Today I'm delighted to welcome back to the blog my friend, fellow-author and all-round lovely person Helen Matthews. I first worked with Helen as editor of the original edition of her amazing novel The Girl in the Van when it was published by Darkstroke Books in 2022. I'm delighted to say that the novel has now been republished by Bloodhound Books, which I hope will bring the story to a whole new audience.
Welcome, Helen!
Thanks so much, Sue, for hosting me on your blog to celebrate the re-release of The Girl in the Van with Bloodhound Books on 30th January. It feels a bit like a sliding doors moment because this book originally came out in 2022 and you interviewed me back then. I’m proud to say that the first edition of this novel won first prize in the suspense and thriller genre category in the Pageturner Book Award 2022. Some of my answers to your interview questions remain broadly the same – others might have altered slightly as the passage of time changes us, our books and our readers.
Here goes:
Interview questions
What prompted you to first start writing? What was the first thing you wrote?
There’s a quote I especially like from a well-known author. Apparently, someone asked him:
I want to be an author when I grow up, am I insane?
To which he’s reported to have replied: Growing up is highly over-rated. Just be an author.
I’m someone who has achieved my author dream after serving a ridiculously long apprenticeship. Many of us say we’ve been writing from the moment we picked up a pen, and I’m one of them. In childhood, I had some successes in competitions and had fillers published in teen magazines, such as Jackie which some readers may remember. Then I went on to study English at Liverpool University and was overwhelmed by reading the works of great literary masters for three years. When we finished our final exam my friend and I went to the Oxfam shop and stocked up on ‘trashy’ novels and read little else for a few years.
In the early days of my business career, I used to write late at night, when my children were in bed, with a glass of wine by my side. In those days, I wrote mainly short stories that were judged ‘too dark for our readers’ by the magazine editors I submitted to.
As the family’s main breadwinner I continued working full-time after my children were born, in a career that used the analytical side of my brain but left the creative side to fester. I sensed my writing was deteriorating – impacted by turgid quasi-legal and financial business-speak I had to use in reports and documents. The creative spark left me. Writing fiction was hard, so I began dabbling in freelance journalism and had some articles published in family and lifestyle magazines. Ironically, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before the internet expected content for free, even hobbyists like me were well-paid, typically £70-£200 per article. I was once paid as much as £1,000 for a single piece in a professional magazine. My highlight was having pieces published in The Guardian and a couple of columns broadcast on BBC Radio in a programme called Home Truths, which was presented by the late and lovely John Peel. I vividly remember the excitement of going up to Broadcasting House in London to record my pieces.
During those wilderness years, I wrote a couple of deeply-flawed novels and put them in a drawer. Finally, when my children were heading for university, I decided I’d never be happy if I stayed on the treadmill of my well-paid career. So I fled corporate life, putting our family finances at risk, and went back to university to do an MA in Creative Writing. I want to make it clear that you absolutely don’t have to do an MA, or any qualification, to become a novelist. I did it because I needed to make a clean break from the business world and rediscover my creativity. For my dissertation, I wrote another novel. It can’t have been too terrible because I did pass my MA, but I knew it wasn’t good enough so it went into the drawer with the others.
My breakthrough novel was After Leaving the Village, which has recently been republished by Bloodhound Books as Girl Out of Sight. It won first prize in the novel competition at Winchester Writers’ Festival, and I spent two years querying. Five agents requested the full manuscript; many gave positive personalised feedback but didn’t make an offer. In the end I signed a deal with a small indie publisher and the book came out in 2017.
It’s been a long journey to becoming a four-times-published author, but I’m still an apprentice and definitely haven’t grown up.
Can you summarise your latest work in just a few words?
The strapline does quite a good job: A haunted mother, a missing girl, a lethal game of deception.
One of the problems with writing suspense is trying to entice the right readers in without giving too much away.
What was the inspiration for this book?
Inspiration for each novel comes in different ways. It could be a snatch of overheard conversation, an incident that happened to someone else, or a random ‘what if?’ idea. For this book, the inspiration arrived in visual form. I had an image of a frightened girl, who turned into Miriana, hiding in the back of a campervan. The mental picture was so vivid it felt as if she’d tapped me on the arm and asked me to tell her story. Immediately I wanted to know what that story was. Why was she hiding? What had happened to her? And how was this stranger linked to the central character, Laura?
What’s your writing process? Did you do any research for the book?
Authors are often asked, "Are you a plotter or a pantser?" Due to my long years in management, my planning skills are over-developed so I’m about seventy percent plotter, twenty per cent pantser, and the other ten per cent is just generally confused.
My starting point for a novel is a broad plot outline and some ideas about my main characters. I do some initial research, then write a few chapters to test out whether the characters will live and breathe on the page. Not all stories have legs, and some plots fizzle out. Once I’m confident an idea will work, I get stuck into more extensive research. For The Girl in the Van, I had to research, among other things, an aspect of modern slavery known as "county lines", where young people are lured by criminal gangs into transporting drugs from cities into rural areas. I’m an ambassador for the anti-slavery charity Unseen, so I’m lucky to have access to their materials and resources. I can also ask my contacts in the charity questions about anything I’m not sure of. Although this isn’t a police procedural novel, there’s quite a bit of police activity in this book and for that I used the services of Graham Bartlett, a former senior police officer who offers a consultancy service to authors.
