Six of One: Evonne Wareham
Hello. I’m Evonne. I’m a member of Crime Cymru who writes for a niche market. I write in the genre romantic suspense, also known as romantic thrillers – more crime and dead bodies than your regular romance. My publisher wanted books that could be featured as holiday reading so my most recent work has been the Riviera series – summer escapism set in France, Italy …and Torquay. Shaking things up with a trip to the English Riviera was fun, and let me pay a little homage to a famous resident, the great Dame Agatha. Readers obviously didn’t mind visiting the English Riviera with me, as the book was nominated for this year’s Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller of the Year Award – and we did eventually end up in Monaco, with murder and mayhem at a masked ball.
My chosen six reflects the dual nature of my genre. I hope you will enjoy it.
One Person
I’m going to cheat a bit here – because it is not a person, but an organisation – the Romantic Novelists’ Association. They operate a New Writers’ Scheme where unpublished authors submit a manuscript every year for a professional level critique from a fellow member who is a published author or editor. I was on that scheme for a very long time. It taught me a lot – patience, persistence, how to present a manuscript properly, how to deal with constructive criticism … When I did finally graduate, by getting published, I won the organisation’s Joan Hessayan Award for the best debut novel of the year, so the long apprenticeship was worth it in the end.
One Book
This has to be a vintage title from American author Nora Roberts – The Reef. It was published in 2008, but it is still getting enthusiastic reviews from readers as an exciting read. At the time I read it it was my first experience of romantic suspense, which is a much better known genre in the States than it is here. I’d been trying, and getting near misses with several other romance genres, but I had noticed that whatever I wrote had an element of crime in it. Even my war time family saga had a serial killer! Reading this book was a light bulb moment. Could I do this, but from a UK perspective and set it in Europe? It turns out that I could. I had finally found my niche.
One TV Show
I’m choosing the American TV show Remington Steele, but it could equally have been any of those glossy detective shows of the 1980s – Moonlighting, Scarecrow and Mrs King, Hart to Hart. Remington Steele gets the vote solely on the strength of staring Pierce Brosnan – the classic tall, dark, handsome hero. They were glitzy, sophisticated, action driven, with a central couple with a teasing will they/won’t they relationship (although the couple in Hart to Hart were married) – the kind of escapist entertainment that I was aiming for in the Riviera series. Of course my hero and heroine do get together – that’s why it’s romantic suspense.
One piece of music
For this I have chosen Mozart’s Requiem. I enjoy classical concerts, although I’m no expert. I first experienced this piece by way of Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus – the stage version at the National Theatre that starred Paul Schofield and Simon Callow. Total spine chilling drama. When I am in London for any length of time I like to go to the concerts at St Martin’s in the Fields in Trafalgar Square when I often find my mind unravelling new ideas, or tricky bits of plot in the Work in Progress. The Requiem came to my rescue when my editor disliked the end of the second book in the Rivera series and asked for a rewrite. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but eventually, in desperation, I found a recording of this on the computer, sat down to listen – and by the end I had my whole new ending. A much darker one, with which I was very happy, as it changed the whole tenor of the book and subsequently the series. Luckily my editor gave me the green light when I asked. ‘Can I kill someone?’ (Actually it turned out to be two someones). The first book in the series was entirely corpse free. The body count has been rising ever since.
One Writer
My writer of choice is Mary Stewart, credited with being the original UK romantic suspense author, although she also later wrote a very successful fantasy style trilogy, tracing the life of the magician Merlin. The suspense novels were characterised by modern heroines who in the 19650s and 60s smoked, drove fast cars and lived independent lives, tangling with enigmatic heroes in glamorous holiday locations in Europe. Reading the books as a teenager the style clearly got embedded in my writing genes, although it took me a long time to actually recognise it.
One Place
That has to be any Welsh beach. I have happy memories of childhood holidays in Pembrokeshire – my father was a sea angler so we got to explore some of the wilder ones, away from the tourist haunts. Very beautiful and unspoiled, although I do recall some disappointments at the absence of an ice-cream van. The beaches around my home town of Barry are always a good place to walk – to think and untangle twisted plotlines – especially so on summer evenings and in the winter when there are fewer visitors. I’m currently moving away from the lighter work and going back to the rather more gritty stories with which I began. The Work in Progress is set in a fictional community on the Welsh coast and I’m making use of the landscape and the folklore of Wales. Although I am greatly enjoying it, progress is currently rather slow. I’m hoping to self publish it and at this rate, it might be ready for Aberystwyth in 2027! Maybe I can have a launch party to coincide with the Festival? If I do, keep your eyes open for your invitation.
Find out more about Evonne and her books at:
Twitter https://twitter.com/evonnewareham
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/evonnewarehamauthor/
Website www.evonnewareham.com
Crime Cymru 