13 January 2015

Author Q&A Session #21: With Ali Knight

Hello and welcome to another new author interview session and we have Ali Knight, the best-selling author of UK who thrills us with her dark and intriguing mystery books. Let's chat with her to know more about her life beyond a book, about her upcoming books and many more hidden tid-bits.


Read the review of Until Death.

 




Me: Hello and welcome to my blog, Ali. Congratulations on your latest book, Until Death. Can you please share with us the story behind Until Death?

Ali: It’s about Kelly Malamatos, a mother who’s desperate to escape her bad marriage to a man she now fears more than she loves. Her husband Christos refuses to let her go, keeping her trapped in their penthouse flat about St Pancras Station in London, even though he’s got a mistress. Kelly can’t understand why Christos is acting like this, but then she discovers Christos’s has a plan, and she’s in a fight for her life and that of her children.


Me: Who/What was the inspiration behind Until Death?


Ali: I wanted to write a very claustrophobic, tense book about a disintegrating relationship. ‘Jealousy’ by Alain Robbe-Grillet made an impression on me when I first read it. My book deals with issues I’m interested in, such as what happens to a woman’s identity once she has children, how much do you have to compromise in a relationship and the murderous impulses that can be unleashed by and in those we used to love.


Me: Your previous novels, Wink Murder and The First Cut are also surrounded on some bad marriages. Why do you prefer to use "bad marriage" as a medium of dark thrillers in your books?

Ali: For many years when I was growing up books ended once the couple walked down the aisle. What happens after that is far more interesting, in my opinion! Dealing with characters who are married is a way of exploring all sorts of dark impulses to do with loyalty, jealousy, unfulfilled ambition, compromise, all perfect thriller material. Just for the record, my own marriage is not like those depicted in my books!


Me: Tell us one trait of each of your protagonists, Nicky, Kate and Kelly, that intrigue you the most?

Ali: Nicky is the main character in Wink Murder, and it’s her split allegiances between protecting her family and doing the right thing; with Kate in The First Cut, it’s her persistence in fighting the injustice of her friend’s brutal murder, keeping her memory alive and her dogged quest for the truth; and for Kelly in Until Death it’s her inner strength to be able to carry on after the death of her eldest child and cope with her loneliness and isolation. What unites all three of my heroines is their ability to overcome adversity and stay true to themselves.


Me: How will you describe your journey so far as an author? And was it always your one true dream to be a writer?

Ali: You grow as you work, in the sense that writing is a craft and the more you do it the better you get. The journey is harder than most people think, imagining, writing and finishing novels is very rewarding but also mentally demanding. I may be unusual in that I didn’t always want to be a writer, I thought it was the kind of job people like me simply never did, so I never thought about it.I already had children by the time I decided to leave my job and write a book. I was always an avid reader though, and you can’t write well if you haven’t read a lot.


Me: Describe your normal writing day, and how do you unwind from a long day's work?


Ali: I’m a creature of habit: I start every day in the morning with a large coffee and finish after lunch. Some days I don’t or can’t write a word, but I am always there at my computer. I watch far too many films and sport, and I don’t feel remotely guilty about it!


Me: Apart from writing, do you have any other passion?


Ali: Writing is so sedentary that sport is the perfect opposite. I walk, play tennis and cook.


Me: Why do you write dark thrillers instead of contemporary fictional stories? And who/which is your favorite dark thriller writer/book?

Ali: Thrillers give a great impetus to a book – you are really driving to the revelations and the reveals. Really energetic pacing is critical to a book’s success and that suits my writing style, so thrillers were the natural choice for me. I’m a great fan of Stephen King’s Misery. The psychological stress he puts his characters under in Misery is masterful.
 

Me: What's next up on your writing sleeves? Please tell us briefly about it.

Ali: My new book, the Silent Ones, is out in the UK in June 2015. No marriages in this book! It’s about a young art student who’s desperate to finally solve the mystery of what happened to his sister who disappeared without trace ten years earlier, presumably the victim of a notorious female serial killer. So he gets a job as a cleaner in the high security psychiatric hospital where the killer is housed, to see if he can find the answer…


Me: Wow that sounds really thrilling! Thank you so much Ali for sparing time to have this interview session with me for my blog. I can only wish you luck in all your future endeavors.

Ali: It was great to take part, and to connect with your readers. Thank you.
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Ali's Bio:



Ali Knight has written three psychological thrillers, Wink Murder, named by The Independent as 'One of their best commercial reads of 2011'; The First Cut, 'One of the top ten crime books to take on holiday,' according to The Telegraph; and Until Death, 'A gripping read,' The Sunday Mirror.

Before writing books, Ali worked as a sub-editor and journalist on several national newspapers, including The Guardian and The Observer and she also set up websites for the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard.

She grew up in Bedford with an American father and an English mother and lives in London with her family.










Connect With Ali On: Facebook | Twitter | Author Website | Goodreads | Email



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