A busy wee night in Glasgow as filming was underway for the Fast and Furious spin-off, but we had another two superstars in our midst tonight as Mel Sherratt was appearing for one night only in Waterstones, Argyle St along with Douglas Skelton!
Mel was along to launch her latest novel Hush Hush (my review is up tomorrow) and Douglas Skelton was tasked with putting Mel under the spotlight! I have to say that I have been super excited for Mel’s trip to Glasgow and tonight did not disappoint!
Mel began the night with an insight into her latest novel, the first in her new series, Hush Hush before the questions began.
Her success didn’t come overnight, she started writing at a very young age before penning her first novel in 1999 and 12 years of rejections followed.
Following advice from a friend Mel eventually decided to take the self-publishing route and her career rocketed from there. She sold over 200,000 books in her first year alone! And now she has just published her 15th novel!
She chooses to set her books in her hometown of Stoke because she knows the city and the people. While a sense of place isn’t the driving force for Mel, city settings are what she chooses to write about as they have that dark gritty nature about them as do the people. Mel loves to write about people, the darker the story the better. She has also been named in the list of Stoke’s top 100 influential people!
Mel talked about her writing process. She began by getting her ten favourite novels and analysed them working out what kind of book she enjoyed to read, she then set out to write it!
She starts writing at 6am each day and usually completes 2k words before breakfast. If she is editing then that takes all day. She edits at the end of the book and not as she goes.
Mel will write around 50k words then edit to make it up to 65k then the 3rd draft to take it to around 75k before it goes to structural edit.
She needs to write in complete silence and to have her characters named, although she does tend to change the names in the editing stage.
Mel also writes women’s fiction under her pen name of Marcie Steele.
She gave the following advice to aspiring authors:
- If you are writing a book finish it, you don’t know what you can do until you write it!
- Don’t follow other people dreams follow your own!
- To be a prolific writer you need to put the work in!
I could have easily stayed a couple of hours longer to listen to Mel! The end of a fascinating evening was completed by a book purchase and of course some pics!
Mel’s books are available to buy via:
Scottish Crime Fiction Blogger and Author 
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