment, six: Robert Irwin’s Wonders Will Never Cease, poetry by Antony Rowland, Kris Johnson and Jacob Polley, a history of early Christianity, and Gormenghast, which I’ve never read despite loving Titus Groan. There are others that were in there very recently, but the other day I faced facts and put them back on the shelves for another time. It can get oppressive, feeling that your reading is stacked up for weeks or months to come, and I sometimes like it better if I suddenly find something tucked away on a bookshelf and start reading it, rather than planning things too much.

What is your current or latest read?
I’m reading Ibn Fadlan’s account of his travels in the north, and travel writing by other medieval Arab writers, in a brilliant Penguin Classics edition. It’s mind-expanding, seeing the Viking and Arab worlds connecting with each other (and the West being a faraway afterthought). Plus we hear about the Khazars, a Jewish empire of the steppe which dominated the region and then vanished, and which is also incidentally the subject of a bizarre novel by Milorad Pavic, The Dictionary of the Khazars, which tells the same story three times from three different perspectives, in alphabetical order.

Any books that you’re looking forward to in the next 12 months?
I’m looking forward to reading M John Harrison’s ‘anti-memoir’ Wish I Was Here. I first got into Harrison by reading his novel Climbers, and then discovered his fantasy and science fiction work. The Kefahuchi Tract trilogy, starting with Light, is completely dazzling and showed me what’s possible in science fiction. Wish I Was Here has been out a little while but today I listened to a podcast of Harrison talking about it and looking back on his career, and it’s reminded me I need to read it. He’s a complete master.

Any plans or projects in the near future you can tell us about?
The next thing for me (well, the thing I’ve been working on for two years now) is a novel about magic rituals and war and trauma and family. I’m at the stage where you have a load of broken crockery and despair of ever fitting it together into a vase, let alone one that looks nice and has actual flowers in it. All you can do is keep going. Maybe you’ll end up with a half-decent ashtray.


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L. N. Hunter – Author Q&A

L.N. Hunter

L.N. Hunter

My debut novel, The Feather and the Lamp, is a comic fantasy which should appeal to Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams fans. It’s the tale of Imperceptibility Happenstance who gets caught up in a series of escapades when she picks up a magic lamp. Published by Three Ravens Publishing.

L.N. Hunter’s comic fantasy novel, The Feather and the Lamp, sits alongside works in anthologies such as War (which also turns up in Best of British Science Fiction 2022) and Trickster’s Treats 3 as well as Short Édition’s Short Circuit and the Horrifying Tales of Wonder podcast. There have also been papers in the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, which are probably somewhat less relevant and definitely less fun. When not writing, L.N. unwinds in a disorganised home in rural Cambridgeshire, UK, along with two cats and a soulmate.

L.N. Hunter can be found at:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/L.N.Hunter.writer
Bibliography: linktr.ee/l.n.hunter

Tell me what inspired you to write your (debut) novel?

While trying out some comedy styles, I wrote a short story about a magic lamp where wishes were maliciously interpreted (hey, no one said I had to be original). Someone commented that they’d like to see more of Imperceptibility’s adventures – while the roots of the book where in that story, I think that one comment was the real trigger for the novel.

A lot of random comic ideas turn up in the book, almost all inspired by something in the real world, but I can’t explain any of them without giving away spoilers!

What came first the characters or the world?

When I started the short story, all I knew was there was going to be a tricksy genie and a loquacious dragon, and my main character had her name. However, after that, the world came together more quickly than the characters fleshed themslves out.

How hard was it to get your first (debut) book published?

Harder, and more painful, than writing it. Even harder, though, is getting it noticed, especially with my allergy to social media.

How long did it take to write?

It took about a year of occasional evenings to complete the first rather scrappy draft, then a couple more years of evenings and weekends of beating it into shape before I started to look for agents.

Do you have a writing playlist? If so do you want to share it?

I find music just too distracting to work with.

How many publishers turned you down?

All of them bar one…

I began by schlepping The Feather and the Lamp around agents, a few at a time, up until I reached somewhere in the region of sixty. The majority of them ghosted me, but the few that replied were rejections. About a year into that process, I started to look at independent publishers too, again a few at a time; and as before, most ghosted me, and all of the replies I did get were rejections, until two requests for the full manuscript came in within a week of each other. Three Ravens Publishing were more enthusiastic and engaged than the other, so here I am.

What kind of reactions have you had to your book?

