Carol Westron is a successful author who has contributed countless book reviews, articles and author interviews to Mystery People.
She is an expert on the Golden Age of Crime Fiction and has presented papers on that subject to a variety of conferences organised by academics, libraries and bookshops up and down the country.
She is also a founder member and moderator of the formidable
Deadly Dames and, for several years, organised and fronted Portsmouth’s Mystery Fest as part of the city’s annual BookFest. In February, I was lucky enough to interview Carol and discover more about her life as a writer of adult and children’s fiction.
Carol Westron: Writing Blog
Dot: Carol, thanks for agreeing to discuss your writing career
with me today. I’ve lots of questions for you but may I
begin by asking you to tell our readers when you first
realised that you wanted to be a writer?
Carol: That’s an interesting one. I’m not sure that there was a specific
moment and for a long time I didn’t really consider writing as
a serious career option for a working-class girl. I loved reading,
I still do, and I had always enjoyed making up stories of my own,
but for many years it was for my own pleasure. I did try sending
this point and was unsuccessful. In the early 1980s I discovered
it was a good way to bribe my children to go to school. I started
to tell my children a long story, a fantasy tale with dragons and
witches, and if they went to school without complaining, I would
promise them a new chapter when they came home. It turned out
to be a good strategy, and I still love the memory of those
afternoons, curled up on the sofa with my three children reading
them a story nobody had ever heard before.
Dot: Did you keep the stories?
Carol: Yes, I got them out last year and gave them a serious edit, and
I now have two books ready to publish when I can spare enough
time from my crime fiction. They are called Enchanters Power
and Enchanter’s Quest.
Dot: And I know that you have already published four children’s books in the Adi and the Dream Train series. Could you say a little bit more about those?
Carol: This is another family-inspired venture, although much later in my writing career than the books we’ve just discussed. One of my grandsons has autism, and he has always loved trains, especially steam trains. When he was about ten, I wrote him a story about a magic train that steamed through the night bringing happy dreams to children who were sad or afraid. In the story, the children could not see the Dream Train, until one night he encountered Adi, a little boy who was different, a child who could see the secrets behind the darkness. I read it to Adam, who liked it and drew some pictures of it, which we used as illustrations for the book. I had already self-published two or three crime novels and the friend who had helped with cover design and lay-out kindly produced the book for him. To my delight, Adam became very interested in the adventures the trains could have and started to contribute new train characters and by the time we wrote Adi and the Ghost Train he was outlining the entire plot. We have some more stories written and waiting for Adam to have time to illustrate them. The ones that are published still sell quite well at in-person events and are still occasionally purchased by people who work in Special Education, for their classrooms and school libraries.
Dot: So, writing is in your blood, Carol, and it is no wonder that you have been called a “born storyteller.” Could you tell us more about how you became a published writer.
Carol: Well, after I had polished up my craft, I began to submit short stories to women’s magazines, and Woman’s Weekly magazine published several of them. That was over thirty years ago, and I was delighted to be paid very well for the First British Serial Rights, which meant that if somebody else wanted to publish it, perhaps in another country, I got paid a second time. I was impressed that Woman’s Weekly would accept stories that involved more complex relationships, rather than pure romance. However, I wanted to write longer stories that explored the social issues that I felt were important and which interested me. I already loved crime fiction and decided that was what I wanted to focus on. Unfortunately, because I had returned to teaching, I didn’t have time to write both the short stories and the books, so I turned to crime.
Dot: Yes, I enjoy the social issues that your characters
grapple with. Would you agree that your writing is character driven?
