Cath Staincliffe on the writer's life

I've mentioned Cath Staincliffe - a fellow member of the Murder Squad collective of Northern crime writers - several times on this blog, and to coincide with the paperback publication of her latest novel, The Kindest Thing, she's also done a kind thing by contributing this guest blog post about the life of a writer:

'Do you ever get bored? The question was asked during an author visit to my son’s primary school where I was talking about being a writer. My first response was surprise – it wasn’t a question I’d had before – then laughter. No, I replied, never. Thinking about it afresh I am struck by the variety that my work brings. Last week I was at the BBC at a recording of my play The Bridge for Radio 4. It’s an episode for a police series created by writer Danny Brocklehurst. In radio the writer is quite hands on, working alongside the producer in the studio with the actors. It’s fascinating and very enjoyable. My script was four minutes too long so part of my role was to try and find cuts that would not spoil the overall flow of the story.

On Monday I travelled down to Chichester Festivities to talk about my new novel The Kindest Thing and on Tuesday I was a guest at Portsmouth Library. During my visit there I got to meet with one of the booksellers from the country’s smallest library (on Hayling Island). Part of my talk covered the research I’d undertaken for The Kindest Thing, a novel about a woman who helps her sick husband die and stands trial for his murder. That took me into the courts in Manchester, saw me grilling two criminal lawyers about procedure and led to me spending a morning with women in Styal prison writers’ group to find out about life there. The week before last I was copy-editing the pages of the book I have just finished writing. A month earlier I was finalising ideas to send into the BBC for television drama series. And now I’m beginning work on my new book. Alongside all that I have emails and admin to keep up to speed with.

But the core of my work, the real fundamental stuff, is the time spent alone, inside, with pen and paper writing – and I think this was what the young questioner was wondering about. Did that ever get boring? Again it’s a no. The process of writing is like letting go and giving your imagination free rein, it’s playful and brings the rewards that playing does. My days feel busy and vivid and full of excitement.

If I’m writing a funny scene it makes me laugh, if it’s heartbreaking then I’ll be crying. Yes, there are times when the words might be slow to come or a scene peters out but it’s never long before a thought about a character or an element of a description or even a single word has me away with the fairies again. Life as a writer can be precarious, lonely or frustrating but it is never ever boring.'

Cath Staincliffe and The Kindest Thing

Cath Staincliffe has been a friend of mine since she joined the Northern Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association, not long after her first Sal Kilkenny novel, published by a small Mancunian press, achieved a great deal of acclaim. Later, when our mutual friend Margaret Murphy formed Murder Squad, she invited Cath and I to join, along with Ann Cleeves, Chaz Brenchley, John Baker and Stuart Pawson. That was ten years ago, and Murder Squad is still going strong.

In the intervening years, Cath has enjoyed a great deal of success. She is best known for Blue Murder, starring Caroline Quentin. This began life as a novel for which she could not find a publisher. But she sold the concept to television, and it was quickly turned into a highly successful cop show that ran for several series.

In the meantime, she continued to write Sal Kilkenny novels, as well as turning out several Blue Murder books, and a stand-alone book called Trio. We’ve done a good many events together over the years and they are always god fun. It was great to catch up with her at Crimefest and, along with Ann, we had a meal together before joining up with the rest of The Monkey Coalition for the pub quiz.

Now, she has signed up with a new publisher to bring out her latest novel, The Kindest Thing. I’ve just received a copy and I’m looking forward to it very much. And Cath will be contributing a guest blog here in July around the time of publication of the paperback edition.