Louise Candlish on Secrets, Suspense & Surviving Two Decades in Crime Fiction.

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello, everybuddy, and do we have a great guest for
you tonight? Yes, we do, that is the answer to that.
And I am also blurry, so I hate this new camera.
I'm sorry. I will get that fixed. We had a
great weekend recently at the Harrogate Crime Writers Festival. We're
going to talk to you all about that before we
get a guest on. And hopefully you've seen some of
the videos popping around and we're going to fill you
in on those videos. But first of all, we check

(00:33):
in for the week. So after a big weekend, Chris,
how are you doing this week?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, I'm good. I really enjoyed the I Get Crime
Writers Festival. If people haven't been watching this, you definitely
need to get yourself there at some point. It's such
a unique festival. Obviously, all your favorite crime writers are
there just mingling with people. You can go up to them,
you can have a chat, you can get books signed,
and it's such a beautiful part of the world as well,

(01:00):
so many things for you to do. And I think
my body weight in kebabs you did well. Yeah, it's brilliant.
It's you know, if you're into crime picture or even
if you're not, even if you just love reading and
everyone's smiley happy, it's like the highlight of the year.
We spoke to Mark Billingham on his twenty fifth anniversary

(01:21):
of twenty five best sellers and he said it's the
first thing that he puts in his calendar every single year.
So you know, if you've not been, you need to go.
If you've not checked out the videos yet, go back
and have a little look at them, because we've got
some great interviews in that.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, definitely, And I'm wearing a T shirt Peter James,
the Hawk that died. This T shirt was the permitman
and T shirt they were wearing and they gave us
one to promote his new book. We spoke to some
amazing people. We have some great times. We invented some
great games, Chris that we won't talk about here. Maybe

(01:56):
in the after party we will indeed do that. And
also the amazing press pass is that we get given
for the Harrogate crimer at As Festival, which is is wonderful
to get because you know, it gives us access to everywhere.
As Chris said, Mark Billingham t twenty five years twenty
five best Sellers is on the Landyard this year as well,

(02:18):
and it was an incredible festival, meeting so many people
and networking. What we talked about on the show before
is that if you're an author that is looking to
kind of promote yourself as more in a business term,
then going to these amazing festivals is a great networking
opportunity for you. And you'll meet authors, you'll meet readers,

(02:40):
you'll meet publishers and everybody in the industry, and it's
a great way for you to get yourself out there.
And as much as so many of us want to
sit behind the desk or you know, sit in our
little corner in the dark and write our stories, you
need to kind of push that boat out if you
want to take your book to the next level. So
these festivals it might seem daunting, but the fact that

(03:02):
we went to a party on the Thursday night which
was invented or created for people who haven't met before
to go prior to the festival to meet up and
have drinks, it was such a great evening for us,
to the point where I spent the Friday doing interviews
with a terrible hangover. But it's such a great opportunity

(03:22):
in people there reading their books. So it's a great
way to showcase yourself as who you are. And I
think if you've never done it, if it's a local
festival on a small scale, or something like the Harroget
crimeri As Festival or anyway, take that risk and put
yourself out there because it could really be beneficial to
you for an author's career.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, definitely. And then there's one story I'll tell you.
On the Thursday night, I was with a big group
of writers. We were walking around causing a little bit
of chaos at the festival, and I saw one of
my heroes, which is c came mcdown. Yes, it's like,
oh my god, so what'ked up to him? And they
say never meet your heroes, but he was absolutely lovely

(04:07):
and I chatted to him for about two hours, him
and his wife, and he was exactly how I imagined
he would be in real life. He was really funny
and charismatic. And he actually gave me a proof of
his new book as well, which is not even out
until October, so I was absolutely ecstatic with that. So, yeah,
do go to the crime right As festival. Do you
meet your heroes? They are lovely people and yeah, you'll

(04:30):
have a great time.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well, they do say that, Chris, that you know, people
who write dark stories, who write crime and all of
those sort of things that are a little bit nasty,
tend to be the nicest people in the industry. And
it does seem to be that way. So many people
that we met were so nice, so approachable, and have
so much advice. So yeah, just reinforcing that idea of

(04:53):
getting yourself out there and mingling with these people because
it's fantastic. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
And speaking of great crime writers, we've just carried on
the trend. We spoke to a load of great crime
writers at the weekend and now we've got another great
crime writer on the show today as well.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
So exciting times, yes, we do. So with that in mind,
I will introduce tonight's guest and throughout this show, please,
if you're watching this back and not live, hit the
like button. It will help other people like minded people
like and find the show. Leave a comment and share
the show if you can do that, because it will
help us all. So I will introduce our guests and

(05:34):
throughout the show, please throw your questions in and remember
at the end is a dedicated question segment which you
can then send you questions in as well. So for
right now, I'll introduce our guests and please give her
a nice, warm welcome. So tonight's guest is the Sunday
Times and internationally best selling author of eighteen gripping novels,
incredible blending suburban settings with psychological suspense that keeps readers hooked.

(05:59):
Known for Our House, which is sold over two hundred
and fifty thousand copies and has become an award winning
ITV drama, she has built a career as one of
the UK's top voices in crime and domestic noa fiction.
Her latest novel, A Nightmares Guide to Murder of Chris's
Head Right There Other Side is an unlikely friendship that

(06:21):
spirals into scandal and murder out now in Hardback, and
she joined us tonight to talk about her incredible journey
writing unforgettable characters, the artists, suspense, and what it takes
to stay at the top of the game after twenty years.
So please give us give us a hand in giving
her a nice warm welcome to the incredible amazing Louis Candlish.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
Hello, Hi, I feel exhausted after hearing that rundown.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Thank you me to retire absolutely well deserved. I'd say, Louise,
thank you so much for joining us. How are you doing.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
I'm good, thanks and just being a little bit of
residual fomo. Hearing about Harrogut, which I didn't go to
this year. Normally I would go and this year, for
those who don't know, every year there's a guest programmer
and it was Mick Heron this year. So I knew
it was going to be really special and brilliant and
it sounds like it was, but unfortunately I missed it.

(07:19):
But yeah, but next year I'll be back, I think.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
But you're also long listed this year as well.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah, I was, And actually they have a thing where
if you're shortlisted, you have to go. You have to
commit to going to the first well. And so I
did have something that I kind of, you know, sort
of kept on the back burner in case I was shortlisted,
but when I discovered I wasn't, I made the decision
to sort of do the original the plan a. But yeah,

(07:45):
I've yet to be shortlisted. I've been longlisted three times,
and that's kind of a bit of a harrogate thing,
a bit of a Thiextance prize thing. You'll get people
who've been you know, longlisted or shortlisted multiple times and
they can't quite get the price. So yeah, let's see.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
So you know, it's amazing to even get long listed.
But we'll get into that soon. But first of all,
where are you from in the world right now? So
people watching him find out I'm.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
In South London. So I live in Hanhill, which is
on the borders of Brixton, which is probably a bit
better known. So yeah, South London in the kind of
Zone two, in a suburbs of London.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, And my favorite question to ask people coming on
the show is always about the connection in real life,
because we are basically a online community and that is
quite apparent through a lot of readers' lives. But what
we want to know is is there ever a point
where you turn that into a real life community. Do
you meet people in the community where you live that

(08:45):
are writers or readers that connect with you?

Speaker 3 (08:48):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, I mean I always hope to do
local events with each book, and I have a kind of,
you know, annual tradition of going to my local library,
which is Carnegie Library, and doing an event there with
each new publication which have done that. Yeah, I think
I've done that already. And and yeah, and the local
bookshops I will, you know, support as much as I can,

(09:11):
and there are I mean, all of London, you know,
tends to have quite a lot of writers and creative people,
but Southeast London where I am, particularly because it was
traditionally a bit cheaper and not as kind of swimky
as you know, West London or North London. So you know,
living very close by to me, I have Mark Rylance,
the famous actor, and you know, I should add that

(09:32):
we're all in terraced houses. This is not a millionaires
row at all. This is like just normal London living.
And yeah, there's quite a few writers in the area actually,
so so it's good. But I tend to not with
the writers I'm friends with tend to be you know, scattered,
so I wouldn't say, you know, we're meeting you know,
regularly locally. My friends locally aren't really in the business.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, but it's nice to actually have that connection because
most of the people we ask in that situation say that, no,
they don't really have that local connection. So it's nice
to have. And I'm assuming London is that kind of
place that would have that connection. So I think it
is really kind of a nice thing and quite rare
to have an in life connection. But that's the same

(10:17):
for a lot of authors who in any sort of
town or city they live in, could make that effort
to go to libraries and go to places and put
themselves out there to then build that sort of community
in real life.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
Definitely, I mean particularly libraries. I mean, you know two things,
libraries and independent bookshops. I think, you know it's our
duty to support. And I know that there are loads
of areas where there isn't a library anymore, and they
haven't got a bookshop anymore. Where my dad lives. Actually,
he buys all his books from Tesco, which is because
that's the only place he can get books within range.

(10:52):
So you know, sometimes it's not possible and you might
have to travel. But for me, my library is within
walking distance, and I've got two bookshops Dullage Books and
Village Books that are within walking distance, and so it's
just it's really easy for me to just pop in
and say hi and sign copies. And you know, some
some titles you know are a bit more relevant to

(11:13):
to you know, the local area, and you know, and
take off locally because I don't name although my books
are sort of set in a neighborhood, you know, not
unlike mine is kind of how I pitch it. I
don't actually call it by my local neighborhood, and I
draw together lots of different elements of of you know,
Southeast London and Southwest London areas, and then I create

(11:37):
this composite into a new fictitious area. So but sometimes
it feels very relevant to the local area, and you know,
like my book The Swimming Pool, for instance, was you know,
fairly transparently based on Brockwall Lido, which is the outdoor
pool which is literally at the end of my road,
and anyone who knew me and knew where I lived
would know that that's what it was based on. So

(11:59):
that was a good one to promote locally. But then sometimes,
you know, something like Our Holiday, which was my release
last year, that was, you know, unusually for me, not
set in London, and the characters were on the South Coast,
so you know, that maybe didn't have quite the same
resonance locally. But you know, I love I love meeting
local booklovers and readers, so so yeah, it's a no brainer.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Really, I was going to say. One of the things
we like to do on the show is obviously we
know how successful you are, we know how many books
you've written, but we always like to go back to
the sort of original point in terms of like how
writing became an important thing in your life. So could
you take us back there if you could.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
Do you mean back to childhood or do you mean.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
As an adult?

Speaker 3 (12:48):
But I was always in I was always a reader
as a child, and unusually probably for an author, I
can pinpoint when I first started writing because it was
linked to juvenile crime. I was a bit of a
juvenile delinquent and or you know, or could have gone
that route. And I got in trouble with the police.

(13:10):
I was probably eleven or twelve. I think I was
about twelve, and my parents I was cautioned by the police.
I was in this sort of shoplifting ring of you know,
young Scully Wags. And my parents were obviously extremely angry
and shocked and you know, disappointed, and they grounded me
for a whole school summer holiday, which is six weeks

(13:32):
as we know. And that was when I started reading
properly and writing. And around that time, my older sister
and I started writing a novell each. Hers was much
better than mine, and also hers was was typed up
on a typewriter, which was her typewriter, so mine was
handwritten in pen on paper with illustrations. I always illustrated everything,

(13:56):
and so yeah, I mean recently, actually, I did an
interview where we discuss some of my school stories, which
I'm so glad I've kept them because they are genuinely hilarious,
real melodramas with you know, murders and you know sibling
rivalry and you know school scandal. And so I see

(14:18):
when I look back that I was taking any opportunity
to do, you know, to write creatively and to create stories.
And you can see all the influences as well, Agatha
Christie being the main one. So yes, So I wrote
a lot when I was young, and then I didn't
really write anything from about the ages of sixteen to
early thirties other than writing related tasks at work. So

(14:43):
I was always in a kind of writing adjacent job.
So I worked as a copywriter, I worked as a
magazine editorial assistant. I worked in nonfiction books as an editor.
So I always had a kind of editorial sort of job.
And so, you know, so I was creating content, I suppose,

(15:03):
but I was never writing fiction ever and then, and
I think it's because I was so busy and it
was the nineties and I was partying really hard. I
just didn't, you know, there was no way I was
going to you know, work full time and then spend
my evenings and weekends doing a second job. I didn't
have that passion to write at all then. And then

(15:24):
when I I took a career break of two months
and went backpacking and immediately became bored and at the
same time had an idea for a story, and so
I just started writing it again in a notebook with
a pen. Didn't have a laptop with me or anything
like that. This was before smartphones and you know, notes
apps and stuff like that. And that book ended up

