I am delighted that ELIZABETH HAYNES is my Author in the Spotlight today for her Blog Tour. Never Alone is being published by Myriad Editions in e-book on 28 July 2016.
Your latest novel Never Alone is a psychological thriller and a return to your ‘writing roots’. You began in this genre, with Into the Darkest Corner, Revenge of the Tide and Human Remains, before embarking on your police procedural series featuring DI Louisa Smith. Why the move back to the psychological thriller genre? And why now?
I haven't abandoned Louisa completely! I wrote the first
draft of the next series book in November, so I have the Briarstone team in a
holding pattern waiting for their latest case to be revealed.
Never Alone is one
of those books that demanded to be written, and I need to vary what I'm writing
in order to keep things fresh. The plot is linear which makes a change after
the last few books – all the tension is in the setting, the characters, and the
weather. It feels claustrophobic as a result, which I found thrilling to write.
Never Alone is
described as a ‘gripping thriller that crosses the line between erotica and
crime fiction’. How much more ‘sexually graphic’ is this latest novel than your
previous ones?
I don't think it's more graphic than my other books. Let's
face it, I've written about someone being turned on by decomposition before
now; that was pretty grim. I like to think that the sex scenes in Never Alone
are less traumatic and perhaps more erotic and sensual than in my previous
books. I like writing strong women who are confident about making choices, even
when others find those choices difficult to accept. For me, arousal happens in
the mind before it becomes a physical response, and let's just say that sexual
fulfilment is a subject that one of my characters specialises in… So – it's not
more graphic, but there is certainly plenty of it! Brace yourselves.
You’ve covered many dark, chilling and disturbing themes in
your books so far. Is anything off limits? Does anything make you
uncomfortable? Is there any particular topic that you wouldn’t write about?
I find it very difficult to write about cruelty towards
vulnerable people, and animals. I struggle to read books with this as a theme –
and bullying, for instance – so I avoid writing them too. It might seem strange that I can write about
violence and murder which, of course, is the ultimate cruelty; but there is a
definite line that I can't bring myself to cross. Perhaps it's too close to
home?
What’s the most interesting place that you have visited when
researching one of your novels? And what’s the strangest?
I am slightly sidestepping the question here, but, like many
people, I spend a shocking amount of time procrastinating on property websites.
A couple of years ago we were considering moving house, and I began joyously
and legitimately researching properties around the UK.
One of these properties was a farmhouse in North Yorkshire.
It had an open-sided barn, and an outbuilding that had once been a piggery,
then a workshop, and had potential to be a single-storey annexe 'ideal for a
dependent relative, or as a holiday let'. The house was hunkered down near the
summit of a hill, with no near neighbours, and nothing but a few stunted trees
to protect it from the wind tearing up the valley.
I found myself wondering what it must be like to live up
there all alone in the winter when the snow was falling, and from there it was a
short step to imagine Sarah Carpenter, and that someone might be out there in
the snow, watching.
I have to say writing Never
Alone put me right off big hills; we ended up moving to Norfolk instead.
(The house in Yorkshire sold before we had a chance to put ours on the market;
perhaps that was for the best.)
You’re a champion of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing
Month) and have participated for the last 10 years. How do you believe
NaNoWriMo benefits you, as an established author rather than an aspiring one?
I still take part in NaNoWriMo every year and I find it very
difficult to write at any other time of the year. I'm not sure if it's the
deadline, or the exhilaration of writing alongside hundreds of thousands of
others, or that it's just terrific fun; there is something magical and joyous
about the process. It's not easy, there are invariably moments of doubt and
panic, but you have to push through these and it's always worth it in the end.
The weight of expectation that comes with being a published
novelist is a bit overwhelming at times. The only way I can get over it is to
pretend that nobody's going to read my story; that I'm writing it for my own
entertainment, to unravel the mystery and uncover the secrets that I've buried.
Of course, what I end up with is not ready to share anyway. After writing at
speed I am left with something dishevelled, full of plot tangles and threads that
lead nowhere, grubby, a bit raw, and yet beautiful. The rest of the year is
spent untangling, ironing and smoothing. That bit is hard work.
Looking back to your teenage years, what advice would you
give your younger self?
It's not a good idea to buy that wardrobe on castors for 2p
at the end of the Annecy Primary School jumble sale. You will think it's a
bright idea to use it to wheel the box of books you've bought the three miles
uphill back home, but actually one of the wheels is going to fall off halfway
up Southdown Road, and you will have to abandon the books, and the wardrobe, to
walk home and alert your mum, and she will be more furious than you can
possibly imagine.
But you were right to buy the books.
In 1987, when you're sixteen, a book called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan
Jeffers will be published. Don't wait until you're 28 to read it.
If you were writing a book about your own life, what would
the title be?
Felt The Fear For Years: Did it Eventually
What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
Writing is something done, often, by people in privacy. It's
a self-indulgent hobby. Because relatively few authors are traditionally
published, it can feel pointless – that publication is something that happens
to 'other people' – and this becomes a stumbling block that often stops writers
from continuing.
To this I say: write. I'm giving you permission to do it, to
take yourself seriously. Write at every opportunity. Don't listen to the voice
that tells you it's pointless; shout back that it doesn’t matter, you're going
to do it anyway. Write for fun; write because you have a plot that's burning in
your heart, because you have characters begging you to tell their story. And
finish it! When you've done that, the world of publishing in its many forms
opens up before you… if that's what you want.
You can do it. I believe in you.
And lastly, why should people read Never Alone?
It made me scared while I was writing it – surely that's a
good sign?
About Elizabeth Haynes
Elizabeth
Haynes is a former police intelligence analyst who lives in Norfolk with her
husband and son. Her first novel, Into the Darkest Corner, was Amazon’s Best
Book of the Year 2011 and is a New York Times bestseller. It has been published
in thirty-seven countries. Her second novel, Revenge of the Tide, was published
by Myriad in 2012 and her third, Human Remains, was published in 2013. She is
also the author of two police procedural crime novels, Under a Silent Moon and Behind Closed Doors (Sphere).
Find out more about Elizabeth on her Facebook page and website and follow Elizabeth on Twitter - @Elizjhaynes
Never Alone
By Elizabeth Haynes
Published by Myriad Editions (28 July 2016)
ISBN: 978-1908434968
Publisher's description
Sarah
Carpenter lives in an isolated farmhouse in North Yorkshire and for the first
time, after the death of her husband some years ago and her children, Louis and
Kitty, leaving for university, she’s living alone. But she doesn’t consider
herself lonely. She has two dogs, a wide network of friends and the support of
her best friend, Sophie.
When an old
acquaintance, Aiden Beck, needs somewhere to stay for a while, Sarah’s cottage
seems ideal; and renewing her relationship with Aiden gives her a reason to
smile again. It’s supposed to be temporary, but not everyone is comfortable
with the arrangement: her children are wary of his motives, and Will Brewer, an
old friend of her son’s, seems to have taken it upon himself to check up on
Sarah at every opportunity. Even Sophie has grown remote and distant.
After
Sophie disappears, it’s clear she hasn’t been entirely honest with anyone,
including Will, who seems more concerned for Sarah’s safety than anyone else.
As the weather closes in, events take a dramatic turn and Kitty too goes
missing. Suddenly Sarah finds herself in terrible danger, unsure of who she can
still trust.
But she
isn’t facing this alone; she has Aiden, and Aiden offers the protection that
Sarah needs. Doesn’t he?
