I have seen you mention that one of your major influences is Mary Stewart. But since I’m not sure how long it will be before I get around to writing it, the best that I can offer Kelly is my thriller Every Secret Thing, which is set partly in Toronto and around it, in the present and the past, and has a few scenes at the secret wartime training camp for spies, Camp X, that lies not far away from where I live.

And there are parts of the UK – especially some of the more remote areas along the coastlines – that lend themselves more easily to stories of suspense, because they’re already so far removed from everything that’s commonplace, and have a certain magic all their own a certain atmosphere.Īs one of our two Canadian HTer’s Kelly specifically would like to know do you have any plans to write anything set in Canada?Īctually, in spite of what I’ve said above, I do have an idea for a story set in Canada, in one of the few places in this country where the history does stretch back into the mists, and hasn’t all been well-recorded. In Britain, that’s practically modern! Besides which, the history itself is so interesting. Here, we consider a house to be ancient if it’s from the mid-1800s. Because I like to interweave the past and present in my books, I’m drawn to places where the history stretches back a little further than it does in my own part of Canada. What is it about the UK, specifically places like Scotland and Cornwall that provide such good settings for novels?įor me, it’s the layers of history they give me to play with.

Bride of the machugh by jan cox speas