I was lucky enough to pose some questions to Katherine Swartz on her recent release ‘The Lost Garden’. Here's what she had to say...
How long did The Lost Garden take to write?
I started a first draft three years ago, and got to the halfway point before I decided it wasn’t working. When I figured out what was wrong [a character needed to change] it went much more quickly, and I managed to complete it in just a few months.
How challenging is it to write a dual timeframe novel, compared to writing just one story?
The most challenging part is making each of the two stories compelling, and also having them inform one another without being repetitive or stretch credibility too far.
You've also had huge success with M and B- are there any similarities between your romance books and your women's fiction releases?
Writing for Mills & Boon has helped me to tighten my writing and focus on strong emotional conflicts for characters. A lot of people think writing romance is easy, but writing good, compelling, believable, and emotional romance is quite difficult. I think I’ve learned something with every book I’ve written.
Are you a reader as well as a writer? If so, recommend me a book!
Yes, definitely, I absolutely love reading. Recently I've read I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh and Defending Jacob by William Landay. Both highly recommended!
The Lost Garden is out now, published by Lion fiction.
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