I am delighted to be today’s stop on Catherine Burns’s The Visitors blog tour! 🙂

Interview with Catherine Burns…..

For those who don’t know already, could you tell us about yourself and your book(s) please?

I was born in Manchester, I studied law at Cambridge then worked in the City of London for several years. Later in life I became a university lecturer. I only recently started writing and The Visitors is my first novel. My book is about a lonely middle aged woman called Marion Zetland. She lives with her brother John in a crumbling mansion. Her brother is keeping a terrible secret down in the cellar of the house and Marion faces the moral dilemma of whether to expose it or protect her brother.

Where did/do you get your ideas from?

I was inspired by several true life-crime stories – Josef Fritzl and Marc Dutroux. Also I have always been intrigued by the question of how far someone would go to protect a loved one, even if they did something really terrible.

Are any of your characters based (however loosely) on anyone you know?

There is one character in the book, I’m not saying who it is but I’ll be interested to see if they recognise themselves when they read it!

How do you pick your characters names?

I try to imagine what names their parents would pick!

Can you share your writing process with us, in a nutshell?

I like to write a really quick first draft to get the story down then edit, edit, edit. I must have written twenty drafts of The Visitors. But once you get the first draft down the process doesn’t seem so daunting. Also, like Marion, I daydream a lot!

Who are your top 5 favourite authors?

Shirley Jackson Donna Tartt Joyce Carol Oates Anton Chekhov Thomas Mann

If you could meet any author, who would it be and what would you ask them?

Mikhail Bulgakov author of The Master and Margarita to ask what it was like working in Stalinist Russia. It must be dreadful to write in fear that you might be killed or sent to a prison camp if you upset the authorities.

Were you a big reader as a child?

Yes I devoured books. I loved C.S. Lewis, but I also enjoyed stuff that was probably too old for me like Stephen King. Always been a big horror fan.

When did you start to write?

Not until I was over forty, never too late!

If you could re-write the ending to any book what would it be and what would you change?

That would be sacrilege to change someone else’s book!

Is there a book you wish you had written?

Plenty! But I think it’s a bad idea to compare oneself to other authors; everyone needs to write their own story.

If you wrote an autobiography, what would your title be?

I wouldn’t!

If you could invite any fictional character for coffee who would it be and where would you take them?

Vronsky from Anna Karenina and we’d go for cocktails.

What are you working on right now?

I’m working on a thriller with a supernatural twist set in London.

Do you have a new release due?

Not yet.

What do you generally do to celebrate on publication day?

I haven’t had one yet but I am sure there will be champagne involved.

How can readers keep in touch with you?

https://www.facebook.com/cburnsbooks/

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, Catherine! 🙂

Publisher: Legend Press (3rd October 2017)

Perfect for fans of Paula Hawkins and Ruth Ware.

Marion Zetland lives with her domineering older brother, John in a decaying Georgian townhouse on the edge of a northern seaside resort. A timid spinster in her fifties who still sleeps with teddy bears, Marion does her best to shut out the shocking secret that John keeps in the cellar.

Until, suddenly, John has a heart attack and Marion is forced to go down to the cellar herself and face the gruesome truth that her brother has kept hidden.

As questions are asked and secrets unravel, maybe John isn’t the only one with a dark side.

Fancy winning yourself a paperback copy?

Just comment ‘Yes please’ on this post and I’ll pick a winner at random! (open until Saturday 14th October 2017)

Thanks in advance for joining in & Good Luck!

Not lucky enough to win…..

Buy your copy…..

Enjoy!