Today we welcome Clare Swatman to the blog, as she launches her debut psychological thriller, No Son Of Mine (writing as CL Swatman).

Why writing?

Why not?! As a child I always liked reading, and I did English A Level, but I was never one of those children who sat and wrote stories from a young age, or read a book a day. I read Sweet Valley High and dreamed of going to an American High School, and that was about the extent of it.

Now, I can’t imagine not writing. If I’m in between books, I feel a bit lost, as though I’ve lost my focus, and find I start thinking about plots and stories again, and what I want to write next.

When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?

For a long time I dreamed of being a magazine journalist – it seemed so exciting and glamorous, and as a teenager in 1990s Hertfordshire, that really appealed. In 1997 my dream came true when I got accepted onto a post-graduate magazine writing course, and then started working for Best magazine. In the following years I wrote for most of the weekly women’s magazines and was Features Editor for Bella by the time I went freelance.

I always thought about writing a book – but then decided it was what other people did and that no-one would ever want to read my words. A couple of novels were started and abandoned, and that was it. And then one New Year’s Eve, I told some friends that I was going to write a book that year, because the year would pass whether I wrote it or not, and I’d only be annoyed at myself if I hadn’t at least tried. So I put aside each Thursday, and I wrote, and by the following New Year’s Eve, I had a book written! That book became my debut, Before You Go, and sold all around the world.

Who inspires you?

My family. My friends. I write about emotions and relationships as Clare Swatman, and even in my thrillers, I focus on the relationships between people – what makes people tick, or act in certain ways. And I take inspiration from all the people I’ve known and cared about as I write. (although none of my characters are based on real people – it’s much more subtle than that, I promise!)

What was your most recent published novel?

As Clare Swatman it was Last Christmas, which is a sliding doors love story set in New York and London in the early 2000s.

My thriller as CL Swatman is called No Son of Mine. It’s about a woman who is scared her son is guilty of murder – and thinks it’s her fault. She sets about trying to find out the truth, and it almost tears her family apart.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m on a rewrite of my next Clare Swatman book which has a working title of ‘The Three Things I Love about You’ and will be out in April next year, and I’ve also planned the outline of my next thriller which is planned for release next September. It doesn’t have a title yet, not even a working one, but I’m planning to start the actual writing of it at the end of the month. I can’t wait!

How long does it take you to write a book?

I have a contract which means I have to produce a book roughly every 5-6 months. It’s a lot but it is my full-time job so I treat it that way. When I’m planning or editing it’s a bit different, but when I’m writing a first draft, I aim to write a minimum of 1500 words a day, five days a week. Even at that pace it takes about three months to write a first draft, and then it needs revising and editing, so I always have more than one book on the go at different stages.

What does your writing day look like?

It depends on the day. Some days I exercise first thing then sit at my desk around 11am and write. Other days I get to my desk as soon as the kids have left for school and write from 8am. They are usually the most productive days, but it doesn’t always work out that way. I try and get the writing done first, and then any other commitments such as newsletters, writing mentoring, blogs and social media, after that.

I have regular breaks for cups of tea, and I try and fit in some exercise otherwise I seize up. And then the kids come home and have to be taken places so I usually have to finish about 4/4.30pm. But I’m never far away from my desk and often sneak in a few hundred words here and there!

Do your books have a message/common theme?

It depends on the day. Some days I exercise first thing then sit at my desk around 11am and write. Other days I get to my desk as soon as the kids have left for school and write from 8am. They are usually the most productive days, but it doesn’t always work out that way. I try and get the writing done first, and then any other commitments such as newsletters, writing mentoring, blogs and social media, after that.

I have regular breaks for cups of tea, and I try and fit in some exercise otherwise I seize up. And then the kids come home and have to be taken places so I usually have to finish about 4/4.30pm. But I’m never far away from my desk and often sneak in a few hundred words here and there!

Do your books have a message/common theme?

