{Interview} Philip Rogers Interviews Author Lou Yardley.

Lou is an author from ‘near’ London. Near enough so that she lives in a London borough, but far enough away that she has to pay an extortionate amount to get there and back for gigs and other fun things.

After keeping herself busy with a degree in Computing, IT and Design (where she got a first, thank you very much), a music blog and possibly summoning a few demons as a result of attempting to sing-along with her favourite tunes, Lou decided that she needed to cross something vital from her Bucket List. She needed to write a novel.

We all want to write a novel, don’t we? But we never seem to find the time. There are always degrees to study for, work to do, pizza to eat… How on earth do you fit writing a novel into that? Lou had no idea. So, she did what many others have done before her. She signed up to NaNoWriMo and wrote 1,667 words per day during the month of November 2015. At the end of November she was left with a fairly hefty chunk of story, but it was still nowhere near the end. Deciding to see it through, she spent the next few months finishing the story, polishing it, tidying it and whispering sweet nothings into its non-existent ears. Finally, in March 2016, it was published. If Lou can do it, anyone can!

… and Lou decided that one novel wasn’t nearly enough. She had caught the bug.

So, now Lou is having a go at being a writer and “The Other’s Voice” is her first novel. She is the owner of a bizarre imagination, a twisted sense of humour and a small army of cats. She is totally ready for the zombie apocalypse because her other half, Mark, has that stuff under control.

When she isn’t writing, Lou enjoys reading (obviously), listening to music and going to gigs (she especially loves Bloodstock Festival!), horror stuff (particularly anything related to Evil Dead. Bruce Campbell is a legend! Hail to the king!) and sci-fi stuff (if you don’t love Firefly and Killjoys, Lou will assume that there’s something wrong with you).

Lou is almost always on Twitter, so if you want to chat, give her a shout!

The Deal Maker

Paperback: 307 pages
Publisher: Lou Yardley (10 July 2019)

KR: Coffee?

KR: Could you tell me a little bit about yourself?

Sure, my name is Lou and I love anything that’s a bit creepy/gory. By day I’m Data and Insight Analyst and by night I write my fun little stories. I live just outside of London with my partner Mark and our army of 8 cats. I had planned to train the cats so that I could take over the world, but that hasn’t worked. Have you ever tried to train cats? They just do whatever the hell they want. They don’t care about your overly ambitious goals. They are super cute and fluffy though.

KR: What originally inspired you originally to become a writer?

I read a meme recently that said “writes eloquently, but speaks awkwardly” and that is me. I am the most awkward person on the planet. But, when I write, it seems to flow quite smoothly.

Finding what first inspired me is quite difficult to pinpoint. From the moment that I was able to read and write, I used to love making up my own little stories. They were often complete nonsense, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? I remember a particularly cringe-worthy one about a lizard called Bonk. How my teacher kept a straight face while reading it, I’ll never know!

I’ve also been a keen reader for as long as I can remember. I have some wonderful memories of my Grandad (on my Mum’s side) and my Nan (on my Dad’s side) letting me borrow their books. I felt so grown up! I was a little pre-teen reading adult fiction!

KR: Which writers first made you interested in horror?

Stephen King, Shaun Hutson and James Herbert… and I still love them to this day.

KR: When it comes to horror, what do you look for in a book?

That’s a good question. It doesn’t have to be scary, but it does have to leave me with that weird “well, that wasn’t right” feeling. This can be created by gore, downright creepiness or complete oddness. There just has to be something there that alters your reality for a bit.

KR: You have a new book which was recently released called The Deal Maker. Can you tell us a little bit about what we can expect from the story?

Yes, of course. I wanted to write something fun with plenty of gore, but something that still had a strong storyline. It also stemmed from quite a serious question that I’d asked myself earlier this year: how far would you go to save someone you loved? Would you keep going even if it meant losing parts of yourself. At the time, I was thinking more along the lines of one’s morality and honour, but in true Lou B-Movie style, it switched to body parts.

KR: The books introduce us to a unique horror character called Jack. How did you come up with the concept for the character?

I’m a big fan of 80s and 90s horror films and I wanted to create a baddie that was as oddly pleasing to the eye and mind as Freddy, Jason or even Chucky. I wanted to create someone who was pretty damn evil… but someone who you still found yourself almost rooting for.

KR: The book is a lot of fun and there have already been requests from readers to see a continuation of the story. Do you have any plans to write a continuation or spin-off to the book?

Oh yes! Definitely. It won’t be for a little while yet, but we most definitely not reached the end of this story. However, if you did just want to read “The Deal Maker” and nothing else, I hope that you’ll still be satisfied with the ending.

KR: What is your process when you start writing a new story?

I try to have a process – I really do! But it always ends up with slightly organised chaos! I try to get a rough outline of where I want the story to go and I have a plan covering the main plot points. However, once you start writing all kinds of other stuff starts to happen, so you have to keep making small adjustments to your plan. It’s all good fun though.

When I’m writing something, I try to aim for between 1000 and 2000 words per day. I usually write these while I’m in my lunch break at work or in the evening. I find that night-time is the best time to write this kind of thing. It is for me anyway.

KR: Do you have any other projects which you are working on?

Yes, I’m playing around with a couple of drafts at the moment. Their working titles are “Flutter” and “Inherited Evil”. After a bit of a break over the summer, I’m about to dive in fully to “Flutter”, so I’m hoping to have the draft finished by October. I’ve got a bit of an interest in insects and other creepy crawlies and “Flutter” gives me the opportunity to play with those guys a bit. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in!

I’ve also got a podcast called Fiends N Screams. I’ve released a couple of episodes so far, but it will be coming back properly in September. Fiends N Screams is a place for me to read my flash fiction or snippets from novels to anyone who might like to listen. I started it because I did my very first book reading back in June at the Brighton and Hove Book Fayre and I think I’ve caught the bug now.

KR: Thank you very much Lou.

Lou Yardley

You can follow Lou Yardley on the following social media

Websitehttp://louyardley.com/

Twitter https://twitter.com/louciferspeaks

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/louciferspeaks/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/louyardley/