An Interview and Writing Advice

A few weeks back, I was lucky enough to be interviewed by the good people at The Bookshelf Cafe News site.

You can read the whole interview here but I thought I'd put up one of my answers on the blog since it deals with a writing related question I sometimes get asked about character names.

The Bookshelf Cafe: How do you come up with character names for your stories?

MW: I usually have a name fairly soon for the male and female leads though sometimes when David & I are discussing them, we use “Fred and Ginger” so we can keep track of who we’re talking about. The problem there is what when the final names settle in, we’re still calling them Fred or Ginger. For the remainder of the characters, I like to keep it really simple by picking a favourite film or TV show and downloading the imdb cast & crew list. For instance, with DON’T GO BACK, I chose the “Hunter/Hunted” episode from THE PROFESSIONALS TV series and that’s why the baddie has Cowley for a surname. By mixing and matching characters, actors and technicians, you have more than one hundred name combinations in front of you instantly and it saves spending too much time trying to think of names for yourself (and, if you write enough stories, you’ll quickly find you tend to repeat names).

Over the course of the ten-question interview, I talk about what started me off with writing, how I plot and what music I listen to. You can find the rest of my answers on this link.

If you're interested, David & I recorded a little snippet on one of our Friday Night Walks where I talk about the same thing. You can see it on this link here 

To keep up to date with my writing adventures, you can now follow me on Facebook at facebook.com/MarkWestWrites/

You can pick up my books from Amazon on these links:

mybook.to/DontGoBack

mybook.to/OnlyWatchingYou

mybook.to/TheHuntersQuarry

Glorious Beasts: A Q&A with Gary McMahon

Gary McMahon & I have known one another for a long time now and I'm a big fan of his writing.  When Peter Mark May told me he was publishing a new McMahon novella (originally scheduled to launch at Stokercon this coming weekend, before the world went into Lockdown) I was thrilled, especially since Pete tends to send me Hersham Horror books to read through before they're released.  So I read the novella and loved it, got in touch with Gary to tell him and he happily agreed to answer some questions for me.

Cable makes his living tracking down bad men. His young son, Walker, is unable to speak, but the boy notices signs and tracks that others fail to see. When they offer to help a woman whose baby was snatched in the night, they realise they might be searching the wilderness for something unlike anything they've seen before. 

When men become beasts, something ancient awakes, and things worse than death roam the land.

MW:   The novella is a tough read at times, with plenty of your trademark bleakness to it. Are you finding that kind of style easier to write as you get older or harder?

GM:   It seems to me that the older I get, the bleaker my worldview becomes. What’s changed is my acceptance of it. I no longer fight that pessimistic side of me; instead, I embrace it. I’m never purposefully trying to be “dark”. I’ve always just been the kind of guy who prefers the sad songs...

People always seem to go on about how bleak my work is, and to be honest it’s become a bit tiresome to me. I don’t think my writing is bleak. It’s sad. It’s melancholy. Shades of grey.

I personally believe there’s a lot of light in my work: a lot of heart, a lot of soul, and a lot of humanity. But a reader has to work for it. They aren’t getting it spoon-fed from me. To get to the light, they have to walk through a lot of darkness.

The world isn’t a very nice place. All people are not inherently good. Love is rarely enough to save you. Your scars won’t fade entirely.

It isn’t my job to reassure you. I’d rather deal in these harsh truths in my work than pretend the darkness doesn’t exist, or that it can be vanquished for good. All we can ever do is push it back for a while, but it always returns.

MW:   I know it’s difficult to pin a story down to a single image, but where did this come from?

GM:   I can tell you exactly which image came first, but it would be a spoiler. It’s the cruellest image in the story, the one that will hopefully make people wince when they read it.

Then I started thinking I’d like to tie in some of the mythology surrounding those big cats some people think are roaming the English countryside. The Beast of Bodmin and its ilk. I’d always wanted to use that in a story.

If I’m honest, a lot of Brexit paranoia probably found its way into the tale. We always use what’s happening around us, don’t we? It’s all meat for the beast.

With the Secret Horror Cabal (we have a sarky Messenger group) at FCon Scaborough in 2016 (see my report here) with me, Alison Littlewood, Gary Fry and Gary McMahon - sarcasm not pictured

MW:   The world is thoroughly well realised (if fleetingly described), did you do much research to get the look and feel of it?

GM:   I did no research whatsoever. I just wanted a world that was slowly winding down. Decades before, there’d been a plague that had wiped out half the population. The ones who survived abandoned a lot of modern technology and started to turn insular and feudal, fighting tribal wars. After those wars were over, beliefs began to slip back to those of medieval times. Things that were once local folklore became real. Witches. Warlocks. Mythical beasts like the big cat.

In this story, the world stopped advancing in 1974. That’s when The Plague Years began. Home computers hadn’t yet been invented. There was no internet. No mobile phones. None of that stuff.

There’s a lot of Mad Max in the setting, and The Hills Have Eyes, and The Road. Julia Leigh’s superb novel The Hunter. A book about the Sawney Bean clan I read when I was a kid. The structure was borrowed from the film Bone Tomahawk. I think it’s safe to say my story wears it’s influences on its sleeve.

MW:   Can you see yourself writing more in this world?

GM:   Oh, definitely. I’d actually like to write a series of novellas set in this world.

I’m sick of having to write mobile phones, the internet, and iPads into stories. It’s boring. I love the simplicity of this stripped back, hard-scrabble place, the characters that live in it, the limitless possibilities of telling simple stories that actually have a lot of substance behind them.

At Sledge-Lit in November 2016 (see my report here) with Gary and Stephen Bacon

MW:   The novella has a brisk style, with wonderfully clipped dialogue and tells the story quickly and precisely. Do you prefer to work in this format, the short story or the novel or does it totally depend on the tale?

GM:   I find it tough to write novels these days. I think I burned myself out on the novel format a few years ago, when I committed to writing so damn many of them in a short space of time. I was also burned by poor sales. You bleed onto the page and nobody cares. It’s a harsh lesson to learn.