(15:46):
being my first published book. So so that was how
it began, just you know, quite quickly and smoothly. Actually,
in the in the beginning, I loved that.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
I don't think we've ever had a crime right on
the show's been involved in crime.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
I bet you have, maybe just haven't told you.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
That's a brilliant story. So without the crime, obviously you
might not be here today, which is great. So I
don't condone shuplifting, but I do if it's going to
make you a bestseller of multiple books.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
Yeah, and can I just say that it wasn't you know,
we weren't stealing you know, expensive things. We were probably
stealing sweets and you know, like makeup and stuff. But
those were the days. This was, I guess the eighties,
and those were the days when the police were quite
you know, had a preventive role. Now I think, you know,
we can all agree it's quite hard to find the
police when you need them, and people don't bother reporting

(16:40):
quite serious crimes now, But back then they were much
more embedded in the community, and so you know that
it was part of their job was to deter young criminals.
And they did a great job with me because I,
you know, I was on the straight and narrow after that.
So but yeah, there is a there is a criminal
origin story there. I'm ashamed to say.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
I don't think you should be, because all of us
have a past that make us who we are. And
one thing that I always lean on in when it
comes to writing is the fact that I think life
experience weighs very much heavily into the writing world, almost
as much, if not more than the kind of academic
route into writing.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
Oh for sure. Yeah, I mean I totally agree. And
you know, I think it's two things really, one reading
a lot and two living a lot. I think you
need both of those to be a writer. I don't
think you need any other qualifications, but you just need
to have You need to have something to write about
and some perspective on life. And you know, often when

(17:42):
you read the work of a young person, including my own,
you know it's naive and you know it's really only
suitable for a peer audience because it's you know, presumes
so much ignorance. You need to have gained experience and knowledge,
I think, to you know, to start writing and to
expect a range of age groups to read your work.

(18:05):
So yeah, without a doubt, I mean, you know, I
do really believe that all of the all of the mistakes,
all of the sins and crimes and blunders and transgressions,
and you know, all of the kind of disappointments I
think feed into good writing.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
So here's a question for you. Then, if someone who's
going through a bit of a troublesome life, right, now
perhaps similar to what you did or maybe worse, and
you know, do you have no idea how to move forward?
And they're thinking, I've got a story in what I've
been through, you know, and there's a lot of people
that have gone through a lot of stuff. Yeah, what
advice have you got for them to then approach that,

(18:44):
to take that story of this and create a story
that they could share with other people?

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Well, I can think it depends on, you know, sort
of if they've got any writing experience or you know,
have any clue at all how to structure a story.
But you might start just with a journal and you
know which you can either you know, it can be
one hundred percent sury or you can sort of slightly
fictionalize it, but just impose some kind of order on
your thoughts, because I think most of us find that

(19:11):
when we write stuff down somehow, you know, we feel
better about it and we feel like we've got more
of a grip of what it is that you know,
that the problem is if you want to turn it
into an actual, you know, short story or a novel,
then you need to create a framework out of your experience.
You know, think what the themes are, what you'd like

(19:31):
to explore create your characters. Is it going to be you?
Is it going to be in your voice? Is it
going to be first person and very much you know,
have a memoir feel to it. Or would you like
to remove your experiences and troubles from yourself and you know,
sort of project them onto a new person. But either
way you can gain some control and clarity over what

(19:54):
you've experienced. I think I absolutely view writing, even as
a professional fiction writer, I view it as form of therapy.
It's a way of understanding the world, both your own
personal world and society at large. And I genuinely believe
that the experience for the writer is really similar to
the experience for the reader. It's enjoying order and you know,

(20:19):
sort of somehow making sense of something that feels quite chaotic,
I think, because we all feel chaotic sometimes.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Absolutely, Luise, you mentioned obviously the influence of Christy, and
I'm just kind of wondering your editorial experience and then
your reader experience of reading those types of novels. How
did they sort of come together when you wrote that
first novel.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
I think my editorial experience wasn't really relevant other than
I had done quite a bit of travel writing by
that point, and my first book was set in Italy,
and actually my first few books tended to have travel
locations and so so yes, that would that would have
been the influence of my day jobs. And then in

(21:05):
terms of the Aga Christian influence, I think that's just
always been there. I think, you know, she was the
author I read when I was at in my formative years,
and I still see it now, even though you know,
you might be hard pushed to sort of to see
it if you didn't know the influence was there. I
can see it and sense it all the time. You know,

(21:28):
the kind of my interest in you know, people who
aren't following the rules, and you know, cuckoos in the
nest characters. I don't tend to do locked room situations,
and certainly my first few books weren't crime anyway. But
my first book, the one that was set in Italy,
was set on a small island, and it was it

(21:48):
was marketed as a rom com, but it wasn't a
rom com to me. It was it was I thought
it was comic, but I didn't think it was remotely romantic.
It was basically a young woman stalking her ex on
holiday with his new girlfriend and just feeling you know,
intensely jealous and sad, and you know, meeting a collection
of characters in her hotel and you know and kind

(22:11):
of maybe not kind of leaving happier, but certainly you know,
having learned something about herself and having sort of given
up on the ghost. I think. So it's quite hard
to say, Well, I guess that. I guess the influence,
the aga Christian influence, then you could say, was my
love of island settings, because I've ended up setting quite
a few books on islands, and I think that comes

(22:34):
straight from things like Evil under the Sun, you know,
that kind of that sense of traveling to do a location.
Then you're cut off. Probably communications you know aren't great.
Certainly with my early books, we didn't really you know,
I don't think she even had a mobile phone in
that first story. I think a couple of them had
those clam phones. Everything changed with with iPhones, unfortunately for writers.

(23:00):
So yeah, I think that I think a glamorous setting
what I really what really appealed to me as a
as a child in Northampton, which was not a very
glamorous place. It's a it's a town in the in
the Midlands. It was the glamor of Agatha Christie. You know,
the idea that you know, you could you could sail
on a steamership up the Nile and everyone you know
is wearing beautiful costumes and lovely jewelry and have things

(23:21):
worth stealing and you know, wealth worth killing for. I
really loved that about Agatha Christian and still do. They're
not not. I would say, not a week goes by
when I'm not listening to an Agatha Christie audiobook or dramatization.
I tend to consume her books in audio now.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
One of the things I kept over in a harrogate
from people who were talking about the right inside from
a business was about having a blueprint for your novel.
Do you, obviously I haven't written so many books, now,
do you have like a blueprint in mind before you start?

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Oh? I don't even know what that means? What would that?
What that mean? What do I think by a blueprint?

Speaker 2 (24:03):
I think a blueprint is like a certain structure in
terms of that they like. One of the things that
was mentioned multiple times is if you're going to write
for a business and write in the crime novel is
essentially writing for a business and an audience. Somebody actually
said to us, and don't feel like you need to
be original, like give them something that like, you expect

(24:25):
to see certain things in a crime novel, so I
don't deviate from that. Put those things in there.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
But put yeah, see what you mean, like almost like
a formula.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah, do you do you have that when you're writing?

