Interview with Lorraine Mace

Val Penny ♦ September 9, 2020 ♦ Leave a comment

It is my great pleasure to be joined on the blog today by the fabulous British Crime author, Lorraine Mace. Thank you for joining me today, Lorraine.

Please tell my readers a little about yourself?

I am primarily a crime writer, author of the D.I. Sterling series of hard-boiled crime, but I also have a children’s book published called Vlad the Inhaler – Hero in the Making.

What inspired you to become a writer/author?

I’ve been telling outrageous lies since childhood, so it seemed natural to start putting them down on paper.

What is the best thing about being a writer/author?

Creating people and places and finding they have become real, not just to me, but to my readers. The greatest thing of all is receiving emails or messages online from readers who have fallen in love with my characters.

What is your writing routine like?

I try to write at least 1,000 words per day of my WIP Monday to Friday. The rest of my time is taken up with the day job, which is mainly working with other writers on their manuscripts via my critique service. I am also a columnist with two UK writing magazines. Saturdays and Sundays I am able to devote a bit more time to my own writing.

How much time is spent on research?

That is a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question! It varies from book to book. I am meticulous when it comes to researching something on which I have little personal knowledge, but how long it takes depends on what it is I need to find out.

How much of the book is planned out before you start writing it?

When constructing plots I always start with the crime. I know who has done the dreadful deeds and why. I also work out how he or she will get caught by D.I. Sterling at the end. What happens in between often astounds me as various characters and subplots arrive in my head as I’m writing and, quite often, I have no idea where they came from. Characters arrive fully formed and ready to go, so maybe they were always in my subconscious waiting for their moment to appear.

What do you think is most important when writing a book? Characters, plot, setting, etc

It’s a mix of everything. You can have great characters, but a weak plot and the book won’t work. Or you can have a fabulous plot, but the characters are wooden. Everything has to come together in the right way with no weak elements to spoil the whole.

What is your latest book about?

Rage and Retribution is about a vigilante-type person who wants to punish rapists who have got away with their crimes. It is the fourth thriller in the D.I. Sterling series.

What inspired it?

The idea behind Rage and Retribution came to me when I was reading a news article on the number of unreported rapes which take place every year. What, I wondered, would someone do if they had incontrovertible proof of a rapist’s actions, but for whatever reason no court case or even police investigation ever took place?

From there, it was a short step to developing the idea of a vigilante-type person who would subject rapists to a form of punishment which would fit their crimes. In Rage and Retribution, the vigilante kidnaps the men and then uses their exact words against them while subjecting each man to horrific torture.

Any new books or plans for the future?

I have book five in the D.I. Sterling series with the publisher at the moment. I’m hoping to be able to reveal the cover in a couple of weeks. Other than that, I am writing a standalone psychological thriller.

What genre do you read most often?

I mainly read crime, but enjoy most genres.

Thank you so much, Val, for inviting me to take part today.

The Author

When not working on her crime novels, Lorraine Mace is engaged in many writing-related activities. She is a columnist for both Writing Magazine and Writers’ Forum and is head judge for Writers’ Forum monthly fiction competitions.

A tutor for Writers Bureau, she also runs her own private critique and author mentoring service.

She is co-author, with Maureen Vincent-Northam, of THE WRITER’S ABC CHECKLIST (Accent Press). Other books include children’s novel VLAD THE INHALER – HERO IN THE MAKING, and NOTES FROM THE MARGIN, a compilation of her Writing Magazine humour column.

Find her at:
Website: http://www.lorrainemace.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lomace
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lorraine.mac…