What are you promoting at the moment?
My new thriller, A True Crime, comes out on January 16, so that’s where all of my promotional efforts are going! It’s a novel that combines my love of crime fiction and true crime writing, so I hold this one especially close to my heart. It tells the story of Sally, a woman who was kidnapped as a teenager and, while her best friend was murdered in the attack, Sally lived to tell the tale. But on the cusp of launching her debut true crime novel, an anonymous individual is looking to make corrections to the story…
What genre do you write in?
I mostly write crime fiction, with a specialism in psychological thrillers. In my earlier days of writing I wrote a detective trilogy – the DI Watton books – which were great fun. That said, though, I really do love the experience of getting into the nitty gritty parts of characters, which I think psych-thrillers really allow for.
However (!), it’s worth mentioning that I also have a romantic comedy coming out later this year. A Walk in the Park is a romance novel for dog-walkers that comes out this June; although I’m still trying to work out where that book came from!
Do you write every day?
When I’m working on something I tend to get quite compulsive about writing time, and I will write every day. At the moment I’m taking a breather from writing, even though I have a new idea brewing, but I won’t force myself to sit and write it when I’m just not in the right headspace for it yet. I think there’s something to be said for routine and habit, in terms of daily writing, but it isn’t always appropriate and that has to be okay sometimes, too.
How long does it take you to write a book?
It depends on how many other plates I’m spinning. I lecture in creative writing and I’m an academic researcher, too, specialising in true crime, so there isn’t always the time to give to a novel that I’d like. If I can really throw myself into a work, though, a draft can take anything from four weeks (with steam coming off my keyboard) through to around twelve weeks. There’s something to be said for getting that dirty first draft down while the idea is with you!
How do you select the names of your characters?
A True Crime is probably the first book I’ve written that has the names of quite so many people I know in it. For that book, I put a call-out on my social media to see who wanted their name featured and I made it a mission to get in as many as I could. Ordinarily, though, I have to choose names that I don’t know a real-life namesake of. If my characters share a name with someone I actually know, I find that I can’t un-see that person when I’m writing. There are some fantastic databases online listing popular names from different eras and these are always a great help.
What are your views on social media?
I love social media! The wider writing and reading community across Facebook, Instagram and X is an endless source of both inspiration and support, and I think that’s invaluable. Social media platforms have also allowed me to engage and interact with readers in a way that I otherwise wouldn’t have done, and I think that’s a really special thing for a writer to experience, too.
At school, were you good at English?
English was about the only thing I ever did feel good at! I always cherished my English lessons, so much so that I went on to study literature at university level. I was quite a quiet child and reading was always a great comfort to me, and I think I carried that comfort into my English studies. Plus, I always think it’s fascinating to pull apart a text and have a good look at what a writer is doing, or might be doing, underneath it all, and English allowed for that.
For your own reading, do you prefer e-books or paper books?
Once upon a time I would have answered this question by saying that I was a die-hard paperback fan (never a hardback where I can avoid it). More so lately, though, I find that I’m drawn into e-books because they’re just so handy to download: one click and you’re away! It scratches that itch of wanting to buy a book at the end of a rubbish week, and not having to wait for it to arrive. There are some books that I just love to have physical copies of though – mostly because I know I’ll probably want to scribble notes all over them as I’m reading.
What book are you reading at the moment?
At the minute I’m reading Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris. Over the festive season I picked up Red Dragon for the first time and I just absolutely fell in love with Harris’ writing style, so I’ve been working my way through the set for the last couple of weeks. I’ll feel bereft when I’ve read this final one!
How can readers discover more about you and your work?
Well, I have an un-loved website that’s semi-up-to-date with my writing life – www.charleybarneswriter.com – but the best way of keep up to speed about my writing, and my life generally, is to connect with me on social media. I’m forever posting book recommendations to my Instagram in particular and I use X quite a lot, too. I’m @charleyblogs on both platforms and it would be lovely to hear from more people in the crime writing and reading community.