Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I would describe myelf as the ultimate multi-tasker. Sometimes I even have to remind myself who I am for the day!
Why?
Because I write under three different pen names and in three very different genres. As Debrah Martin I write literary fiction. Falling Awake is a dream-like tale where truth IS stranger than fiction. I also plots fast-paced and compelling thrillers as D.B. Martin, with the first in the Patchwork trilogy, Patchwork Man, out now. Its fallen hero, Lawrence Juste QC faces a future as tricky as his past when his previous misdeeds catch up with him and his dead wife blackmails him, apparently from beyond the grave. The second in the series, Patchwork People twists the knife even further when it’s released at the end of September 2014.
And finally there’s my YA teen detective series, penned as Lily Stuart – THE teen detective. Irreverent, blunt, funny and vulnerable, Lily’s diary tells the tale of her mother’s internet dating spree – and the murderer she meets, interspersed between daily life as a teenager, with all its bitching, banter, and vulnerability. Webs is also due to be released in September 2014.
So why not stick to just one name and one genre?
‘Variety is the spice of life,’ is my stock reply. ‘And I have all these ideas – they have to come out somehow!’
My past careers have spanned two businesses, teaching, running business networking for the University of Winchester and social event management. In 2014 I became Chair the Wantage (not just Betjeman) Literary Festival in my hometown, which was an experience not to be missed – and which has given Lily Stuart another idea… I also has two daughters and a dog to organise.
See – more multi-tasking!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is the second in the Patchwork trilogy; Patchwork Pieces. the trilogy will be completed in spring 2015.
The first in the trilogy, Patchwork Man, was conceived as a result of my mother’s description of how the rag and bone man used to tour the streets when she was young. It immediately conjured up images of post Second World War Britain to me and I wanted to write a novel with its roots in that period. To begin with, it was to be a stand-alone book, but as the twists and turns in the plot grew, and the characters developed, I knew I couldn’t contain the entirety of it in one book unless it was to be a mammoth tome like War and Peace.
I wrote up the rag and bone description, researched other common features of the time and came across a series of anecdotes about life in children’s homes in the fifties, at the time my mother would have been in her late teens to early twenties. She’s now eighty. A theme common to the reports was emotional isolation and the desire to leave the past behind them when the child reached maturity. So much of the way we are able to tackle the problems of the present depend on the emotional nurturing we received in the past. I began to imagine a man, emotionally deprived as a child, burying his past in favour of a future he’d manufactured, yet unable to deal with the consequences when that past could no longer be buried. That obviously provided the possibility of wanting past misdeeds to be buried too, and for it to be these that later came back to haunt the protagonist. He, or she, therefore had to be a ‘fallen hero’; on the face of it successful and well-adjusted, but underneath intrinsically damaged. Seeing an adaptation for the theatre of To Kill a Mocking Bird was the finishing touch and Lawrence Juste was ‘born’, enabling my long-time admiration for the message in Harper Lee’s masterpiece to become a central part of the life lessons Juste has to learn on his journey from damaged to whole.
I was extremely lucky to have a contact who introduced me to a High Court Judge and he initially checked the procedural sections for credibility and accuracy. He remains nameless of course, but he was of immense help with Patchwork Man.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. I have my ‘writing’ room – which used to be my younger daughter’s dance studio (she was going to be a ballerina), so I’m surrounded by massive mirrors, although I can turn my back on them. Unlike eyes, they’re not the mirrors to the soul – but they do make you think. Reflections often depict people quite well – what they reflect at you rather than what they really are.
My day usually starts with a mug of tea, reading my emails and letting the ideas percolate. Then I write. If I’ve got into character well, the writing flows. If I haven’t there’s an awful lot more tea and email reading!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
As a child I steadily worked my way through the local library’s book shelves, starting with Enid Blyton, then onto Ruth Rendell, P.D. James, Patricia Cornwell via Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers and so on, until I reached Dan Brow –as everyone does. I also read thousands of other psychological and crime suspense novels in between. I love a good thriller, especially if it’s a brain teaser. Gone Girl was good too, but I worked the plot out about five chapters in, and that showed me how much the psychological thriller format eventually worms its way into your psyche. All that reading taught me how to write thriller plots, but my reading background is far wider.
I studied English Literature at university (a long time ago) and also developed a love of all kinds of genres – Shakespearean and Jacobean Revenge tragedy amongst them. If I took an overview, I can even see little traits of them in Patchwork Man, as well as the kind of moral twist there is in books such as Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird, which will always be one of my all-time favourites. It’s maybe also why I write in more than one genre. There is too much I love to read to stick to just one, and also too much to say in a lot of different ways!
What are you working on now?
I’m now working on the next in my YA teen detective series. I love writing as Lily – she says all the things I’d like to say, but know eyebrows would shoot through hairlines if I did. In Magpies there are a lot of secrets, all gradually being revealed, and Lily is getting to grips with not being as sharp as she was in Webs – an education in itself. And of course then there’s Si. He has Tourettes …
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
E Reader News today is great, and I’m testing out Book Sends over Christmas, but really promoting a book isn’t achieved though just one method. There’s Twitter, Facebook and a whole host of other social media to consider, blogging, blog-hopping and a wide distribution plan. Besides, the best book-sellers are in fact reviews – the online version of word of mouth. If a book is good, a reader will say so. What better advertisement is there than that?
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing, keep reading, keep re-writing – apart from having a good editor, a good proof-reader, a professional cover designer and bucket-loads of persistence. Research the industry and find the sites you find most helpful for marketing and writing tips. There are lots out there, and the wider you research, the better you’ll understand where you fit into the industry and how you can do the best for your books because of it. Join support groups and forums, be part of a writers group to give and receive feedback and moral support through it. Above all, don’t give up. When one book is completed, write another one. There are very few overnight successes. Most authors achieve success through sheer grit and hard work. So can you.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Get it edited! then proofed. Be a professional.
What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading The Godfinch – Donna Tartt, but also have The Miniaturist lined up for staright afterwards and the The Hundred Year Old Man who Jumped Out of a Window and Disappeared to put a smile on my face after that …
What’s next for you as a writer?
Once Magpies (the next YA teen detective) I shall be re-releasing one of the first novels I wrote – the tale of a transgender called Billie, and then shall be concentrating on my nest series – Iniquity – including a heroine with a rather unusual gift.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Lord of the Rings – epic! (hopefully that only counts for one book if I take the anthology)
To Kill a Mocking Bird – the inspiration for Lawrence Juste in the Patchwork series and such a brilliant book.
Maya Angelou’s poems (any of them) – more inspiration.
The Complete Works of Shakespeare – or as a close second, a collection of Jacobean Revenge tragedies (The White Devil, Dr Faustus, Duchess of Malfi etc) – the stuff of real drama!
Author Websites and Profiles
D.B. Martin Martin Website
D.B. Martin Martin Amazon Profile
D.B. Martin Martin Author Profile on Smashwords
D.B. Martin Martin’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account