In conversation with... Sanjida Kay
A: Thank you! My Mother’s Secret is told from the point of view of three women: Lizzie Bradshaw, Emma Taylor, and her teenage daughter, Stella. Stella thinks that her mother has a secret. She knows her mother had a traumatic childhood, and that she’s an unusually anxious person, who sometimes has panic attacks. But she believes her mother is hiding something bigger, and Stella is determined to find out what it is. As Emma tries to keep her secret, Lizzie is caught up in a terrible crime… and Stella’s investigations will uncover something truly shocking that could shatter all their lives.
I write, ‘My mother has a secret.’
Did you have the plot entirely figured out when you started writing or did it develop before your eyes as the characters grew on the page and did something that you were not expecting?
A: I write a book a year - for My Mother’s Secret, that meant 2,500 words a day during school hours. If I didn’t hit my word count, the walk to pick my daughter up from school would be filled with figures - I’d calculate that tomorrow, I’d need to write 3,500 words, and if I didn’t hit that word count, the day after would be…well, tricky, to say the least.
I do write fast but what enables me to
keep up this word count is because, before I begin, I spend a couple of months
plotting my novel, scene by scene, until I have an outline of between 6 and
10,000 words.
In the
synopsis for My Mother’s Secret, some
of these scenes were pretty sketchy. Scene
52: Stella and Adam getting closer. I didn’t know how these two teenagers would get closer, but I knew they had to, and they had to do it at that point in the story. But finding
out, when I got there, how Stella and Adam grow closer, is part of the joy of
the process and the magic of writing.
How did you
choose the locations that are featured in the novel, which are almost
characters in their own right?
A: Thank
you! The settings in my novels are extremely important to me. A detailed
backdrop in fiction helps create a tangible world for one’s characters, as well
as being a tool the writer can use to heighten tension or thicken the
atmosphere. For instance, my main character, Emma Taylor, lives in a leafy
suburb of Bristol: Long Ashton. The ‘world’ this woman inhabits tells us a lot
about who we think she is: middle class, comfortably off, the kind of person who
shops in M&S for a treat and takes her youngest daughter to ballet lessons.
It seems calm, safe, secure. Emma, though, is tense and anxious: she’s hiding a
secret from everyone she knows, so Long Ashton appears the perfect place for
her.
Belle Isle
in Leeds city centre, where Lizzie Bradshaw works, really is a dark and
dangerous place and is a great contrast to the wild freedom that Lizzie has
when she returns to the Lake District where she lives.
Stella,
Emma’s fourteen-year-old daughter, is determined to discover what her mother’s
secret is. She’s a spiky, book-obsessed girl, and constantly reads Jane Eyre to make herself feel less
anxious. Many of the Bristol scenes take place at Tyntesfield, a gothic mansion
near Long Ashton. The architecture and the claustrophobia of the rooms mirror
both Stella’s gothic obsession, and the escalating tension in Emma’s life.
And, of
course, in a thriller, nowhere is safe and the places we feel most secure are
often the most dangerous.
Without
giving too much away, can you tell us about a scene in the book that you love
or that was particularly difficult to write?
A: It was a
challenge to write this novel because I didn’t want readers to guess what
Emma’s secret is too early; but then the second half of the book relies on the
reader knowing what the secret is, but then some of characters aren’t aware of
it. I loved writing about cake though, particularly as I can’t eat gluten and
try not to eat much refined sugar!
Is there
anything that didn’t make it into the final version of the book?
A: No, I
added more! This is the longest novel I’ve written. Even after I’d handed it in
to the publishers, they wanted some tweaks, which made the novel longer.
If you are
already working on your next writing project, would you mind giving us a little
anticipation of what we are to expect?
A: I’m writing another psychological thriller for Corvus Books, provisionally
called The Anniversary. It’s about a
family whose three-year-old daughter drowned a year ago. The mother, Amy, wants
the whole, extended family to go away for the anniversary of her daughter’s
death to try and heal. She books a house on a tiny island in Italy though an
online company… but the holiday goes dangerously wrong. My inspiration for this
one was the rise of online holiday companies, which might not always be the
safest option for travellers…
I lean on the windowsill to look down at the
swimming pool, and something sharp digs into my palm. I wince; embedded in the
heel of my hand is a human tooth. It’s tiny with a sharp point, a dull ivory,
with a hollow where it once grew in a child’s jaw.
Due to the
popularity of social networking websites, interacting with readers – be it via
Twitter, Facebook Instagram etc. – is becoming increasingly important. How do
you cope with these new demands on authors and do you think that they somehow
disrupt your writing schedule?
A: I like connecting with readers and trying to think laterally - I mean,
writers look very boring as they sit at a desk pretty much all day - so trying
to make Posts and Tweets and Stories interesting and diverse is an enjoyable
challenge! Having said that, it takes away from the ‘flow’ of writing, so I try
and engage with social media at set times so I don’t get distracted.
What one piece of advice would you give to aspiring writers?
A: I’d say, make time for your writing. Schedule it in to your day as if it’s
an appointment that cannot be missed. Before I was a full-time novelist, I used
to write for two hours early in the morning before I went to work. I’d also
suggest getting some help, either by going on an Arvon retreat, which can be
hugely inspirational, as well as giving you the time and space to write, or
signing up for creative writing tuition. I view myself as a work-in-progress
and have recently completed an online course at masterclass.com with James Patterson. The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne and Story by Robert McKee are incredibly
useful books on writing.
Thank you
for your time!
A: Thank
you for having me!
In case you've missed it, here is a link to my review of My Mother's Secret, which was published on May 3rd, plus the chance to win a copy of this book.
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