Glorious Beasts needed to be told in a spare fashion. The characters speak in a clipped manner because this is a hard, no-nonsense world. There’s no time for messing about with unnecessary niceties: these damaged people are all focused on survival.

I’ve always liked the novella format. I think it suits my clipped prose style. And it isn’t as daunting as writing a novel, as holding that whole world inside your head.

Novel writing, to me, feels so much like a form of madness. I’m a little scared to get back to that mindset. I will go back there, of course, but I’m not in a hurry. I’ll let it occur naturally, once I find a story that can’t be told any other way. I’m a great believer in the story dictating the form. I know there are more novel-length stories inside me, they just haven’t surfaced yet.


For more information on Gary and his writing, check out his blog here.

Let It Snow, by Sue Moorcroft - review and Q&A

Regular readers of the blog will know Sue Moorcroft and I have been friends for a while, having met at the Kettering Writers Group in 1999 (the group leader, of a more literary bent, consigned we two genre writers to the back of the room where we had a lot of laughs).  Since then Sue's gone from strength to strength, hitting number one in the Kindle Bestseller charts (with The Christmas Promise) and also becoming a Sunday Times Best Seller in the process (with The Little Village Christmas).  With her latest (the fourth) Christmas novel, Let It Snow now out in ebook (and appearing in paperback on 14th November), I'm pleased to be taking part in the book's blog tour.

This Christmas, the villagers of Middledip are off on a very Swiss adventure…

Family means everything to Lily Cortez and her sister Zinnia, and growing up in their non-conventional family unit, they and their two mums couldn’t have been closer.

So it’s a bolt out of the blue when Lily finds her father wasn’t the anonymous one-night stand she’d always believed – and is in fact the result of her mum's reckless affair with a married man.

Confused, but determined to discover her true roots, Lily sets out to find the family she’s never known; an adventure that takes her from the frosted, thatched cottages of Middledip to the snow-capped mountains of Switzerland, via a memorable romantic encounter along the way…

* * *

My review:

Lily Cortez finds out, by accident, that her real father has just died.  Growing up with her sister Zinnia in a two-mum household, she’d assumed - and made her peace with the fact - her father was a donor but now it appears her birth-mother, Roma, had a fling which her mum Patsie, wasn’t best pleased about.  To try and establish links with her “other” family, Lily moves to (Sue's wonderful town of) Middledip to work in the pub her half-brother Tubb runs.  But when he takes a sabbatical to Switzerland, in order to recuperate from a heart attack, Lily finds herself smitten with new bar manager Isaac though, as always in a Sue Moorcroft novel, things don’t run smoothly.

I liked this a great deal - Lily is a fantastic character and her interplay with Isaac is nicely handled, as is her friendship with Carola (from The Little Village Christmas).  It’s always great fun to spend time in Middledip (and revisit a lot of characters from Sue’s previous books) and, this time, the action moves further afield as a big chunk of the novel is set in Switzerland at Christmas, when snow is all around.  The pacing is spot on, the characters and atmosphere and perfectly realised and there’s a well-maintained suspense to the will-they-won’t-they.  Highly recommended.

* * *

5 Questions With Sue Moorcroft:

I decided, on one of our regular get-together's at The Trading Post, to take the opportunity to quiz Sue about the book.

MW:   Let It Snow is a great title, I love that song.  Was it enjoyable fitting the phrase into the novel?

SM:   My publishers suggested it and one other title. I chose Let it Snow because I like the song too. Until then, the favourite song of the singing group in the book, the Middletones, was White Christmas. I changed it.

MW:   Brilliant! The book features a timeline shift where some characters are in Switzerland and some in the UK.  How did you manage that?

SM:   With a giant headache, most of the time. Timelines aren’t my biggest talent so I keep an electronic timetable, which I update as I write the first draft and then again whenever changes occur in subsequent drafts or edits. As well as the characters being in two countries, I had to weave in the timetable for medical treatment of Isaac’s ex-girlfriend Hayley and also the work rota of all the staff at the pub, The Three Fishes. I also had a Google calendar with different characters showing up in different colours.

And yet … when I was on a writing retreat in Italy in the summer I received an email from Avon saying the proofreader thought she’d found an anomaly or two … OK, it was three. I was so sure I’d got it right this time I almost sent the electronic timeline and asked her to check for herself. I’m glad I didn’t because the proofreader was right twice and I was right only once.

While on her research trip, Sue finds one of her novels in German

MW:   Why did you choose to set this novel in Switzerland?

SM:   My friend and fellow author Rosemary J Kind sometimes lives in the UK and sometimes Switzerland. We were talking about her driving to Switzerland in Messenger and she said, ‘If you want to set a book there, you can come with me.’ I got straight on to my editor to see if she thought it was a good idea and, happily for me, she did! Ros and I immediately began planning the trip. I’m indebted to her because she introduced me to her Swiss friends and took me to most of the Christmassy things you find in the book as well as picking me up and driving me through England and France to Switzerland.

MW:   What was your favourite thing about Switzerland?

SM:   The beautiful parts. Lakes, mountains, architecture … everywhere you look is another gorgeous view or elegant building. Also, they really know how to do Christmas. The lights and Christmas markets were breathtaking.

MW:   Do you prefer Middledip in the summer or the winter?

SM:   Winter does make the village look like a Christmas card with frost on the cottages but I don’t mind what the season is, to be honest. I return there with a feeling of pleasure at visiting a place I know well and wondering who I’ll encounter this time. I already know my Winter 2020 book will be set between Middledip and Sweden.

MW:  Great answers, thanks Sue!

SM:   Thanks very much for inviting me onto your blog, Mark, and also for joining the Let It Snow blog tour.

Enjoying a meal in Derby with writing friends (from left, Peter Mark May, Lisa Childs, Richard Barber and Ross Warren), July 2019

* * *
In other news, I was part of the team who have helped keep Rothwell Library open, following the inability of Northampton County Council to conduct themselves in a professional manner.  As we were planning out the activities, I mentioned that Sue & I had done a few library events together and one thing quickly led to another, until we came up with this...

If you're local, we'd love to see you!