Carol:
I would agree with that. I think most people
who know me would agree that I’m a people
person, (which is probably why I’m still teaching
a local creative writing class ten years after my
official retirement age). When writing a novel,
it’s obviously impossible to begin with just the
characters, unless you’re going to have them
floating in space or sitting in a totally featureless
place. However, once I’ve got a place to situate
my characters, and found the start of a mystery or
crime for them to solve, I allow them to interact and
work in their own way, and this is how the plot
starts to unfold. Often, I have no idea who committed the crime or how the detectives are going to solve the mystery until I’m a long way through the book. In one novel, I was literally three-quarters through the story before the killer appeared. Of course, I had to go back and insert the person much earlier on, in order to play fair to with the readers. In the same way, I had no idea when I wrote the first Galmouth Mystery, The Fragility of Poppies, that this would turn into a seriously long series. Although I have only published three novels in the series so far, I have four more waiting for their final edit, and another in First Draft. In The Fragility of Poppies, the crime has to be central, because the disappearance of a young girl must matter more than anything else. However, the book also focuses on the relationship between the two protagonists, Detective Inspector Rick Evans and his wife Annie, an artist and teacher. It was through following their turbulent relationship that I discovered the plot and sub-plots. As soon as I finished writing The Fragility of Poppies, I knew that I would return to Rick and Annie, but again the characters took control and in the second book of the Galmouth Mysteries, Paddling in the Dead Sea, the main protagonist is Gina Grey, a woman fleeing from an abusive marriage, who finds herself championing Chris Harland, a nineteen-year-old with a painful past, who is struggling to rehabilitate his life, having been a drug addict since he was sixteen. When Gina gets a job at the Art College, she and Annie become colleagues, and she and several other characters from The Fragility of Poppies appear in Paddling in the Dead Sea. In the third book in the series, Delivering Lazarus, Rick and Annie are again the viewpoint protagonists, but Gina and Chris appear frequently as well. You asked me about ‘plotters’ and ‘pantsters’ as a way of describing writers. Actually, I prefer the expression ‘writing into the dark’ which describes what I think I do.
Dot: Doesn’t writing into the dark worry you?
Carol: No. Although it used to when I started writing books and I was scared I wouldn’t get a suitable ending. I was surprised at how relaxed I felt when I’d got such a long way through Karma and the Singing Frogs and still had no idea about the identity of the killer. Now I just trust the process - I set the stage with the starting characters, usually one or both of the protagonists, and see what happens. In other ways I’ve never been much of a gambler, but in this way, I suppose I am. Control comes with the editing process, which needs to be rigorous.
Dot: Are there any things you wouldn’t write about?
Carol: I would never have a narcissist as a protagoni st. I like to get into the psychology of my characters and, of course, there are some characters I like more than others, but I so dislike narcissism in people that, if I’ve got a narcissistic character, I would rather stay on the outside of their mind. Another aspect of crime fiction that I treat carefully is the description of violence. I never wish to glorify it. I also have a firm belief that children matter and so I am careful about how I write about them. For example, in the opening chapter of About the Children, when Superintendent Kev Tyler is viewing the bodies of two young boys who have been shot, it was important to me that the horror of that act was conveyed without gratuitous depictions of the brutality of their killing. In fact, in the majority of my police procedurals or psychological crime novels, the victim is usually dead at the very beginning of the book, so the violence is filtered through the reactions of the investigators.
Dot: Your interest in character includes their psychology, how and why the characters act the way they do. That said, you have published two cosy crimes, so my next question is which do you prefer writing about?
Carol: It’s interesting that you ask that because I believe that a well-written cosy has as much depth of character and psychological insight as darker crime novels. As for asking which sub-genre I like best, that’s impossible to answer. It’s like saying ‘you have three different breeds of dogs and three different types of cat, which of them do you love best? - oh, and don’t forget the rabbits!’ Honestly, I’m in the fortunate position of enjoying whatever I happen to be writing or editing at the time.
Dot: What inspires your stories?
Carol: It could really be anything. The Terminal
Velocity of Cats was prompted by the
reply of a Scene of Crimes Officer when I
asked about their day, and his answer
became the opening paragraph in the book.
Seeing a couple sitting together on a
bench inspired About the Children.
I thought of the Start of This Game of
Ghosts while attending the last Fareham
Folk Festival. A line of poetry inspired
the title and title and the deep theme of
The Fragility of Poppies. Inspiration is
like being given a pack of mixed seeds,
planting them, and seeing what (if anything) comes up).
Dot: You have also written a Victorian Murder Mystery, Strangers and Angels, which I just couldn’t put down. Again, the characters are more important than the history, but the setting is entirely different from your modern stories. What made you decide to write the story and how challenging was it compared to your contemporary crime books?