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Now? No, I'm anti formulate. I don't conform to that
at all. And I think it is because I'm writing
psychological thrillers. I'm not. I think if I was writing
crime procedurals, it would be completely different. And I think
I can see absolute value in having a blueprint then,
because there's certain you know, expectations and conventions within that

(24:57):
genre where I think that, you know, you should be
looking to satisfy the reader by supplying them. But with
a psychological thriller or domestic noir, I think it's much looser.
And actually, every single book I write doesn't have a blueprint.
It's usually nothing like the one before. It's often in
reaction to the one before, because you know, I got bored,

(25:18):
you know, writing it by the you know, but because
I love starting things, and then you know, I don't
like finishing things, so I'm ready for the new thing
because that's the exciting bit for me. So it's often
completely different. So so my new book has a single narrator.
She's telling her story in the form of a sort
of you know, in a I guess it's it's not

(25:38):
really sophisticated enough to be a memoir, but it's her
account written down by her. My previous book had six narrators.
They were all in the third person, and you know,
the whole thing was like world building. It was a
you know, it was a whole resort on the South coast.
It was about second home owners, but it was also

(25:59):
about locals and way they were living, and you know,
it was it was like wrangling an octopus to that book.
It was, you know, it was quite complicated, and it
could have been ten times the length it was because
each character I knew, you know, as well as I
would if there was just a single narrator. So they
had a lot to share, and I had to, you know,

(26:19):
I was constantly raining, raining them in so that there
would be space for the next narrator. So by the end,
I was starting to think, hmm, you know, was you know,
bitten off more than I can chew with six narrators.
So so when I came to plan this book, I thought,
I'm keeping this simple and keeping it. I'm having a
small cast. I'm going to make the atmosphere claustrophobic. It's

(26:40):
not going to be a big, open, sunlit world with
all kinds of different houses and settings. It's going to
be one building and it's going to be one voice.
And you know, in direct opposition to what I'd done before.
So I think, yeah, I think I'm the opposite of
someone who follows a blueprint.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Mmmm of that.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
So yeah, yeah, definitely love that. In that case, then
if someone was trying to write a psychological thriller and
they were trying to do a good job of it,
what advice could you give them, Like if you had
three strands of advice for them?

Speaker 3 (27:14):
Oh my god. Well, I personally think voice is the
most important thing, and obviously it's closely linked to character.
But I think if you can nail the voice, whether
it's in the first person or third person, if you can,
I think you're always writing from someone's point of view,
even if it's not direct first person. In a psychological thriller,
because you're inside someone's head, you're under their skin. You're

(27:37):
not a sort of cold authorial voice. You are the character.
So you need to nail that character whose story you're telling,
or characters your that's your first thing to do. So
think a little bit about, you know, about your characters.
Lots of people will write character studies, or they'll interrogate

(27:57):
their characters quite extensively before they start. Some people say
that the characters come to them fully formed. I tend
to sort of get their terms of phrase, you know,
I'll settle on the age, the gender, and you know,
the their their demographic, you know, perhaps a little I'll

(28:18):
think a little bit about what their background has been been.
Are they privileged? Have they you know, pulled themselves up
by their bootstraps? Are they divorced? Have they have they
suffered trauma? Have they led a charmed life? You know,
I'll get I'll get some of those basics in place,
and then I'll launch straight in and then the characters
will develop from there. So I think I think try

(28:40):
and spend a lot of time thinking about the character
and voice before you start. And then the other thing.
If you're writing a psychological thriller, it will have a
crime element. I mean it might not be a classic
murder or burglary or you know, or fraud, but there
will be some you know, some dark psychological stuff. So
have a think about what those themes are that you

(29:02):
want to tackle. So you've got your voice and character,
and then you've got your and then you've got your
main themes. And then the other thing that you know,
people talk about all the time is the hook. And
really all that is is, you know, say to yourself,
if I were a salesperson at a publisher trying to
persuade Waterstones or Tesco's or W. H. Smith or you know,

(29:25):
an indie bookshop to stock this book, but they've only
given me thirty seconds, you know, how how would I
describe it in you know, literally in a couple of sentences.
So the elevator pitch. And I think it's really important
because that's the reality of the business. If you want
to be published, if you're if you're not interested in
being published and you're interested in writing for yourself, that's

(29:47):
completely different. But if you're interested in getting your book published,
you need to know how to crystallize that hook. And
and actually, you know, sort of establishing that before you
get underway is really helpful, you know, just as it's
really helpful to have a title. And so many times

(30:09):
I've not had an agreed title, and you know, I've
finished the book, and you know, when you have got
the title, you know, it just really helps you because
the title normally will be at least alluding to a character,
a main character, or a main theme. So it helps
you see what the most important thing is about the book.
So so yeah, best case scenario, if you can do

(30:30):
those three things before you start, then I think that
you've got the tools that you need to start writing.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
I'd really want to ask something here because we've had
a lot of people describe how to develop characters on
this show over five and a half years, a lot
of people, but no one has ever mentioned that sort
of going into the backstory as far as the trauma
they may have experienced as a young person, that would
then dictate how the actor is an older person, which

(30:59):
is to hear you see, but how then would you
possibly describe that the acts that those characters are doing
in the story has a has been a result of
the trauma of the experience.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
Well, in this book, a neighbor's guide to Murder that
the narrator is seventy years old, and she, let's just
say that, she acts in a very ill advised fashion.
When she discovers a rental arrangement, a sort of very
sleazy rental arrangement is going on in the flat next door.
She overreacts. She gets far too invested in a near

(31:34):
stranger's life. You know, she's a new friend, Pixie, the
tenant next door, but she's you know, tall intents and purpose,
is a brand new friend. And and the strangers she
doesn't Gwen doesn't know much about her, so you know,
she's extraordinarily intense about it, and you know, and zealous
about sort of you know, outing what the landlord is

(31:58):
doing to Pixie, and you know, and righting the wrong,
getting justice, and so you know, automatically, I, you know,
you need to know why on earth would she be
behaving like this. It's just not normal behavior, especially in London,
where there's a level of anonymity and all kinds of
crimes take place and people have absolutely no idea even

(32:18):
though it's been you know, just on the other side
of the wall. So I need so I so the
what I wanted to do in the present day plot
sort of required me to think about how it could
be that she has reached this point. Also, you know,
she's in a financial position that you know, she's she's
quite she's quite perilous in her finances, and so you

(32:41):
know she's lost out financially in a marriage. So that
made me think a little bit about what happened in
her marriage she's divorced, but more importantly, what happened to
make her so determined to do right by this young woman.
And so it sort of came naturally to me that
there must be a backstory where she has done wrong

(33:01):
by a young woman in the past, or she has
failed to come to her aid, you know, when she
when ideally she would have. She's full of regrets. She's
someone who has masses of regrets, and so I kind
of wanted to just think what those regrets would be.
I haven't I didn't go back to her childhood at
all in my thoughts. I couldn't tell you now even

(33:21):
where in the country she grew up, So I'm not
talking about that level of history. But I just thought
about her life from from around the time that she
left college, say, and started working. I just thought what
her career might have been, and where she might have
met her husband. But with so much of character, you
don't it's not on the page that you need to

(33:44):
know it yourself. So as with all kinds of research,
I always know far more than than I revealed to
the to the reader, it's just not it's not necessary
for the reader to know everything, and it can you know,
it can really slow things down if you'll give too
much detail and backstory. So I try to do backstory
with a very light touch. You know, less is more,

(34:07):
but you want it to work quite hard that what
you do give. So that's my position on that. But
I don't I don't mean that I'm putting together you know,
pages and sorry, just let me just the laptop just
just moved away from me. I'm not. I don't create
you know, sort of big character studies and files you know,

(34:27):
on the characters at all. But I but I need
to know why psychologically, why they're behaving like they're behaving.
You know, it's very It would be very unusual for
someone who's never been involved in a crime before, as
my characters often haven't been involved in a crime before,
to suddenly murder someone or to suddenly steal a house,

(34:50):
or to suddenly get involved in a deadly feud with
a neighbor. You know, what are the extenuating circumstances, What
are the previous experiences that have fed into this moment
of eruption, because that's generally what it is in a
psychological thriller. It's a kind of you know, escalation that
doesn't really come out of the blue that you know,

(35:12):
It's usually been simmering. So that's that's the way I
approach characters. But I do think of them as a
developing thing. I think of them as you know, I
layer them with each With each new draft, I'll be
layering them. I'll be adding, you know, I'll be thinking
more and more about them. How they are physically. How
they are physically is almost the last thing I think about.
I normally think about their minds first and their life's experience,

(35:36):
and then I later I might decide how much they weigh,
how tall they are, whether they wear glasses, whether they're pretty,
you know, whether whether they're bald. You know, all of
this stuff comes later. Their mannerisms and you know, habits
and you know, gestures and ticks and all that sort
of thing. Comes usually comes later for me.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah, I think that's a really good tip because a
lot of peop people who starting out in the writing
will might think about their appearance before the character and
the opposite there if someone who's written eighteen plus novels
is is someone who's very experienced and got great success.
So that is a great tip. I think for people
stepping into the world of character creation to think about

(36:17):
who they are personally before their physical appearance, I think
that's great.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
Yeah. I mean the only the only exception is probably
if they're intensely good looking, because that because that does
have such a bearing on your personality. You know, you
tend to sort of sail through life with you know,
everyone giving you the benefit of the doubt, and so
I think you do need to know and I do
occasionally have you know, a kind of hitchcocky and beauty
or you know, just a small town sex kitten type

(36:45):
of girl who you know is a little bit sort
of disappointed by having not made it in the big
city because she, you know, because she was the most
gorgeous girl in her neighborhood growing up. And you know,
so I do I do think if you if you're beautiful.
You need to know that, And that's not something I
would lay her in later because I think that would
inform the way they behave and the way the other

(37:06):
characters react to them. But you know, most people are
fairly standard looking in life. You know, there might just
be one. In fact, in this book, Pixie is is
very good looking. I mean, she's quite sort of alternative
in her style, but she is very beautiful, and I
think that, you know, she's an objective desire for men,
but she's also, you know, someone that Gwen just you know,

(37:28):
like most of us are. You know, you're just you
feel kindly to someone who's conventionally attractive. You know, they're
lovely to look at, and they're nice to have have
in the room with you, and you want to get
to know them. And so, you know, I didn't need
to know that Pixie was going to be good looking
and it was actually going to be a curse rather
than a blessing for her.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
Yeah, well, chat obviously in a minute about a Neighbor's
Guide to Murder book. Again, if you're watching this in
the set, the sort of latter part of the show,
you can send questions directly to Louise so if you've
got any of them, just put them in the chat.
We'll ask them in the final section. Well, I'm going
to ask you about you mentioned before about claustrophobia on

(38:08):
the page. I think that's a really tricky thing to do.
So again I'm going to pick your brain a little bit.
Have you got somebody trying to write claustrophobia in a
convincing way and to sort of extend that over the
course of a novel. What would you say to somebody
trying to do that.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
Well, the easiest way in would be through setting. You know,
you have your setting is you know, has a certain
amount of confinement and you know, lack of freedom. Obviously,
you've got your your mental claustrophobia as well. You've got
the confinement of your own your own mind. But I

(38:49):
think your physical setting is a really great place to start.
And so you know, make a choose a chooser. A
setting that is you know, is small, is dark, is noisy,
you know, has lots of you know, sort of elements
that are making life difficult, and then you can build

(39:11):
on that with you know, sort of external things. You know,
what's happening in this person's life, you know, have they,
you know, just had an eviction notice, have they just
you know, have their heart broken? Have they just had
a row with someone? All of these sort of areas
of conflict that sort of you know, bring all kinds
of stress to bear on you. So you've got both,

(39:32):
I think, the physical claustrophobia and then the psychological claustrophobia.
So and I see it very much as building it
up over the course of a book. I wouldn't start
with someone on the point of feeling like they were
going to spontaneously combust. I have them build up to that.
But certainly for this book, I chose I chose the

(39:53):
setting of a mansion block because I wanted all the
characters living in the same building. I wanted, you know,
there are certain certain ways the plot develops where they're
spying on each other, or you know, you open your
door and your nemesis front door is right across the
hallway from yours, feels like there's no escape because you know,

(40:13):
and you are therefore in a bit more danger because
you know, it's very different from having your own front
door and your nemesis is four doors down. If they're
literally right there on the other side of the wall.
I think that's really frightening. And so it's just kind
of thinking about what kind of things make you feel imprisoned,
what kind of things make you feel like you can't escape,

