I’m a big fan of murder mystery, so I’m very excited today to sit down with Sarah Wynne to talk about her gripping middle-grade novel, MURDER IN VELVET!
Before we settle down in The Reading Realm and talk about your book, what’s your drink and snack of choice?
Probably not the most exciting answer, but after my morning cup of coffee I mainly drink water, which pairs perfectly with Roysters T-Bone Steak flavour crisps!
Without giving too much away, can you tell us a bit about Murder in Velvet?
It’s a twisty, grippy, murdery middle grade thriller about a girl called Grace, who buys a beautiful coat from a charity shop. However, when she wears it, she sees visions of the previous owner’s life…which is fine, until in one of her visions she sees the girl get murdered! Grace and her best friend, Suzy, decide to investigate to find out if the murder really happened, which puts them firmly in the killer’s sights. The more they find out, the more drastic the action the killer is willing to take to protect his secret, and eventually, he decides Grace needs to be silenced…permanently. So now, it’s a race against time to catch the killer before Grace becomes his next victim.
What would you say the main themes in this story are?
The main themes are friendship, finding your voice and perseverance.
What does a day in the life of Sarah Wynne look like when you’re writing?
I’m not a morning person, so I tend to deal with admin and family stuff in the morning and get down to some serious writing in the afternoon. I aim to write 2-3000 words a day in 30 to 60 minute busts. Any more than that and my brain feels at risk of melting!
What’s the most difficult thing about writing a murder mystery? What’s the most enjoyable?
The most difficult thing has to be making sure all the twists and turns work. I initially made the mistake of trying to write MIV without planning it, so the first attempt was catastrophic with plot holes EVERYWHERE and was binned after about 10,000 words! So now I map everything out fully before I even start writing and it makes the writing part much easier. The most enjoyable thing is definitely writing the da, da daaa moments, whether it’s creating really tense scenes or revealing mega plot twists that take the reader by surprise.
I LOVE programmes like Marple and Poirot! I wondered which books, films and TV shows inspired Murder in Velvet?
The first middle grade thriller I read as an adult was Murder in Midwinter by Fleur Hitchcock and that definitely started my love of the genre and inspired me to write them myself. Funnily enough, though, it was seeing a really ugly sequin dress in a charity shop and thinking ‘Who on earth would wear that?’ that gave me the idea of basing the story around a charity shop coat and weaving in details about the previous owner!
I know you were a KS2 teaching assistant in a former life and I wondered how this affected your writing and this story in particular?
Working with the children you’re writing for is so, so beneficial. It helps you write realistic characters that speak and behave as a child would, and also gives you access to readers you can bounce ideas off and get honest feedback from (after the first round of Year 6 readers, I added a couple of chapters at the end of MIV after one child said the ending was rubbish!). Writing thrillers in particular, there’s a fine line between being just the right amount of scary, too scary or not scary enough, and seeing which books the children enjoyed reading and then reading them myself allowed me to hit the right level of tension for the age group.
What are your earliest memories of reading and writing?
I didn’t like writing as a child. I found it really difficult and my ideas, when I did have them, never seemed big enough to fill the page. So I didn’t start writing until my 40s, when I was paired with an awesome teacher at my school, and I haven’t stopped since! My earliest memory of reading is me and my twin sister being read to by my mum. We had a book of short stories that we loved and read over and over and over again.
Apart from your own book, are there any other books you would recommend to children that you’ve enjoyed recently?
So many! If I had to limit it to three, though, I’d say Crookhaven by JJ Arcanjo, Finn Jones Was Here by Simon James Green and Code Name Kingfisher by Liz Kessler. Plus Steady For This by Nathanael Lessore! Okay, that was four, but three was far too difficult!
Finally, can you describe Murder in Velvet in three words?