As I’m originally from Wales and many scenes in the book are set in Cardiff, Penarth and Tenby, this was a great excuse to return to some fabulous places to research the book and take photos to illustrate future blogs.
What does a typical writing day involve for you?
Alongside writing fiction, I’m an occasional freelance copywriter though I’m turning down most commissions just now – mainly because the agencies and contacts I work with want me to do project management as well as the writing and this sucks up too much time. Self-employment is a joy. If you meet deadlines, you can work whenever and wherever you please. Unless I have a conference call or Zoom meeting, I set my alarm for a very civilised 8.15 am. My lovely husband, an early riser, brings me a cup of tea. If he forgets, I might send him a WhatsApp message: "Tea, please." I once sent the "Tea, please" message, in error, to my daughter’s partner – presumably, the last person I’d messaged the night before. This caused some consternation as they live half an hour’s drive away and the tea would have been cold before it reached me.
Enough confessions. You probably think I’m slothful, but this working-from-home life became the norm for many of us in lockdown. I shovel down a bowl of cereal and I can be at my computer soon after nine.
I wish I could devote my whole working day to novel-writing, but the demands of social media, writing newsletter and blog content and searching out new promotional opportunities take time. I do talks for book clubs and women’s groups, often travelling a round trip of 100 miles on a dark cold winter evening. Occasionally I’m invited to library events or literary festivals. All of these I really enjoy, but they need planning and can be expensive in terms of time. For example, last summer I went to Yorkshire to run a Writing Flash Fiction workshop as a favour for a friend who was organising a summer school. I probably spent more than a day writing my materials for the workshop and piloting it with a writing group near to me. Then I spent a day travelling north, ran the session the next morning and drove home in the afternoon. I think I sold around six books at the event.
On a more typical day, once I’ve cleared the business end of my inbox, I’m back to work on my novel-in-progress. Late morning I take Homer, our rescue dog, out for a short walk then have a fifteen-minute lunch break. I write through the afternoon with Homer snoozing at my feet. Around four, he’ll start pestering me for another walk and we’ll go for a long one. I’m trying to average three miles a day to get a proper break from the keyboard.
In the evenings I’m often out. I belong to two book clubs and a choir, or I might meet friends or family for a film or a meal. If I’m in, I might carry on writing until 10 pm then watch the News and maybe a film, or read, do a Sudoku or Wordle, or try to keep up my Duolingo streak. I’m rarely in bed before twelve-thirty.
Writing can be solitary but I take days off when I need to. You can never spend too much time with fellow-writers. I belong to three critique groups. I call them my Hotel California – you can go there, but you can never leave.
Which writers have influenced your own writing?
Two authors at the literary end of my psychological suspense genre whom I hugely admire are Louise Doughty (Platform Seven and Appletree Yard) and Emma Donoghue (Room). I would love to write like them, but my books aren't written with literary prizes in mind. I'm targeting high-end commercial/book club crossover, and I think I've got this right as book clubs do read my novels.
In psychological suspense and thrillers I enjoy Lisa Jewell (The Family Upstairs), Gillian McAllister (How to Disappear), Clare Mackintosh (I Let You Go), Louise Candlish (Our House) and Katharine Johnson (The Suspects). The list is endless.
Does your new book have a message for the reader?
I've already mentioned the modern slavery "county lines" theme in the book.
This is the second time I've written about human trafficking, and I've become dedicated to the anti-slavery cause and raising awareness of this heinous crime. Once lured into "county lines" gangs, it can be very hard for victims to break free. Recent survey research shows public awareness of this crime is lower than of other forms of human trafficking and slavery. Sometimes parents don't realise their own child is involved because they don't spot the signs. So as well as writing a gripping page-turner, I wanted to bring the plight of these young people to wider attention.
Like other forms of exploitation, county lines starts with a pernicious form of grooming: victims are befriended, given gifts and offered alcohol and drugs. This month, the UK news agenda has been dominated by calls for a Public Enquiry into gangs of older men - often British men of Pakistani origin - who exploited young girls in towns including Rotherham, Rochdale and Oldham from as far back as the 1990s. As authors and readers, it's easy for us to feel overwhelmed by the plight of these vulnerable young people. These crimes often take place in plain sight, so if we can raise awareness through our books there's a chance that readers who see something suspicious will report it to the police and help a potential victim. Reports can be made to the police or to the Modern Slavery helpline on 08000 121 700.
But don't ever get personally involved. These gangs are ruthless.
Do you have any advice for new writers?
· Find your writer tribe. Writing can be lonely, so writers’ groups – local ones that meet in person and online groups on Facebook – can give us the support we need.
· You don’t have to write what you know. Draw on it, by all means, but give your imagination a free rein to be creative. Books would be very boring if we only wrote about our own lives.
· Read, read, read! Sounds obvious, doesn’t it, especially if you’ve been a reader all your life. But I’ve been surprised to learn (from a friend who lectures on a creative writing degree course) that many of her writing students don’t read! I once heard a quote (and I’ve searched online but can’t find who said it) something like:
If you have the arrogance to write, have the humility to read.
I think that just about sums it up. We’re nothing without readers.
You can buy The Girl in the Van at https://geni.us/GirlinTheVan
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