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Recently we sat down with Liz Tuckwell to talk about her A Monster Met Book 7 in the Short Sharp Shocks! Series...
DP: Hi Liz, hope you’re doing well. A Monster Met is out at the end of the month – can you tell us about it and how you came up with the idea in the first place? LT: Hello and yes definitely. I went on a Caribbean cruise on of those floating palaces, a cruise ship with over 3,000 passengers, with my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law (nothing like the characters in the story I must add). I enjoyed the cruise very much (what’s not to like?). It made me think about how much we take people at face value on holiday. If someone was a serial killer, how would you know? And serial killers like to kill people. How easy would it be to kill someone on a cruise ship? That was the germ of the idea for the story. DP: And its a great idea for sure – did you have to do a lot of additional research for the story... LT: I’ve had a few holidays on large cruise ships so I knew quite a lot about how they operate and how passengers behave on them. I did google ‘CCTV on cruise ships’ and ‘crew quarters’ on Google and got some very interesting and entertaining results. I also did some research on Canadians and Canada as my ‘hero’ is Canadian to back up my extensive research into Canadian cuisine and alcohol when I went there a few years ago. Google was very useful for serial killers. DP: Just make sure you delete your browsing history though ha ha! Did you have any particular challenges when writing A Monster Met? LT: Trying to think like a serial killer. Trying to think like a male serial killer. Writing a 5,000 word story. It’s not a length I’ve tried much before. DP: And you’ve made a success of it so make sure you keep at it...some writers become so immersed in their work that they actually become one of the characters – did that happen to you and are there are any parts of the story based on your own life (having read your story I’m looking forward to this answer LOL). LT: No, I never felt like I was one of the characters, which is probably reassuring for people who’ve read the story. Yes, the story is partly based on cruises I’ve been on. DP: Ah, shame, shame – I was hoping that you were going to...oh, better not say any more as this is a relatively spoiler free zone, okay, next question: Which authors influenced you? LT: I think I’ve been influenced by Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris and Jasper Fforde. DP: To be honest I haven’t read those authors – so I will resolve that asap...I quite like the look of Fforde’s work...a friend recently recommended Jim Butcher’s books to me as well oddly and Charlaine Harris isn’t doing too badly for herself. So what next for Liz Tuckwell? Anything you can tell us about? LT: Sure. I’ve got a few projects on the go. I’m the sort of person who finds it hard to focus on just one at a time. I’m revising a classic murder mystery with a fantasy element novel, I’ve got a couple of novellas I’m rewriting and I’ve got a batch of short stories that I need to edit and do something with. DP: That’s what I like to hear: a busy writer. With all that going on, do you outline each project before starting or just go for it? LT: I usually have a rough outline, I don’t normally do a detailed one for short stories. For A Monster Met, I had a rough idea of where I wanted it to go. I changed the point where the story started, originally I had more background on Joe, and the ending a couple of times. DP: Interesting, interesting...do you have a favourite theme and / or genre which you write about...also, do you think you learnt anything from writing A Monster Met? LT: My favourite genres are fantasy and science fiction, particularly urban fantasy and alternate history. I do occasionally read horror, I read the anthology Dean edited, Phobophobia (Dark Continents, 2011) and enjoyed that. However, I realised that for me to write a horror story, it has to have some comic elements to balance the horror. I also learnt I can write 5,000 word stories and that I can write horror stories. DP: Well that’s definitely true. Okay, last one – tell us something your readers might not know about you. LT: I’m an identical twin, my sister is ten minutes older than me and never lets me forget it. I’m also learning Esperanto, the universal language for two reasons. 1) I think it’s a great idea although it will never be adopted but wouldn’t it make life easier if it was? And 2) learning a language is good for your brain (apparently) and Esperanto is one of the easiest languages to learn (unlike Klingon or Dothraki etc.) DP: Nice one Liz, nice one. Well, great to speak with you and all the best with A Monster Met. If you want to connect with Liz directly: Twitter: @LizTuckwell1 (more than one of me apparently) www.facebook.com/liztuckwellwriter
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CategoriesArchives
November 2023
AuthorDean M. Drinkel |