What is unique about your style?
I feel cheated by detective novels that hide vital clues from you until the end so that you cannot use pure logic to work out the mystery for yourself. I decided that, in my novels, nothing would be hidden. If my reader can work out who did it by the time my detective is ready to reveal all, or even before, then well done. To succeed though, my readers have to sort out the red herrings form the true clues, which are not obvious.
How important is it that all the background is accurate?
I do my research and try to get things right, but if my description is not a totally accurate one, then remember, this is fiction. I do not wish to libel anybody and I may wish to create a special environment. One trick that I use is to have ficticious locations or events interspersed with the real ones to create the environment that I need.
Why are you publishing your book in the USA and not the UK?
This was quite by chance, but I am pleased with my choice of PublishAmerica. With the Internet age it does not matter that we are continents apart and I may never meet the people with whom I am doing business. I intend that my books should appeal to all English-speakers and I can achieve the required distribution with this publisher. Their staff liked my book and I liked their style. I think that is important. Time will tell us both whether we chose wisely.
Why Grace Tremayne?
My family has always used Tremayne as its artistic name and it is used extensively in our forenames, including my own. It goes back to the early 20th Century actor Les Tremayne, who was a good friend of my paternal grandmother, if you understand my meaning. Grace is the surname of my spouse's family.
What made you start writing?
In a word - Challenges.
It all started many Christmases ago when my family used to get together for Christmas lunch and games. My daughter was the only child and there was not enough to keep her amused, so I wrote a small role-play for us all to have some fun. Even my ageing mother, who was having difficulty walking, joined in. I wrote her a part where she was under "house-arrest" so she was supposed not to leave her seat in the lounge. She took great delight in sneaking out and challenging me to do anything about it.
Anyway with the success of that, my daughter issued a further challenge to me to write role-play murders. Despite some trepidation, I took on the challenge and set out to make them interesting and complex. Because I knew what was going on, I was able to facilitate these murders and hence make them more detailed than the boxed variety. It took me a long time, but eventually I got the hang of it. I tried it out on my spouse, daughter, brother and sister-in-law, who were willing guinea pigs. They re-assured me that it was fun, so I carried on writing and running these murders. I now have eleven on the stocks. They have graced a company Christmas party, a friend's birthday and an NWR ladies group. One of my work friends even took on the challenge of running one himself. I now run them under the guise of Shadow Mysteries
My wife, Valerie then issued the final challenge. She said that now that I had got the formula for murders, it was time to write a novel. She, and two good friends, Simon Cook, my bridge partner and Dave Rolfs, a work colleague, read the manuscript and gave me good advice, which has improved the novel. Valerie and I even took a short holiday in St Ives to verify some locations and improve the accuracy of the work.
Are you planning any other books?
Yes, I have already begun work on my next novel, which is again based on one of my role-plays, but I would not like to say anything about it as there is a lot of work to be done, so it will take some time. I still have a day job, which only leaves me time to write at week-ends and holidays.
Where do you get your characters from, are they people that you have met?
Some characters are strongly based on people I know, with sometimes more that one person's personality weaved into a single character. A few of my friends have asked to be included and I have written them in. The greated joy is in the selection of my victims, who are sometimes based on people who have upset me. I can include some of the reasons why I dislike them, add other features to make them really evil and then kill them. It is really cathartic. Other characters, like Kyomi, come straight out of my imagination, so in her case it is based on somebody that I should like to meet, or since she is a suspect in a murder, maybe I would not?
And finally, why have you chosen a female pseudonym?
I have always been interested in challenging the accepted norm. The Bronte sisters chose male psedonyms and prospered. I think that we have gone full circle now, so I might do well writing under a female pseudonym. Well it never did Joyce Carey any harm did it?