INTERVIEW WITH VERONICA HELEY

Veronica Heley celebrated the publication of her 63rd book this month. She is currently writing two gentle crime series which are popular here and in America. She also writes romance/suspense, short stories, book reviews, articles, resource books and stories with a Christian background for children of all ages. She is married to a retired probation officer and has one musician daughter who has long since left home - which allows her more time to think of the stories she has yet to write. For more information about Veronica, visit her Web site at: www.veronicaheley.com.

When did you know you wanted to be an author? Was there something specific that inspired you?
Even as a very small child I would make up stories in my head, and gradually it dawned on me that I was a storyteller, and wanted to become a writer.

Was your road to publication smooth? Bumpy? Why?
It was hard going. My father died young and when I left school I had to get out there and earn some money to contribute to the family’s finances. I very nearly had a book accepted for publication when I was seventeen, but the publisher said it was half the length they needed, and could I re-write . . . and I didn’t know how! I didn’t have access to anyone who could have helped me, either. So I just got on with earning my living and learning something about the world – which was probably the very best thing I could have done.

Who has supported you the most along the way? How did they help you?
My husband was very supportive. When we got married, he asked me if I
minded him throwing up his good job in order to train as a probation officer,
and I said, ‘Of course you must do it’ . . . whereupon everything in the house broke, and we had to take in students as lodgers to make ends meet. But when he qualified and got his first job in this new field, I asked him if he’d mind if I spent some time seeing if I could get published. So of course he had to say ‘yes.’ And I wrote and wrote and had some tough criticism from various people, and within two years I was accepted for publication. And the first thing the publisher said was, ‘This book is twice the length it should be. Can you shorten it?’ And I said ‘Yes’. And did it.

Soon after that I was taken on by an experienced agent, who stuck with me for thirty years, and only retired a while ago. She used to say, ‘Of course you can do that,’ or ‘No, Veronica, no!’ I miss her still, though I do have another agent now, who is just as good in a different way.

When did you first consider yourself to be a “real author.”
That took years. It was a roller-coaster ride. One minute I got a good contact with a top publisher, and the next there was a complete change in the fashion for the sort of book I was doing, and I had to start looking for something else to write. There’s no security in this trade, is there?

How much of yourself do you put into your characters?
I’m a bit of an actress. So after I’ve created a character down to her food fads, taste in shoes and habits of speech and thought, then I can slip into ‘being’ her, and she takes me where she wants to go. Some people accuse me of ‘being’ Ellie Quicke, who is prematurely silver-haired, never learned to drive, and is still rather unsure of herself; but I’m Bea Abbot, too, and she’s a business woman who runs a domestic agency and has taken in a couple of dysfunctional teenagers.

Do you believe the old adage that you must “write what you know?” Explain how your belief relates to your writing.
Imagination plays a part in writing, but if you don’t get to know the people around you, how can you create realistic characters? It’s a headache to think yourself into the personality of a psychopath, but if I didn’t get to know and understand them, then how can I portray them to other people? I don’t copy friends, but some trait, some turn of phrase might spark off a train of thought . . . and another character springs into life. You have to do your research; if you want to show how someone could cause a fatal accident by fiddling about with the house wiring, then you’d better ask a tame builder how he’d do it.

When you start writing a book, do you know exactly where you’re going? Do you plot everything out ahead of time?
I do know where I’m going. I know who the villain is, and why they are acting like that. I know if there’s going to be a twist ending. I think of my plot as a rainbow arc – I start here, I know roughly what happens in the middle, and how the ending works out. I don’t work out all the twists and turns along the way right at the start, but they come out of what’s been written before. And I pray about it. A lot.

What part of the creative process do you find the most challenging?
My tendency is to put in too much information, and then have to cut it down.
I often have difficulty in working out what to keep in a current book, and what
to save for another. This problem crops up again and again when I’m trying to write a short story.

When you look back on your work (current or past books), is there something you’d do differently if you had the chance?
When I get going on a series, I’d like it to go on and on, because the characters develop their own lives and I want to keep on telling their stories. But that’s not always possible. I’ve been very fortunate in the Ellie Quicke series, because my publisher keeps asking for more – and we’re up to number ten now.

Tell us about your latest project(s).
MURDER IN HOUSE is the latest in the Ellie Quicke series, published this month. It’s a story which involves all sorts of people at different levels of corruption in a London suburb. Ellie is called to a church because a young student, Ursula, is staging a sit-in, and won’t be removed . . . until Ellie agrees to solve three mysteries: a broken engagement, her friend Mia’s disappearance and a murder which everyone else thinks is an accident. At the same time Ellie’s dreadful daughter Diana intentionally makes herself homeless in order to force Ellie to support her. Every lead returns to Ursula, who has not been entirely open with the truth.












What’s next?
I’ve just finished another Bea Abbot story – FALSE PRETENCES. That’s been accepted and now I’m waiting to see what the copy editor has to say about it. She’s a lovely person, actually, but it’s always a bit nerve-racking, waiting to see what changes are needed. I mean, she knows I can’t spell certain words according to their house style, but she doesn’t care! She changes them for me. Bless her.

Anything you’d like to share with your readers?
I’m so very fortunate to be able to spend my time doing what I like best, which is telling stories. I’m even more fortunate that my publisher likes my two main characters, who are both Christians, travelling onwards to get closer to God, and defeating evil wherever they find it - with a little help from above.