Lucky 13 Interview With Emma Flint

1. Can you start by telling us a little about your latest book?

It’s also based on a real crime, but one that happened in England this time. It’s set in the 1920s and it’s about a love triangle between a man and two women. It explores themes of shame, obsession and fantasy.

2. Are you a plotter or a panster?

Both! I write for 30-40,000 words with no plot at all, just a vague idea of the story. This gives me enough time to get to know my characters and work out what is most interesting about them. Then I stop, stand back and plot – and try to see where what I’ve written so far fits in.

3. Savoury or sweet?

Sweet. When I was younger, I barely had a sweet tooth at all – now I definitely have a sugar addiction, which I’m trying (and failing) to beat.

4. Three books to a desert Island. Go!

Middlemarch, because there are so many layers to it, and I don’t think I’d ever get bored with it – and because, the way my life is organised at the moment, I struggle to find time to re-read long novels that require a lot of concentration. Weeks of uninterrupted reading time to unpack this would be bliss. Anna Karenina, for the same reasons.

And Circe by Madeleine Miller, partly because I’m halfway through it and I’d hate not to finish it, and partly because it’s about a woman learning to live alone on an island – perhaps I could use it as a guide.

5. Star Wars or Star Trek?

Star Wars. I’ve been a Star Wars fan since my mum sat my brother and I down with the first film and a handful of Quality Street each, sometime in the very early 80s. They’re such strong stories – very simple and full of mythical power.

6. Music or silence when writing?

I have to have absolute silence when I’m writing. I even wear ear plugs in the library.

7. You’re a professional wrestler. What would your ring name be?

The Mighty Malone, after the main character in Little Deaths.

8. If you could live anywhere in the world, and take everything that you love with you, where would you choose?

Scotland. Somewhere wild and remote, by the sea – but miraculously only a five minute walk to Edinburgh, where everyone I like would be living.

9. Your favourite karaoke song?

I’ve never done karaoke, and I think it’s best for everyone that it stays that way.

10. One piece of advice to an aspiring writer?

Find – or start – a writing group. It will mean you’re talking and thinking about writing regularly, it will give you deadlines and accountability as well as feedback on your work, it will teach you to read critically and give feedback kindly – and it will provide you with recommendations for reading that you might otherwise not encounter.

11. You win £1 million, but you must give half to charity. Which charity do you chose, and what do you do with the rest of the money?

I’d love to set up an animal sanctuary and rescue cats and dogs from all over the world. Does that count as a charity? I’d like to give animals who’ve never had one, a peaceful home, and comfort and companionship and love. I can’t bear to see animals suffering.

I’d give some away to family and friends, and I’d keep enough to buy myself a house (beside the sanctuary) with enough room to unpack all my books.

12. Horror films, yes or no?

Yes! I like being scared.

13. What are you currently working on?

My second novel, which I hope to have a ‘final’ draft of by Christmas – and books three, four and five. I always have more than one book on the go. I’m currently having fun writing in the voice of a psychopath who cannot make sense of the world he inhabits.