Interview with Michael Robotham
Q: Michael, the characters in your novels are always richly drawn. They have identifiable human traits and weaknesses which make them memorable. Where do you find your characters? Are they drawn from experience, imagination or both?
A: I think my characters are always drawn from my imagination, although often their physical descriptions are composites of people I know or, on occasions, people who happen to stop for coffee in the café where I do a lot of my writing.
My past career as a ghostwriter provided me with a wonderful training for capturing ‘voice’. Each of the celebrities or notable people I ‘ghosted’ for had a unique turn of phrase, sense of humour, vocabulary and rhythm of speaking. My job was to capture this perfectly so that nobody could see my ‘fingerprints’ on the autobiography. I approach writing fiction the same way – creating characters who live and breathe in my imagination, who are as real to me as anyone I have ever worked with.
Q: Although many of your female characters in your crime novels meet gruesome endings they emerge from the pages as 3-dimensional people with whom your readers can emphathise. As a writer how do you step into the mindset of women?
A: I often write about women and teenage girls in jeopardy, but not many of them have met gruesome ends. My body counts are pretty low compared to most crime writers. I concentrate more on the psychological events, creating suspense through a ticking clock and dark night, rather than using violence or torture.
As for the mindset of women – I was fortunate to ghostwrite for people like Gerri Halliwell and Lulu, which helped me look at the world through female eyes. My third novel The Night Ferry was told entirely from the point of view of a young Anglo-Indian police woman in London. My wife told me afterwards, ‘My girlfriends are going to think you are the most sensitive New Age man but, Buster, I know the truth.’
Q: Your crime novels tend to be set in Britain and more recently in the USA. You describe locations in Britain in a way that makes the reader feel that you know those locations intimately. Can you tell us a bit about how you choose your locations?
A: I lived in London for almost a dozen years, working for British newspapers and ghostwriting, so I’m very comfortable writing about the UK. Saying that, I’ve noticed how much London has changed since I lived there. That’s one of the reasons I’ve moved CLOSE YOUR EYES to Somerset.
Q: I know you are very busy touring at the moment. When you are not touring can you describe a typical day?
A: I don’t know if there is a ‘typical day’ for a writer. I’ve been so busy touring over the past six weeks I haven’t done nearly enough writing. When I am at my desk, I normally start by writing longhand for a few hours either in a local café or in the Cabana of Cruelty (my garden office). Of an afternoon I’ll type up my notes and edit pages or chapters, hoping to complete about 750 words a day. When I’m at home I tend to write every day, including weekends and public holidays. I’ve been known to sneak away on Christmas Day for a few hours of creative time.
Q: What do you like to do on your days off?
A: Do I have a hobby? I write. In my days’ off? I write. In my spare time? I write. But if you did catch me away from my writing room, I’d probably be walking along the beach or reading a book.
Thank you Michael. As a long time reader of your works I am really looking forward to meeting you at the St Albans Writers’ Festival.