Q&A with Vanda Symon
I love Vanda. There I have said it. I first met Vanda as part of the Orenda roadshow way back in February before the world all turned upside down and then I was part of the blogtour for her fourth book in the Sam Shepard series, ‘Containment’. Which I loved by the way!
Vanda as a person plays out on social media as being kind, loving and very funny! She spent most of May on Twitter dressing up for book week and then ‘what I wanted to be when I grew up’ occupations. They are hilarious - you really should follow her on both Twitter and Instagram. I love an author like Vanda who really interacts with her fans and is genuine about wanting to get to know them! She was really the next person I wanted to do a Q&A with and she obliged! Sorry it has taken so long to get onto my blog! Hope it has been worth the wait.
We all have to admit that people who write crime fiction come up with some gruesome aspects in their work. Where do you get your inspiration from?
My inspiration comes from all over the place, and is different for every book. Sometimes it will be something I’ve seen in the news, sometimes it will be something someone said that triggers an idea. One of my novels came about from me asking the simple question what would it take to make a good man bad? Once the trigger sets me off my imagination has a play with it, then if I think the idea has got the legs to carry a novel, it’s game on. I don’t know what is says about me that I particularly enjoy the gruesome factor of writing crime fiction and coming up with elements of my novel that gross the reader out.
What was your day job before your writing took off and how do you think it has affected the books you create?
In what feels like a life time ago I was a pharmacist working in community pharmacy and in a hospice. Having a science and health background has been very helpful for the forensic element of writing crime fiction, and of course being a pharmacist… poisons! One of the greatest benefits of my pharmacy career was being part of a community and observing people and their loved ones when they were at their most vulnerable and in need. Empathy is such an important element of people – real and fictional.
Whose is your favourite author at present?
My reading is so wide and varied across fiction and non-fiction that it’s really difficult to nail it down to any one author, but if you are going to twist my arm up my back, then I’m loving Helen Fitzgerald’s work right now.
What is your favourite book of all time?
Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon (Also called Outlander) It’s the only book I go back and re-read. I adore Claire.
Me - and who doesn’t love Jamie in the TV adaption?!!!
Is there a genre of books you just can’t stand?
No, I enjoy reading anything and everything.
How does the ‘location’ i.e. geographical area play it’s part when you are writing a book?
A sense of place is absolutely vital for my writing. How your character relates and reacts to their environment informs so much of what they do. In Overkill Sam Shephard is in her small town, and is feeling the claustrophobia that comes with everyone knowing you, your history, and their pre-conceived notions of who and what you are. Also the physical isolation and awful cell phone coverage are important. When she moves to the big city in later books she is a little liberated, but also a bit overwhelmed which reflects in how she reacts to people and situations. I’m also a damn proud New Zealander, so I like to make my locations as Kiwi as I can!
Describe your day when you are writing?
I signal the start of my writing time with a tea tray ritual – been doing this for 20 years! I make up a tea tray with frilly tea cup, little tea pot and a flower from my garden. It’s the trigger to myself that it’s time to get on with it, and it is a luxurious pleasure. I am not the kind of writer that can sit still at a desk and pound away at the keyboard for hours at a time. Firstly my life doesn’t allow for that with my day job and family commitments. Secondly, as my mother put it – I’m a fart in a bottle – I’m a fidgeter, so I need to get up and move around, but when I’m up doing other little things, I’m still cogitating and seeing the story unfold in my mind so that when I go sit back down again, the words flow onto the page.
Can you give us any clues about the book you are working on?!
I am writing the 5th book in the Sam Shephard series. Her fans have been nagging me! I left her with unfinished business in the last novel, Bound, which will be coming out hopefully soonish.
How important do you think the blogging community and social media is in the book industry?
I love the blogging community and am so eternally grateful for their kindness and generosity. You couldn’t meet a more supportive and lovely bunch of people. My publisher Orenda Books, with Anne Cater’s fabulous skills organised blog tours for my novels, and I was completely blown away by the reviews and interviews and promotion the blogging community gave, and how they shared it across social media. For me, isolated on the other side of the world, this was so important as it made me feel a part of a book loving community. I really enjoy interacting with readers, bloggers and book people on social media. There are so many fabulous books and writers out there, it is a great way to have your voice heard and for readers to find you.
And finally a bonus question!
Okay what would rather have as a method to kill off a character - a hundred penguins descending on a person or one solitary shaving nick which led to an infection and death? Why did you choose what you did?
Oh, definitely the shaving nick leading to an infection and death. The medical girl in me is going oooooh, there are so many ways that simple action could be manipulated into being murder…