Sue Moorcroft is a Sunday Times and international bestselling author and has reached the coveted #1 spot on Amazon Kindle. She’s won the Readers’ Best Romantic Novel award and the Katie Fforde Bursary, and has been nominated for several other awards, including the Romantic Novel of the Year Awards.


Website: www.suemoorcroft.com
Blog: https://suemoorcroft.wordpress.com/ 
Facebook: sue.moorcroft.3
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/SueMoorcroftAuthor
Twitter: @suemoorcroft
Instagram: suemoorcroftauthor
Google+: google.com/+Suemoorcroftauthor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suemoorcroft
Amazon author page: Author.to/SueMoorcroft

Closer Still, by Richard Farren Barber (a review and Q&A)

In a new edition of the occasional series, I want to tell you about a book I've read and loved, which I think adds to the horror genre and that I think you'll enjoy if you're a fan.

Keep your friend close, and your enemies closer still.

- Origin contested

“Closer Still is about childhood friends and childhood enemies. It is a story about how the two are often not as far apart as one might believe. It is my thoughts on the strength of children to navigate an environment in which they are often powerless. It is about love and betrayal. The casual pain inflicted by friends. It is the visceral cry of youth against the injustice of life.”

Rachel is fifteen, burdened with the nickname ‘Kooky’ and seemingly ostracised from a small group of girls she was once part of.  To make matters worse, she’s being haunted by her best friend Katie, who sits or stands quietly in the corner of Rachel’s bedroom.  As time goes on and Katie discovers more powers - she spends a long time trying to roll a pencil over a dresser top - Rachel’s ex-friends begin an insidious campaign of bullying - online and in person - that serve to make Rachel ever more isolated and alone.  She’s cornered in cloak rooms, harassed in corridors and chased down the street, the latter incident videoed to go viral through the school.  Although this brings in the authority figures - parents and teachers - her reluctance to talk and the natural reserve/disdain of a fifteen-year old prevents any kind of breakthrough.  And meanwhile, the bullying gets worse and Katie’s presence becomes ever stronger.

I thoroughly enjoyed Barber’s previous novella Perfect Darkness, Perfect Silence and this is equally as good, if poles apart.  A perfectly paced ghost story that turns up its horror - both real and supernatural - as it goes, this benefits greatly from having Rachel as the narrator (unreliable at times), with Barber capturing her voice exceptionally well.  School life feels real and raw with the sense of being alone in a crowded classroom or playground, the demeanour of the teachers which can be threatening or benign but never fully on your side, the smell of the rooms and corridors, the terror of being trapped in a toilet block.  At home, we see very little of Rachel’s life other than in her bedroom, where parents only occasionally intrude but the spectre of Katie is often there and watching.  The supernatural hand is played well, with Katie appearing early enough that we quickly accept she’s a part of Rachel’s world and as the terror and threat ramp up, she becomes evermore frightening.  The ex-friends are equally well realised and never fully painted to be the villains of the piece.  In lesser hands, ringleader Sarah would be the stereotypical bully but her character is developed to show different sides and angles, while hangers-on Francine and Joanna find themselves in a situation they don’t want to be in but can’t seem to get out of.  As all these lives spiral downwards, it seems that Katie has a plan in mind and when her retribution is unleashed, it’s brisk and harsh and clearly building to a bigger picture.

Exceptionally well written, with a great sense for location and atmosphere, this is a perfectly realised ghost story and I would highly recommend it.

* * *
I enjoyed the story so much, I asked Richard some questions about it and he was gracious enough to answer.

Richard, Stephen Bacon, me and Wayne Parkin, doing a boyband pose
on Scarborough seafront during FantasyCon weekend, September 2016.
You can read a full report of the convention here

MW:   Can you give me some idea as to where this came from?  And bearing in mind how perfectly the cover title (and quote) work, did that come early in the process or later?

RFB:  The novel was originally going to be a script, and it goes back many years. I started it to submit to the BBC Writers’ Room in 2009. It was called Wallflowers and I still have the original 31 pages of script, and that taught me one thing; writing a script is not the same as writing prose! It’s a whole different technique and skillset (and I have no doubt there are script writers the world over who would read this and roll their eyes) Although I don’t remember actually submitting it, I must have done as I still have the receipt from the BBC.

By 2014, when I came back to the idea and decided that I wanted to write it as a novella, I had the title of Closer Still which came directly from the quote. (Although I had to Google the origin of the quote!).  I did have an idea that Closer Still would be the first of two novellas, with the second called Still Closer, which would tell the story from Katie’s viewpoint, because I think Katie has a lot to say and I have a lot of sympathy for her. I even wrote the start of an outline but I haven't gone back to it yet. Maybe one day...

MW:   You treat the supernatural almost as a normal occurrence in this, with Rachel fully accepting it.  Did you worry about how this would come across (it’s works very well, in my opinion)?

RFB:  One of the things I really like playing with in fiction is casting the supernatural as natural; so in Closer Still Rachel simply accepts that Katie is a ghost and has the usual curiosity about what being dead really feels like.

I’m fascinated by the idea that quite often “stuff” is out in the open and we just don’t know it because we don’t really know to notice it. That idea that the best place to hide things is in plain view. I often wonder what is behind the small door that you walk past every day, why the windows of that house are boarded up.

It’s a subject I’ve come back to with my recent novel The Living and The Lost - where again it starts from the basis that ghosts are a simple fact of life (I do like ghost stories!) and runs with it from there.

I don’t think I really worried about how it would come across, because my idea was that either you’re able to suspend disbelief for the duration of the story or you’re probably reading the wrong genre. Interestingly, I heard Joe Hill talk recently and he said his approach was that if the story had anything unusual or difficult to digest, get it out at the very start because the readers will be more accepting of it.

MW:   Obvious question but I’m intrigued - have you ever had a supernatural experience?

RFB:  I haven’t had a supernatural experience. The closest I’ve come to was going into St Mary’s Close in Edinburgh and having a ghost tour in the semi-darkness. By the end of the tour I was living on the edge of my nerves – the place was genuinely eerie. I found myself at the very back of the group and constantly looking over my shoulder into the darkness. Did I see anything moving behind me? I don’t think so, but I realised that if anyone had put a hand on my shoulder I would have screamed loud enough to wake the dead.

