Friend and author, Sue Barnard...

 ...makes a very welcome return to the blog this week.  Hi Sue, thanks so much for taking time out from your very busy schedule to be here today.  Tell me, what are you working on at the moment...

SB  I’m currently putting the finishing touches to a French edition of my paranormal romance novella Never on Saturday.  It’s set partly in medieval France and partly in present-day North Wales, and is based on an old French legend.  The French edition will be called Jamais le Samedi, and will be released in paperback and Kindle versions this summer.

AW   How interesting.  I will look out for that.  So, what first got you into writing and why?

SB   If you include those compulsory “Composition” exercises at primary school, I guess I’ve been writing, on and off, for most of my life.  But it was only after a life-changing event nearly twenty years ago, when I realised I had a story to tell, that I started taking it more seriously.

AW   You write romance, historical, paranormal and cross-genre fiction.  Is it all imagination or do you do research?

SB   Both.  The stories might come from imagination, but the settings and the facts need to be authentic – so research is essential.  I really enjoy it, but it often leads me down all sorts of internet rabbit-holes.  It’s not unknown for me to suddenly realise that two hours have passed and I haven’t written a word!

AW  And what about other types of writing?  Have you dabbled with other genres or short stories perhaps?  And what about poetry or scripts for stage, film or TV?

SB    Following the aforementioned life-changing event I did several short courses in Creative Writing in its various forms: Fiction, Poetry, Plays, and Creative Non-Fiction.  Since then I’ve written various short stories and poems (one of which, to my eternal surprise, won a major award) and non-fiction articles.  Whilst I’ve never made any further attempts at playwriting, that particular course has proved very useful in creating realistic-sounding dialogue, and also helping me to adhere to the all-important principle of Show Don’t Tell.  As a result, much of my work is dialogue-driven.  As Alice in Wonderland so rightly observed: What is the use of a book without pictures or conversations?

AW  Well Said Alice!  Famous authors such as Roald Dahl and Dylan Thomas had a special space for writing.  Do you have a writing shed of your own?

SB   Not a shed as such, but I do have my own writing spaces.  In the summer it’s a corner of the conservatory with a lovely view of the garden, and in the winter it’s a corner of the front room.  Having said that, as long as I have my trusty laptop I can write almost anywhere, so long as it isn’t the Muse’s day off.

AW   And finally, if you had a whole afternoon to yourself and could choose to spend it with any one individual, living or dead, or a character from a book, who would it be and what would you discuss?

SB    I think it would have to be Shakespeare, who has been the inspiration for so much of my own writing.  I would ask him how he managed to be so prolific, if he ever suffered from the dreaded Writer’s Block, and also what really happened during his so-called “lost years”.

about the book... Two stories, two heartbreaks: one past, one present...

Leaving her native France and arriving in North Wales as a postgraduate student of History and Folklore, Mel is cautiouly optimistic that she can escape from her troubled past and begin a new and happier life.

She settles into her student accomodation and begins work on her thesis, concentrating particularly on one facsinating manuscript: a compelling and tragic tale of a cursed medieval princess.

Then she meets Ray - charming, down-to-earth and devastatingly handsome.  Within days, Mel's entire world has transformed from lonely and frustrated to loving and fulfilled.

Despite her failure with previous relationships, she allows herself to hope that this time, at last, she can make it work.

But Mel's dreams of happiness are under constant threat.  She is hiding a dark and terrible secret, which Ray - or indeed anybody else - must never discover.

about the author... Sue is a British novelist, editor and award-winning poet who believes that an immaculate house is a sign of a wasted life.  Thus, her house is chaotic but her life is anything but dull.

Her mind is so warped that she has appeared on BBC TV's Only Connect quiz show, and she also compiles questions for BBC Radio 4's fiendishly difficult Round Britain Quiz.  This once caused one of her sons to describe her as "professionally weird".  The label has stuck.

She speaks French like a Belgian, German like a schoolgirl, and Italian and Portuguese like an Englishwoman abroad.  She is also very interested in family history.  Her own family background is far stranger than any work of fiction.  She would write a book about it if she thought anybody would believe her.

Sue lives in Cheshire, UK, with her extremely patient husband and a large collection of unfinished scribblings.

Sue also works as an Author and Editor at Darkstroke and Ocelot Press 

You can follow Sue on her Blog and on Facebook Twitter  Instagram  Goodreads  RNA

You can get all her books, including the audio book, The Ghostly Father, on  Amazon