Author Q&A: Holly Seddon author of Don't Close Your Eyes tells all about her perfect writing place, her writing routines and the fictional hero she's just dying to meet!





It is with great pleasure that I 

welcome Holly Seddon 

author of 

Don't Close Your Eyes 

to  be warped on 

The Crime Warp today!








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Liz: Tell us a bit about your current book release

Holly: Don’t Close Your Eyes tells the story of twin sisters, Robin and Sarah. Once close, their childhood experiences and different personalities split them apart but now, in danger of losing everything, they need each other. At least, they think they do…



Liz:  Oooh deliciously
enigmatic!  
If any of your books were ever to be televised or made
into a film who would you like
to play your main character and why?


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Holly: If Try Not to Breathe, was televised I think Jessica Raine would be amazing as Alex Dale, my troubled journalist. Jessica played Georgia Trotman in Line of Duty and as soon as she came on the screen, I was like “Oh, that’s Alex!”
Robin Marshall from Don’t Close Your Eyes, in my head, looks a lot like a rock n’roll version of Rizzo from Grease. Which isn’t exactly a real person and I’m pretty sure Stockard Channing wouldn’t be up for it!


Liz: Is there a subsidiary character you have created and are particularly fond of and why?

Holly: Callum Granger from Don’t Close Your Eyes. He’s really the third pillar, even though he doesn’t get chapters from his own point of view. At times, he was really fun to write and at others he broke me heart to the point where I had to stop writing for a bit.

Liz; Where is your favourite place to write and why?

Hollu: I have a little office at home, but I share it with the washing machine and tumble dryer so I tend to write at the dining table or on the sofa. My household is ridiculously noisy – four kids and a dog – so I crave silence and solitude. The place I’ve been most happy writing in – and this is very
L'Ermitage Hotel LA
specific – was a hotel called L’Ermitage in LA. Way beyond my own budget, I hasten to add, but I joined my husband on a work trip when I was six months pregnant and while he had meetings, I sat next to the pool on the rooftop, pinching myself and writing the book that is going to be book three… I’d love to click my heels together and revisit that moment quite often.

Liz: Do you have a particular writing routine you follow?

Holly: It’s a hodge podge that’s very dependent on childcare. It’s the summer holidays currently and my youngest son’s day care is closed this week so I’ve had to accept I’m not going to write anything of my work in progress. It feels like some kind of hell!

Ordinarily I write when my son is in part time day care and, if my husband is away, in the evenings too. I used to write in my little one’s naptime but he decided to stop napping just before the summer holidays. Argh!


Liz: If you weren’t a writer what would you like to do?

Holly: I hate being stuck in an office, and I love the outdoors and being by myself. Maybe a park ranger? Except I also
Holly the Park Keeper?
really dislike having a boss (I presume park rangers have a chain of command) so maybe I’d have my own smallholding instead. Either way, I’d have muddy hands, I suspect.

Liz: Which author are you cosying up with tonight? 

Holly: I’ve just finished Sirens by Joseph Knox, which was
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wonderful, so vivid and compelling. At night I always read Jack Reacher books by Lee Child. Literally, every night, like a bedtime story. I read them very slowly, two or three pages at a time and then nod off. I recently met Lee Child after plucking up the courage to go over to him at Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. I lost the ability to speak sense and certainly didn’t tell him any of that.

Liz: Which fictional hero or anti-hero would you like to 

meet and why?


  Holly: Well, I’d be pretty intrigued to meet Jack Reacher considering how much time I spend with him! And he would be his full size, unlike in the films…


Liz: Could you describe the book you are

working on at the moment using only 5 

words?


Holly: The title hasn’t been made public yet but book three is about: Childhood friendship, life changing promises.

Liz: Do you linger in your research period or do you rush

your research to get stuck into the writing?


Holly: I love doing research. I come from a journalistic background but I’m also a frustrated historian who probably should have done a modern history degree. I do a lot of background research while I’m planning out a novel but I also research alongside writing, and check finer points during editing too. Maybe that’s what I’d do if I wasn’t a writer actually, a historical researcher… but outside!

Liz: It's been lovely to meet you Holly.  Maybe we can spend some time stalking  (I mean chatting too) Lee Child at next years Harrogate Crime Writing Festival.

If you want to connect with Holly here's how you can:



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