My list of recommended reads is even longer this time – I’ve been away and that meant more reading opportunity. Especially as we were without a TV.  Enjoy!

The Humans by Matt Haig

After the Fire, A Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld

Strumpet City by James Plunkett

The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

The Flight by M.R. Hall

What Lies Within by Tom Vowler

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

The Boat by Clara Salaman

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Perfect by Rachel Joyce

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

 

 

Most of May I spent in Chengdu, in China, researching my new novel. It was a fantastic trip, a combination of soaking in the sights, sounds, smells and everyday life of the city interspersed with day trips out to surrounding attractions. We were staying with my eldest son who works there as an English teacher. He is fluent in Chinese which was a huge advantage for us in negotiating journeys and talking to Chinese people about some of the questions I had. And he was able to show us the ropes so we could get around and fend for ourselves while he was at work. We learnt a smattering of words before we went but it is possible to order food purely by pointing at pictures and performing energetic sign language. I was delighted to be invited to give an author talk at The Bookworm Chengdu, an English language bookshop, library, restaurant and bar. My first international bookshop appearance. It was a lovely venue and a really enjoyable evening. The Bookworm hosts a large literary festival every March with authors from all over the world appearing at their branches in Chengdu, Beijing and Suzhou.

There was some irony in that we were staying in the city that now makes 20% of the world’s computers but there were swathes of the web that were simply not available to us due to internet censorship. So I had no access to Twitter or any wordpress or blogspot sites. I also discovered that I couldn’t send any emails only receive them. Half-way through our visit I got an email from writer and editor Martin Edwards subject: Short Story Dagger, saying, Hi Cath, By the time you read this, I am sure you will know that you have been shortlisted for the Dagger again. I’m really pleased for you!! Talk about a wonderful surprise! I was too excited to sleep that night. Since then I’ve been able to see the shortlist and I am awed to be in such spectacular company. So a big thanks to Martin and to the CWA for all the work in organising these awards which do so much to promote crime fiction. The results will be announced on June 30th along with the results of the International Dagger, Debut Dagger, Library Dagger, Non-Fiction and the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger as well as the presentation to Simon Brett of the Diamond Dagger. And I shall be tweeting all about it. If there’s a signal…

The idea for this novel was quite simple – a bereaved mother writes to the person who killed her daughter in an attempt to move beyond rage, and the desire for vengeance, and to find some sort of acceptance.  There is a long tradition of novels written in letter form, Shelley’s Frankenstein is one, as is Dracula by Bram Stoker and more recently Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin.  There were challenges in choosing to use this narrative style, in getting the tone right and working out what information was revealed when and what would be divulged to the murderer through the letters, but I found it refreshing to try something so different. These days many of us use emails in place of letters but for the most personal most significant events, around love and death and birth, we still may choose to write a physical letter.  Something that can be held and kept safe and re-read.  When I was younger I wrote regularly to lots of people, family and friends, as a way of keeping in touch.  Now decades later that has shrunk to continuing correspondence with just two.  Prison must be one of the few places where personal letters still predominate, as prisoners are unable to send email or use Skype or mobile phones.  And there is no limit on the number of letters a prisoner can receive.  So the epistolary form did seem to be the best narrative device for the story I wanted to tell.  Hope you like it.

When I write I hear the words in my head.  Not just the dialogue but the narration too.  And I see the pictures, the locations, people, their clothes and so on.  I assume everybody does.  Working in radio I’ve noticed that there are sometimes differences between how I ‘hear’ what I’ve written and how an actor delivers it, and that always surprises me.  But I imagine as readers we each translate the marks on the page in our own way, with our own voices supplying that soundtrack as we follow the story.

For my novels I’m using speech recognition these days, reading aloud what I’ve written in longhand (I know – bizarre) through a microphone and into a Word document.  It’s a complete pain when the phone rings or there’s someone at the door or I get a sneezing fit but on the whole it’s quicker than me just typing it all up.  And staves off the RSI.  But I don’t really get to hear the flow of the writing in that part of the process, I’m reading it in quite a clipped and unemotional way in order to get the best accuracy.  Even then there are many errors (I’ll have to save some up for another post).  Once I’ve corrected the mistakes I read my work aloud.  Not only does it help me improve the rhythm and see how the pace changes but it’s great for spotting repetition and abrupt endings and weak sections.  Through pressure of work I don’t always get time to read everything out loud and then when the book is published and I perform a reading in public I notice all sorts of things I’d want to change if I only had the chance.

Here’s a list of my latest recommendations.  Hopefully there is something for everyone here as it’s quite a mix in terms of genre  – though fair to say half of them are crime fiction.  What they all share is a strong story, vivid characters and locations and accomplished writing.  What else could you ask for?  Happy reading.