Not really. They’re all stand alone, and sometimes I deal with issues such as nature versus nurture, or dealing with Alzheimers or depression or PTSD. But at the core of them all are the people.

Do your books cover any mental health issues? If so, what? Why did this topic interest you?

Last Christmas has a character with depression, which fortunately early reviews have said I have dealt with very well. I have known quite a number of people with depression and haven’t been completely immune from it myself, so I know how it can make you feel numb, as well as how it affects your loved ones. I think it’s important to talk about these things, and including them in stories is a way of doing that.

In The World Outside My Window I also have a character who suffers from agoraphobia and I spoke to a number of people who suffer from it when I was researching it, and I have a soldier with PTSD in The Night We First Me.

Have you ever done a research trip for your writing?

Sadly I didn’t have time to go to New York to research Last Christmas (although I had been three times before!). But my next book is set in Newcastle, where I went to university and lived for six years, so I went up there to refresh my memory and spend some time in Whitley Bay and the city itself, and for Dear Grace I spent some time in Lowestoft, which was an important part of the story. Maybe I should set my next book in the Bahamas and have a week on the beach!

What’s the most interesting thing you have discovered when researching a book?

I always learn a lot from any research – and the more I learn the more authentic I can make my stories, and the way people react to things and are affected by things out of their control. It’s important to me to deal with sensitive issues carefully and sensitively.

What are you currently reading?

I’m finally getting round to reading Still Life by Sarah Winman – it’s been sitting on my shelf for years. It’s beautifully written, and the dialogue is so, so good. So clever. I’ve also just finished a thriller by one of my favourite writers, Nicci French. I like to mix it up a bit so I don’t read the same genre all the time.

Author Biography

Clare Swatman is the author of nine women’s fiction novels. Her latest, Last Christmas, is a sliding doors love story set in New York and London in the early 2000s. Before writing books, Clare spent 20 years writing for women’s magazines in the UK.

She also writes psychological thrillers under the name CL Swatman. Her first thriller, No Son of Mine, will be out on 1st December this year.

Clare lives in Hertfordshire in the UK with her husband and two boys. Even the cat is male, which means she’s destined to be outnumbered forever.

You can find out more about her books at www.clareswatmanauthor.com, or follow her on Facebook at Clare Swatman Author, Insta @clareswatmanauthor, and X, where she’s @clareswatman

 

Last Christmas

‘Bea was always early for everything. Even, it turned out, when she was running away from her life.’

As Christmas approaches, Bea Preston has a choice.

Looking up at the departures board in Heathrow airport, her flight to New York boarding soon, she knows that getting on that plane changes everything. Her life in London has grown stale, her relationship with boyfriend Dom has run its course, and New York has always been her dream. But it’s a risk – she’ll miss her parents, her friends, her job.

What if Bea could live both lives? In one she goes back home for Christmas, and in another she heads to the Big Apple. Would her fate remain the same, or can one decision really change everything?

Link to Last Christmas UK: https://amzn.to/4b5Q7bv

Link to Last Christmas US: https://amzn.to/3RyHgYV

No Son Of Mine

They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…

When her fifteen-year-old son Milo goes off the rails, Alex Harding is terrified she’s passed on her abusive father’s ‘bad’ genes. When she then makes the shocking discovery that her estranged son, Samuel, who she gave up for adoption as a baby, has been accused of murder, she becomes even more convinced nature not nurture is the cause.

The only way Alex sees to help Milo, is to get to know Samuel and understand the crime that he has been accused of. But it isn’t long before Alex starts to wonder if she has made the biggest mistake of her life by inviting this man she barely knows into her family.

As Alex becomes increasingly obsessed with Samuel, it gets harder to know who she can trust and who is lying to her. But if she can’t uncover the truth, she risks losing everything and everyone she loves…

Link to No Son of Mine UK: https://amzn.to/4b5Q7bv

Link to No Son of Mine US: https://amzn.to/4cdNllz