Lynn Shepherd

Published June 14, 2010 | By Laura

Lynn Shepherd is the author of Murder at Mansfield Park. Novel Kicks had a chat with Lynn to ask her, amongst other things, what her route to publication was and what advice she has for new writers.

What was your route to publication?

I already had an agent (Ben Mason, now at FoxMason), so I did get a lot of support through the writing process, but we were really unlucky to end up pitching the book to publishers in January 2009, at just about the worst point in the recession, when no-one wanted to take a chance on any author without a cast-iron track record. But my agent was incredibly persistent and determined, and we eventually got an offer from a lovely indie publisher in London, Beautiful Books. And that seemed to open the floodgates. First we got the US and Canada with St Martin’s Press, and then Allen & Unwin in Australia and New Zealand, and there’s a Spanish version in the works now too.

Have you always wanted to write?

Absolutely – having Murder at Mansfield Park published is a 24-carat lifetime dream-come-true. Writing is something I always wanted to do, but I only sat down and started to work on it properly 10 years ago. That first attempt was a modern mystery story based round the discovery of a long-lost manuscript of Mansfield Park, and included my first attempts at Austen pastiche (in fact I re-hashed quite a lot of it for the latest one). That one didn’t quite make it, but it was an invaluable apprenticeship in the craft of putting a novel together. Like a lot of would-be writers, I studied English at university, but it’s a long way from there to writing something decent of your own!

Briefly describe what your debut novel ‘Murder at Mansfield Park’ is about

I’m very lucky, as mine is one of those titles that do exactly what they say on the tin! It’s a Jane Austen-inspired murder mystery, based on Mansfield Park, which has always been one of her most complex and perplexing novels. It takes the same basic characters and setting, and turns them into a murder mystery. Jane Austen fans will recognise that I rework a lot of the famous episodes in the original plot, each time giving them a new twist. I’ve also had fun turning Mary Crawford into the heroine, rather than the weak and feeble Fanny Price, who even Austen die-hards struggle to like.

There are many Jane Austen adaptations and yours is very original. How did this idea come about?

I know exactly when I got the idea for this book. I was writing an email to my agent on June 2^nd 2008, and the title just came to me. And then it struck me that the set-up of Jane Austen’s novel is actually very like a classic country house murder – a group of characters in an isolated setting, an undercurrent of suppressed passions and rivalries, and everything thrown into confusion by the arrival of a charismatic outsider. I knew straightaway that this could be a really great idea, as long as I could carry it off. As I said, I’d already played around with the characters and episodes of Mansfield Park before – all I had to do then was bring off an authentic Austen murder…

How did you approach the planning process when beginning ‘Murder at Mansfield Park’?

I don’t know about other writers, but I always need a really detailed synopsis before I start. I knew right from the outset who my victim and murderer were, so it was then about developing a synopsis ‘forwards’ from the beginning, and ‘backwards’ from the Big Reveal, so that as many characters as possible had a believable motive, and could have been in the right place at the right time. Huge fun.

Describe your typical writing day?

I write for a living – my ‘day job’ is copywriting for companies – and I’m very lucky to be able to do that from home, with a view down the garden to a meadow. But it’s easy to get sidetracked working at home, so I make sure I’m really disciplined, and start by 8.30am every day. But being freelance I’m able to juggle my commitments, so if I get a free few hours I can turn straightaway to my own writing. Though it was astonishing to me to see what a life of its own Murder at Mansfield Park managed to get – by the end I was getting out my laptop and writing it in 15 minute bursts on the train into London for meetings. It had that much momentum! I’ve heard writers describe that sort of sensation before, and frankly never believed it – but it happened to me!

How do you approach editing?

Again, people hire me to do that all the time, so I’m pretty good at spotting when the text has got flabby, or needs reworking. I had a brilliant copy-editor who was very helpful, but it was mainly very small changes at that stage.

Where do you find inspiration for your writing?

A combination of what I read, and what I watch. Obviously Austen was the godmother to Murder at Mansfield Park, and the one I’m writing now takes another great literary classic and does something very similar. But as a writer of mystery novels, I’ve learnt a huge amount from some of the better TV police series. They have a limited amount of time, and are past masters at creating complex, interesting plots with a proper beginning, middle and end (a particular bugbear of mine when it comes to most modern novels!) Without A Trace is a great example, as is the whole Law & Order franchise.

Is there an author you especially admire?

Austen, of course. Also Dickens, Hardy, and one of my great heroes, who’s hardly ever read now – Samuel Richardson. His Clarissa is a masterpiece of European fiction, and I recommend it to everyone. As for living writers, I’ve always admired AS Byatt.

Is there a book by another author that you wished you’d written?

This is a really difficult one! One would definitely be The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles – such a clever idea. AS Byatt’s best, in my opinion, is Still Life. And who wouldn’t have wanted to write Pride & Prejudice?!

Your five tips for new writers.

Practice, practice, practice. Writing is a trade like any other – the more you do it, the better you get.
Keep a notebook. I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but it really does help. Get into the habit of translating what you see and hear into actual words on a page.
Share what you’ve written with people you know. A lot of writers get very shy and possessive about what they write, and don’t like to show it to anyone (I’ve a friend who’s just like that). But you need to grow quite a thick skin in this game, and in any case, your friends are very likely to be able to give you useful feedback.
Get a good agent. As I said before, mine is absolutely brilliant, both in terms of his knowledge of the industry, and his literary judgment.
Don’t give up! You’re setting yourself a huge challenge wanting to get published, but it happens – after all, it happened to me.