As well as being one of the admin team at Crime Fiction Addict, Anita is the bestselling author behind the Kat & Mouse trilogy, the #2 bestseller The Family at No 12 and much more. This is her CFA interview from the 30th of July 2023.
At school, were you good at English?
The short answer is yes. I remember writing my first ‘novel’ when I was around eight years old. We had to write a composition, and I split mine into chapters! I moved onto Grammar School when I was eleven, eventually taking O levels at sixteen. This was at a time before results showed A, B, C etc, but we actually got percentages. English Literature and English Language were two separate subjects; I received 97% for one, and 98% for the other, although I can’t for the life of me remember which way round it was! I took to the subject naturally, and developed a life-long love of Shakespeare.
What have you written to date?
I have completed twenty-five books, and currently working on my twenty-sixth. My least successful book was Game Players, partly brought about by reviews that said things along the lines of ‘an Enid Blyton feel to it’, but there’s nothing Enid Blyton about this book lol. Yes, the lead character is a gang of kids, but the adults in the story are their usual murderous lot. My most successful book is The Family at No.12, which reached #2 in the Amazon Kindle charts, remaining in the top five for several weeks. I won’t list all my books here, it would take far too long, but why not visit my website, www.anitawaller.co.uk and have a quick ferret around. There’s also quite a few short stories on it that you might enjoy with your morning cuppa.
What are you working on at present?
The current WIP is my sixth book with Boldwood. It has no title beyond being called Book Six because titles and covers are dealt with entirely by the publisher, but in my head it’s called Unrelated Sisters. It is the story of four babies all born in the same tiny cul-de-sac, and all within a six month time span. They grow up together, school together, and become as close as sisters. This is the final paragraph of the prologue… ‘By 2022 one would have given birth to twins, one would be a paralegal for the largest law firm in the city, one would be a stay at home housewife, one would be a bookseller in her own shop – and one of the four would be a killer.’
What genre do you write?
This is quite difficult to answer. My standalone books are psychological thrillers. However, I have written a nine-book series (Kat and Mouse, plus Epitaph, plus the Connection trilogy all feature the same cast of characters) and that is a cosy mystery series, although it’s not that cosy that it doesn’t have at least one murder in every book! I am now writing a new series that is kind of cosy mystery but with a harder edge, The Forrester Detective Agency. Beyond all of that I have also written one supernatural, the favourite of all my books, Winterscroft. I love this genre, and there are 15,000 words written on a second supernatural book, Cain Jacobs, which will possibly never see the light of day, but it will make me happy to finish it!
Do you work to an outline or plot, or do you prefer to see where an idea takes you?
I start with a sentence. After that it’s anybody’s guess what will happen. I’ve never plotted a book, which my editor doesn’t understand at all, never had any idea where it’s going at any point on its journey towards its approximate end total of around 80,000 words, and sometimes the end takes me completely by surprise (if you’ve read Gamble, this is a prime example). When I started The Family at No.12 all I had in my head was something my husband read to me out of the newspaper. It was the phrase ‘a house with no books’. He said that must have been a horrible home for the child, who had been mistreated. This comment ultimately became a 100,000 copies sold, #2 bestselling book. All my books have been written in this somewhat cavalier fashion, but I am aware that even if I did try to plot one, by chapter two the plot would be out of the window and the characters would be dictating everything.
How long does it take you to write a book?
I would say it’s between three and four months, it depends how quickly the plot line materialises. I never miss deadlines, but it can be a pretty frantic scramble to get the book in on time sometimes. However, things are changing because I have decided to limit my books to two a year, so now my completed manuscripts will be with Boldwood every October 31st, and April 30th, until I say enough is enough.
For your own reading, do you prefer ebooks or paper books?
I can’t remember the last time I read a paperback. I only read at night, and if it was a paperback I would have to have a light on. With my Kindle Oasis it provides me with a warm night time backlight, with the only drawback being the pain as it falls onto my nose as I drop off to sleep. However, this doesn’t mean I don’t have paperbacks – I have many bookshelves!
What book are you reading at the moment?
I finished The Nurse by Valerie Keogh around midnight last night (excellently amazing book), and immediately set up Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang ready to start. This book is apparently the talk of the town concerning the publishing industry. Of course, I had to start it – so far so good, but I’m not enthralled. Her’s the link if you want to check it out. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yellowface…/dp/B0B4BTBKB7/.
How do you select the names of your characters?
With difficulty is the short answer. I have a baby names book which is absolute rubbish, so I often do reuse Christian names, but concentrate on different surnames. I also use real people. Many of my readers have found their way into my books, all on the understanding that they could end up as a corpse. My husband’s friend actually asked if he could be in one and have his head blown off. I obliged in one of the Kat and Mouse books.
How long do you spend on research before starting your book?
Very little. I prefer to write about what I know, although we had quite a few trips out to Eyam, our beautiful plague village in Derbyshire, throughout the Kat and Mouse series. It wasn’t so much about research, it was more about immersion in the place. It’s only about twenty minutes from where we live and it is a lovely place. I’m thinking poison may rear its head in my current WIP, but without the ability to plot it’s still only a maybe, but I do have a book on poisons to hand so I will research if and when.
What is the first book to make you cry?
Many books have made me sad, and Mark Tilbury’s A Prayer for the Broken devastated me, but the only book to ever had reduced me to real tears was Henning Mankell’s The Troubled Man, the final book in the Wallender series. Even now, several years on from reading this, I can feel such a deep sense of sorrow, of loss. Perfect writing.
How can readers discover more about you and your work?
There are several ways: all my books are listed on Amazon, just type in my name. For further details it’s best to visit my website, www.anitwaller.co.uk. And the best way by far is just to ask me! Send me a message via messenger, or use my email awallerauthor@yahoo.com.
Thank you for listening to me, it’s been a pleasure answering the questions, although I now feel a little inadequate – why on earth can’t I plot a book like a normal author