All favourable, but that probably means I haven’t got enough people looking at it yet!

The Feather and the Lamp

The Feather and the Lamp

What’s the favourite reaction you’ve had to your book?

I particularly liked ‘The Feather and the Lamp is an absolute joy to read and packed to the gills with belly laughs, subtle barbs, and the occasional guffaw throughout this tale of wonder and accidental adventure.’

What can you tell us about your next book?

Imperceptibility’s adventures continue – this time into space. (Who says fantasy books can’t have spaceships?)

Do you take notice of online reviews?

Oh, if only I had enough reviews to bother paying much attention.

Would you ever consider writing outside your current genre?

I don’t think I know what my genre is. The Feather and the Lamp is comic fantasy, but my short stories are a mix of horror, sci-fi and fantasy, sometimes with a sprinkling of thriller or humour. I’ve got a half-baked techno-thriller novel and a middle-grade comic horror waiting to be finished, and a bunch of other genre mixes waiting to be started.

What did you do before (or still do) you became a writer?

I spent many years as a software engineer before realising that writing for humans is much more fun than for computers. The software I write affects more people than my fiction, for sure, but I’m working on changing that.

Which author(s) inspire you?

Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams are at the top of my list. I rediscovered a pile of Tom Sharpe books recently, and think that he’s been an subconscious influence too, treating his characters badly in so many ridiculously over the top situations.

Which genres do you read yourself?

I used to tuck myself away with a fat fantasy book, but these days it tends to be something shorter and quick to read, but a mix of genres: speculative mainly, but also the occasional thriller. I’m keen on comic books (or ‘graphic novels’ for the pretentious among us) too, though more of the independents than the Marvels and DCs of the world.

What is your biggest motivator?

I would say money, except that my writing hasn’t had much of an impact on my finances, at least not in the direction I want it to. In lieu of that, the buzz of a positive review or having a short story accepted somewhere.

What will always distract you?

Life, the universe and everything.

How much (if any) say do you have in your book covers?

Three Ravens is very flexible, and in fact, I brought this cover with me.

Were you a big reader as a child?

Not until I was maybe eleven or twelve. Even then, it was probably more comic book than novels.

What were your favourite childhood books?

Nothing springs to mind.

Do you have a favourite bookshop? If so, which?

I think I’ve moved around too much to form an attachment to any, and on the internet, they all look the same (sorry).

What books can you not resist buying?

While he was alive and churning them out, I’d buy every Terry Pratchett as soon as they came out (and then plant myself in a comfy chair and read them in one sitting). Similar with Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes) – it’ll be interesting to see what The Mysteries turns out to be…

Do you have any rituals when writing?

At least a hour’s worth of procrastinating before I start – I really need to improve that.

How many books are in your own physical TBR pile?

Only about three new ones and half a dozen Tom Sharpes – it’s all electronic these days, and that pile is too high. While paper is nicer, digital is so much more convenient.

What is your current or latest read?

I’m currently working my way through the Tom Sharpes I found: The Wilt Alternative at the moment.

Any books that you’re looking forward to in the next 12 months?

At the moment, nothing really grabs me. I’m intrigued by the new Watterson, but not to the same extent as I was about upcoming Discworld novels.

Any plans or projects in the near future you can tell us about?

There’s the sequel to The Feather and the Lamp that I’ve already mentioned, and I intend to keep working on short stories.

Any events in the near future?

World Con is coming to Glasgow next year – close enough geographically that I can’t really not go…

and finally, what inspired you to write the genre you do?

I think my answer here is a mix of ‘see above’ and ‘I don’t know.’


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Louise Walters – Author Q&A

Louise Walters

Louise Walters§

Louise Walters studied for a Literature degree with The Open University between 1998 and 2010. She took Creative Writing and Advanced Creative Writing courses during the final two years of the degree, and she says that writing her first novel, Mrs Sinclair’s Suitcase, has been one of the most positive experiences of her life.

Louise can be found at:
Website: louisewaltersbooks.co.uk
Twitter: @LouiseWalters12
Instagram: @louisewalterswriter

Tell me what inspired you to write your novel?

It’s my fourth novel and the inspiration came from two things. One was an article in a local newspaper, years ago, which I cut out and kept. It was about a local hermit who used to go into town once a week to shop. Rumour had it that he had been betrayed in love by his own brother. The second inspiration was from even further back. As a teenager I stayed on an estate in Devon, in a holiday cottage. It was called Wiscombe Park and that is the inspiration for Rowan Park in the novel.

