Tag Archives: Novelist

My Writing Process Joe Thomas

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psycho, joe thomasWhat you have written, past and present

I am the author of a quartet of standalone but connected novels set in São Paulo, where I lived for ten years – Paradise City, Gringa, Playboy, and Brazilian Psycho. I have also published Bent, a historical crime novel set in Soho in the 1960’s and behind the lines in Italy during the Second World War, based on the life of war hero and notorious detective Harold ‘Tanky’ Challenor, who was in the SAS with my grandfather.

What you are promoting now

My latest novel, Brazilian Psycho, is an occult history of the city of São Paulo from 2003 – 2019, told through the lens of real-life crimes. It reveals the dark heart at the centre of the Brazilian social-democrat resurgence and the fragility and corruption of the B.R.I.C economic miracle; it documents the rise and fall of the left-wing – and the rise of the populist right.

The novel features the chaos and score-settling of the PCC drug gang rebellion over Mothers’ Day weekend, 2006; the murder of a British school headmaster and the consequent cover-up; a copycat serial killer; the secret international funding of nationwide anti-government protests; the bribes, kickbacks and shakedowns of the Mensalão and Lava Jato political corruption scandals.

psycho, joe thomas

A bit about your process of writing

I am a crime novelist interested in fiction based on fact, inspired by true stories of structural inequality. My fiction addresses the discourses of power and the specificity of crime, why something happened precisely where it did, and is an attempt to illuminate the reasons why. 

I tend to plan my novels loosely and read a good deal before beginning the writing. Once I have a defined structure, then I write in earnest. At this point, I will research, plan, and write at the same time. What this means is that I write one section of a novel and read around the section that follows. I find that this keeps everything fresh! 

In terms of structure, I tend to think in units of time, so do I want each chapter or section to cover a day, a week, six months, etc. As so much of what I write is based on reality, these units of time are often defined for me; I simply follow what happened and when! I find this both an anchor and liberating, too, in terms of having that tightly defined framework to exploit fictionally.

I want to be thought of as a writer pushing the form and writing political, meaningful, literary crime fiction. My goal is to build a body of work and I am very lucky to have the opportunity to do just that.

What about word count?

I have a very irritating habit: whenever I stop writing, or even pause for a moment, the word count has to end in either zero or five. I will tinker with sentences for this to be the case! In some ways it helps with editing; in others it is likely counter-productive!

What do you find hard about writing?

Having to overcome my own irritating habits! I used to think that I had to write first thing in the morning to produce anything of quality; since having a son – who is now twenty-months old – I am learning to use any part of the day I can. This is not always easy!

What do you love about writing?

I love that the days when I do it feel better than the days when I don’t.

Brazilian Psycho by Joe Thomas is out now in hardback by Arcadia.

 

Ditching the daily grind and taking off in a camper van was novelist Rosanna Ley’s fantasy. Then she and her husband actually tried it… 

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Who doesn’t fantasise about getting away from it all? Escaping the daily grind, travelling to somewhere warm and wonderful? Who doesn’t occasionally dream of cloudless blue skies, golden beaches and a sparkly Mediterranean sea – not just for a week or two on an annual holiday, but for longer… much longer?

Ten years ago, my husband Grey and I resolved to make this fantasy a reality. We were both in our frivolous 50s. We had both spent our adult lives working full-time. And we were both a little weary. Where had the excitement in life gone? We seemed to have reached some sort of turning point – a bit ‘do or die’. Now that the children had left home – almost – shouldn’t we be thinking about doing something we’d always dreamed of?

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‘If we weren’t working,’ Grey said mournfully one day, ‘we could just up sticks and leave.’

‘Leave?’ I echoed. It sounded so final. My younger daughter was still living at home, although she too had the travel bug and was planning to visit Australia for a year. How could we just leave? And what about all our… stuff?

‘We’ve got far too much,’ he declared dismissively. ‘We’ll do a car-boot sale, put the rest of our stuff in storage, rent out the house and go.’

Grey made it sound so easy. I thought of those clear blue skies, imagined the writing inspiration that might be had from such a trip.

But this shared dream was just a fantasy – wasn’t it? Couples talk like this all the time – well, we do. We go somewhere on holiday and by day two we’re looking in estate agents’ windows. It doesn’t mean we’ll be moving there anytime soon.

But a few days later, we spent our savings on a camper van. (Yes, the woman who dithers over cans of beans in the supermarket can spend £20,000 on a second-hand camper van in the blink of an eye.)

Should we have done this earlier, later, never? Were we too young or too old for a camper van? Who cared? We so fell in love with that van and were soon trundling off happily for weekends in Dorset. But it wasn’t enough. It was like a drug. We needed more of the open road. We needed to be living our dream.

So we took the plunge. I gave up my teaching job, Grey wound down his client diary. We cleared the house and begged the loan of friends’ garages for storage of all our worldly goods. We organised shelter for my younger daughter until she went to Australia and for my elder daughter who had moved back home to save up for a trip to South America. What was going on with this family?

We redecorated the house and advertised it for rent – this would be our income. We would go on a road trip – for six months or more. We would live close to nature. We would make our own entertainment – Scrabble and reading, no TV for us! We would be free to go wherever the wind blew us. It was a fantasy, yes. But we would make it come true.

Our day of departure dawned. We waved goodbye to my daughters and headed for Dover. We had done it. We were on the road and heading for Italy.

The first two weeks were wonderful. OK, there were some minor hiccups. We hadn’t taken into account the hilly terrain in Liguria – many a steep, narrow road proved too much for our van. Nor had we realised that campsites in Italy were so expensive. And we hadn’t dreamed it would be so hot. (I will never complain about air-conditioning in an apartment in the Med ever again.)

Getting stuck up a mountain on a tight bend, damaging the camper van’s back panel in a complex manoeuvre designed to get us to the beachfront then getting lost while scrambling down a hillside of olive trees… Such things are bound to make tempers fray – especially in that heat. And in our haste to be free of all our possessions we had forgotten a few vital pieces of equipment – such as the coffee maker and the duct tape. But that’s what it’s all about, we reminded ourselves, as we settled in for another interminable game of Scrabble. It’s about having exciting adventures, new experiences, being free. And there’s always another camper vanner around with an unfeasibly large toolkit to help out in times of trouble.

But, two weeks in, things were not going as smoothly as we’d hoped. Our van was small – with the table erected, the person trapped on the far side could barely breathe, let alone move – and we had to make up the bed from scratch (or should I say slats?) every night. Yes, every night. It’s surprising – even when you have little else to do all day – how very tedious this can become.

It turns out that – surprise, surprise – size matters. Claustrophobia set in. We tried to stay outdoors most of the time but, actually, it rains quite a bit in Italy. Still, we remained cheerful. This was our shared dream, remember. If this was what it took to make that dream come true…

By week three, like Napoleon once was, we were exiled on the island of Elba. And very nice it was too, we agreed, as we sampled the delicious gelato. But money was getting tight, which meant two things. One, we had to eat in – every day. And two, we couldn’t afford to stay in campsites. But, hey, weren’t we at one with nature? Heating up bottles of water on the dashboard for an outside shower after a day on the beach only went to show how resourceful we had become.

And, as all camper vanners know, there is an alternative to campsites – it’s called ‘wild camping’. In our fantasy, this meant finding deserted beauty spots in which to park the van and gaze out at an unspoilt landscape. In reality, it meant car parks (marginally safer and quieter than roadside parking, though I didn’t say this the night half a dozen youngsters practised their motorbiking skills around the car park at 2am).

How to keep the shared dream alive

  • Remember that sometimes a fantasy is more fun when it stays in your head
  • Check from time to time that you still want the same things
  • Value what you leave behind – you won’t know how much you miss it till it’s gone
  • Have a back-up plan
  • And don’t forget the Scrabble dictionary!

