Saturday, April 9, 2016

Interview with Sarah England

My newest interview was with Sarah England, who has authored numerous books. Her most recent work, Father of Lies, is a wonderfully frightening piece of literature!



1. How did you become an author? What motivated you and what made you decide that this was the life for you?

Well I had always loved fiction. My mother was an English teacher and I was reading her cast off novels from the age of eight, mostly historical fiction and the wonderful Hardy and Bronte classics. After that life got in the way and I trained as a nurse before going on to work as a medical rep specializing in psychiatry; but none of that was really me and a lot of the time I felt ill and as if there was something missing in my life. I continued being an avid reader until I got the chance to do a correspondence course in creative writing and start learning the craft around aged forty. For 12 years or so I worked on short stories and serials for magazines, with nearly 200 published in total, plus quite a few included in various anthologies. I then faffed around with comedy/chicklit but my heart wasn't in it. Then I had one of those life-changing events, after which everything changed: basically I met a lady whose story shocked me to the core. The result, after a lot of further (and terrifying) research, was 'Father of Lies', my first supernatural horror novel, and I have never looked back.

2. What inspires you to write?

Now I have real direction, I am inspired by all that I learned in psychiatry and through reading about the occult. Also the lady I met who has what used to be called multiple personality disorder but is now called DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) inspired me to write about the consequences of evil. There is so much that society either refuses to believe or discuss, but which has such a massive impact on the lives of individuals; and I want to show where dabbling in the black arts can lead to. Before that I'd say that life experience and a kind of compulsion to write is what drives me. Without, I hope, sounding too pretentious - this is me now and what I do. I don't want to do anything else even if I'm as poor as a church mouse for the rest of my life!

3. Do you have any underlying themes in your novels that we should be aware of? We would love to hear what the author intended to show us!

Yes the sequel to 'Father of Lies' is called 'Tanners Dell' and I hope to have it ready for release in May.  I have attached the kindle cover as a sneak preview. Father of Lies is available in bookstores to order as well as in paperback and for download via amazon. Tanners Dell will also be available in the same way. 6-8 weeks and a lot more work away yet though!

4. How do you come up with your characters? I know many authors struggle to come up with names. Where do yours originate from?

My characters often just pop into my head. Often they are amalgamations of people I have known or even just met or seen in the past. Mostly though, they take form all on their own complete with personality, looks and a name! It's very odd: I get movies in my head and I play all the parts...

5. What is your most recent addition to the literary world? Tell us about it?

Oh yes the underlying themes are usually medical. I suppose it's inevitable after over 20 years spent in either nursing or pharmaceuticals! In the anthology '3am and Wide Awake' the medical conditions range from schizophrenia to neurofibroma. And of course, in Father of Lies, my protagonist Ruby, has DID and is in a high security forensic unit. There will usually be something supernatural in my stories too; although FOL and Tanners Dell are actually serious occult horrors complete with exorcisms .

6. What is your most recent addition to the literary world? Tell us about it?

'Father of Lies' was released just 8 months ago:

'Ruby is the most violently disturbed patient ever admitted to Drummersgate Asylum, high on the bleak moors of northern England. With no improvement after two years, psychiatrist Jack McGowan finally decides to take a risk and hypnotises her. With terrifying consequences.

A horrific dark force is now unleashed on every member of the medical team as each in turn tries to unlock her shocking and sinister past. Who is this girl and how did she manage to survive such unimaginable evil?

Set in a desolate ex-mining village where secrets are tightly kept and incomers hounded out, their questions soon lead to a haunted old mill, the heart of darkness... and the father of lies....
Sleep tight!

7. I've seen you on Twitter; do you have any other ways we can follow you so that we can keep up to date on your publishing.

Yes - I am on all social media!
http://www.sarahenglandauthor.blogspot.com
http://www.sarahengland.yolasite.com
https://www.facebook.com/sarahenglandauthor
http://www.authorsreach.co.uk

8. Out of all your novels, which was the hardest to write and why?

The hardest novel to write was Father of Lies because the research was so harrowing. The books I used had to be read only in daylight and then I didn't want them on my shelves so I gave them away to a friend. She wouldn't have them in her house and subsequently burnt them! Yup - that scary! I had some unnerving experiences during the writing of it too, which only served to make me feel the true terror of what we don't know...I'm getting that again while writing Tanners Dell...gulp...

9. Out of all your novels, which one do you like the most?

Well the first comedy I wrote (off the market at the moment) was pretty funny to write - kind of at the expense of various people in my medical repping past. I will re-visit comedy again one day because it is brilliant to write.

10. Finally, what can we expect in the future from you? What
aspect/genre will you venture into next?

My genre is definitely supernatural horror. After 'Tanners Dell' has been released I'm going to be doing a third one in the Woodsend horror series....I do absolutely love it and feel driven to get up each morning and tell the story!

The links to amazon are http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B015NCZYKU and http://www.amazon.com/dp/B015NCZYKU

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