PLAY.COM
Date: 06 February 2012
When Awakening was launched in the UK, Play.com ran this interview.
How would you describe Awakening in three sentences?
SJB: A fiercely secretive English village. A reclusive young veterinary surgeon. A whole bunch of mysteries and snakes.
How did the idea for the book come to you?
SJB: I live in a picture-postcard English village - with a snake population. All my neighbours have a snake story - the adder sunning itself on the patio, the grass snake in a teenager's gym bag, the dog badly bitten out walking. I started to think about life that is perfect on the surface, but with an undercurrent of something sinister.
How did you go about researching it?
SJB: I had to learn a lot about snakes and the work of veterinary surgeons. Mainly I did this through books and the internet but I also spent quite a lot of time in reptile houses, just watching how snakes move and behave. I even made myself handle one. They are incredible creatures. They almost seem to float in mid-air.
In both Sacrifice and Awakening, you have chosen small, bucolic, claustrophobic settings. Are these based on places you know?
SJB: The Shetland of Sacrifice is absolutely real. A visitor to the islands could follow the plot of the story around - as I've done - and go to each of the places named in the book. On one or two occasions I had to indulge in a bit of poetic licence but otherwise the islands are pretty much as I've described them. In Awakening, I've been much less specific about setting. The book is set on the border of Devon and Dorset, about half an hour inland from Lyme Regis. Again, a beautiful part of the country but with a darker undercurrent.
Like Sacrifice, Awakening features another strong female lead character. Are they inspired by people you know?
SJB: It isn't possible to put real people in a book. Not for me, anyway. I could name a character after someone I know, and have that person's appearance in my head as I write, but the character will take on a life of her own. Watching her do it is one of the great joys of writing fiction for me.
When you plan your new novel, what comes first, the character or the plot?
SJB: Always the plot. Books are all about story for me. If the story isn't strong, the book won't work. At the outset, my characters exist in outline only - I may know their names, their jobs, their ages and have a rough idea what they look like. After that, it's up to them. I write the story and the characters develop themselves.
If you could be compared to another thriller writer, who would you like it to be?
SJB: I'd love someone to describe me as Kathy Reichs meets Stephen King with a sprinkling of Charlotte Bronte. Well, you did ask!
Seriously, though, I can't think of any two writers who are similar enough for me to make a direct comparison between them. Writers are as individual as ... well ... as people. That's not to say we don't see echoes of one in another's work. We are all heavily influenced by those who've come before us and we all give away our particular preferences in the approaches we take. There are many writers I admire and you can probably find something of each of them in my books.
Have any thriller writers influenced your desire to write?
SJB: All of them. Those whose skill left me awe-inspired and those who made me think, 'Oh for heaven's sake, I can do better than that!'
Was the experience of writing your second novel different to the first?
SJB: Easier, in the sense that I already had a publisher and knew something of the ropes. Harder, because suddenly there was a sense of expectation hanging over me. I knew I had to deliver.
What is next for SJ Bolton?
SJB: Book three of course: Folklore and forensics on the Pennine moors.
What was your favourite book of 2008?
SJB: Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin. I'm not normally one for the historical novel - too much 'prithee sir, unhand my fur-trimmed mantle,' for my taste. This one, though, didn't just bring the past to life for me, it took me back there like a time machine. Set in the reign of Henry 2nd, it concerns a series of horrific child-murders that threaten the financial stability of the realm; and the efforts of a mediaeval female pathologist to get to the bottom of it all. It was vivid, it was funny, it was exciting and, from what I could tell, incredibly well researched.