MW:   I loved the school location and found it reminded me a lot of my own.  But since you & I left full-time education during the 80s, how much research did you have to do?

RFB:  Thank you! I’ll confess I didn’t do any research. The school is based on my memories of the schools I attended back in the 80s. In many respects I have an awful memory, but I seem to have a knack for remembering places.  Just the other week I was discussing this with someone and saying I think if I went back to my secondary school now, and if it hadn’t changed, I think I could walk around the site without getting lost. If I close my eyes now I can see whole sections of the corridors. But if you asked me to name who was in my class or almost anything about Chemistry then I wouldn’t have a clue.

MW:   Rachel carries the novella and I found her to exceptionally well realised.  Was writing from her pov (bearing in mind you’re neither female or in your teens) ever daunting?

RFB:  It was definitely a challenge to write a main character where the age and gender were so far removed from my own – and therefore the life experiences and attitudes would be different. It was a deliberate decision to write a piece of fiction from a view point other than middle-aged-white-man. I’m not sure how well it reflects true life, but I tried to tap into that the sense of being an outsider. The feelings of injustice and guilt Rachel is dealing with are relatable to all of us.


You can find Richard online at Twitter here

A Christmas Gift, an interview with Sue Moorcroft

Regular readers of the blog will know Sue Moorcroft and I have been friends for a while, having met at the Kettering Writers Group in 1999 (the group leader was of a more literary bent, so we genre writers were consigned to the back of the room and had great fun).  Since then she's gone from strength to strength, hitting number one in the Kindle Bestseller charts (with The Christmas Promise) and also becoming a Sunday Times Best Seller in the process.  With her latest Christmas novel, A Christmas Gift, now out in ebook (and appearing in hardback on November 1st), I thought it was time to sit down for another chat with her at our regular haunt, The Trading Post.

Georgine loves Christmas. The festive season always brings the little village of Middledip to life. But since her ex-boyfriend walked out, leaving her with crippling debts, Georgine’s struggled to make ends meet.

To keep her mind off her worries, she throws herself into organising the Christmas show at the local school. And when handsome Joe Blackthorn becomes her assistant, Georgine’s grateful for the help. But there’s something about Joe she can’t quite put her finger on. Could there be more to him than meets the eye?

Georgine’s past is going to catch up with her in ways she never expected. But can the help of friends new and old make this a Christmas to remember after all?

Curl up with the gorgeous new book from the Sunday Times bestseller, perfect for fans of Carole Matthews and Trisha Ashley.

MW:   A major theme of A Christmas Gift is poverty and neglect.  The heroine, Georgine, grew up comfortably off but now finds her situation completely opposite.  Joe, the hero, suffered a poor childhood but has now enjoyed a “rags to riches” experience.  Why did you decide to write about this?

SM:   A member of my family works in a school for children with special needs and as he talked to me about social problems faced by the students, I began to think of someone I went to school with myself. Looking back, armed with a little more knowledge, I began to see him in a very different light and feel ashamed that I’d missed it at the time. He isn’t Joe Blackthorn, the hero of A Christmas Gift, but Joe Blackthorn grew out of my reflections on the past. I think Georgine evolved simply out of wanting the greatest possible contrast to Joe’s story. She was the comfortably off kid at school who was his friend. Not all of them were.

MW:   What kind of research did you do?

SM:   I talked to people who work in that field - very generally, of course. None of them would dream of discussing specific people with me. And I talked to someone else I’d been to school with, who knew more about my old school connection than I did. It increased my respect for those who work with children who need help.

Sue & I at the Corby Cube, October 2018, for the Author Q&A (which I wrote about here)

MW:   Now a very successful writer, what was your favourite full-time job?

SM:   I only ever had one. I worked as a secretary in a bank for nine years after I left college. I had a lot to do with the lending team and gained a clear understanding of what a far-reaching and emotive subject money is.

MW:   What was the least favourite job you’ve ever had?

SM:   Doing the books for a family member. I know I used to work in a bank but I hated bookkeeping, especially when something didn’t balance that should have. When my kids were young I did a few part-time jobs so I could be there for them but earn some money. Also, it allowed me time to write.

MW:   What does money mean to you?

SM:   Interesting question. I don’t think I’m a greedy person and I think I’m quite generous too. I’m OK for money now but I have been in situations where lack of money was a problem and it’s really uncomfortable. Luckily, I’m a good money manager so all was never lost but to have to watch the pennies wasn’t fun. I never went hungry or homeless though, so I count myself lucky.  And although money does make life more comfortable there are many things I think far more important - like love, people, kindness and time.

MW:   How did you research Acting Instrumental, the educational establishment featured in the book?

SM:   Partly through the family member, partly through a head of drama, Alex, who not only advised, and answered questions, but read the entire manuscript and told me where I’d gone wrong. The starting point was learning about vocational further education colleges that have sprung up now kids are expected to stay in some form of education till the age of 18. I have another old schoolfriend who is a professional singer, Jacqueline Barron, and she knew a lot about the subject and pointed me in the right direction to gain some idea of the facilities Acting Instrumental would need. I also closely studied the website of a local college with a vibrant performing arts programme.

Sue with me and Wayne Parkin, FantasyCon 2015 at Nottingham

MW:   I note from the acknowledgements the input our mutual friend Wayne Parkin had with researching the play within the book.  How enjoyable did you find that?

SM:   Very! Wayne was hugely enthusiastic about the project from the first, and introduced me to Alex, in fact. Wayne and I used to meet up for evenings talking about what form the show in A Christmas Gift could take, working out the timeline and weaving it through the book. He tended to leap up and act out his words, which got us some interested glances. If there was anything he was unsure about he knew where to look for the information and pass it on to me.

MW:   Thanks Sue, it's been a treat as always.  Congratulations again on your first hardback edition and good luck with the book!

