Alice Castle shares her writing life in this interview.
What genre would you say your novels fall into, or do they
defy classification?
I write in two specific genres, cosy crime and domestic noir
psychological thrillers.
What made you choose that genre?
They’re my favourite genres! I tried to write lovely upbeat
romantic comedies but always got to the point where I wanted to kill my
characters, so…
How long does it take you to write a book?
It varies, some are definitely harder than others. The
Perfect Widow, my debut psychological thriller with HQDigital, took two years
off and on, but The Slayings in Sydenham took four months.
What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
I am very disciplined – I have to be or nothing would get
done at all. So I sit down every morning and write until I have at least a
thousand words down. I have various rituals I go through first, clearing my
emails, fiddling around and putting off the evil hour, but I make myself get on
with it eventually. Some days they might not be great words but they do get
done. I always try to set myself achievable goals, there’s nothing more
demoralising than failing to meet a target.
Tell me something about yourself your readers might not
know.
Characters in my books are always eating cakes and
chocolates, particularly Brownies, but I never touch sugar.
When did you write your first book and how old were you?
The first book I had published took me ages to write and
wasn’t published until I was 47. Things have speeded up since then!
What do you like to do when you're not writing?
Read books! I tend not to read very much when I’m in a big
writing phase so it’s lovely to get back to my favourite authors when I’ve
finished a novel.
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in
creating your books?
Writing is such a love/hate battle and that’s surprising.
People expect me to love it, but it’s actually a job, with all the ups and
downs that go with work – some parts are really wonderful but others, like
editing, are a slog.
How many books have you written?
I’ve had nine books published and just finished writing the
tenth. I’m going to start number eleven in the next few weeks.
Do you Google yourself? What did you find that affected you
most (good or bad)?
I’ve just Googled myself – annoyingly an insurance company
comes up first!
As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
I’ve always wanted to write books.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have on
your computer?
I have about three semi-finished early efforts at whodunits
but they are all now on obsolete PCs, and at least one is lost in Belgium. I
also have 60k of a rather dire chicklit novel knocking around somewhere. I’m
not sure any of them will ever see the light of day! I look on them as my
apprenticeship as a writer.
Before turning to crime, Alice Castle was a feature writer
on national newspapers including the Daily Express, The Times and The Daily
Telegraph. Alice writes psychological thrillers for HQDigital under the name
A.M. Castle. The first, The Perfect Widow, was published in November
2019. She also writes the Death in Dulwich cozy crime series for
Darkstroke/Crooked Cat as Alice Castle. The seventh in the series, The
Slayings in Sydenham, came out in December 2019.
Alice loves talking to readers, find her on Twitter @AliceMCastle, or her website http://www.alicecastleauthor.com. She lives in south east London and has two children and two cats.
Links to buy books:
http://myBook.to/1DeathinDulwich
Death in
Dulwich is now also out as an audiobook: https://www.audible.com/pd/B07N1VNMLT/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-140657&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_140657_rh_us
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