Something a little different today – and something incredibly exciting: our very first author interview!

As part of a new series, we’ll be interviewing authors on their writing routines and regimes, as well as getting the low-down on their journey to publication.

Recently, we were lucky enough to catch up with Fran Dorricott, author of the phenomenal psychological thriller After the Eclipse. Read on to discover more about Fran’s debut, her writing process, and the inspiring steps she took to make her dream a reality.

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Hey Fran, thanks so much for chatting with us today. First off, congratulations on your debut! Could you tell us a little about the book and what new readers can expect?

Fran: After the Eclipse is, at its heart, a story about loss and grief and sisterhood. It’s a psychological thriller about two little girls who go missing during solar eclipses 16 years apart, and the woman who connects them. I’m a big fan of crime fiction that doesn’t forget the victim, so while there are some dark themes I hope it is also a sensitive and empathetic portrayal of what it might be like to deal with such a painful experience as losing a sibling during a traumatic event.



So, what was your writing routine like for After the Eclipse?

Fran: I’m a bit naughty really and I’m very all-or-nothing when it comes to my writing. I take long thinking breaks and then blast out full drafts very quickly. And then I have to go back and edit lots! So during the writing of After the Eclipse I wrote every day, in pretty much every waking breath. I wrote before work, on my lunch break, in the evenings (until way past my bedtime). I find it really helpful when I’m drafting to fully commit to the world I’m building, so I do very little else.



Was there an inspiration or an ‘aha’ moment behind the novel?



Fran: You probably won’t be surprised to hear that the novel was inspired by the 2015 solar eclipse that the story centres around. I remember thinking to myself that I could tell you exactly where I was during the 1999 solar eclipse, and I imagine a lot of people would say the same – but what if a memory that should be full of awe actually became tainted by something horrible that happened? And for me, losing a sibling is the worst thing I can imagine. I knew that if this sort of thing had happened, the 2015 solar eclipse would inevitably come with a lot of emotions attached, and I thought it would be challenging to play with. So Cassie and Olive’s story leapt into being.



How were the drafting phases of After the Eclipse?



Fran: As I said before, the drafting part wasn’t too painful! It was a hard book to write, but that’s because it was very emotionally challenging. I wanted to do my characters, and their struggles, justice, while still creating a novel with a sense of pace and urgency. So I wrote very quickly and I poured everything into my writing. The actual drafting period lasted maybe around 6 weeks, and then I let it sit for a little while before starting on the edits. So the writing part was over very quickly, but I absolutely cannot say the same thing for the revisions.



How did you go about getting an agent?



Fran: In a lot of ways I’m probably an anomaly here because I got my agent based on just 10,000 words of After the Eclipse. I met Diana through my masters in creative writing. She came to an open evening and we chatted a little bit after the event, and then she contacted me on Twitter to say she’d heard good things about my writing (from my tutor, who is also a client of hers) and could I send her some material? Diana was already on my list of dream agents so I was totally over the moon (and absolutely terrified) so I explained that my current novel was only in its early stages. She asked to see what I had written, and I sent it over. She signed me a week later! And then, of course, came the period where I wrote the book and was terrified once again that I couldn’t pull off a whole book and she’d change her mind. But fortunately she didn’t!



And how did you find the next stages – your agent pitching to publishers and their editorial notes?

Fran: I did a lot of editorial work with my agent before we even submitted to publishers, so in that sense I was well-prepared for what came next. My agent submitted to a variety of publishers, including some in other countries. We actually got a deal in Germany first (the title will be released there in June 2019) and this was followed a little while later by a couple of offers from UK publishers. Titan were very enthusiastic about Cassie and Olive and their spooky solar eclipse story, so I knew I’d found a good home with them. The edits were super comprehensive, and we tackled them over a couple of rounds, and each one made the novel stronger. Editing is hard, always, but it’s also very satisfying to know that you’re making a novel so much better in the process! Some edits I made in my last round are among the best ones I made – and I’m so glad I did them.



What’s next on your writing to-do list?



Fran: I actually have another book out next year with Titan! I can’t talk about it too much as I’m still in the editing stages, but I can say that it’s another stand-alone psychological thriller, about two women who take on a serial abductor who appears to have returned many years after his last victim escaped his clutches. I’m also working on a young adult novel or two, and would love to be able to do something with those in the future.



And finally, was After the Eclipse your first attempt at writing a novel?

Fran: No! I feel very envious of those authors who say they got published with their first novels, but I know for sure that I would never have been picked up before After the Eclipse because it wasn’t the right time for me. I’ve been writing for years, since I was probably around 14 seriously, and I have a whole selection of finished (and unfinished) manuscripts. After the Eclipse is probably around my twentieth novel? I don’t know exactly but I wrote a lot of rubbish books before I wrote something I was in any way confident other people would want to read! My message to anybody who is still starting out, or still in the query trenches, is not to be afraid. You’ve got more than one book in you!

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Thanks so much to Fran for answering our questions today, and we hope you’re as excited about After the Eclipse as we are! If you want to find out more about Fran, you can find her website here, as well as her Facebook and Twitter page. Last but certainly not least, you can find her debut thriller in all good book shops, as well as Amazon, via this affiliate link.

That’s all for today, folks. Thanks for reading and, as always, stay tuned for more writing tips on all things crime, thriller, and horror. And until next time?

Keep writing, Frighters.

C.