Tuesday 13 June 2017

Please welcome, friend and author...

...Katharine Johnson to my blog this week...



AW   I know how busy you are, so tell me all about your current release...
KJ   The Silence has just been published (June 8th).  It's a psychological/coming of age story, set partly in Tuscany.  The villa and the village are entirely fictional but inspired by many of the mountain villages of north Tuscany.


AW   What first got you into writing and why?
KJ   I've always enjoyed writing as a hobby.  My granny encouraged me to write and I saved up my pocket money to buy a red plastic Corgi typewriter when I was nine to write my first book.

AW   You write crime fiction.  Is it all imagination or do you also undertake research?
KJ   The Silence is about a long-held secret and is about a crime but it isn't a procedural/detective novel so it didn't need a lot of research.  I had it read by a speech therapist and GP and I also spoke about certain sections to a hypnotherapist and a firearms expert to make sure it was plausible.

AW   And what about other types of writing?  Have you ever dabbled with short stories, for instance, or other genres?
KJ   Yes, I've dabbled with various genres - romance is the one I find hardest.  I've written a few short stories which have been published in magazines and started writing a children's book with my son.  I assumed he'd lost interest but he was asking about it the other day so we may go back to it.


The view from... well I won't specify...
AW   Famous authors, such as Roald Dahl and Dylan Thomas, had a special space for writing.  Do you have a writing ‘shed’ of your own?
KJ   I wish!  I have an office in the house but my desk gets used by everyone.  I rather like George Bernard's Shaw's revolving summer house.  This is the view from my ideal writing room in a Ligurian fishing village (although it's actually the view from a toilet!)

AW   Finally, if you had a whole afternoon to yourself and could choose to spend it with any one individual, living or dead or a character from a book, who would it be, and what would you want to discuss?
KJ   Oh that's hard! I'd hate to be disappointed and find myself wishing they'd leave after ten minutes - but I think Oscar Wilde would be fascinating and fun.  Thank you so much Angela for inviting me onto your blog.
AW   It's been a pleasure and good luck with the book!





about the author…Katharine Johnson is a journalist with a passion for crime novels, old houses and all things Italian (except tiramisu).  She grew up in Bristol and has lived in Italy.  She currently lives in Berkshire with her husband, three children and a madcap spaniel.  She plays netball badly and is a National Trust room guide.






about the book...Can you ever truly escape the past?  Doctor Abby Fenton has a rewarding career, a loving family, an enviable lifestyle - and a secret that could destroy everything.  When human remains are discovered in the grounds of an idyllic Tuscan holiday home she is forced to confront the memories she has suppressed until now and relive the summer she spent at the villa in 1992.  A summer that ended in tragedy.  The nearer she gets to the truth the closer she comes to losing her sanity.  In order to hold onto the people she loves most, she must make sure they never discover what she did.  But the reappearance of someone else from that summer threatens to blow her secret wide open.

Buy The Silence here Amazon - The Silence




No comments:

Post a Comment