It’s time for another Friday Reads post and my featured book today is My Mother’s Lies by Amazon International Bestselling author Diane Saxon. Diane is going to tell us a little about the book, and her writing life. So grab yourself a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get chatting to Diane.😊
The BRAND NEW psychological thriller from bestseller Diane Saxon
She’s been lying my whole life…
As if my mum breaking her hip and being rushed to hospital isn’t shocking enough for one day, now in her post-operative delirium, she’s just told me I’m not her daughter. That she has never been able to have children.
The nurse reassures me that people are often confused after a trauma. But I know this woman so well and I can tell there’s a grain of truth in what she says. Which begs the questions: Who am I? Where did I come from?
When I dig into the truth, I suddenly stir up a hornet’s nest of secrets, lies – and possibly a crime so unfathomable – that stretches back decades.
What has my mum done?
Can I trust her?
Or has my digging put us both in peril of our lives?
Diane Saxon’s new, absorbing thriller explores deceit, love, loyalty and family ties.
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Welcome to my blog, Diane. Have you always wanted to be a writer?
It never occurred to me that I was a writer, even though I have always made stories up in my head. I thought everyone did. Apparently not. I have always been an avid reader up until I had my first daughter and then in those quiet hours in the middle of the night when I was nursing my baby, little scenarios started whirring in my head and I began writing an occasional paragraph or a scene, but I never actually took the plunge until I had a foot operation and had to sit still for a fortnight. That’s when I wrote my first book. The whole thing, in two weeks.
Has any author inspired you?
So many. The first time I fell in love with stories was when I read The Princess Bride, by William Goldman. I was only nine when my sister read it to me, and it transported me into a world I never knew could exist.
What do you like writing most?
I write dark stuff.
Initially, I started out writing romance for the US market. Cowboys. Funny books but with an edge, and it was only when I kept being told by my editor that my books actually had an underlying threat that I turned completely over to the dark side. I’m staying here for a while.
Do you have a special place for writing?
Yes, I have a writing bureau set up in my dining room/office where I can be near my animals.
Are you a pantster or a plotter?
I’m a plotster. Really, I don’t plot on paper. I tried it once and my manuscript was arid and uninteresting because I’d shoe-horned it into a plan. Normally the full story is in my head by the time I come to write it, but those characters can be slippery little suckers and pull a fast one at the last moment causing all sorts of chaos.
Is your writing ever inspired by your family or real life incidents?
Oh yes, but don’t tell them.
What are you writing at the moment?
Well, this is an exclusive. I’m currently writing The Quiet Wife, which may have a title change by the time my editor reads it. She’s so good at titles. It’s about a young woman whose life starts to fall apart when the horrors of her past start to catch up with her.
What inspired you to write this book?
It’s strange, but quite often I’m inspired by something that happens in the book before which might trigger a memory or a thought that I then pursue in the following book. I was having a conversation with a friend about when we were at college together and something she said connected to what I was writing back then, but I knew it was a whole different story of guilt and secrets that I had to write.
What time of the day do you write best?
First thing in the morning as I tend to wake up with a scene in my head.
What are your hobbies?
I’m an animal person. There’s nothing I like better than taking a long hike with the dogs. I have one Dalmatian now, having lost my Labrador last December, but I borrow both my daughters’ dogs too. One is a Huntaway and the other a Labrador. I do love a big dog – it means I’m less likely to trip over them.
I have two cats and two grandkitties who regularly stay for a couple of weeks at a time.
I have a small holding with chickens and I love growing my own vegetables. I find it such a peaceful past time and there’s a massive amount of satisfaction when you pick your own peas and broadbeans etc and put them on the table in front of your family. Or dig potatoes and give them to your children for them to take to their own homes along with fresh eggs.
In addition, we also have a fish pond full of fish – another peaceful pastime.
What advice would you give to other writers?
I often find aspiring writers’ initial question is: ‘How do I get published?’
Now, this question really still takes me aback. It’s not something I considered when I wrote my first book.
My answer is ‘Write the book.’ Because without the book, there is nothing to publish.
Once the book is written then do your research. My first book took me as long to research which publisher to send it to as it did to write (admittedly I wrote it in two weeks!) But, I am a researcher, so instead of peppering the marketplace with pitches to publishers that are inappropriate to your genre and style ending up with a pile of rejects, do your research!
Getting rejected can be disheartening, so reduce that prospect by making sure you pitch to the right publisher.
Meet Diane
Hello, I’m so thrilled to welcome you to my dark side.
For someone who was a career junkie, there are times when I can’t believe I was given the opportunity to live another life. From practical, professional office manager, I gave up my day job to plan murders.
My DS Jenna Morgan series was inspired by an overactive imagination and long, lonely walks with my Dalmatian, Skye, and my black Labrador, Beau. In the woodlands above the Ironbridge Gorge, where the atmosphere hangs thick as a blanket and the acoustics float with eerie menace, it didn’t take much before my mind took me along a route of ‘what ifs’. What if I wasn’t the only one there? What if someone was watching? What if I slipped from the narrow pathway to tumble through the thicket down the steep incline of the Gorge?
From my DS Jenna Morgan series, where dark psychological meets police procedure, to a subtle shift in genre, writing domestic psychological crime with my shocking standalone thrillers, I embrace complex relationships and dark psyches, ravelling them up within storylines that come with no holds barred.
I became an International No 1 Amazon bestseller with My Little Brother and have continued my success with each subsequent book.
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Thanks for dropping by to talk to us today, Diane. Your new book sounds fab, I hope it flies. x
Karen King 