Welcome to another Friday Reads post. This week my featured book is the gripping page turner The Short Straw by Holly Seddon which is out on 14th September.

Let’s find out a bit more about the book then get chatting to Holly.🙂

Blurb

Three sisters find themselves lost in a storm at night, and seek safety at Moirthwaite Manor, where their mother once worked. They are shocked to find the isolated mansion that loomed so large through their troubled childhoods has long been abandoned. Drawing straws to decide who should get help, one sister heads back into the darkness. With the siblings separated, the deadly secrets hidden in the house finally make themselves known and we learn the unspeakable secret that binds the family together.

Buy links

Signed copies available from Goldsboro Books: https://www.goldsborobooks.com/product/the-short-straw

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Short-Straw-Holly-Seddon/dp/1398715468

Page one extract:

EDEN VALLEY, CUMBRIA September 2023, 8:07 p.m.

And now they are completely screwed. They just don’t know it yet.

Nina had left the motorway earlier, just before it became impassable, a slick pool of rainwater spilling out across four carriageways where workers had already downed tools to flee the sudden storm. Taking the exit had seemed the right thing to do. So much so that Nina hadn’t discussed it with her two sisters, just indicated and swung the car. A unilateral eldest child decision, the latest in a series of many.

Then Nina had nudged her snub-nosed Mini Clubman onto an almost equally busy A-road. But then, buoyed by familiarity, she had escaped that traffic by slipping away, onto the lanes that had criss-crossed their childhood. Burrowing through smaller and smaller roads that began to curl around each other like the inner workings of a shell.

Lizzie, the middle child, watched uneasily as they surged further into the darkness, leaving behind the reassuring twinkle of hundreds of headlamps. For a while, she could still see them in the mirrors, strung along the horizon like fairy lights, growing fainter. They’re long gone now.

Now the sisters are well and truly corkscrewed into the remote Eden Valley. The black, spiky trees on either side of the lane seeming to draw together like a zip behind them. As if the rest of the world was never really there.

What an exciting extract! Welcome to my blog, Holly. Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Yes. From as far back as I remember. Aged four, I already considered myself a writer! I didn’t know then that it wasn’t entirely in my control if I would get published. But I had some plan Bs too, some of which I’m still quite drawn to… One was making radio documentaries. I scratch that itch through the Honest Authors Podcast, which I co-host with Gillian McAllister, and through a monthly series, looking at authors with a local connection, which goes out on the Dominic King show on BBC Radio Kent. Most people don’t know that I also had an offer for a place on an art degree course, which I didn’t take up for ludicrous reasons. 

Has any author inspired you?

This sounds like a cop out but they all have. Even writers whose work I’ve not enjoyed have taught me something useful (even if it’s how I don’t want to write!). That’s why I encourage anyone who wants to be a writer to read as widely as possible. If I have to actually name some, I’d say I read Muriel Spark (for precision), Martin Amis (for gut punch lines) and HG Wells (for bold ideas). 

What do you like writing most?

The scenes where – after being boxed in by circumstance or other people – a character starts smashing their way out. I always like the scenes where people finally snap, in books and on screen. What comes next is always interesting – in real life too.

Are you a pantster or a plotter?

I am a plotter, and I can’t imagine writing any other way now. I’d say that my next book, The Short Straw, is the one whose finished version is the closest to the original plan. It was just so clear from the beginning.

I did hope my new-found efficiency would continue… it has not.

What time of the day do you write best?

First thing in the morning, much to my disgust. I used to be such a night owl (actually, I still am really) but there is a clarity of thought in the morning that I can‘t replicate once the day has ravaged my brain.

What are your hobbies?

I read like an addict. I always have at least a day book, a night book, and often a research book on the go at all times. I love swimming and weightlifting, although I’m still recovering from various injuries so I’m not exactly at peak performance! I also have an allotment which is total chaos. I don’t know what I’m doing, I kill almost everything and I always get muddier than anyone else. I love it.

What advice would you give to other writers?

Take a big swing every time. Don’t ape others – only you can write like you so write the best and bravest version of that. Push yourself, jump in, take risks. Write each book like it’s the last one you’ll write. Be unafraid.

Great advice, Holly. Thanks for dropping by to talk to us today. I hope your book flies!

Meet Holly

Holly Seddon is the international bestselling author of TRY NOT TO BREATHE, DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES, LOVE WILL TEAR US APART, THE HIT LIST, THE WOMAN ON THE BRIDGE and THE SHORT STRAW.

After growing up in the English countryside obsessed with music and books, Holly worked in London as a journalist and editor. After six years in Amsterdam, she now lives in Kent with her family and writes full time.

Alongside fellow author Gillian McAllister, Holly co-hosts the popular Honest Authors Podcast. You can find her on Twitter @hollyseddon (https://twitter.com/hollyseddon/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/hollyseddonauthor/) and Facebook @hollyseddonauthor (https://www.facebook.com/hollyseddonauthor).

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