{"id":61,"date":"2011-12-28T13:40:05","date_gmt":"2011-12-28T19:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=61"},"modified":"2017-03-29T18:12:38","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T01:12:38","slug":"author-interview-elly-griffiths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/author-interview-elly-griffiths\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Interview: Elly Griffiths"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019m such a big, geeky fan of Elly Griffiths<\/a> – whose most recent book, <\/em>The Janus Stone, was on our 2011 favorites list – that I was more than delighted when she agreed to an interview.\u00a0 Her latest Ruth Galloway novel, <\/em>The House at Sea\u2019s End,<\/strong> come out this month, with the 5th<\/sup> in the series due in the spring.\u00a0 There\u2019s a spoiler in the interview if you haven\u2019t read the first novel.<\/em> Otherwise, enjoy an interview with one of my favorite new authors.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: First off, the obvious – why\u00a0archaeology? \u00a0Do you have an expertise, or just an interest?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: Well, my husband is now an archaeologist although when I met him he worked in the city. About six years ago he decided to give up banking to retrain as an archaeologist and that \u2013 indirectly \u2013 led to the Ruth Galloway books. But I\u2018ve always been interested in history, archaeology, myths and legends.<\/p>\n

Q: On the same topic, I heard Erin Hart, who also writes about an\u00a0archaeologist, say she liked the ideas of layers and layers of the past waiting to be discovered. \u00a0It made her feel like she had plenty of\u00a0territory\u00a0left to mine, so to speak. \u00a0Do you feel the same way?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: Definitely. I do think that archaeology fits very well with crime, after all archaeologists and detectives do very similar jobs. Also I think it helps avoid a crime fiction common trap \u2013 you know, the one where a small country village becomes unfeasibly crammed with bodies. There are lots of bodies in Norfolk \u2013 it\u2019s just that some of them died hundreds, even thousands, of years ago!<\/p>\n

Q: Now, let’s get on to Ruth – she is fabulous! \u00a0She is seriously one of the best characters in a recent mystery I have encountered – she is so comfortable in her own skin. \u00a0Can you talk about how you came up with her a bit?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: Thank you so much! I really like writing about Ruth but I\u2019m not quite sure where she comes from! She really just appeared one day out of the mist. She shares some characteristics with me \u2013 love of Bruce Springsteen and cats for example \u2013 but she is emphatically not me. Perhaps I have also drawn on my two older sisters who are both strong, independent women.<\/p>\n

Q: I’m enjoying the arc you are laying out – Ruth discovers her\u00a0pregnancy, she suffers through it, and now she’s juggling motherhood and a job in a very realistic way. \u00a0Sophie Hannah’s recent THE WRONG MOTHER also did a good job with the motherhood juggling act, and I’m enjoying seeing that reflected in mysteries. \u00a0I think it’s not a recent trend – you could trace it back to Celia Fremlin’s THE HOURS BEFORE DAWN, which is about living with a newborn – but it’s almost a subversive one. \u00a0It’s a part of life not often seriously discussed. \u00a0Was this\u00a0conscious, or a reflection of your own life, or both?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: I did want to write a book in which a woman got pregnant and had a baby and also had to just get on with her job. After all, this is what most women do. One of my favourite films is \u2018Fargo\u2019 and I love the fact that the detective in it is heavily pregnant but this isn\u2019t a \u2018plot line\u2019, it\u2019s just part of life. I also wanted to show that it is hard to juggle a baby and a career. You can make childcare arrangements but you still end up feeling guilty most of the time. I had it easier than Ruth because I had a very supportive husband but I also had it harder because I had twins!<\/p>\n

Q: Lots of recent British mystery fiction is pretty dark. \u00a0I enjoy Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Denise Mina, Mo Hayder, and S.J. Bolton very much, but they are pretty grim at times. \u00a0I like that you are writing books that are not unrelievedly dark. \u00a0Can you talk about that a bit?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: I love Val McDermid and Ian Rankin and I think I actually intended The Crossing Places <\/em>to be darker than it is. I really don\u2019t know why it didn\u2019t turn out that way…<\/p>\n

Q: Also, since we’ve discussed Ruth, let’s talk about my other favorite character, Cathbad! \u00a0He’s a hoot, but he’s also kind of a spiritual mooring for the books, don’t you feel? \u00a0Do you know someone like Cathbad? \u00a0What was your inspiration for him?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: I live in Brighton which is famous for its rather eccentric inhabitants. There are plenty of Cathbads walking about! I also have a friend who is very into alternative spirituality and I think I have drawn on her a little bit. I intended Cathbad to have a walk-on part in The Crossing Places <\/em>but he refused to stay in the background. I\u2019m now writing Book 5 and he has become an integral part of the books.<\/p>\n

Q: And are you going to continue to almost torture Nelson and Ruth? \u00a0Cynthia Harrod-Eagles did something similar with her Bill Slider character, to great effect. \u00a0That’s another series I really enjoyed. \u00a0But the tension keeps it interesting, don’t you think?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: I don\u2019t know what will happen to Ruth and Nelson but I comfort myself that this is just like life. I think the tension probably does make it more interesting but you have to be careful not to draw things out for the sake of it. However, Ruth and Nelson are now bound together for life and there\u2019s no easy solution for them…<\/p>\n

Q: What starts you off when telling a story – narrative, place, or character? \u00a0I think your books are strong in all three, and I have to say every time I pick one up, I find myself zipping through the book, which speaks to a narrative expertise<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A: The Crossing Places <\/em>started with the location. I was walking across a marsh in Norfolk with Andy (my husband) when he mentioned that prehistoric man saw marshland as sacred. Because it\u2019s neither land nor sea, but something in between, they saw it as a kind of bridge to the afterlife \u2013 neither land nor sea, neither life nor death. The entire plot came to me in that instant. That has never happened again but, for me, the place has to come first.<\/p>\n

Q: How do you work –\u00a0unwieldy\u00a0first draft? \u00a0An outline? \u00a0Notecards? \u00a0I’ve heard so many answers to this question, all interesting.<\/em><\/p>\n

A: I start with a rough handwritten outline, chapter by chapter. I write straight onto the computer and I don\u2019t change much as I go. I don\u2019t have much time in the day to write (I have two children and help look after my elderly mother) so, by the time I get to my desk, that day\u2019s words will have gone round in my head hundreds of times.<\/p>\n

Q: Why mysteries? \u00a0Was that always what you had in mind? \u00a0You reference other crime writers through the books so I’m assuming you’re a fan.<\/em><\/p>\n

A: I have written other non-crime books under my real name, Domenica de Rosa (I know it sounds made up!). When I started The Crossing Places<\/em> I wasn\u2019t even aware that it was a mystery. It was my agent who said, \u2018This is crime, you need a new name and a new publisher.\u2019<\/p>\n

Q: Finally, who are your writing influences? <\/em><\/p>\n

A: I love Victorian fiction and my favourite writer of all time is Wilkie Collins. I think (I hope!) you can see his influence in my books. I also love the ghost stories of Charles Dickens and M.R James. My favourite modern writers are David Lodge, Alison Lurie and Anne Tyler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m such a big, geeky fan of Elly Griffiths – whose most recent book, The Janus Stone, was on our 2011 favorites list – that I was more than delighted when she agreed to an interview.\u00a0 Her latest Ruth Galloway novel, The House at Sea\u2019s End, come out this month, with the 5th in the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2197,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions\/2197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}