What came first the characters or the world?

The world, really. The action takes place on the fictional estate and in the nearby fictional seaside town, also based on a real town: Beer, in Devon. I thought about the characters for a long time… the novel has been on the needles for ten years or so.

How hard was it to get your first (debut) book published?

I only ever got my first novel trade published. The other three have been independently published at my indie press, Louise Walters Books. I sent The Hermit to twenty agents. Then I said to myself, enough is enough, and decided to bring it out at my indie press. A book deal would have been great financially. So it was worth a try.

How long did it take to write?

On and off, ten years or so. Mostly off, to be truthful! But it’s been around in my head, and on various laptops, for a decade.

How many publishers turned you down?

No publishers because I couldn’t get an agent! I tried one indie press, who rejected it with lots of encouragement, as did several of the agents.

What can you tell us about your next book?

I have 12k words so far and it’s the first in a planned saga, or series of novels, about the fortunes of a working-class family and their hangers-on, set over about thirty years. That’s the current plan. I have all the characters and the odd thing is I hardly had to think about them. I started writing it earlier this year, and there they were. Mainly inspired by my own families, on my mum’s side and my dad’s. I’ve sort of mashed them up into one big family.

Do you take notice of online reviews?

Yes and no. I don’t take them to heart. Or try not to. Everyone has an opinion and they are entitled to express it. I love the good reviews, of course!

Would you ever consider writing outside your current genre?

Yes, I think so. I’d love to have a go at a ghost story.

What did you do before (or still do) you became a writer?

I’ve had a lot of jobs over the years! Currently I’m a freelance editor, providing manuscript reports and developmental edits for hoping-to-be-published writers. This is my day job, really.

Which author(s) inspire you?

Lots! I’m really enjoying Kate Atkinson’s work. Joyce Carol Oates is great, perhaps my biggest inspiration. And I love Taylor Jenkins Reid at the moment. Making my way through these writers’ work is a total reading joy.

Which genres do you read yourself?

Mostly literary fiction with a plot. Joyce and Kate do literary-fiction-with-plots really well! Taylor is a little more commercial, but I’m well aware of the work involved in writing good commercial ficiton. In some ways it’s much harder then writing literary fiction. I take my hat off to writers who can pull off good commercial novels.

How much (if any) say do you have in your book covers?

The Hermit

The Hermit

I have been working with the wonderful Jennie Rawlings since I started Louise Walters Books. I usually supply Jennie with a brief from me and the author, with our vague ideas of what the cover might look like… then Jennie does her own thing. Her ideas tend to be much better than mine or the author’s! I am however now turning to a single, generic, cover design for any books I may publish in the future. The Hermit is the first to carry this “brand” cover. I hope it will work out OK. I’ve had to completely re-think my publishing. DIY is the only way forward, realistically. It’s a constant financial struggle to run an indie press.

Were you a big reader as a child?

Yes. I read all the time. It was a source of comfort, and still is. I can’t imagine life without reading.

What were your favourite childhood books?

I wasn’t really into fantasy like Roald Dahl, not much. I loved the Chalet School Books, Ballet Shoes, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women… realist and literary-ish stuff. Penelope Lively was a favourite as a child, and she is now too. Moon Tiger is my favourite novel.

Do you have a favourite bookshop? If so, which?

I used to work at the Old Hall Bookshop in Brackley, Northamptonshire. It was the inspiration for the bookshop in my debut novel, Mrs Sinclair’s Suitcase. So that is my favourite bookshop. I also love Foyles on Charing Cross Road in London. It’s like a book cathedral. Blackwell’s in Oxford is always a great place to visit.

Do you have any rituals when writing?

No, none at all. I write when I can, and love it when I do. But no rituals. I’m quite workaday about my writing.

How many books are in your own physical TBR pile?

Currently around a dozen. Usually is! I try not to overwhelm myself with too big a pile. With my publishing and editing work, reading-for-pleasure time is quite limited. How ironic is that?

What is your current or latest read?

Currently reading Big Sky by Kate Atkinson. I have a little literary crush on her private investigator, Jackson Brodie. Yeah, I know… ridiculous…!

Any plans or projects in the near future you can tell us about?

I would love to complete a first draft of my new novel in 2023. That’s the goal. 12k words down, another 80k or so to go.

and finally, what inspired you to write the genre you do?

My reading. I love literary, realist stories, with good plots and characters. Always have, always will.


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