Blog tour: Caroline Mitchell's Truth and Lies - an in depth Q&A with Caroline

Available here

It gives me great pleasure to welcome Caroline Mitchell onto The Crime Warp today. Caroline has kindly agreed to be grilled as part of her Truth and Lies Blog Tour.

Truth and lies features a detective inspector named Amy Winter who is desperate to follow in her superintendent father’s shoes. However after his funeral she receives a letter from prison and discovers her biological parents, Jack and Lillian Grimes, are ‘The Beasts of Brentwood,’ Britain’s worst serial killers. But Amy must put her horrors aside if she is to help the victims of the families whose lives the serial killer couple have blown apart.

Liz: Where did the inspiration for Truth and Lies  come from?

Caroline: I was talking to my husband about genealogy when the idea popped into my head. What’s the worst thing Amy Winter could find out about herself? I wanted to throw something at my protagonist which would truly devastate her. I don’t make life easy for my characters!

Liz: How long did Truth and Lies take to write?

Caroline: Just over six months for this one, then another three months with editing and things like cover design. It was really nice to be able to take my time with it as previously, I’ve written two or three books a year.

Liz: If Truth and Lies was ever to be televised or made into a film who would you like to play your main character and why?

Caroline: I would love Truth and Lies to be optioned. Jenna Coleman would make a perfect Amy Winter. In fact, she was in my mind when I was creating the character so you could almost say it was written for her.

Liz: Jenna would be a great choice and she's in popular demand at the moment as she's appearing in Helen Fitzgerald's The Cry soon.  Are any of your characters based on real life people?

Caroline: There are certainly elements of people I’ve known in there. I did a lot of research on Fred and Rosemary West prior to writing the book and this has heavily influenced characters Jack and Lillian Grimes.

Liz:  Could you describe how the germ of an idea develops into a full-blown novel?

Caroline: It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you start writing a new book. I find that plotting ahead really helps. I write a couple of lines for each proposed chapter but the real fun is when my characters begin to take on a life of their own and bring me down different paths.

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

Caroline: I love all my characters, even the bad ones. They take up residence inside my head during the course of the book and in quiet moments I’ll sit and daydream as I watch their interactions play out. I spend a lot of time staring out the window or blank page. I used to do it in school but it wasn’t as well received back then.

Writing Habits 

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

Caroline: I write in my office upstairs during the day on my desktop and in the evening I join my husband in the living room and plop my laptop before me while he watches TV.

Liz: Do you ever suffer from writer’s block and if so how do you overcome it?

Caroline: No, never. Procrastination is sometimes an unwelcome friend though. I have a screensaver on my Mac which tells me to get back to work. Social media can kill productivity. I’ve learned to limit myself by using an app which records how long I spend on there each week. It’s quite an eye-opener.

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

Caroline: It depends on what stage of writing I’m at. Sometimes I’m juggling edits, a book launch and plotting a new book at the same time. My best work is in the evening. I’m a night owl.

Liz: Any tips for would-be writers seeking publication?

Caroline: Develop a thick hide – you’re going to need it. The road to publication is a well travelled one, but if you have what it takes and put the hours in then you’re half way there. The other half requires copious amounts of self belief and a willingness to work hard and better yourself every day. Study the law of attraction. It worked for me.

Liz: Any writing exercises you’ve found particularly useful as a writing stimulus?

Caroline: Not really, I have a hugely active imagination so the only stimulant I need is coffee.

Liz: Is there a particular book you wish you’d written and why?

Caroline: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. It’s not my genre but I have a huge soft spot for dysfunctional characters and I fell in love with that book from the first page.

Author as a Person 

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

Caroline: When I was young I wanted to be a vet. I adore animals. I’ve bred dogs in the past, owned horses and loved being in their company.

Liz: Who are your writing heroes and why?

Caroline: Stephen King is the master in my eyes. His characters are so incredibly real and I always write better when I’m listening to his books. He’s a huge inspiration to me.

Liz: What is it about Crime fiction as a genre that turns you on?

Caroline: I like the darkness. I used to be a detective so I think it’s therapeutic to write about similar encounters and characters. Having said that, I don’t read a lot of crime generally. I prefer psych thrillers or supernatural / horror.

Liz: Which author are you cosying up with tonight? 

Caroline: I’m currently reading the second in the new Mel Sherratt crime series. The first, Hush Hush, launches in October and is a belter.

Future Projects  

Liz: Could you describe the book you are working on at the moment using only 5 words? 

Caroline: I write stand alone psych thrillers as well as crime series and I’ve just started working on one today. I would describe it as a twisty, intriguing, fast-paced read.

Liz:  Do you have competing ideas for future projects and have you ever worked on more than one at the same time? 

Caroline: Yes, I’ve got so many ideas for future books in my head. I find it very hard to write two at once though, and admire anyone who can.

Thanks so much for agreeing to be grilled today Caroline. I hope the rest of your blog tour goes well. Here's a little more about Caroline.
Shortlisted for a number of awards both in the US and in the UK, a USA Today bestseller and no 1 on Amazon in the US, Australia & the UK with over 30k followers on Twitter, a former police detective, Caroline Mitchell uses her in-depth knowledge of police procedures to create complex and suspenseful psychological thrillers. Caroline worked in CID and specialised in roles dealing with the vulnerable victims of domestic abuse and serious sexual offences. The mental strength shown by the victims of these crimes was a constant source of inspiration.A working mother of four, Caroline started writing due to the stress of dealing with such serious incidents and a way of processing the crimes she witnessed. Born and brought up in Ireland, she is happily married with four children and lives in Essex.