Ask the Author: Kathy Shuker
Answered Questions (11)
Kathy Shuker
The greatest mysteries in my life revolve around my forebears. It seems to be a fact of life that we only become really interested in our recent ancestors when there are few people left alive to shed any light on them. My paternal grandfather married twice. He hailed from northeast Yorkshire yet spent much of his life around Liverpool. I have often wondered how he came to do that and also about how he came to meet his second wife, my grandmother. She grew up in Shropshire. I never met her but I have always been intrigued by the family 'story' that she felt unfavourably compared to her husband's late first wife. Was that because of a natural insecurity or did something happen to make her feel that way? I shall never know but the idea intrigued me and ultimately, changed and developed, became part of the plot of my second novel, Silent Faces, Painted Ghosts.
Kathy Shuker
I realised when I thought about this that the couples who have stayed in my head most have been ones from the 'classics' which I read while I was still at school. That must say a lot for the strength of the characterisation. Clearly Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy would be front runners. Then there is Bathsheba Everdene and Gabriel Oak from Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd. Last but not least, there is Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester created by Charlotte Bronte. All these couples bring the enticing conflict of strong personalities drawn together by an emotion they are incapable of resisting, and they all ultimately flout convention and the opinions of society to be together. Powerful writing and timeless in its impact. I'd struggle to choose one.
Kathy Shuker
Hi Chris. Thank you for the question. Yes, I live in Devon and I've drawn a lot on places I know as the background for my books. I've changed them and fictionalised the settings but try to keep the nature and atmosphere as real as possible. My second book was set in Provence which is a region I also know well. I think it must be hard to mentally place yourself in a setting if you don't know it personally - at least to some extent. Before I start writing I always draw a map of the village/area that I have created and, if there's a large house involved, a floor plan and map of the estate. It helps to keep everything clear in my mind (and I love to do it!) Best wishes, Kathy
Kathy Shuker
No problem, Mel. I saw on the DBC thread that you haven't been well. Hope you're feeling better. Not long till your new book is out now! Do you have a lot planned?
My next book is due in September. The title is 'That Still and Whispering Place'. It's another character-driven mystery, this time set in Cornwall and revolves around the disappearance of a nine-year-old girl from a small village, a place where everyone knows everyone else's business - or thought they did.
My next book is due in September. The title is 'That Still and Whispering Place'. It's another character-driven mystery, this time set in Cornwall and revolves around the disappearance of a nine-year-old girl from a small village, a place where everyone knows everyone else's business - or thought they did.
Kathy Shuker
Hi Mel! Thanks for getting in touch. I live near Kingsbridge in the South Hams. Congratulations on the forthcoming book. I've got a new one in the pipeline too so I know what a lot of work and preparation is involved!
Where are you?
Where are you?
Kathy Shuker
I've been struck for some time by how little we tend to know about our families - maybe a little about our parents' history and background, occasionally something about our grandparents. But there are often holes, sometimes big ones, and occasionally what we think we know is not true at all. That became clear to me watching successive episodes of 'Who Do You Think You Are' on the television. Over and over again we saw well-known people finding out that things they had assumed were fact were actually family myth, sometimes fabricated to hide an unpleasant truth. It got me thinking... And Silent Faces, Painted Ghosts was the result.
Kathy Shuker
It's usually people's stories which spark my imagination: something I've heard on the news or read in a newspaper. It's just a starting point from which I develop an idea or a character. And I'm afraid I'm a people watcher. I don't do it consciously most of the time but I tend to notice confrontations, people looking sad or cross or anything unusual in someone behaviour. It gets my imagination going, wondering what the story is behind it.
Kathy Shuker
I'm nearing the final stages of writing a novel set in Provence, at the strained and silent family estate of Peter, a reclusive portrait painter. He's planning a retrospective exhibition and employs Terri to curate it. But, researching his paintings and his past, she finds pictures that have been wilfully destroyed and a web of dark secrets and family lies. And finding out what happened soon becomes an obsession when the stakes become personal.
The title of the is novel is The Picasso Room and it will be published later this year. More details will be available shortly on my GR page, on my website: www.kathyshuker.co.uk and on Facebook.
The title of the is novel is The Picasso Room and it will be published later this year. More details will be available shortly on my GR page, on my website: www.kathyshuker.co.uk and on Facebook.
Kathy Shuker
Write! Sorry if that sounds simplistic but the only way to learn is to write and keep on doing it even when you think it's complete rubbish. Don't get disheartened. I wrote a few novels before I thought one was worth publishing. You have to practice to get better. And the first draft of my stories is always awful. The real writing starts when I've got the basic ideas down and I begin to rewrite. Then I keep rewriting till it's as good as I can get it. I keep learning every time I write. If you've got something to say, DON'T GIVE UP! That's my advice.
Kathy Shuker
Good question! Lots of things. I love inhabiting the worlds I create, getting to know my characters and how they will react to what life will throw at them, juggling all the different pieces of the jigsaw so the plot intertwines but hopefully comes out making sense at the end! I also love playing with the language, choosing the right words to - with luck - create the same image in the mind of the reader as I have in my own. Despite the inevitable angst, it's a privilege to be able to do it.
Kathy Shuker
I don't think I've ever suffered complete writer's block fortunately. I write fiction and If I'm stuck with a scene or a section of plot I distance myself for a short while, try to do something easy on the mind like taking a walk or working in the garden. Then my sub-conscious seems to work on it and often the answer just comes to me. If I try too hard I can just go round in circles. Coming back to a story with fresh eyes is invaluable.
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