As I'm Swedish born, I read Pippi Longstocking and all the Selma Lagerlof books, as well as The Famous five and all the Heidi books, just the sort of stuff an ordinary little girl would read. As soon as I got into my teens I read only adult fiction, searching in my parents hidden cupboards for such naughty gems as "I am Curious Yellow" but I also devoured Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky and other international classical authors. Science fiction was my favourite genre however... I've read them all!
Would you say your childhood and teenage reading has had a distinct influence on how you write fiction now, and why?
Not really... I'm a psychological thriller writer and my inspiration comes more from my work as a psychotherapist and also from my travels.
What did you do before you became a published novelist, and how did you come to write your first novel and get it published?
I've had many professions, but the most important has been a career as sculptor and stone-carver. I trained as a psychotherapist and worked in this profession for fifteen years. I also studied law for a time and worked as a notary public. My writing began with a syndicated column with a newspaper group. I spent many years putting together this weekly column until I got desperately fed-up with it. I enjoyed writing however, and decided to do a Master's degree in Creative Writing. My dissertation became my best-selling debut novel. It was published by a tiny local publisher and subsequently was short-listed for a couple of important awards. It was dizzying up-hill trajectory from there.
How would you describe your style of fiction or your approach to writing fiction during your first few novels?
My novels, but two, are in the genre of psychological suspense. Obviously I used my experience as psychotherapist and understanding of the human psyche to develop the complex machinations of my characters. Writing a brilliant novel is a difficult and mind-boggling challenge, and I feel that I'm constantly learning and evolving. My approach is more or less linear, but I do at least three or four drafts. I try to be disciplined about writing separate biographies for my characters, so that they will come alive in my mind before I even start tackling the story. It cuts down of later modifications and makes them more whole and congruous. I love exotic settings and doing research for these.
How would you describe your style of fiction or your approach to writing fiction now?
I've only been writing for a decade, and my approach has not changed much, but I have difficulty in getting out of some bad habits. I tend to start slowly, put the work down for days, sometime weeks at a time, picking it up again... until my agent puts her foot down and gives me a deadline. Then I work for several months, up to ten hours a day, and think of nothing else. My style seems to remain the same too, but hopefully improving in quality.
Was your first published novel standalone or part of a series, and what advantages or disadvantages did this present for you?
All my novels are standalones. I know a series is very convenient and I know many authors have defaulted into series because it makes life so much easier to have your setting and characters already pat and in place. Series are also popular with readers, but there is no challenge in this for me. I'd be bored.
Did you find writing your second novel easier or more challenging than writing your first novel and why?
In my opinion writing the second novel is perhaps the most challenging of all. For me it certainly was, as my first novel ICE TRAP became an international bestseller. Hundreds of fans were writing to me asking for my next novel, and I was mortified, sure I'd let them down. I felt as if I was a fraud, and had gotten away with some tremendous scam, and as soon as I penned another word, I'd be found out. As it happened, my second novel, BLOODPRINT, did as well as ICE TRAP. But as with almost all bestselling debuts, there will be the inevitable comparisons.
Who is another novelist whose fiction writing you admire and why?
I've read all of Kate Atkinson's novels, and each one is better than the last. I love her humble kind of style which, in its simplicity, hides a tremendous amount of wisdom, compassion and humour.
Pick a series of novels you have written. How would you describe what makes that a cohesive series with strong appeal for readers? If you have not written a series of novels, how would you describe what makes one of your favourite series by another novelist a cohesive series with strong appeal for readers?
I rarely read series, for the same reason I don't write them. Having said this I'm very impressed with Henning Mankell's inspector detective Wallander series. And of course Stieg Larsson triology also had me riveted. I admit that I sometimes endulge in a spot of Lee Child. I find his crime-solving drifter, Jack Reacher, devastatingly sexy. What is the appeal for the reader? I can only surmise that it has to do with the yearning for familiarity, a sense of comfort in knowing your main character. There might be an element of laziness too, not having to do much thinking as you read. Knowing you've liked other novels in the series, there is less risk of disappointment, and money wasted.
How would you summarise one of your novels in one paragraph?
The Rock of Gibraltar; an other-worldly lime-stone megalith, rising from the sea and piercing the sky, a growing financial centre with a tourist façade of tacky Britishness. What Eva, Imogen and Sebastian Moonley discover, is hidden underneath this veneer. The Rock is layered with history, peculiarities and mystique, its interior honeycombed by tunnels and caves. In search of spiritual enlightenment and sexual adventure 18-year-old Imogen forms a peculiar attachment to Carlo Montegriffo, an enigmatic middle-aged Gibraltarian. Her brother Sebastian, a brilliant young structural engineer of international reputation, disapproves of his sister’s exploits and strives to protect her. Concurrently he battles with the authorities for the radically innovative land reclamation project that will launch him to the sky, but he finds that playing God is not for the weak. His secretive wife Eva is on the run from a past that is slowly catching up with her. She finds out that from The Rock there is no quick escape.Their trials culminate in a chamber, hidden deep under the thirty-three miles of tunnels that perforate The Rock.
How would you describe the appeal of this novel to readers?
I have just finished the novel, but ENTOMBMENT is a haunting story about genius, obsession, desire and madness, all the things that drive us humans to the brink of our endurance.
Author website: www.kittysewell.com
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