Author Spotlight Catherine Curzon and Eleanor Harkstead

Catherine Curzon and Eleanor Harkstead

So thrilled these authors agreed to be n the author spotlight this month.

What do you enjoy about writing romantic suspense?

Eleanor: I like different genres of romance, so it’s fun to be able to write different kinds. We’ve done romcoms, historicals, contemporaries as well as suspense. I like the balance between the romance and the suspense parts of the plot. How does someone navigate a new relationship when there’s strange things afoot? Should they be suspicious of their new partner? Just who is out to get them?

Catherine: Plotting suspense is like putting together a puzzle, or perhaps even solving one. The only thing is, you get to put together your own answer. I particularly enjoy that side of it, as it lets me plumb all my most fiendish plotting depths.

What was your inspiration for The Man in Room 423?

Eleanor: Inspiration came from several different places, and of course being a co-written novel, we brought our own to it. One of mine was the time a friend and I spotted a man in a hotel room across the street in his towel. That turned into the opening of the novel, where Lizzie realises that a man in a hotel room has been watching her while she has a drink with her sister.

Catherine: I’ve always been fascinated by celebrity culture and the worship of media and sports stars. We were able to reflect that in the book with the character of Matt De Luca, a Premier league footballer who is the target of a stalker. His fans feel like they know him, so any attack on Matt cuts them too and a threat to their hero is like a threat to a member of their own family.

Do you have a favourite character from your books?

Eleanor: It’s very difficult to choose just one! My favourite character changes depending on what mood I’m in. I’m fond of Jack Woodvine from The Captain and the Cavalry Trooper - how he develops in the story from a dreamy, rather naive lad to a confident, but still rather dreamy, young man. I like both Lizzie from The Man in Room 423 and Eva from our other romantic suspense, The Colour of Mermaids. I think they’d get on quite well if they met up for cocktails. Of Catherine’s characters, I’ve always liked Orsini from our romp of a Regency romcom, The Captain and the Theatrical, as he plays both himself in the novel and his own sister! But as I say, it’s very hard to choose just one. I’ll be here all day if we’re not careful.

Catherine: I adore them all. There’s a couple who perhaps just clinch the top spot, but I can’t say who. The others might see this, after all. ;)

Can you tell us - or hint at - what you’re working on at the moment?

Eleanor: We’ve been writing sandboxes lately. These are fictional worlds where we give the characters more free-rein than they would in something we set out to write as a novel. They’re fun to do, and they provide material - ideas, characters, places - for future novels.

Do you have writing habits – such as always getting up early to write, or writing in the evening? Or do you write when the mood takes you? Are you a plotter or a “pantser”?

Eleanor: I’m very bad at getting up early! If anything, the opposite is true as Catherine and I have been known to stay up writing together very late at night. Two in the morning comes around very quickly… When we’re working on a novel, we tend to write whenever we can because it’s important to keep up momentum, but also because it’s too addictive to stop! We’re more towards the plotter end of the spectrum than the “pantser” but we don’t necessarily stick rigidly to the plot if interesting ideas and new avenues bubble up once we’ve started writing and got to know the characters better.

Catherine: Writing is my day job and I am always phenomenally busy whether it’s with fiction, my nonfiction history books or my magazine commission. That means that I have to be extremely disciplined and keep regular office hours for my nonfiction work. I don’t think I’m ever NOT on a deadline.

Where do you write? Have you got a little nook at home, or do you write wherever you happen to be on a laptop or on your phone?

Eleanor: If I’m at home, I tend to write on my PC, but if I’m out and about, I use my phone. I’ve written on the bus, in a café, even in the hairdresser’s chair while waiting for the dye to take!

Catherine: I’ve got an office at home where I do the vast majority of my daytime writing and a good portion of my writing in the evening too. Otherwise it’s a case of have iPad, will travel!

Tell us about your latest release.

Our second romantic suspense, The Man in Room 423, is published by Totally Bound on 5th May 2020.

In a heady cocktail of passion and poison, who can you really trust?

When Lizzie Aspinall and her sister meet for cocktails in a high-rise bar, the last thing she’s expecting is to spend the night in the arms of the nameless man in room 423. As a one-night stand with a stranger turns into a steamy affair with a dedicated detective, Lizzie finds herself in the sights of a stalker.

Ben Finneran has spent ten years pursuing a ruthless serial killer who poisons victims at random before disappearing into the shadows. He wants to believe that the attraction he and Lizzie share is just physical, but when they find themselves falling for each other, is Ben unwittingly leading a murderer straight to her door?

Pursued by the past and threatened by the present, who can Lizzie and Ben really trust?

Available in ebook and paperback.

Amazon: https://mybook.to/themaninroom423

Totally Bound: https://www.totallybound.com/book/the-man-in-room-423

Find out more at www.curzonharkstead.co.uk