SM:   Thanks for inviting me onto your blog, Mark. It’s always a pleasure to chat with you, either in reality or virtually.

Sue Moorcroft is a Sunday Times and international bestselling author and has reached the coveted #1 spot on Amazon Kindle. She’s won the Readers’ Best Romantic Novel award and the Katie Fforde Bursary, and has been nominated for several other awards, including the Romantic Novel of the Year Awards.

Website: www.suemoorcroft.com
Blog: https://suemoorcroft.wordpress.com/ 
Facebook: sue.moorcroft.3
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/SueMoorcroftAuthor
Twitter: @suemoorcroft
Instagram: suemoorcroftauthor
Google+: google.com/+Suemoorcroftauthor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suemoorcroft
Amazon author page: Author.to/SueMoorcroft

Sue Moorcroft: One Summer In Italy

Regular readers of the blog will know I’ve been friends with Sue Moorcroft since 1999 after meeting her at Kettering Writers Group.  As genre writers (the group leader had more of a literary persuasion), we were sat towards the back of the room and had great fun, especially since we were the only ones publishing regularly.  Since then, she's gone from strength to strength and I've been fortunate to interview her several times on the blog (you can read them here, here, here, here and here).  Her latest novel, One Summer In Italy (the second in her three-book deal with Avon Books), was published last week and I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially since having read it during the winter months (to critique), it was a real treat to escape into Sofia's Italian adventure.  Sue & I took some time at one of our regular Trading Post meet-ups to have a chat about this wonderful new book...

When Sofia Bianchi’s father Aldo dies, it makes her stop and look at things afresh. Having been his carer for so many years, she knows it’s time for her to live her own life – and to fulfil some promises she made to Aldo in his final days.

So there’s nothing for it but to escape to Italy’s Umbrian mountains where, tucked away in a sleepy Italian village, lie plenty of family secrets waiting to be discovered. There, Sofia also finds Amy who is desperately trying to find her way in life after discovering her dad isn’t her biological father.

Sofia sets about helping Amy through this difficult time, but it’s the handsome Levi who proves to be the biggest distraction for Sofia, as her new life starts to take off…

MW:   Thanks for agreeing to the interview.  A lot of action in One Summer in Italy takes place in Il Giardino, the café in front the hotel Casa Felice. If you were sitting at Il Giardino, enjoying the twilight, what would be your choice on the menu?

SM:   As I created it, I’ve been able to fill the menu up with all my favourite goodies and since there are no calories on ‘my’ menu I’d begin with Pizza Margarita — I love the basic pizza and rarely order one with additions. I’d follow up with gelato cioccolato (chocolate ice-cream). I’d also want a couple of large glasses of Orvieto Classico, an Umbrian wine that I’ve developed a real taste for. It’s especially good when drunk in Italy, of course.

I wouldn’t want to be served by Davide, because I don’t like the way he behaves with young female staff members. He’s protected by his status as son of the owner, Benedetta, but I’d express my disapproval of him by asking for Sofia or Amy to serve me instead.

MW:   So as a big F1 fan, would you make the trip to Imola to enjoy the race?

SM:   That would be awesome! I’d love to be on the start-finish straight and have the commentary (in English) on my headphones.

To be honest, I have borrowed a lot of names from F1 in the book. Sofia’s surname is Bianchi as a tribute to the late Jules Bianchi; Uncle Gianni and Benedetta Morbidelli come from Gianni Morbidelli; Freya’s maiden name is Williams as a nod to Williams Grand Prix; Amy’s surname is Webber for retired driver Mark Webber. Even Davide comes from Davide Valsecchi, who only made it as far as test and reserve driver in F1 but is now a commentator for Sky Italia. I should say, giving a name to a likeable or unlikeable character is not based on whether I like the F1 personality involved.

MW:   Levi Gunn is riding across Europe to get to Montelibertà. Is that something you’d like to do?

SM:   It’s something I’d certainly like to have done in the past. I used to work for Motor Cycle News in a part time capacity and members of the editorial staff often seemed to ride off to cover a European race. The nearest I got was to be sitting on the dock in Dover, a young mum in a sensible car, while a group of bikers whizzed up and down the dock looking cool (and probably getting on the nerves of other passengers.)

The terrace at Arte Umbria, complete with Sue's laptop

MW:   Levi’s hobby is painting water colours.  Where did that come from?  Do you indulge?

SM:   I did at one time think my career would lie in art, but I didn’t make the grade. I just wanted Levi to paint the view from the terrace at Arte Umbria where I head up writing retreats. I wrote nearly a quarter of the first draft there last year and it was wonderful to be gazing at the view he was painting.

Levi’s a website developer in his day job, which is a painstaking occupation. I wanted to give him a chance to do something more free-flowing as a hobby. It also gave him an excuse to be in Montelibertà, because he needs one.

MW:   How much do you identify with Sofia, with her taking a gap year (or two)?  Would you have liked to do that, take off and explore Europe?

SM:   Yes, I would. When I left college the gap year concept hadn’t really taken hold but I’m sure I would have loved it. I feel she was particularly due some ‘me time’ so gave her two years.

MW:   What leads Sofia into this?

SM:   She’s had a close relationship with her Italian father, Aldo. He looked after for half of her life and then she looked after him for the other, as his heart failed him. He asks six promises of her for when he’s gone - and one is to visit Montelibertà, where he was brought up. She’s to lay flowers for his parents and to say sorry to his brother, Gianni. As she doesn’t know what she’s apologising for, the latter gets a bit dicey.

Having chatted to seasonal workers at Arte Umbria over the years I thought it would be great for her to work in Il Giardino, as she’s been stuck indoors with Aldo for so much of her time. Unfortunately, her employer, Benedetta, has her own ideas where Sofia will be most use.

MW:   In typical fashion, you address a serious topic with the novel, in this case homelessness.  I liked that Amy, one of the lead characters, collects McDonald’s free drinks stickers to give to the homeless.

