Author Interview / Blog Tour - The Mother by Jaime Raven

I’ve taken your daughter, as punishment for what you did …

Prepare to be gripped by the heart-stopping new thriller from the author of The Madam.

South London detective Sarah Mason is a single mother. It’s a tough life, but Sarah gets by. She and her ex-husband, fellow detective Adam Boyd, adore their 15-month-old daughter Molly.

Until Sarah’s world falls apart when she receives a devastating threat: Her daughter has been taken, and the abductor plans to raise Molly as their own, as punishment for something Sarah did.

Sarah is forced to stand back while her team try to track down the kidnapper. But her colleagues aren’t working fast enough to find Molly. To save her daughter, Sarah must take matters into her own hands, in a desperate hunt that will take her to the very depths of London’s underworld.

1. If you could work with any other author, who would it be and why?

Answer: James Patterson. I know he churns them out like a factory but his books are always tightly-written and well-plotted. It would be fascinating to see how he works. His style and short chapters are often criticised but they’re popular with readers and he’s not the world’s top selling thriller writer for nothing.

2. What would be a typical working day for you? When and where do you write?

Answer: I’m one of those authors who writes in longhand before committing anything to a computer. I fill up hundreds of notebooks every year. My day almost always begins with a long walk to one of the many coffee shops in Southampton, where I live. There are two reasons for this – firstly I get some exercise and secondly the time I spend drinking coffee is usually the most productive of my day. For some reason the words flow more easily when I’m among other people rather than cooped up in my tiny office at home.

3. What is the hardest part of the writing for you?

Answer: I find the hardest part of writing is coming up with the first sentence of the next chapter. When I’m working on a book I try to write at least one chapter every day. Often I’ll sit up late until I come up with that first line. It’s a psychological thing, I suppose. Once I’m off the starting block I have an idea where the chapter is taking me and it’s easier to get stuck in.

4. When and why did you first start writing?

Answer: I started writing as a teenager and finished my first book at fifteen, but it wasn’t good enough to send to publishers. It was my mother who got me interested in writing because she was a big Agatha Christie fan and this encouraged me to read as well. Once I started I couldn’t stop and I was soon coming up with my own ideas that I thought would make good stories. Before long I was writing them down and there was no stopping me.

5. How did you come up with the idea for your book?

Answer: The idea for The Mother came from a newspaper report about child abduction. It unsettled me because I have children of my own. I then began to explore the possibility of writing a book about a child who goes missing. However, I discovered that there are quite a lot of them out there so I knew it would have to have something that would set it apart. That was when I hit on the idea of a baby being taken by someone purely as an act of revenge against the mother. There’s a lot more to it than that but I don’t want to give too much away.

6. Are you a big reader? If so, what are you reading now?

Answer: I do read as much as I can, usually about three books a month. I stick to the crime/thriller genre and that way I pick up lots of ideas. I’ve just finished reading Her Last Breath by Tracy Buchanan which I really enjoyed. I’m now half way through Perfect Prey by Helen Fields.

7. Do you have any advice for other aspiring writers?

Answer: My advice to aspiring writers is to ignore most of the advice you’ll receive and do what feels right for you. Read as many books as you can to learn how other authors do it. And never be discouraged by bad reviews. We all get them.