This morning, I'd like to
welcome Australian author Vicki Tyley to my blog. If you love mystery novels, I
urge you to look for Vicki's books. I highly recommend them.
~ ~ ~
Two of the most common
questions I’m asked as a writer are:
 |
| Vicki Tyley, bestselling author of mystery and suspense |
1. Where do you get your
ideas?
2. Do you base your
characters on real people?
The answer to the first
question is quite simple: the news. Each of my stories is inspired by a real
murder case, the more unusual the better. After I’ve applied a series of
what-ifs to it, the original true crime is so bent out of shape, it’s unlikely
anyone would recognize the case that sparked it.
The germ of the idea for my
most recent mystery, Bitter Nothings, came after hearing about the tragic
murder of a young family. A murder with no apparent motive. What would drive
someone to slay a whole family?
Bitter Nothings is a
psychological whodunnit with a dysfunctional extended Australian family at its
core. There’s no violence or gore in the book and the children’s deaths are
only touched upon.
Talking of family brings us
back to the second question: Do you base your characters on real people?
My characters are not usually
based on specific people but rather grow from my observations of people over
the years. Empathy is a good trait for a writer to possess. It makes getting
inside your characters’ heads much easier. I’m glad no one can see me writing,
because I often act out the scene. Not a good look.
Details drawn from real
people and real life experiences help make fictional characters come alive, but
it wasn’t until Bitter Nothings that I delved into my own family. And that’s
probably because enough years have passed that I can now talk openly about it.
In Bitter Nothings, the protagonist’s mother had committed suicide on what
would’ve been her and her estranged husband’s thirtieth wedding anniversary. In
one of those truth-is-stranger-than-fiction twists, my mother committed suicide
on my parents’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Obviously the details and
motives are different and my parents were still married, but the emotion and
questions are still the same.
The two brothers in Bitter
Nothings are loosely modeled on my own two brothers (except my brothers can
tolerate each other even less than the brothers in the story can). However,
that’s as far as the similarities go to my own situation. Dervla, the sister in
the story, is nothing like myself or any of my three sisters.
Want to say hello or ask a
question, email Vicki at vickityley@gmail.com
Website: www.vickityley.com
Find Bitter Nothings:
