It was great to share a stage with Lucy Atkins and Laura Lockington at the Shoreham Wordfest discussion of Domestic Chillers.
Rosalind Turner, the organiser of Wordfest, had spotted the parallels in our novels. In both the heroine is a mother with a small child who is struggling to cope. She needs to find out the truth about the people around her and she is in the dark and in danger. And in both there is a chilling and obsessive woman who holds the key to understanding.
Laura, our facilitator, wanted to know where our inspiration had come from? Mine had been personal because I had felt undermined by a colleague at work. This had given me the idea of the character, Heja, who tries to destroy her colleague Kathy and hides it brilliantly. Kathy feels all her work errors are of her own making. Gradually her home life as well as her work life starts to fall apart.
Lucy's inspiration came from an article she had read about a remarkable woman called Alexandra Morton who studied the language of killer whales in Canada. This inspired her fantastic setting of British Columbia and the backstory of Elena, the dead mother of Kali her heroine.
We had both created cold and obsessive women. My character Heja has formidable reserves of control. Kathy is an open book and is no match for her. Likewise Lucy had devised Susannah who was friends with Kali's mother. She is downright chilling in her reactions to Kali who comes to see her to find out about her mother's past.
We discussed obsession and I said that we all have a dark side which we hide from the world, and often from ourselves. Sometimes something happens which tips a person into full blown obsession and extreme behaviour. Lucy said that when you discovered someone close to you was a psychopath it was so much more terrifying than it being a stranger.
We agreed that there is something particularly frightening when the threat comes right into your house, among all your everyday and familiar things and this was probably the origin of the term domestic chiller.
Laura asked us about the power of mothers. In my novel it is clear that Heja's critical withholding mother has contributed to her psychological disturbance. Likewise in Lucy's book Kali had struggled in her relationship with her mother who was secretive and unpredictable.
We had a lively and engaged audience who wanted to know do our characters go on living in our heads after the book is written? Yes I said. I often think 'that was a rather Heja thing to do.' No said Lucy. Once written I've left them behind.
Rosalind Turner, the organiser of Wordfest, had spotted the parallels in our novels. In both the heroine is a mother with a small child who is struggling to cope. She needs to find out the truth about the people around her and she is in the dark and in danger. And in both there is a chilling and obsessive woman who holds the key to understanding.
Laura, our facilitator, wanted to know where our inspiration had come from? Mine had been personal because I had felt undermined by a colleague at work. This had given me the idea of the character, Heja, who tries to destroy her colleague Kathy and hides it brilliantly. Kathy feels all her work errors are of her own making. Gradually her home life as well as her work life starts to fall apart.
Lucy's inspiration came from an article she had read about a remarkable woman called Alexandra Morton who studied the language of killer whales in Canada. This inspired her fantastic setting of British Columbia and the backstory of Elena, the dead mother of Kali her heroine.
We had both created cold and obsessive women. My character Heja has formidable reserves of control. Kathy is an open book and is no match for her. Likewise Lucy had devised Susannah who was friends with Kali's mother. She is downright chilling in her reactions to Kali who comes to see her to find out about her mother's past.
We discussed obsession and I said that we all have a dark side which we hide from the world, and often from ourselves. Sometimes something happens which tips a person into full blown obsession and extreme behaviour. Lucy said that when you discovered someone close to you was a psychopath it was so much more terrifying than it being a stranger.
We agreed that there is something particularly frightening when the threat comes right into your house, among all your everyday and familiar things and this was probably the origin of the term domestic chiller.
Laura asked us about the power of mothers. In my novel it is clear that Heja's critical withholding mother has contributed to her psychological disturbance. Likewise in Lucy's book Kali had struggled in her relationship with her mother who was secretive and unpredictable.
We had a lively and engaged audience who wanted to know do our characters go on living in our heads after the book is written? Yes I said. I often think 'that was a rather Heja thing to do.' No said Lucy. Once written I've left them behind.
THE LIE OF YOU is published by Head of Zeus. I am on Twitter @janelythell
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