NK Chats To… Thomas Messel
Hello Thomas. Thank you so much for joining me today. Can you tell us about your book, The Nightingale of Bath and what inspired it?
The plaque at Bath’s 11 Royal Crescent blandly says that from this house, Elizabeth Linley eloped with Richard Brinsley Sheridan on 18 March 1772 – but behind those words lies a much darker story.
Elizabeth was a stunningly beautiful teenager with a fabulous voice, ill-equipped for the adulation of stardom.
She was mercilessly exploited by her ambitious parents and prey to predatory men until she could stand it no longer and vanished, at the age of 17, on 18 March 1772. Her marriage to Sheridan proved to be no picnic, where her collaboration and authorship of two of his most celebrated plays, The Rivals and La Duenna, was given no credit, nor was any notice given to her involvement in his greatest Parliamentary coupin the impeachment of Warren Hastings.
Her passionate and loving nature was only fully recognised through tragedy.
The theme that strikes me strongly about her life was the shocking muzzling and disempowerment of women in this period, however strong and capable they were.
Her story, and that of her remarkable family, first came to my attention through an ancestral connection, through which I had several books recording her life.
What’s your typical writing day like? Do you have any writing rituals like needing
coffee or silence to write, for example?
Throughout my life, I have been an early riser in order to work undisturbed. So, for the writing of this book, my writing times would generally run from 4 am to 8.30 am, with a cup of hot chocolate to kick me off for sustenance.
How do you approach the writing process from idea, to research, first draft, editing
and final draft? How do you know when you’ve done research and editing?
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Book Extract & Q&A: Time Clocks by Yoav Avni
Please join me in welcoming Yoav Avni to Novel Kicks as we shine a light on his book, Time Clocks.
The present is theirs—if they can reach it. And stay. A story of mystery, suspense, and an unexpected love—both timeless and new.
When Boaz is summoned to a furious dismissal meeting at the company where he has spent years developing FocalAI, better known as the nation’s AI, everything in his familiar, comfortable office feels like a personal possession -even the door, the window, the air, the time that had passed. By nightfall, he is cast out into the desolate industrial zone outside his office, stripped of his phone, his car, and perhaps soon his relationship.
The future looms, threatening and uncertain. Then, three strangers appear, raising questions not about the future but about the past: a police officer who lost her memory in the ’80s (and maybe it is just as well), a flamboyant French dandy from the nineteenth century, and a wounded shepherd from biblical times, clad in armor and tassels. As his own life unravels, Boaz feels compelled to discover why these three have arrived at his side. Why now and why him? What role do they play? And what role might he have? As their stories unfold, Boaz realizes he holds three fragile threads, with only one chance to weave them together – through a single loop in time. By their side, the present grows more surprising by the moment.
Yoav tells us about his typical writing day and favourite word below but first, he has shared an extract from Time Clocks. We hope you enjoy.
beginning of extract
Chapter 1
Among the Threads, Three Arise
It was not a live broadcast. The show was scheduled to air on Saturday night — and Boaz watched the unfolding scene on the small screen mounted on the wall of the room where he was waiting.
Soon he would be called onto the glittering stage, where he would find himself wishing he could turn back time. Not to buy a winning lottery ticket or stop one of history’s worst tyrants from ever being born. No. Boaz Grand would return to this Thursday afternoon, to this very moment, and inform the production team of Easy Does It that he, regretfully, could not participate. Any excuse would suffice — just to avoid sinking into that plush, lulling armchair and revealing something he should never have said.
by NK Chats To… Svetlana Rodina
Hi Svetlana. Thank you so much for joining me today. Can you tell me about your book, Red Riding Hood: The Letter from the Wolf and what inspired it?
Thank you for inviting me. The novel began with something I kept returning to: the way a family can tell the truth about its past and still leave out enough to change the meaning of everything. I wanted to follow a woman who has lived comfortably inside one version of her history and then finds evidence that does not quite fit it.
Rose is 53 and living in Buenos Aires when photographs, letters and documents begin to contradict what she has always believed about her family. What interested me was not only the mystery itself, but the age at which she encounters it. She already has decades of relationships, decisions and loyalties behind her, so the discovery cannot be contained in the past; it inevitably alters the present as well.
The book first appeared as Red Riding Hood: The Letter from the Wolf, and the revised English edition is now The Archive of Absence: The Letter from the Wolf. The title evolved with the book, but the story still turns on the same question: what happens when the family version of the past no longer fits the evidence in front of you? Buenos Aires felt natural for this because so many lives there have been rebuilt after leaving another place behind.
