Briefly tell us about your book.
The Running Club follows a group of runners in a picture-perfect community where appearances are everything. In wealthy Esperance, secrets (and wrinkles) are kept artfully hidden and resentment simmers under the surface for the couples of the running club until eventually it turns murderous.
What inspired the idea behind this book?
I spent a lot of time during lockdown at my local playing fields with my son watching the same group of runners plod along the track that circles it. I’d watch their faces as they ran and wonder if they actually liked one another. I ended up inventing different personas for them: the jealous ex, the unknowing Lycra-clad murder victim, the park flasher…! These poor people were just going for a run – little did they know there was a plotting author eyeing them off from across the field! The idea for The Running Club developed from there.
What was the research process like for the book?
Several chapters are told from the point of view of a character at high school in the 1990s, so I had to go back 30 years and work out what teenagers were into for Shelby’s story. I was a 1990s teen myself, but unfortunately I have the worst memory, so I had to research songs and film references and even the cosmetics that were popular at the time. To further complicate things, I was raised in the UK, so I had to investigate how the Australian HSC worked back then as well as tapping in to Aussie culture of the ‘90s.
For the crime element of the book, I met with a lovely policewoman friend of mine who helped me with scene of crime information and caution/arrest procedure. I loved this part of the research.
If I looked at your internet history, what would it reveal about you?
It would suggest I’m really weird or planning to kill someone brutally! But my Google history for The Running Club is probably marginally better than for The Trivia Night, which was all about swinging!
What are you hoping the reader will take away from reading your book?
The best feedback I could get about The Running Club would be that it is twisty, and that there are turns the reader did not expect. I hope it provides entertainment and that the dark comedy shines through. It is such a big thing for me that within the darkness of the novel there is some light relief. If I hit the mark with this, I’ll be thrilled.
Does the creative process get easier for you with each book?
It does. I’ve just finished writing book four and I can confidently say I’m less fraught with self-doubt these days. I have learnt to enjoy my characters’ voices and not fret if I don’t have a shelf-worthy book at the end of the very first draft. I suppose I’ve come to accept that it takes a lot of editing and rewriting to create a novel, and that enduring a bad first draft is par for the course.
How does it feel to hold your book in your hands?
It’s the best feeling. Sometimes it still feels like it is happening to someone else.
What was the most challenging part of writing this book?
Getting the timing right. There is a lot happening in The Running Club, with dual timelines and the sequence of events that happen after the murder, so I had to make sure there were no gaping plot holes. I also have a very amateur habit of writing without any kind of timeline and then having to go back and organise things so I’m not out of sync.
How did you think of the title of the book?
I didn’t! My title was The Runners and my wonderful editor at Hodder & Stoughton suggested the ‘Club’ part. I love it.
What is something that has influenced you as a writer?
The loss of my brother has enabled me to write fearlessly about death, but in terms of how I write, I’d say reading other books has been the biggest influence. When I was in my late teens, I read a book called The Last Time They Met by Anita Shreve and it had the biggest gasp-aloud twist at the end. The memory of that has inspired me to always go out with a big twisty ending!
What’s the easiest and most difficult parts of your job as a writer?
The easiest part is finding the idea, because ideas are everywhere: the news, in friendship groups, within families…and the hardest part is to execute it! I’m not a plotter, I make up the story as I go along, and in the past I’ve had to delete big chunks of words if something hasn’t worked, which can be frustrating. But annoyingly since I don’t like to plan (and find it really confusing to do so), that will never change!
Do you write about people you know? Or yourself?
I think most of my characters in The Trivia Night and The Running Club have certain characteristics of people I’ve met or known, but I’d never write a character based entirely on someone else. If I did, I’d have to be very subtle about it! In The Trivia Night, Zoe is experiencing grief, which was very much my own story, but nothing else about Zoe is remotely like me. So I suppose there are little flashes of me in some of the characters – there’s certainly a smidgin of teenage Ali in The Running Club, I think.
What’s some great advice you’ve received that has helped you as a writer?
Write to the end, and then go back and edit, otherwise you’ll never finish! I cling to that when I feel like I need to rework chapter one 8000 times before I move on to writing chapter two!
If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?
Finish the book, then edit, edit and edit! Give it to a writer friend you trust to give you honest feedback. Don’t rush – a publisher or an agent will wait for a good story.
Who are some of your favourite authors? Or favourite books?
Sally Hepworth is my imaginary literary BFF – I love her. Also Liane Moriarty, Taylor Jenkins Reid (Carrie Soto Is Back – wow!), Gillian McAlister, and Lisa Jewell. I am currently reading The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell and it is incredible. My favourite book of all time is Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and I was reared on Agatha Christie books, so they hold a special place in my heart and on my bookshelf.
Are you able to switch off at the end of a day of writing? If so, how?
I have three young children, so at 3.30pm, I have to step out of make-believe and in to reality because they all burst through the door wanting snacks and help with homework! I’ve been a journalist for over 20 years so I’m used to having to switch my writing mojo on and off, it’s never too tricky.
What’s your daily writing routine like and what are you working on at the moment?
I write when my children are at school and always start off the day with a coffee – I can’t do it without one! Next up for me are the edits on my third book which is out next year, and I’ve just finished a rough draft of book four. They’re both domestic noirs with a cast of bonkers, flawed characters like The Running Club – I cannot wait for them to be out in the world.
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