Veronica Heley Interview

Q: How long have you been writing and what other careers or jobs have you had?

A: I’ve been writing for publication for over forty years. Amazing, to think it’s been so long. I was working as a secretary and PA before that, in various sales organizations. I always knew I could write but I had to go out and earn my living, and discover something about the world before I could produce anything worthwhile.

Q: Do you write in only one genre and if so which one and why? If not, which ones and why?

A: I started writing crime novels from a woman’s point of view, and these stories are now being re-issued, after forty years! Then I veered off into historical s because I’ve always been fascinated by the position of women in society and how it changed over the centuries. After a while the markets changed and a friend suggested I tried writing for children, so I did that for fourteen years, all for Christian publishers. At that point I was asked to serve on the committee for the Association of Christian Writers . . . and that was four years of hard labor, trying to help new writers to become publishable. At the end of the four years not one, but two publishers came to me, asking me to write for them. One wanted me to write crime with a Christian world view . . . and that’s how the Ellie Quicke Mysteries started. After Ellie had been out for some years, my publisher suggested she might soon run out of steam and asked me to think up another series for them. Which I did. Bea Abbot is a very different personality from Ellie, but she has her followers now. And did Ellie run out of steam? No. The fifteenth Ellie will be coming out in the UK in May 2014, three months later in the USA.

Q: How does your faith play into your writing? 

A. Both Ellie and Bea try to act as Christians in an imperfect world. They are fallible human beings but their faith underlines their lives in every way.

Q: How do you choose your settings for your books?

A. The Ellie books are based on the London suburb in which I live, so that I can give my readers a picture of a community which really exists. The neighborhood is close knit and ranges from those on benefits to the modestly wealthy. Bea lives in Kensington in a much grander house, and the crimes are different. Yes, really! In Kensington we talk about millionaires, and the crimes can be international.

Q: Do you base your characters on people you know or are they totally made up?

A: Some people say that I’m just like Ellie, and in some ways I am, being slightly untidy in appearance, silver of hair, blue of eye, and struggling with a weight problem. Ellie has been forced to deal with business matters but would really rather not. Bea is taller, svelte, goes regularly to the hairdresser and is obsessed with beautiful boots.  Bea is a business woman. When I write, I ‘become’ Ellie or Bea. Sometimes it’s hard to switch from one persona to the other.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release FALSE DIAMOND? 

A:  Bea Abbot, who runs a domestic agency, is asked to deal with the affair of a false diamond in an engagement ring, and the dubious dealings of the Holland family’s business empire. An abusive husband tries to bend Bea to his will, her Member of Parliament son is threatened, and the black sheep of the family turns up to help – or is it to hamper matters? Then the young woman who owns the fake diamond ring tries to commit suicide  – or does she? 

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for this story?

A: God gave me a peculiar brain. I read something in the newspaper, a neighbor gives me an insight into a problem . . . and then I wake up next morning with the story. I don’t know how it happens. It just does. And I’m very very grateful.

Q: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from this story?

A: The main thing I’d like readers to remember from this story is that it’s never right to give in to violence. It may seem at first that the best thing to do is to give in and hope it will go away, but of course it never does. Sometimes this means hard choices have to be made.

Q: Tell us what you like about the main characters of this book.

A: I like it that Bea is clear-sighted about people, but has a big enough heart to help them when they come to her in trouble – even if she does grumble about it. I am also fascinated by the ‘black sheep’ of the Holland family, who is determined to become part of her life. He is not easy to read. He is definitely the joker in the pack.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now? 

A. I’m working on another Bea Abbot now, to be delivered to my publisher in May, and published in November 2014. This one is called False Impression. The basic premise is that nothing is what it seems. Two bodies are discovered, but who is the intended victim and who the unfortunate witness? And what part in the murders did the Holland family feud play?

Q: If money were no object what vacation would you like to take and why? 

A. I’d like to fly to New Zealand and see the fantastic landscapes – but the length of time in the air deters me. I’d like to stay in a first class hotel in Prague and go to the opera and to concerts every night – but I wouldn’t like to do it on my own. Half the fun of such outings is to share them with a like-minded friend. Besides, I’d probably soon tired of too much culture and yearn for a bit of knockabout comedy. I’d like to spend time with friends all over the country, staying in a hotel nearby so that I could leave when I wished.

Q: What is the silliest thing you have ever done? 

A. I’m like Ellie Quicke, I do and say silly things on the spur of the moment, and am then covered with confusion. There are too many to list . . .

Q: What is the hardest thing you have ever done? 

A. The hardest thing I have ever done is to write. Learning the craft is not easy. For instance, it took me some time to learn how to write a three way conversation, and I’m still learning how to do this and that better. Also, I’m technically incompetent, so life nowadays is a constant challenge.

Q: Where can readers find you on the internet? 

A. My website is www.veronicaheley.com. I send out a monthly newsletter to people who sign up for it on the home page of the website, and that appears in shortened form as a blog, later in the month at http://blog.veronicaheley.com If you like the way I write, do sign up for it.

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell or share with us? 

A. I think that’s it for the moment. God bless.