Someone Else’s Skin by Sarah Hilary

The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

The Stranger You Know by Jane Casey

Harvest by Jim Crace

The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Trouble Man by Tom Benn

The Son by Philipp Meyer

Red Joan by Jennie Roonie

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

Keep Your Friends Close by Paula Daly

Last week I delivered the manuscript for my 20th novel.  Twentieth!  It’s hard to believe I’ve written that many.  One question people ask is whether it gets easier and I don’t think it does.  Harder perhaps, thinking up fresh situations that I haven’t explored before.  The process may be more familiar but the core activities of writing: finding characters, developing the story, choosing the words, shaping the material, editing and improving it, are still as challenging and as engaging as ever.  Some books flow more easily, others take a while to uncover.  In my mind I think the making of a novel is a combination of discovery and construction.  It’s like mining for an artefact that is buried and as you dig it out, you clean and sculpt and colour it until it feels complete.  I’ve no idea whether the ‘mining’ metaphor rings true for other people but it doesn’t matter.  As practitioners we all find out what methods work for us, whether we plot in advance or just start writing, when we edit, whether research precedes the writing or is done on the hoof, dipping into the internet as we go, whether we count the words or the pages, if we write chronologically or weave collages together, if we use particular software to help us with structure and continuity, whether we read aloud or dictate our work.  When I start afresh with each book I still need that leap of faith, a suspension of the critical voice that tries to undermine my efforts.  And when the book is written I have the all too familiar lurch of confidence while I wait for feedback, maybe even greater these days as with each new title there’s the hope it will be an improvement on what came before.  The buzz I get from writing remains just as strong and rewarding as it always was and I can’t imagine ever wanting to stop.

On occasion I’ve heard people say they don’t like books written in the first person (often when praising a title in that narrative style that they’ve just read).  I wonder why the resistance.  Do they find it uncomfortable to be so intimate with the character?  Is it hard to suspend disbelief and be inside another person’s head whose world view, attitudes and experiences may be a long way from their own?  Personally ‘walking in someone else’s shoes’ is one of the things I love about reading.  Although when I’m choosing a new book I don’t consciously think about what the point of view is.  Other factors – the cover, the blurb, the first page of writing, people’s recommendations – are much more significant.

But when I’m writing, the first elements I need to pin down are character and point of view.  Some stories I know instinctively* have to be a sole first person.  I want that intensity and focus, there is no doubt about whose story it is and it’s not to be shared.  My Sal Kilkenny series uses the first person POV as does The Kindest Thing, a book about a woman who is tried for murder after she helps her husband end his life.  The novel I’ve just finished, Letters to my Daughter’s Killer, which explores the question of whether it is possible to forgive a murderer, is also a first person account.  Other stories such as the Blue Murder and Scott and Bailey series and standalones like Split Second suit several third person points of view.  As a writer I find it refreshing to switch from spending months in the almost claustrophobic world of ‘I’ to the variety and freedom of ‘he’ and ‘she’.  And in my most recently published novel, Blink of an Eye, I’ve used two narrators, both written in the first person.

Does it matter to you?

*And sometimes I don’t.  Credit must go to my novel writers’ group who on reading the opening chapters of The Kindest Thing all agreed the only viewpoint they were at all  interested in was Deborah’s.  And so it came to be.

This week I am guest blogging over on Womens Writers,  Women’s Books.  Come see me there.

There are various techniques for building tension in a story: the use of foreboding, the ominous comments of hindsight, the race against time or the ticking clock set-up, the sudden reversal of fortune or the shock revelation that trips up the reader and changes what we understand of the narrative.  Writing in the present tense can also contribute to the breathless, fast-paced feel of a thriller.  With this technique there is neither foresight nor hindsight.  We do not have the bigger picture, only the frame by frame, chapter by chapter account.  Like the protagonist we are in the moment.  It’s a very modern style, well, I assume it is (people who know about the history of literature please correct me if I’m wrong).

I’ve written novels in the present tense and others in the past.  Sometimes I’ve found that changing to the present tense gives a better edge to a story.  In my latest book, Blink of an Eye, one character’s narrative is written in the present and the other is in the past though it covers the same time-frame.  As with most choices your first instinct is usually the correct one but if you’re unhappy with the flavour of the prose then tense is one element to consider.  Write a chapter both ways and compare.  Like POV the tense should suit the story and work for the characters.

Here’s another list of recent reads that I’ve enjoyed.  Not all perfect but some come pretty close.  Enjoy.

The Scent of Death by Andrew Taylor

The View on the Way Down by Rebecca Waite

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell

As Far As You Can Go by Lesley Glaister

The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman

Ten Things I’ve Learnt About Love by Sarah Butler

The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison

Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty

Norwegian by Night by Derek B Miller

The Burning Air by Erin Kelly