The Write Stuff with... Lynne Milford

Today it's my pleasure to welcome author Lynne (LM) Milford back to the blog to talk about her latest book A Deadly Truth which was published this weekend.

Writers often get asked where they get their ideas from and one of the answers I would usually give is stories in the news.

There are acres of ideas to be found in the news, even without looking very hard.

This one came from a story many years ago in which a young man was found dead in his flat, supposedly entirely alone. But there were several other mysterious elements – which I won’t go into as the case is quite recent – which suggested that there was another person involved and a police murder investigation was launched. I deliberately didn’t look back at the media coverage and just worked from the bare bones that I could remember. I wanted to make the story my own, albeit influenced by real life.

Festive Fun: My Fantasy Christmas Dinner Party by LM Milford

Today it's my pleasure to welcome author L M Milford back to the blog for the latest in these fun festive features... over to you Lynne to describe your dream Dinner Party table.

The first seat at my table would be given to my heroine Agatha Christie. I’ve always wanted a chance to sit down with her and discuss how she managed to come up with so many different plots, without seeming to repeat herself. I’ve also always wanted to have a murder mystery dinner party and Agatha would be able to help me come up with a cracking story for that.

Sitting next to Agatha would be Jane Austen. She’s another of my favourite authors and her wit would help the party to go with a swing. I’d also like to have a chat with her about publishing a book at a time when it was very much a man’s world. Given the fact that she self-published, I’d love to know how she decided when her books were ready and how she felt about sending them out.

Next to Jane sits someone who isn’t technically an author. Victoria Wood has been a favourite of mine for years, making me howl with laughter on a regular basis. For all she’s quite a quiet person in private, I’m sure she could be relied on to tell us a few funny stories. I’ve always wanted to meet her to ask about how she comes up with the brilliant dialogue that is a key feature of all of her work. She also achieved a great deal, having covered almost all aspects of TV from sitcom to sketch show to documentary. I’ve always wondered what she would have done next if she had lived.

Debut Spotlight: L M Milford

Today it's my pleasure to be shining the spotlight on author L M Milford and her debut novel A Deadly Rejection which was published last week.

By day, I work in PR and communications; by night (and at weekends) I write crime fiction (as well as baking pies and chocolate brownies).

In a previous life worked as a local newspaper reporter. This gave me the inspiration for the story that has become my first novel, A Deadly Rejection.

I live in Kent and spend far too much time on trains commuting into London for work, which does however give me time to work on plotting and writing my books.

You can keep tabs on what I’m up to by following me on Twitter @lmmilford or by checking out my blog www.lmmilford.wordpress.com I write about what I’m working on, advice on what I’ve learned through my work and how to move forward with writing.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing journey? 
I’ve wanted to be a writer almost as long as I can remember. As a youngster I was swept away by The Famous Five and wanted to do what Enid Blyton did. I suppose that meant telling stories and hopefully having some adventure along the way. Later I was inspired by Murder, She Wrote. I loved the credits, where JB Fletcher sat there typing away and then solved lots of crimes. 

I think I started writing from a young age and attempted a children’s novel (I think I was about 11 at the time so it can’t have been a very long book). But it wasn’t until Year 9 when my English teacher set us the challenge to write the opening chapter of a book as a homework assignment. It had to feature several specific words – I can’t even remember what they were – and mine turned into an Agatha Christie-style house party, opening with a detective arriving at the country house. It was set in modern day and I absolutely loved that opening. So much so that I tried to turn it into a novel. I never got very far – as my mam pointed out ‘There are too many people, I’m confused’ – but I’ve still kept it. It may yet see the light of day, but it’ll need a lot of work!

I toyed with that idea and others throughout university, but it wasn’t until I was working as a journalist that The Big Idea arrived. It started from a council meeting – the Innovation Panel, I think – where I was sitting near a group of councillors and officers who were speaking in quiet voices. I’d been taking notes throughout the meeting and while we were on a break I was marking up sections in my notebook to making writing up the story easier. When I put my pen to the page, the whole group stopped talking and moved away from me. ‘Aha,’ I thought. ‘What don’t they want me to overhear?’ And that was that, the concept of A Deadly Rejection – a journalist finds out something they shouldn’t and how far would someone go to stop them reporting it?

It took me two years to write the book – writing around a full-time job and having a life (sort of) – and after unsuccessfully trying to get agents interested, I put it to one side and wrote a second one. Then about two years ago, I shook myself by the scruff of the neck. Being published has always been my dream and I was going to make it happen. So it’s taken a long time and a lot of work, but now I’ve realised my dream, and it feels amazing!

If you had to give an elevator pitch for A Deadly Rejection, what would it be? 
It’s difficult to distil a whole book into such a small amount of time. I’ve tried lots of different versions over the years and never been happy with any of them. Then recently someone at an event asked me what my book was about and I responded automatically ‘It’s about a journalist who thinks he’s onto a big story. But then his source is found dead and he’s implicated. He tries to find out more about the story but then a second source dies. He has to decide what’s more important, the story or his life’.

It came as quite a surprise as that’s the first time I’d been able to come out with something coherent and the person said they liked the sound of it!