This Writing Life

In a postscript to This Writing Life's interview chat with Rebecca Thornton, about her debut novel The Exclusives, we talk about her writing life: loneliness, drawing the curtains during the day, chatting at the school dates, disconnecting from Facebook, procrastination, Massive Attack, writing with two young sons desperate to bthe laptop. Most importantly she answers the question: do you like writing?

In a postscript to This Writing Life's interview chat with Rebecca Thornton, about her debut novel The Exclusives, we talk about her writing life: loneliness, drawing the curtains during the day, chatting at the school dates, disconnecting from Facebook, procrastination, Massive Attack, writing with two young sons desperate to bthe laptop. Most importantly she answers the question: do you like writing?

Part 3 of Rebecca Thornton's interview with This Writing Life begins with a discussion of the Faber Academy writing course, which kickstarted the composition of her debut novel, The Exclusives. After some kind words about Esther Freud and Tim Lott (see part one for more about Tim), Rebecca talks about how the course works, including the terror of reading her romantic comedy in front of her class. ----more----From here we moved to:

• what kept her writing when she was most discouraged?

There is a short PS to come...

Part two of This Writing Life's conversation with Rebecca Thornton, about her debut novel The Exclusives, begins with a discussion of what perfection means to her characters. This is not something we know much about at This Writing Life. But anyway. Rebecca compares her feelings as a teenager to what perfection means to her today as a writer and mother. ----more----From here we reverse towards the evolution of The Exclusives itself, from romantic comedy to dark-hearted thriller. We plunge on to:

• writing as a form of therapy

Part 3 of 3 to follow.

Rebecca Thornton's The Exclusives is a debut novel: a thriller about friendship, paranoia, success and secrets set in an all-girls boarding school. This Writing Life didn't need a second invitation to talk to Rebecca at her publishers in central London. ----more----The setting was a glass meeting room, which later inspired a lesson in how Thornton's mind works like her fiction. But after a little to and fro about swearing, we began by discussing the intensity of writing the novel itself. This had something to do with readers' fascination with the possible autobiographical elements of the story: Thornton like her heroines went to an exclusive boarding school. From here we touched upon:

• how it felt to release the novel out into the world

Part 2 of 3 to follow.

Our next guest on This Writing Life is Rebecca Thornton, whose debut novel The Exclusives was published in paperback earlier this year. We talked in a glass-fronted meeting-room at her London publisher, twenty7. The setting played its part when I asked about Rebecca's decision to write a thriller packed with more menace, paranoia and betrayal than a game of murder in the dark at Trump Towers. 

Part 1 of 3 to follow.

Neil Richards, Matt Costello and This Writing Life bid adieu to Hotel Xanadu in the third part of their podcast about cosy mysteries, the Cherringham crime series and working as a writing team. Our final instalment begins with a brief discussion of one of their many sidelines: writing videogames.----more----

From here we skipped to:

• the multi-media project they couldn't talk about it at the time

You can purchase Dead in the Water: here.

Part two of This Writing Life's chat with ace writing team Neil Richards and Matt Costello opens with a discussion of their first novel, Dead in the Water. Set in their bucolic, fictional Cotswolds village of Cherringham, it stars Jack, a retired New York City cop, and Sarah, a single-mother of two. Having teamed up as crime fighters in previous episodes, the dynamic duo eventually reunites to solve the mysterious death of a local teacher. ----more----Matt explains how the story - involving drugs, the resurgence of raves and hot-dog vans - began. From here we moved to:

• the joys and challenges of collaboration

Part 3 of 3 to follow.

This Writing Life has talked to a pair of writers before: David Mitchell and Michel Faber. But Neil Richards and Matt Costello are the first bona fide writing team. We meet, ostensibly, to discuss Dead in the Water, the first full-length novel in their already successful 'Cherringham' e-book crime series: previous episodes have consisted of short stories and novellas.

----more----But we quickly branch off to talk about their collaborative work for television, video games - and on the day we met - a top secret movie project. After a little podcast skulduggery, we begin by gently denigrating Gloucester, pondering Xanadu, displaying American and reserved English accents before starting at the beginning of their writing partnership. From here, we turn to:

• the background and evolution of 'Cherringham'

Part two of three to follow.

As a trailer for This Writing Life's next interview - with crime fiction, video game and script-writing team Neil Richards and Matt Costello - our dynamic duo talk about the benefits of a late start, and offer a little advice for budding authors.