In one such car park we met some friendly Italian camper vanners, immune to the hordes of mosquitoes we fought to escape from at twilight every night, who showed us around their (much larger and homelier) van with pride. There was a language barrier, which may explain why they left the car park and we stayed – only to wake up at 5am with a raucous Italian market setting up around us and no way out. But, well, it’s all part of the fun.

Back at home, we had friends, family and colleagues to chat to; on the road we had each other. It was good to have so much time to talk. But… in small spaces, over time, conversations with your nearest and dearest can become a little, shall we say, intense. Past misdemeanours and misunderstandings that you may or may not have forgiven may once again rear their heads. But we could get through this – together.

It was lucky we were so close, we kept telling ourselves. But did we want to be quite that close? All the time? We had given up material things – but had we also lost sight of civilisation? When we eventually left Elba, Grey was following a camper van with GB plates at breakneck speed. I glanced across at him (by this point we didn’t need words).

‘They’re British! Why don’t they pull over and talk to us?’ he asked me through gritted teeth.

This, let me tell you, is what travelling in a camper van can do to a person.

And then autumn arrived, and it began to get cold. We realised with a feeling of mounting horror what this meant – more time in the van, together. More talking, more Scrabble, more opportunity to examine our relationship. Did we really want that? Could we survive?

We considered travelling further south in search of sunnier climes. But funnily enough, driving was beginning to feel monotonous, too. And finding places to sleep at night was also becoming a strain. It was still great to be on the road – but wouldn’t it be even better to stop in one place for a while?

‘Why not just dump the van and rent an apartment?’ Grey suggested.

I stared at him. Dump the van? Rent an apartment? What about our shared dream?

‘Somewhere hot,’ he continued. ‘The Canaries?’

Which is how we came to leave our van in Italy – to be collected in the spring – and book a flight to Fuerteventura. Sod the expense. We rented an apartment with entire rooms to be alone in. It had a bed that remained a bed, day and night, and a bathroom with proper drains – no chemical toilet to empty and clean. Pure bliss.

We started enjoying each other’s company again. We began looking forward to returning home. That’s right. Going back home became our new shared dream.

Rosanna’s latest novel The Lemon Tree Hotel is published by Quercus in hardback, priced £20.99.

 

Frost Interview | Novelist Hannah Fielding

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We were very excited to interview The Echoes of Love: A Story of Secrets, Tragedy and Haunting Love in Venice
author Hannah Fielding. Hannah is a great writer and is very well travelled. Read on for her thoughts on her novel, getting published, her writing routine and her favourite places. Portrait of Hannah Fielding and photos of where she writes.

Tell us about your novel

Seduction, passion and the chance for new love is at the heart of The Echoes of Love.

Set in the romantic and mysterious city of Venice, the beautiful landscape of Tuscany and the wild maquis of Sardinia, The Echoes of Love is a touching love story that unfolds at the turn of the new millennium.

What is your writing routine?

I have a very rigid routine which has served me well. Having researched my facts thoroughly, I plan my novel down to the smallest detail. Planning ahead, I have found, makes the writing so much easier and therefore so much more enjoyable. Then, when I am ready to begin writing, I settle into a regular routine – writing each morning andediting the previous day’s work, taking a break for lunch, writing a little more and then going for a walk somewhere inspirational, like the woods or the beach.

How hard was it to get published?

This only gets more difficult. As readers move from paperback to ebooks, publishers are developing new business models and nothing stays the same. My new publisher resulted from the very positive reception of my first book, Burning Embers, which was published by Omnific in the USA. Working with a London publisher and a younger team is very different, but just as enjoyable.

Why did you choose Venice as a setting for your novel?

I first visited Venice as a young child. Then, as now, I was wide-eyed and enchanted by the beauty of the city. I distinctly remember standing in the main square, the Piazza St Marco, gazing up at the stunning architecture of Saint Mark’s Basilica, and feeling I had somehow entered another world – a fairytale world. Then I looked down, at the square itself, which was overrun by hordes of pigeons. There was nothing beautiful about those birds. They were quite spoiling the place. And it struck me then that Venice is a city of two faces: that which the tourists flock to admire, that makes the city the capital of romance, that breathes new life into the imagination and leaves a permanent, inspirational impression. And the other side, the darker side, that which is concealed in what Erica Jong called ‘the city of mirrors, the city of mirages’.

