Guest Author - Louise Candlish + UK giveaway

Happy Publication day to LOUISE CANDLISH who celebrates the launch of her latest novel  THE DAY YOU SAVED MY LIFE

• Publisher: Sphere (19 July 2012)
• ISBN-13: 978-0751543551

Photos courtesy of publisher

Louise, thank you for being guest author.

Where did the idea for The Day You Saved My Life come from?

When I was writing my previous novel, Other People's Secrets, I spent a few weeks in the Italian Lakes, where that book was set. Travelling around the area by ferry, I began to imagine the drama that would unfold if someone fell overboard. Not just the drama of a rescue, but the repercussions of the event for all involved, especially for the rescuer, who would have started his day a normal man and ended it a hero. I knew it was an idea I wanted to explore because I had that feeling of excitement I always get if I hit on 'the next thing'. You have to store the idea away, though, because you're still in the middle of the one before.

You say this novel took you a little longer than usual.  Why do you think this was?

It took longer for lots of reasons, one being that it is a longer book, almost 500 pages, my longest to date. The main reason, though, was that I had a health crisis in the middle - I went blind in one eye and had to have surgery and then to recover from that. For a few months it was too tiring to read (I got into audio books in a big way) so I couldn't work at my normal pace.

What does your writing day look like?

It depends which part of the process I'm in. At the beginning of a book, I try to be disciplined and produce a certain number of decent words a week. I'll take my daughter to school, walk the dog, make coffee, then start quite promptly at 10am. Once I'm about half way through the schedule I get more complacent and allow myself to be distracted (that's the phase I'm in right now). Towards the end, I get serious again, and also quite worried. I might work evenings and weekends then, cursing myself for the previous slacking and generally being a bit of a pain to live with.

What are you working on next?

It's a story about a young woman called Tabby, who has been abandoned by her boyfriend while travelling and ends up on a remote island in France, where she is befriended by a mysterious fellow Englishwoman who claims to be there in exile. I love the idea of exile and disgrace. Tabby tries to find out who this woman is and why she should need to lie low in this way. What has she done that is so terrible? The book has no title yet, or rather it does, but my publishers are not keen on it. This often happens with my title suggestions, so I'm not too alarmed. We'll get to the right one in the end.




Now a chance to win 1 of 3 copies of The Day You Saved My Life. (UK addresses only)


Please complete the form below.
Please read the giveaway policy

a Rafflecopter giveaway