SM:   I do this myself. The gym I attend is next door to a McDonald’s, and I often have a cup of tea before or after a class. Each hot drink cup has a card to tear off, and a coffee bean sticker. When you’ve filled a card with beans (six) you can go into a McDonald’s and exchange it for a regular-sized hot drink. Rather than take advantage of it myself I often give these completed cards to street people so they can get a cuppa next time they’re near a McDonald’s.

Unlike Amy, I don’t go so far as to go through the recycling bin in search of coffee beans that others have left behind!

MW:   Did your research (or your stay at Arte Umbria) inspire you to research the local wine?

SM:   I’d been to a vineyard a couple of times when I’d visited Arte Umbria. Last year they were organising a trip to a vineyard I hadn’t visited so I joined the party. Stefano, our guide and one of the owners of the winery, answered several of my questions about Italian wine in general and Orvieto Classico in particular. It’s because of him that Sofia knows about different nationalities having different palates and that white wine shouldn’t actually be served cold. (This has not stopped me drinking white wine cold because that’s how I like it.)

MW:   Levi runs the Moron Forum.  As we’re both seasoned social media users, where did you find the inspiration for this forum?

SM:   My son. We were discussing discussion forums and, to illustrate a point about keyboard warriors he began a sentence with, ‘If I owned, say, The Moron Forum …’ I thought it was a real thing. When I discovered he’d just said it off the top of his head I asked if I could use the name. It’s a satirical and humorous forum that has earned Levi, the hero, quite a bit of money. I needed help with research and my own web guy, Neil Hesman of The Village Websmith, was kind enough to give me the information I needed. It’s one of those cases where I needed to do a lot of research but not that much of it shows in the book.

MW:   Last summer’s book, Just for the Holidays, is based in Alsace; One Summer In Italy is in Italy, where would you like to go - in a literary fashion - next?

SM:    The jury’s out. I keep thinking of Greece, but I think my next summer book is going to take place in a tiny village on the coast of Norfolk. It’s ages since my characters spent a summer in England.

Thanks for inviting me onto your blog, Mark. As ever, it has been a pleasure.


Sue Moorcroft is a Sunday Times and international bestselling author and has reached the coveted #1 spot on Amazon Kindle. She’s won the Readers’ Best Romantic Novel award and the Katie Fforde Bursary, and has been nominated for several other awards, including the Romantic Novel of the Year Awards.

Her short stories, serials, columns, writing ‘how to’ and courses have appeared around the world.



Website: www.suemoorcroft.com
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The Little Village Christmas, an interview with Sue Moorcroft

As regular readers of the blog will know, I’ve been friends with Sue Moorcroft since 1999 when I first joined Kettering Writers Group and, as a genre writer (the group leader had more of a literary persuasion), I was sat at the back with her and we had great fun (we were the only ones publishing regularly).  Since then, she's gone from strength to strength and I've been fortunate to interview her several times on the blog (which you can read  here, here, here and here).  Tomorrow sees the paperback launch of her latest novel The Little Village Christmas (the first in her new three-book deal with Avon Books) and I loved it, partly because it's a great story well told but also because it revisits her fictional village of Middledip.  With that in mind, Sue & I took some time to sit down for a Publication Day Eve interview…

MW:  Thanks for sitting down with me, Sue, on the eve of the paperback publication.  The ebook was launched on 9th October, how does it feel having two launches?

SM: Getting the ebook out a month or so before the paperback and audio is something I’ve encountered before. It allows reviews to be posted, which helps the sales team sell the paperback into retailers (if the reviews are good). This time there’s only four weeks between ebook and paperback releases but it was about eight for The Christmas Promise, last year, when it did seem as if the paperback release took a long time to come around.

Generally, I feel having two launches is fine as it provides two opportunities for publication-day promotion. It does eat up twice as much time though.

My last book, Just for the Holidays, was released in ebook, paperback and audio on the same day. It seems as if summer books and Christmas books have different selling patterns.

MW:  Does the staggered launch affect your promotional activities for the book?

SM: Yes. We keep things like radio interviews back for the paperback. Presenters are sent a copy ahead of time and, if I’m lucky, read some of the book and have it in front of them on the day. I quite often work with different people at my publisher’s too – the digital media manager for the ebook and the publicist for the paperback. We aim a lot of digital stuff, like Twitter chats, at the ebook. For The Little Village Christmas the blog tour has been put together to cover both ebook and paperback/audio, which is great.

MW:  Since this is your third Avon novel, are you finding the promotional process any easier?

SM: I’m not sure whether ‘easier’ is the correct term. I enjoy promo, so long as I have time to do it. I’m spending a couple of days on writing interviews such as this one, messing around with YouTube videos, going on the radio and making a few graphics for social media. Then there’s a competition for those who read my newsletter, one for Twitter and one for my street team, Team Sue Moorcroft.

A Street Team meet up in Birmingham, October 2017

MW:  How does your street team fit into this?

SM: I feel privileged to have a street team. Simply put, a street team is made up of people who like someone’s work so much that they’re willing to tell others about it. A reader suggested it to me. At the time, I felt that only big American authors had street teams, but I cautiously dipped a toe in the water and people were kind enough to join. It’s run through a closed Facebook group where I can post news and gossip and ask people to share my social media posts. I’m doubly fortunate that some members of my street team are book bloggers and so they have a good reach with the reading public.

There’s more information about Team Sue Moorcroft on my website.

MW:  This is your second Christmas novel (following last year’s Number One Bestseller The Christmas Promise, which I wrote about here), do you feel any better about the festive period now?

SM: Yes! It’s amazing how having a bestselling Christmas book has changed my view of the season. Also, it warms my heart to see books being given as gifts, and Christmas books for Christmas gifts are popular, so I had a fair number of reviews coming through in January and February as The Christmas Promise made it to the top of people’s ‘to be read’ piles.

MW:  Do you find it difficult writing a winter novel during spring and summer?

SM: Not terribly so. Having written for magazines with six-month lead-ins for some years I did get used to writing my Christmas stories in June and summer stories in December. Writers have to have good imaginations – I don’t expect you ever did research with real demons or ghosts when writing about them! Writers adapt.

Having said all that, this summer I was able to write part of One Summer in Italy while in Italy and I did find it extremely helpful in putting over atmosphere. My agent and editor have both commented on how easily they were able to ‘put themselves there’.

Sue with her agent, Juliet Pickering

MW:  I liked The Little Village Christmas a great deal, as I mentioned before, not only because it’s a cracking story but also because it revisits Middledip.  How was that for you?

SM: Oh, now, that was lovely. I visited ‘my’ village for a chapter or two in The Christmas Promise and it made me hungry to get back there for a whole book, hence The Little Village Christmas. (My books are all stand-alone but several of them are set in Middledip.) I found that quite a few things had changed in my absence. Gwen’s no longer at the shop (although Tubb is still at the pub) and a couple of continuing minor characters had seen changes in their lives.

MW:  Was it good fun involving characters from previous novels?  They aren’t used as in-jokes (they are integral to the story) but for longtime readers like myself, there was a nice resonance to seeing them in the pub.

SM: Yes, definitely. In particular, The Little Village Christmas has provided me with the opportunity of learning more about Carola, who’s head of the village hall committee and is always trying to involve people in community projects. She entered the book when things weren’t going well for her and it took her a long time to admit the truth to Alexia. Alexia’s a bit of a reluctant heroine, as she’s about to leave the village when the book starts, and it’s ties to villagers like Carola that make it hard to actually make the break. The project Alexia’s working on, transforming The Angel pub into The Angel Community Café, goes very wrong when someone runs away with all the money so she feels she has to mount a rescue mission too.

Gabe and his pony, Snobby, also play strong supporting roles. I always enjoyed Gabe. He’s a bank manager who’s never cut his hair since he left the bank and lives peaceably on his little plot of land with his cats and chickens. Gabe’s the uncle of my hero, Ben Hardaker. Ben’s a woodsman who’s come to live only on the very fringes of the little village of Middledip and he fits into Gabe’s family a treat. He describes himself as ‘an oddball having a bad day’. He’s really trying to move on when he meets Alexia and for a while it looks as if she’s just what he needs … but life’s never that easy. He finds himself drawn into Alexia’s problems no matter how hard he resists.

Sue (2nd from right) at FantasyCon in Peterborough, September 2017 (with me, Lisa Childs and Peter Mark May)

MW:  I’ve timed the interview now because I’ve yet to make the transition to Kindle and I know you’re a keen e-reader.  Do you ever read paperbacks these days?

SM: Definitely, and hardbacks too. I’m reading the new book by F1 World Champion Jenson Button at the moment, and that’s in hardback. (I wonder whether he’s reading The Little Village Christmas?) I still have several hundred paperbacks and hardbacks and rarely find rereading a hardship. I have to be honest and say that I find an e-reader easier to handle, though, as I have a nerve problem in my left arm and an e-reader can be held in one hand.

MW:  So, what’s next?

SM: I have structural edits to tweak on One Summer in Italy, but at the same time I’m planning my next Christmas book. I don’t have a title for it yet but I do know it’s going to be set in London as well as in Middledip and that it will be about Joe, who’s gone from rags to riches, and Georgie, who’s gone from riches to rags. At the moment I’m just bringing together background information but I’m really looking forward to getting into it because this is the book that’s been hammering at the back of my mind while I was writing One Summer in Italy. At least this means that I’m planning a Christmas book in the run up to Christmas, and I have the promo for The Little Village Christmas, of course!

Thanks for inviting me over, Mark. As always, I’ve enjoyed our chat.


Best-selling and award-winning author Sue Moorcroft writes contemporary women’s fiction with occasionally unexpected themes. A past vice chair of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and editor of its two anthologies, Sue also writes short stories, serials, articles, writing ‘how to’ and is a creative writing tutor. She’s won a Readers’ Best Romantic Read Award and the Katie Fforde Bursary.



Website: www.suemoorcroft.com
Blog: https://suemoorcroft.wordpress.com/ 
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Just For The Holidays - an interview with Sue Moorcroft

As regular readers of the blog will know, I’ve been friends with Sue Moorcroft for a while (we met in 1999 when I joined the Kettering Writers Group) and it’s been my pleasure to interview her several times (you can read them here, here and here).  Last year, as part of her 2-book deal with Avon, she published The Christmas Promise (I wrote about the launch here) which became a Number One Amazon Bestseller (and none of this sub-category business for Sue, this was in the general chart) and I was really chuffed and proud of her.

Just For The Holidays is her second Avon novel and it was published last Thursday.  A summer tale, set in France and England and featuring the holiday from hell, it’s an excellent read and I would highly recommend it.

Sue’s a great Con-buddy (most of my UK horror writing chums will have met her at FantasyCon or Edge-Lit) and to help celebrate her latest publication, she & I sat down at The Trading Post to have a chat.

MW:  So how did you end up coming along to FantasyCon (her first one was WFC in Brighton, in 2013)?

SM:  At the time, I was teaching creative writing a lot more than I am now. I was invited to the Historical Novel Society conference and I not only enjoyed it but found it helpful when working with students writing books set in the past. You’d always seemed to enjoy FCon so I thought I’d repeat the experiment for the speculative genres. I hadn’t anticipated enjoying it quite so much!

MW:  What was your impression of the horror genre and those people you met in it?

SM:  Very friendly. This was perhaps covered by you knowing just about everyone there (it seemed like) but I was made welcome. I was also bowled over by the creativity but I suppose those who write in the speculative genres need to be highly imaginative. I enjoyed the general wit and humour, and the support people exhibited for one another. I know the horror genre has had its fair share of friction and commotion on Facebook but, from my experience, it hadn’t transferred to the conference.

At FantasyCon York, 2014 (which I wrote about here)
I am at the bottom of the pic in the centre and from left; Steven Chapman, Neil Williams, Sue, Stephen Bacon, John Travis, Terry Grimwood, James Everington, Steve Harris

MW:  I always think it’s nice to see how people who don’t normally read in your genre have embraced you and what you write.

SM:  I agree! There are a few who give me cautious smiles as if to say ‘What are you doing here?’ but with no ill will. Well … I do always feel I’m a handicap when it comes to CurryCon. I love curry but it’s spiteful towards me and I feel guilty when people change their choice of restaurant to accommodate that.

