The Inspiration behind "Normal" with Graeme Cameron

Today’s guest blog is by debut author Graeme Cameron who talks about the inspirational behind his novel “Normal”. 

I grew up on detective shows and 70s car chase films, and the first thing I did when I left school was to shut myself away in the spare room at home and combine those two passions into the most dreadful attempt at a novel that will never see the light of day (It was about an ex-cop private detective with a sketchy, tragic past, an ex-wife he was still in love with, a damsel in distress and a case involving his former nemesis smuggling drugs in stolen sports cars or something, and trust me, all evidence of its existence has been thoroughly eradicated). Anyway, one afternoon I had the radio on and heard an interview with a former FBI profiler who'd just written a novel and was talking about his background in profiling and forensic psychology and explaining the inner workings of a serial killer, and it really captured my imagination and made me determined to tackle the subject myself. At the time, The Silence of the Lambs movie had just won all the Oscars and serial killers were back in fashion, so everyone was writing about them and it seemed as though all of the stories had already been told, be they starchy procedurals or forensic-heavy mysteries or gory slasher stories, so I put it on the back burner.

Then some life happened – marriage, kids – and I didn't write anything of any substance for a number of years until finally, I had to have a word with myself and say, "Look, you've got a bunch of beginnings and endings and no middles at all, and you really need to knuckle down and write something." The problem of telling a unique story hadn't gone away, but by then the fashion was for saying something new by pushing the boundaries in terms of the gruesomeness of the crimes or the cartoonish evil of the killer, and I didn't want to fall into that trap. So, as an exercise in writing something, I decided to sit down and get those things out of my system by writing the most horrid, gory, offensive, un-publishable horror I could think of. A few paragraphs in, I realised I couldn't really stomach it and naturally began to dial it back to something more palatable, and after a chapter or two I discovered that I'd accidentally started writing something not only readable, but that I hadn't really seen before. And the whole thing just naturally evolved from that point.

So, the simple answer to the question is a chap called Derek who wrote a book once (which I still haven't read), and frustration at my own lack of ambition!

You can find more information about Graeme Cameron and his books on his website.  You can also find him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @GNCameron

Normal

He lives in your community, in a nice house with a well-tended garden. He shops in your supermarket, bumping shoulders with you and apologising with a smile. He drives beside you on the highway, politely waving you into the lane ahead of him. What you don't know is that he has an elaborate cage built into a secret basement under his garage. And the food that he's carefully shopping for is to feed a young woman he's holding there against her will—one in a string of many, unaware of the fate that awaits her.

This is how it's been for a long time. It's normal…and it works. Perfectly.  Then he meets the checkout girl from the 24-hour grocery.  And now the plan, the hunts, the room…the others. He doesn’t need any of them any more. He only needs her. But just as he decides to go straight, the police start to close in. He might be able to cover his tracks, except for one small problem: he still has someone trapped in his garage.

Discovering his humanity couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Normal by Graeme Cameron is out now (Mira, £7.99 (PB))

Insights to The Good Girl

Today’s guest blog is by debut author Mary Kubica.

When I began writing The Good Girl, it was a very conscious decision.  There wasn’t an event or events that inspired me, nor does the novel draw on any dark element of my own childhood.  It’s quite the opposite, in fact.  People often seem perplexed that a novel as dark as The Good Girl would come from me – someone with a happy childhood, a rather uneventful existence – and yet this was half the fun of it: exploring a reality which was far from mine. 

I had the idea to write a novel about a kidnapping that was not exactly what it

seemed.  Where it came from, I can’t say for certain; I suppose I’m just someone with an active imagination as often goes hand in hand with a writing career.  The first time I sat down at the computer to begin The Good Girl (without notes or an outline, just myself and the computer and a few moments of peace and quiet while my daughter napped) this was all I had.  I very quickly decided to write the novel from the viewpoint of various narrators, as well as in a nonlinear structure to enhance the mystery – or mysteries – that surround the abduction of Mia. 

I’ve often struggled to define the source of inspiration for The Good Girl, for I feel there should be some key event that triggered this novel, and yet for as hard as I’ve tried, I can pinpoint none.  The novel is set partially in my hometown, and as an avid reader of suspense novels, it was certainly my genre, but neither of these could be credited as a source of inspiration.

It took me awhile to realize that the inspiration didn’t come to me before I began writing or there at page one of the novel, but much later on, when I found myself so absorbed in the characters – mainly Mia and Colin – that I found myself thinking about them at all hours of the day and night, and I often found them visiting me in my dreams.  There are specific times I remember waking in the middle of the night, utterly concerned for Mia’s wellbeing, or grieving with Eve for her missing child.  I woke from sleep, on more than one occasion, with a scene – as clear as day – playing in my mind.

When I was most engrossed in writing the novel, I felt connected to the characters in The Good Girl like I hadn’t been with any characters I’d written up to that time or any characters I’ve written since.  I knew them intimately, what they would do and what they would say, and it’s clear to me now that all along it was my characters who were my muse, my source of inspiration.  Someone once suggested to me that it was Mia and Colin, Eve and Gabe who told their story to me rather than the other way around, and I firmly believe this is true.

To the characters in all future novels of mine, take note: you have a lot to live up to.      

More information about the author can be found on her website.  She can also be found on Facebook and you can follow her on Twitter @MaryKubica.