(40:33):
and then including those in your setting, and then also
in the character hisself or herself.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
All right, amazing. What we're going to have to do
before we talk about and neigh us go to murder
is play a little advert for Amazon KDP. The Storyteller
Award that we've been sponsored by Amazon was incredible for us.
We'll play that advert, and when we come back, hopefully
Louise can tell us all about and the US go murder.
Often the case is that they're already writing the next
book and they've forgotten about the last one. I don't

(41:04):
think this is the case, but I'm pretty sure it's not. Okay,
so we're going to play this trailer advert trailer. It's
only about thirty second song or so, and then we're
going to get into the amazing cover book that's up
above Chris's head. So here we go with the advert.
And please, if you are a self published author and
you're looking at going down this route, we'll support you

(41:27):
all the way the best we can, so please listen
to it, consider it, and we'll leave links in the description.
So here it comes. Hey, Wright, is what if it
in published, could onar you a massive twenty pounds.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Imagine? Well you don't need to imagine, because that's exactly
what's on offer with Amazon's Kindles Storyteller Award twenty twenty five.
This amazing the three prize is back for its ninth year,
and it's open to any one who self publishes a
book like Kindle Direct Publishing in any genre.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Any genre. Yeah, whether you've written your first or your
tenth novel, it doesn't matter. If it's unpublished and written
in English, then you can enter that award with the
chance of winning.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Yeah, and it's really easy to enter. So just publish
your book through Kindle Direct Publishing between the first of
May and the thirty first of August and make sure
it's enrolled in KDP Select.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
Yep. I think you'd be absolutely mad not to, as
a twenty thousand pounds prize would help any author boost
their career massively, and our previous guest and last year's winner, JD. Kirk,
said that he took his career to the next level
after winning that award and taking it home.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
Yeah, and it did. These books are everywhere, so in
order to enter, head to Amazon dot co dot uk
forward slash Storyteller to find out more. The Kindle Storyteller
Award is open now, so publish enter, okay, story out there.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
Yeah, we'll support you all the way, you know, we
will do that, So we'll leave you with this good luck.
The w CCS together as one, we get it done.
So there you go. Enter the award now before the
end of August and you'll get your chance to win
an incredible praise. But we're here to talk about Louise
and her last book, latest book and neighbors go to

(43:21):
Murder Louise. Can you tell us what that's all about? Please?

Speaker 3 (43:25):
Yeah, I mean I've already spoken a little bit about it.
But it's set in a swanky mansion block in South
London and our narrator is a seventy year old woman
called Gwen who is living on a you know, a
modest pension. She's not wealthy. She's come very badly out
of a business going wrong and a divorce where she

(43:46):
didn't you know, she didn't didn't walk away with very much.
So she's you know, she's quite brugal and she can
account for every penny she spends. And across the hall
from her lives a middle aged former hit wonder rocker
called Alec, and he is renting out a room and

(44:08):
Gwen is there when a series of people come to
view the room, and she can't help noticing that they're
all young and female. They're all in their twenties, they're
all quite attractive, they're all female. Doesn't seem to have
any men among the prospective viewers, and she gets chatting
to a girl called Pixie, who tells her that she's
actually already secured a flat somewhere else, and she's just

(44:30):
here because she loves mansion blocks and it's a sort
of property porn viewing, so she's a bit of a
time waster. They hit it off and Gwen doesn't think
anything more of her, But the following weekend she sees
this same girl unloading her possessions and moving into the
flat next door so and discovers that she was a
victim of fraud with the flat that she had she
put down a deposit for and six months rent. This

(44:53):
is a very common scam which I wanted to include
in Pixie's back story. So she basically is arriving having
been scammed out of all her money and you know,
potentially homeless had Alec not offered her this room. And
so they become friends, Gwen and Pixie, and everything is

(45:15):
fine for you know, a couple of chapters, just a
few brief moments. Everything's fine, and then Gwen starts to
have suspicions about what's going on next door, and you know,
she is right to have suspicions because there's a very murky,
sordid rental arrangement going on. And once once Pixie, you know,
fesses up to this, Gwen takes the ball and runs

(45:39):
with it and basically, you know, escalates it into a
big scandal and all hell breaks loose in the building.
So we've got a whole cast of other neighbors. We
only ever go into three flats. We're mainly in Gwen's flat,
you know, keeping it nice and close and claustrophobic. But
one of the main themes I would say is the

(46:00):
rental crisis for young people in their twenties, particularly in
big cities like London, but generally in the UK, and
because as well as Pixie and the you know, the
awful compromises she has to make. We also have Gwen's
grown up son, Daniel, who has bounced back. He's a
boomerang boy who has his marriage has broken down, and

(46:23):
he has just, without even asking, has moved back in
with his mum and regressed to sort of his teenage self.
So she's got him to deal with. He's you know,
always you know, in the shower, using up all the
hot water and asking her what's for dinner. You know,
he's a real selfish pain in the ass. She's also
got a daughter who doesn't live on site but has

(46:44):
set herself up as a tad wife. And Gwen is
a real sort of old school feminist, and she's, you know,
she's extremely confused and shame ashamed of what Maya her
daughter has has decided to do. And we also have
a fourth young person who is a sort of NEPO
baby figure. She is the daughter of Gwen's Frenemie d

(47:08):
who you know, is the queen Bee of the building.
And her daughter Stella is a journalist. And when Pixie's
situation escalates, Stellar sees d Instellar see an opportunity. So
so yeah, there's a lot going on in in one
apparently respectable looking building.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
So the big, the big dynamic in this story is
Gwen and Pixie's kind of friendship. Gwen being the older
character and then we've got Pixie with a younger character.
What was the first thing that kind of due to
that story in terms of creation when you have an
older character and a younger character in that kind of
complex dynamic.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
Well, I'm really fascinated by age gap friendships, and I
think that you know, we don't see them that much
in fiction or on TV, and I think they're very
much especially in s She's there very much born of
the fact that we're usually scattered from our families, and
so you know, in this case, Gwen does have family

(48:08):
clot buy, but they're deeply unsatisfactory. He's not getting from
them the lovely, you know, sort of mother mother, grown
up child relationships that she would like and that she
sees other people enjoying. Meanwhile, Pixie's mother has died, her
father's not been the picture.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
So they've both got a vacancy, you know, they've both
got a vacancy for in Pixie's case, a mother figure
or even a grandmother figure, and in Gwen's case, a
young woman who you know, who might listen to her
advice and who she can have a laugh with, who
she doesn't have to argue with, and she doesn't have
to you know, moan about So I was, I've always

(48:51):
been really intrigued by those sort of friendships born of
a kind of mutual need and you know, a mutual lacking,
because I think we do need our families, and you know,
so many of us go through our twenties and thirties
and forty for you know, our parents on the other
side of the country, and you know, not everyone has

(49:11):
a great relationship with their siblings, if they have siblings
at all. And so I do I really like these
friendships where they feel like they have a familial sort
of role built in, and that's what it is. But
in this case, they just trust too quickly, They trust
each other too quickly. It's you know, the sort of
the need is so strong, the hunger for that sort

(49:32):
of love and support causes them to jump too quickly
into the friendship.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
I would say, yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
And then on the on the other side, you've got this,
you've got the relationship one side, and you've got the
settings that are kind of like familiar settings of most
people and seemingly safe settings that become kind of less
safe neighborhoods. So you're creating these crime sort of situations
and suspense suspenseful situations in these normal sets things. So

(50:01):
why do you think that's so relatable and impactful to
the reader? Having these settings like the apartment buildings for example,
Why do you think that is such an important part
of your story.

