BLOOD TYPE: Jessica Norrie @jessica_norrie #amwriting #writingtips

“It made me cry when I was writing it, so I knew it must be good.”

CRIME AUTHORS SPILL THEIR GUTS ABOUT WRITING. Every Thursday top-notch authors of psychological thrillers and crime fiction share their writing secrets – and the secrets to their success – with you and me.

This week: Jessica Norrie

Tell us about yourself…

I studied French Literature at Sussex University among people who would have viewed Jeremy Corbyn as a centre ground politician. (Although I must admit I skimmed my Marx.) I lived and taught in France, then taught English, French and Spanish and ran teacher training in Sheffield and London until early retirement two months ago. Hooray! I’ve published a bit of journalism, co-authored a text book, and written one novel, “The Infinity Pool”. I’m working on the second novel now, off and on and my children are in their twenties so they do the cooking.

How do you pick character names? Do any have special meaning to you?

My hero/antihero was called Adrian Hartman. Adrian is an anagram of “A drain”, because my first idea was he would drown in a swimming pool, and Hartman because he’s a therapist, very touchy feely. A woman I like a lot is Ruby because she has a jewel of a warm heart. My heroine is Maria because it was a name that could work in almost any culture, my Maria has to, and she is pushed from innocence into motherhood very quickly, like the Virgin Mary… TO READ THE INTERVIEW IN FULL, CLICK HERE

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