Q&A Interview with C.P Wilson #BlogTour #IceColdAlice

I am delighted to welcome C.P Wilson to take part in my Q&A interview today on Ice Cold Alice blog tour.

The Book

They thought that they had all the power, until she took it from them.

A killer hunts abusive spouses, blogging about their sins post-kill. Soon the murders and the brazen journaling draws the attention of Police Scotland's CID.

This killer works with surgical preparation, precision and skill, using a unique weapon of her own and never leaves a trace of evidence behind.

Edinburgh's DI Kathy McGuire, nearing the end of her career, begins the hunt for the murderer as a media frenzy erupts. But McGuire might have met her match…

What has led this killer to take the law into her own hands?

Is the woman accountable really a cold-hearted killer or a desperate vigilante?

Can you tell us a little about yourself and background?

I live in Edinburgh and teach Biology full-time in a secondary school. I’m married with two young kids who I spend almost all of my free time with.

I mentor Indie-writers and write novels when everyone else is asleep.

When did you know that you wanted to become a writer? How did you go about it?

I’d just been treated after a long period of depression and needed to empty my cluttered head, so I just sat down and wrote. Then I wrote some more and put all my effort into developing narrative styles and POV choices. I never considered submitting to an agent or publisher. I always intended to stay Indie until I wrote my latest book, Ice Cold Alice, and approached Bloodhound Books with it. They have all the skills I don’t to produce a book like Alice.

Can you tell us what genre your books are and the audience you write for?

Ice Cold Alice is my eleventh book, and the first I’ve written in the Psychological Thriller genre.

My previous books have been across a variety of genre including, Coming of Age, Horror, YA, Superhero, Satire, Black comedy, Sci-Fi, and Dystopian. I tend to write whatever I feel like and worry about genre afterwards. I’m essentially a genre-tart.

What is your writing process? How long does it take?

I have a lot to do. I’m a full-time teacher, and I have two kids under 8 years old who I’m more often than not the primary carer for as my wife works away a lot. Writing time is something I have to be disciplined with. I have a two thousand words a day word count when I’m in the writing phase of a book. I use every spare moment available to accomplish this, often during the night when everyone is asleep. I generally keep this up for around six weeks until the 1st draft is finished and then repeat for another week or two for rewrites after beta-readers, and editors have had a look at it.

When writing dEaDINBURGH 2 and 3, I did an eight week stint and produced two books at the end of it. Was totally burned out and took a two month break straight after. Writing time is at a premium, I’m so time-poor I should be on time-welfare, so I use it very productively, motivation isn’t a problem at all.

Staying focused on the story is easy, mostly because I immerse myself in the characters for that short period of time. It’s essentially escapism. Watching movies in your head and writing down what your imaginary friends do and say. I get a little obsessed if being honest.

In my early books, I would normally begin with a concept. I’d have a start and an end in mind, then go write and see where the characters took the plot. Rarely did the ending match what I originally planned. When it did, the plot never unfolded to that point how I’d imagined it would.

As I’ve become more experienced, I’ve found that I write in a less linear manner. Often I write a scene late in the book, then go back and continue with an earlier part of the story. At other times I write the entire book from one character’s point of view, invent another character and merge that character’s story in with the main narrative. Really, I try to experiment as much as possible with method, narrative, tone and POV.

Are your characters based on anyone you know or are they just fictional?

Aside from my first novel, Bobby’s Boy (which was at the very least semi-autobiographical), my characters and plots are entirely fictional. However I do always include character names derived from people I care about.

Have you wrote about a personal experience in your novels?

Yes, absolutely. Whilst it’s most obvious on one of my novels, every emotional scene I write absolutely does draw on personal experience. If I don’t make myself cry, angry, scared, and apprehensive or laugh writing a scene, then the readers won’t react that way either.

What research do you do?

Anything from street views, geographical, religious dogma, guns politics, historical facts. Yeah, a lot, but it depends on the book. Many of my early books were set in my hometown so less research needed on those.

I wrote a religious satire named On The Seventh Day last year which everyone thinks I did a load of research for. I didn’t, I was just a very weird child, who loved to read bible stories, not because I’m especially religious, in fact I’m and atheist, but rather because my nine year old-self considered them great entertainment.

Who would you like to co-write with and why?

I’d love to write with Robin Hobb. She’s hands-down my favourite writer of all time. Her prose, characterisation and plotting are stunningly beautiful. I learn so much just by reading her books.

In real life I collaborate a lot with one of my favourite Indie-writers, Ryan Bracha, who has also become a good friend over the years.

Ryan’s books are exceptional, and we run most projects past each other during the writing process. He’s become my work-husband, and I can rely on him for a fresh take on scenes and to tell me when I’m going wrong. Without my working relationship with Ryan, I wouldn’t have developed anywhere near as much these last few years.

What's your favourite book?

My favourite book is without a doubt GLUE by Irvine Welsh. For me, it’s just the perfect blend of characterisation, plotting and dialogue.

What's your favorite food?

Porridge. I love the stuff. Plain, with a few raisins

What's your favorite film?

Back to The Future. I spent hours watching this on repeat as a child.

you have taste this is my favourite film to lol

What's your favorite song?

Brasco by Hopeless Heroic. Utterly raw and vital. It makes me want to run through walls. Can’t listen to it when I’m writing though, as it gets me too hyper. I choose something I can ignore to write with.

How can readers find out more information about yourself and your books?

You can visit me at Amazon, markwilsonbooks.com or facebook.com/markwilsonbooks
You can also connect on twitter: @bellshillwilson.

Thanks so much for having me on the blog.

Thank you for taking part and good luck with Ice Cold Alice