Speaker 3 (50:13):
Well, I think domestic noir is sort of built on
that contradiction that the very place where you have a
right to feel secure and safe and loved is suddenly
the place where danger lurks. I mean, that's what domestic
noir is. It's you know, it's crime and psychological sort

(50:34):
of unease behind closed doors. It's not going out in
the street and witnessing a stabbing or getting involved in something.
It's happening, you know, in the domestic realm. It's happening
either within your family or with your close neighbors. And
I think it's just it's just incredibly scary for all
of us because we can relate to it, and you know,

(50:57):
it's not a spy story or a you know, one
of those those thrillers where you know people are getting
into fights, and you know they're on the run, and
you know they're you know, using false passports and et cetera.
I mean it's something that's much more close to home.
It's literally in the home, and so I think it
is that relatability and it just you know, it just

(51:18):
makes it. It's that whole kind of it could happen
to you sense of a psychological thriller in domestic noir
that I think sueduces people because it's it's quite a
healthy way of working through your own fears and insecurities
reading it happening for someone else on the page.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
I can imagine with the feedback you get from these
stories in terms of reviews, that you get the people
that live in those scenarios or are the kind of
environments that say, I can see this happening. But also
you might get the one or two that think of
aply that said, this is kind of a situation that
I've been in, is that happened to you?

Speaker 3 (51:59):
I have very occasionally I will meet people who will
tell me that, you know, one of my one of
my crimes or domestic noarce situations, you know, is really
similar to something that's happened to them or someone they know.
It tends to be more rather than the sort of
central crime. It tends to be more in some of
the details, which I find very pleasing because I'm hoping

(52:21):
to create a familiar environment. So when I was doing
my to I've just finished my tour for A Neighbor's
Guide to Murder, And every time I spoke about Daniel,
the adult son who's bounced back, every single time I
would see people turn to their friends in the audience
and nod and say, and you know, so that's you

(52:43):
or that's rolling their eyes, that's my situation and so
so yes, there's a lot of that about the details,
about the sort of peripheral details rather than the central crimes.
It would be quite rare for someone to, you know,
want to talk about that where I mean, people don't
want to necessarily talk about being assaulted or you know,

(53:04):
having suffered a horrific fraud or been burgled with our house.
I did meet a couple of estate agents who knew
of crimes a little bit like in the book, where
you know someone had had their household without their knowledge
or consent. So, yeah, it happens occasionally, but it's much

(53:25):
more in the detail, I think, than in the central plot.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
So we've got about six minutes left. People are sending
questions in, which is great, so keep doing that. I'm
going to ask a question that we asked at Harrogate's People,
which is a relatively new process. But out of all
your books, Louise, do you have a favorite murder?

Speaker 3 (53:45):
I don't have many murders in my books. Actually I
have accidental killings and I do have some murders. I
would say my favorite because and it also just my
favorite plot generally was The Other Passenger, which does have
a murder in it. That's my favorite. That's because that's

(54:05):
quite cold blooded. I mean, of all of my books
that is that really is a crime book. I would
say that's got cold hearted people planning something, you know,
absolutely horrible. So yes, I would say, I would say
the murder in The Other Passenger is my favorite.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
Brilliant. And we'll keep on the topic of crime with
people sending the questions in now. So we've got five minutes.
So if you've got one only watching, send them in.
We've got few already. Well, Aya says, is there a
type of crime you wouldn't write about?

Speaker 3 (54:37):
Yes, I'm not intending ever writing about child abeace or
child murder. I just don't want to a It's hugely sensitive,
and I think is something that does. You know, so
many things don't need to trigger warning in my opinion,
but I think that does need a trigger warning. And

(54:58):
I would not want to attempt something so sensitive and
get it wrong. But also I wouldn't want to live
inside my head for a year. It takes a year
to write a book, and I don't want to write
about something so bleak and so heartbreaking, you know, for
that length of time. So I would never I would
never do that.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Yeah, that's such a valid point. How readers writers really
get stuck into the sort of mental capacity of what
they're writing about. You know, it's a tough job writing anyway,
the dedication and time and effort it takes to do that,
but then to be in the character's mind as well,
you don't. I think that a lot of readers don't

(55:40):
really appreciate what that tends to be.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
For the rest No, I mean, remember a Little Life,
you know, imagine I mean that probably took years to write,
not one year, and you know, I just can't imagine
how she was, how she must have felt writing that book,
and I don't to find out.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
Yeah, So another question from that. Paul's got two, but
this is the first one. So who's been your biggest
inspiration when writing your books? I think we touched on
it a little bit.

Speaker 3 (56:12):
Yeah, we touched on like the Christie. There's also Patricia
high Smith is a big influence on me because you know,
I think she made the idea of having the you know,
the dislikable characters somehow being able to twist it so
you're rooting for them. And people do find my characters dislikable,

(56:32):
and yet they do root for them. And I think
that I've learned a lot from her in sort of
just being able to present these flawed people and you know,
trying to pull you in so you're, you know, you're
still half hoping it's going to be okay, even though
they probably have done some quite horrible things. So Patricia
high Smith, and then more recently, I was quite late

(56:52):
in discovering Barbara Vine, who I just think is you know,
I think her books are absolutely incredible, obviously but pseudonym
for Ruth Rendall, but I prefer them to the Ruth
Rendall's which I love as well, but the dark adapted
eye and a fatal inversion. They're tuboos that have had
a massive influence on me in recent years. I would

(57:13):
say so.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
One of the questions we asked, and I'm intrigued to
know your answer to this, is if you could take
say one of your characters and put them into another story,
or any story that you've ever read or discovered. What
character would you take of yours and put them into
another story? And do you know what that story would be?