Carol: I think the history is
important, both because
it’s the setting that allows the characters to
function, and because if the writer gets it wrong,
lots of knowledgeable readers will be very
cross. History was especially important in
Strangers and Angels, because it was based on
the real-life deployment of two ships of
Turkish sailors to Gosport. At least a third of
the young men died, mainly of cholera. I kept
dwelling on how lonely it must have been for them,
different language, different religion, and not
wanted in town they’d been posted to. Regarding the rest of your question, one problem with writing a novel set in the Victorian Era is that the era went on for a very long time, and things were very different at the start of Victoria’s reign than in the later years. Writing a story set in Victorian times requires lots of research in terms of clothes, attitudes, transport, trades and the language used by different levels of society. For me, a particularly tricky aspect was ensuring that the voice of each character remained consistent to their social class and gender, and in Kemal’s case his Turkish background; at the same time, I had to make the main characters likeable to 21st century readers. The one thing Molly, Adelaide and Kemal share is a sense of powerlessness, although their situations are quite distinct. The trouble is that you have to stop writing in order to research minor points, like when did umbrellas come into fashion, if so, what shape were they, and who would have possessed them. All the same, I’ve found it even harder to write something set, fifty years ago. The book I am working on at the moment is called The Apples of Sodom, and it’s set in the drought of 1976. When something is within your living memory, you may think you remember things accurately, but you’re never quite sure, especially about which expressions were popular at that time. Still, it’s interesting to recall a time when the protagonist is isolated, not because their mobile is out of charge, but because they don’t know where the nearest phone box is situated, and when they find it has been vandalised.
Dot: You have worked with a publisher and now happily self-publish. What are the pros and cons of both routes to publication?
Carol: I got on very well with my Woman’s Weekly editor, who would either accept my stories, or tell me if something had potential for publication and ask me to adapt it. She would also tell me, with reasons, if a short story was not suitable for them. After that, I had an agent, unfortunately, although she liked my
writing, she didn’t want my crime fiction and wanted me to write sagas. I did try, but it didn’t work out well, and we parted on mutually polite terms. Self-publishing has become much more accepted in the last few years, which means that the difficulties I faced in the early days are gradually diminishing. Of course, the problems are being replaced by other irritations: I usually receive two or three kind emails every day offering to publicise my book and make it a bestseller, and a few who assure me they can get my work televised. All those emails get glanced at and deleted, but it is a waste of time. For me, the great advantage that self-publishing offers is that I can write what I want. I think that traditional publishing is being challenged by the success of self-published authors, although many very reputable small publishers are appearing, which may be a good way to go, as long as they have a credible business plan and are actively promoting their authors’ work. I would say that the abundance of celebrity authors has also changed the nature of the major publishing houses. I know I’m never going to make a fortune self-publishing my work, but I’m having a lot of fun.
Dot: It has been suggested that as a society, we are at a stage where people are reading a lot less because
traditional book reading is competing with other forms of entertainment. Do you agree?
Carol: I think most people are very busy nowadays and there are several things competing for their attention. And, sadly, nowadays most schools are forced to be more preoccupied with preparing kids for yet another test, rather than exploring the joys of stories or music. When I was in school (both secondary and junior), we had well-equipped school libraries. I don’t think most comprehensives nowadays have libraries, indeed some of them don’t even provide the GCSE pupils with copies of set texts. That said, I know many people who still find reading a good way to settle down and relax, and many who still read to their children most evenings before bed.
Dot: So, after eight contemporary crime novels, a Victorian murder mystery and four children’s books already published, what are you working on now, Carol?
Carol: I am editing The Apples of Sodom, my book set in 1976, ready for publication this summer, although hopefully without the accompanying drought. I have also put together an anthology of some of my ‘preloved’ short stories, The Winter Butterfly and Other Stories, as well as a second Victorian murder mystery, From Envy, Hatred and Malice. These are winter stories, so may not be published until the autumn. If I have time, I’d like to publish Enchanters Power and Enchanter’s Quest - partly because our village collective is short of children’s books for our stall. However, The Apples of Sodom must take
priority, (and if you’re wondering, the title means the same as Dead Sea Fruit - something that’s perfect on the outside but dust inside.)
Dot: I look forward to reading them Carol, and thanks again for giving us an insight into your experiences as an author, it’s been great spending time in your company.
Dot Marshall-Gent worked in the emergency services for twenty years first as a police officer, then as a paramedic and finally as a fire control officer before graduating from King’s College, London as a teacher of English in her mid-forties. She completed a M.A. in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, London and now teaches part-time and writes mainly about educational issues. Dot sings jazz and country music and plays guitar, banjo and piano as well as being addicted to reading mystery and crime fiction.