When I returned to the city as an adult, I became quite fascinated by the concept of Venice – what it means to be Venetian; what the city really is beneath the layers of history and grandeur and legend. Frida Giannini wrote, ‘Venice never quite seemsreal, but rather an ornate film set suspended on the water.’ I understand this quote – there is something fairytale about the place, and with that comes some reluctance, perhaps, to see the realism beyond.

Venice so captured my imagination that I knew some day I would write a romance novel set in this most elegant and fascinating of cities. But it had to be the right story to fit the place. For me, that meant a story that reflected the two faces of Venice – the mask she wears, and the true form beneath.

Tell us about your characters

Venetia Aston-Montagu is a young architect in her mid-twenties who has already suffered heartbreak and loss. Brought up by a despotic father and a weak mother who always deferred to her husband, she can’t wait to leave home and work in Venicein her Italian godmother’s architectural practice. Her past experience has left her reserved and wary of men, but deep down she is a romantic who dreams of meeting the man of her dreams.

Paolo Barone is a millionaire Italian entrepreneur in his mid-thirties who has also had his share of suffering, which makes him at times taciturn. The affinity he feels for Venetia is instant. To start off with, like Venetia, he is afraid of the power of the emotions. Still, Paolo’s past and present are filled with secrets that he jealously keeps locked up in his heart, even from Venetia.

Is Venice the most romantic city?

Italy, for me, is the most romantic country in the world, and Venice is the best of its many ancient and beautiful cities. That is why time and again it tops the polls as the most romantic city in the world.

There are so many reasons I can give for this: the stunning architecture, the sense of history all around, the romantic music, the sublime cuisine, the colours of the buildings and their reflections in the water, the Casanova connection, the passionate

Venetians and their beautiful language, the dreamy drift of the lagoon, the blend of hubbub and calming serenity, the exciting Carnival, the gondolas that bear you around the city in such a timeless, gliding fashion…

You were born in Egypt and have travelled a lot. Where are your favourite

places?

1. Aswan, Egypt

One my favourite places in the world is the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan in southern

Egypt. Built on a granite promontory in the Nubian Desert on the banks of the Nile,

the dark pink edifice, in the style of Belle Époque villas of the 19th century, has

retained all the beauty and splendour of yester-years.

 

2. The Rift Valley, Kenya

I set my debut novel, Burning Embers, in Kenya because after visiting the country

as a young woman I was captivated by the scenery and the people. The Rift Valley,

in particular, took my breath away, and I could not resist writing a balloon ride into

Burning Embers to allow my heroine, Coral, to take in the magnificent landscape.

 

3. St Paul de Vence

A beautiful hilltop village in Provence, and one of the oldest – founded in the ninth

century. It is known as Le Bijou de la Côte d’Azur (The Jewel of the Côte d’Azur).

The French painter Marc Chagaechoesoflovehannahfieldingll made the village his home for 20 years, and here he

painted wonderfully warm pictures that pay homage to love, some of which can be

viewed at La Fondation Maeght , 623 Chemin des Gardettes.

Your first novel was published last year. Was this one harder to write?

Yes. Because Burning Embers had such a good response, I found The Echoes of

Love a much more challenging experience because I wanted to live up to my readers’ expectations.

 

What next?

I have written a trilogy set in Andalucía, Spain, spanning three generations of a

Spanish/English family, from 1950 to the present day.

Greece is also on the map for a new Hannah Fielding romance novel. I am now in the process of researching and planning a very dramatic love story that takes place on one of the many Greek Islands. I chose Greece because I know that captivating country and its people well – I have good Greek friends. I bought my wedding dress in Athens and my husband and I honeymooned on Rhodes Island. Greek mythology was part of the literature course I read at university and Greece is not far from Alexandria, where I grew up.