Speaker 3 (57:33):
Oh my god, I don't know. I mean, I know,
I don't know whether I would take any of them.
I don't think I would unleash my characters on any
other world. But I do think that I would would
like to bring in some other characters into my stories,
as they could have a good influence on my characters.
So I think in this one I would I'd love
someone like Dickens's Little Dorrit or one of his lovely,

(57:57):
sweet young female characters, as you know, very virtuous and
very kind and quiet. I'd like one of those living
living on this corridor in Columbia Mansions. I think that
she could be a really good influence on these hot
headed characters. And you know, maybe even you know, turn

(58:20):
it into a more discreet drama rather than a you know,
rather than a murder story.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
Nice. Nice, all. Second question is which has been your
favorite book to write?

Speaker 3 (58:34):
Well, I loved writing this one, actually, I would say,
I mean, I know, it's hard because it's the freshest
in my mind. So I do tend to favor my
last book. But I have really enjoyed writing Gwen, and
I think I have created a really interesting character who
you know, they just aren't that many of her age
and complexity that I've read recently, and you know, we

(58:57):
are in a kind of youth obsessed world, we are,
and I just, you know, I really enjoyed, you know,
spending time in the in the head of someone who's
who's lived seven decades and has had a lot of
experience and seen a lot of trends and also just
see how the role of women has developed. And so yeah,

(59:21):
so I think that it has been my favorite one
to write. And also being a first person, you know,
single narrator, it was it was a bit of a
smoother process. Some of some of my books are incredibly
intricately complicated in terms of their narrative, structure, and this
was just a little simpler and so, you know, that
was a really enjoyable experience to just keep things simple.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
I mean, it's so so sort of like we got
other questions to ask before we wrap this up. But
should should have asked this a while back. Where you
have your older character, you have your younger characters, how
is that writing process? And how do you get into
the minds of, say, an older character and right in
the mindset of somebody who's got very different views and
opinions on the world, and then someone who has on

(01:00:06):
the opposite side different views and opinions from a younger perspective.
How do you balance that in the right way?

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
Well, I mean I've chosen not to balance it. Had
I had Pixie been a narrator as well, that would
have been, you know, an amazing question that you know
I would have a different answer to. But because Gwen
is our only narrator, I chose her expressly because I
didn't think I would be able to get inside the
head of a twenty something but I but equally, I

(01:00:35):
wanted to show the twenty something experience, you know, in
all its you know, extremities, and so so you know,
I very deliberately chose an older narrator so I could
view their behavior and you know, their situations through that
older person's lens. And that was what made it so

(01:00:58):
much fun to write, because you know, she doesn't understand
a lot of what they're saying, she doesn't understand a
lot of the decisions they're having to make. It's a
completely different world. You know, she's constantly thinking, oh my god,
why did my generation, you know, burn our bras for
these these girls who now want to just bake muffins
and be influencers and so so I deliberately didn't take

(01:01:24):
you inside the head of the younger characters because that
would be that would have been very heart of balance.
I would have had to have spent a lot of
time with twenty somethings before I attempted that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
Definitely to wrap up the show and sort of jest
of obviously, A neighbor's Guide to Murder, a viewers guide
to find in Louise. So where can people stalk you
if they want to? Where can pick up your books
and things like that?

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
Well, books you can get from you know, your local bookshop,
and you know, of course you can always order and
you know online from Amazon, but should find copies in
Waterstones in some of the supermarkets. But you know, I
always urge people to go to their local India if
they can. There are some signed copies out there which
you know you can you can find out about from

(01:02:13):
my social media. So I'm on Facebook, I'm on X
formerly known as Twitter, and I'm on Instagram if you
want stuff like you know, photos of Mansion Blox that
were the inspiration for the for the book. Instagram's the
best place if you want to find out about events
and offers and best prices for all of my books,

(01:02:33):
including my backlist, then probably Facebook or X would be
the best best place.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
Brilliant And before we go the he's obviously mentioned about
going to Harrogate And I did a weird thing this
week when somebody said to me, Oh, you're a drink
from the bar and I said, surprise.

Speaker 5 (01:02:50):
Me, and everyone around me was like, what, you can't
say that. But if you surprise you with the drink
next year, what would be your what we're buying?

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
Oh my god, well it wouldn't be it wouldn't be
a surprise if I told you. But if you wanted
to know what my favorite drink is I am really
nineteen seventies in my taste for alcohol, so it tends
to be French. And so my dream first drink of
the evening is a here royal nice.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
I love you, roy I have no idea what that is.

Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
Okay, well that's so that is chrome to casis, so
like a black currant liqueur topped with champagne. So it's pink.
It's really seventies.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
Love that. We'll try and get you next years to
hold you to that. Yeah, no do do. We will
remember absolute pleasure chatting to you today. Thank you so
much for it coming on and chatting to us and
giving us so much good advice as well. It's been
an absolute pleasure and I'm sure anyone who watches will
definitely pick up some really good tips.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
Oh one more question, having more questions of course, So
you've written over eighteen books and you've had an incredible career.
What one piece of advice would you have wanted looking
back on what you've done so far and what you
know now when you first started at writing, what one
piece of advice would you give yourself going back to
that day.

Speaker 3 (01:04:18):
I well, in terms of writing, I would say don't
worry about the long term. Just focus on the moment,
Just focus on the piece of work in front of you,
and you know it's ultimately that's the bit that you
can control as the writer. Is the is the book,
is the story, So focus on that. Don't get too
distracted by the other stuff. But on the kind of

(01:04:41):
publishing career business side of things, I would tell myself
to say no more often because I've said yes to
lots of things and then I've ended up being stressed
out or you know, double booked, or you know, I've
had to sacrifice the writing time because I've been doing
too much other stuff. So they would be my few
pieces of advice, But I think ultimately focus on the writing.

(01:05:03):
Your job is to write and enjoy it because that's
also the best bit.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
Absolutely, what great advice that is. Thank you so much,
Louise again, brilliant. Thank you so much for joining us,
Brilliant story guys. Please go and follow Louise. We'll leave
the links to A Neighbor's Guide to Murder in the description.
Go and pick it up. It's a fantastic book that
you want to read, and I'm sure some of the
people in the audience already might have already bought that,
as they tend to do. So thank you, thank you,

(01:05:31):
thank you, and look after yourselves, have a fantastic weekend.
And hopefully we will see Louise a Hurrogate next year
and we can buy that amazingly sounding drink that I
will like to try, and we'll get to chat to
you at the festival.

Speaker 3 (01:05:47):
So thank you so much, thank you, Bye everyone, Bye
guys to

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