What was your route to publication like and what advice do you have for someone looking to follow a similar path?
I published independently, which meant that finishing the manuscript was followed almost immediately by a second education. Suddenly I was making decisions about editing, covers, metadata, distribution, translation and rights, while also learning how invisible a perfectly good book can remain if nobody knows where to find it.
Working across several language editions made that even clearer. The story stays the same, but the way readers encounter it does not, and each market forces you to rethink presentation, discoverability and sometimes even the title.
For anyone choosing a similar route, my advice would be to separate the jobs in your head. Writing, publishing and promotion require different kinds of attention, and trying to solve all three at once usually makes each of them worse. Give the manuscript patience, learn the practical side instead of pretending it will somehow sort itself out, and be specific about who the reader is. I learned that last part slowly, which is a polite way of saying I made several avoidable mistakes first.
Can you tell us a little about your writing day? Do you have any rituals like needing coffee or writing in silence? A favourite place to write?
My writing days are fairly unceremonious. I usually work at home in Almagro, Buenos Aires, with tea nearby and enough quiet to stay inside a scene, although the city has never signed any agreement to cooperate with that plan.
by NK Chats To… Julie Houston
Hi Julie. Thank you for joining me today. Can you tell us about The Way We Are Now and what inspired it?
The Way We Are Now is my seventeenth novel and published by Boldwood. Slightly different from my other books in that it is perhaps a bit more of a Saga rather than a Rom Com. Still hopefully humorous in places – Maggy, Anna’s Mum was a delight to write as she is so funny and full of Yorkshire grit – but concentrating on the passion in the book. I loved writing Anna and Theo’s passion for each other, as well as Anna’s passion for the underdog and women’s rights. The book was inspired by hearing, on the radio, that the 1984 Miners’ Strike was finally having a formal, independent statutory inquiry into the policing of the Battle of Orgreave.
Which scene do you find the hardest to write?
Any scene that gets me on to the good bit, if that makes sense!
What’s your favourite word and why?
Fertiliser! Can’t hear it or say it without compulsively saying “Fertiliser” in a broad Norfolk accent. (Sorry, was this what you wanted?? LOL!!)
NK: Perfect. LOL.
What’s your typical writing day like? Do you have any writing rituals like needing coffee, silence, a particular place to write?
I certainly need silence! I’m a lark and like to be at my desk by 8am. If I’m not in court or been called in to teach – both great distractions! – then I’ll aim for 2000 words. I’m a total pantser and never know what I’m going to write until I start. I don’t allow myself a coffee until I’ve done so many words, and then I can treat myself. Nothing like a coffee to get the brain cells going. I’ll break for a run or the gym – I started doing Yoga a year ago and now do 3-4 classes a week No idea if it’s doing me any good, but I like to show off my balancing to my 97-year-old mother-in-law! My writing is constantly interrupted by my prevaricating on Ancestry, eBay, Rightmove and Social Media as well as chatting to my writing friends on WhatsApp. I might go for a walk around 4pm – our 16-year-old dog died last year, and I miss having him with me – and I’ve usually finished by 5.30pm. Continue reading
by NK Chats To… Jack Jewers
Hi Jack. Thank you for joining me today. Can you tell us about your latest novel, Seething Lane and what inspired it?
Hi Laura, and thank you for asking! Seething Lane is the follow-up to my first novel, The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys, which imagines what the most famous diarist in English history did after he finished writing his diary. In my version of events, he becomes a reluctant investigator working for the crown. Seething Lane begins when a strange young man turns up at Pepys’s office asking for help. He turns the boy away – an act with far-reaching consequences, which he soon comes to regret. Events lead him from the backstreets of London to the glamorous world of the theatre, where he is tasked with catching a killer. It’s part-adventure, part-murder mystery, and the theatrical world around which the story swirls was partly inspired by my own childhood, as the son of two actors.
What drew you to the historical fiction genre and why this time, place and person in particular?
Samuel Pepys kept his diary for nearly a decade, between 1660 and 1669. He had a front row seat at some of the biggest events in English history, such as the Great Fire of London, and some of his writing makes for gripping reportage. It’s also indiscreet, tender, and often very funny. Then, in the summer of 1669, he just stopped. When I first read his diaries, I was shocked to discover that he actually lived for over 30 years after that, and the little bits we know about his later life hint at a man whose adventures were just getting started. How tantalising that he didn’t keep a diary during those times too. But what if he did? Sounds like a good idea for a book!
What are the challenges when writing a historical fiction novel? What has been the highlight?
by Book Club