MW:  What do you enjoy about conferences and conventions?  Any tips for people who’ve always wanted to go to one but never plucked up the courage?

SM:  I love being with other writers. It’s like finding your tribe. You can talk and be understood. For example, I don’t find myself trying to put over what I do to promote a book on Twitter to someone who doesn’t read, write or tweet. When I attend the talks and panels of others I’m always interested, always prepared to expand my knowledge.

Sue’s con tips: 

• If you’re not keen on going into big gatherings of people you don’t know, try and make friends on social media with people who are likely to attend. That way, you have reason to go up and shake hands (everyone wears name badges). Better yet, speak to them on social media and tell them you’re new and they’ll probably agree to meet you and introduce you to others. It’s only a tiny barrier and you’re soon over it.
• Take money, especially if you like alcohol.
• Wear comfy shoes. (The first year I was to attend FantasyCon I asked on Facebook what the shoe code would be. This would have been a valid question at a lot of conferences I’ve been to but was met with ‘Um, wear some?’)
• Take more money, for books.
• Just kick back and enjoy it.

MW:  Back when we were in Kettering Writers, we hatched this plan to swap genres for one story.  Did you still fancy doing that?

SM:  It didn’t work well, did it? We each got half way through a story and lost interest. I did find my story recently and I enjoyed what I’d written but realised it was going nowhere. I wasn’t interested enough in the genre to have that light bulb moment so I’ll probably file this idea under ‘too busy’, if you don’t mind!

MW:  Your new book, Just For The Holidays, came out last Thursday and, as you know, I love it.  Where did the idea come from?

SM:  Thank you! A friend told me about her holiday from hell. I immediately asked to be allowed to use the premise of a single woman being roped in to help her newly separated sister on a family holiday. It was a couple of years before the idea came to the top of my pile but then I just had to focus the vague premise and make it work. Luckily for me, there were several conflicts – Leah’s single and husbandless by choice yet she ends up looking after her sister’s children and husband. She barely speaks French and she’s in France. The sister, Michele, though her marriage is over, is not only pregnant but experiencing health problems. Alister, the husband from whom Michele is estranged is hurt. The children are distraught. Alister asks to be allowed to come on the holiday as he paid for the gîte before the split and he and the children are unhappy apart. Leah tries to bail but Michele doesn’t let her … That’s enough material for any novelist, I think!

Sue at Sywell Airfield

MW:  How enjoyable was the research?

SM:  Very. I not only spent four days with a friend who lives in Alsace but was taken up in a helicopter, which the pilot pretended to crash (more properly known as autorotation). It was awesome. NB There is a forced landing in the book – he didn’t just show me the autorotation manoeuvre on whim.

MW:  Did you find the process different from writing The Christmas Promise?

SM:  The actual process of writing? Not really. I’d been on a course run by Robert McKee, the screenwriter, just before I planned Just for the Holidays so I probably paid more attention to questions such as what the characters want consciously and whether it’s different to what they want subconsciously. (I find the best answer to this is ‘yes, it is different’.) I wasn’t pushed for time when I wrote Just for the Holidays. Now that my publishing schedule has tightened up I am taking more risks with the first draft and have adopted the ‘write quickly, edit slowly’ approach.

MW:  How did it feel hitting the top of the chart and becoming a genuine Amazon Best seller?

SM:  Wow. It was truly amazing. I’d been euphoric enough when The Christmas Promise entered the top ten. When it got into the top three …! It stayed at either #2 or #3 for quite some time but when I finally saw it at #1 I had trouble believing my eyes. I literally screamed. I broke into a sweat, I began to shake, I cried (tears of joy, of course!). And then I went onto Twitter to tell everyone. My editor had beaten me to it so we had a joyfest. Others came on to congratulate me, I texted my agent. And after a while I remembered to tell my family. It stayed at #1 for about five days in the week before Christmas and it definitely made me like Christmas more than usual.

At FantasyCon Nottingham, 2015 (which I wrote about here)
from left; Stephen Bacon, Steve Harris, Sue, me, Neil Williams

MW:  Does the success of The Christmas Promise set up an expectation for you, with regards to Just For The Holidays?

SM:  Yes, there is that. But you can look at things in two ways. Negatively: ‘Wow, I’ll never do that again. We’ll never beat that. Nothing can ever live up to it.’ Or positively: ‘It might happen again! We have the last success to build upon! Amazon has the contact details of everybody who bought The Christmas Promise so can send them all emails about Just for the Holidays!’ I choose to be positive but I’m a realist so I know I can’t take a single thing for granted.

What both The Christmas Promise and Just for the Holidays did was set up was a great working relationship with Avon Books UK.

MW:  So what’s next for you?

SM:  I’ve sent in Give Me Till Christmas to my editor, which is scheduled for publication for Christmas this year. And I’ve begun (just) my summer 2018 book, provisionally entitled The Summer of Finding Out. Those two books are the first of a new three-book deal – and I’ve just signed the contract!

MW:  Congratulations on the new contract and, as I've just read it to critique, I can say I was very impressed with Give Me Till Christmas and I'm sure your fans will love it!

Just For The Holidays 

is published by Avon Books UK, HarperCollins

The #1 bestselling author returns for summer! Grab your sun hat, a cool glass of wine, and the only book you need on holiday…

In theory, nothing could be better than a summer spent basking in the French sun. That is, until you add in three teenagers, two love interests, one divorcing couple, and a very unexpected pregnancy.

Admittedly, this isn’t exactly the relaxing holiday Leah Beaumont was hoping for – but it’s the one she’s got. With her sister Michele’s family falling apart at the seams, it’s up to Leah to pick up the pieces and try to hold them all together.

But with a handsome helicopter pilot staying next door, Leah can’t help but think she might have a few distractions of her own to deal with…

A glorious summer read, for you to devour in one sitting - perfect for fans of Katie Fforde, Carole Matthews and Trisha Ashley.

Website: www.suemoorcroft.com
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