I am very excited to be part of this wonderful Blog Tour, thank you Beth for answering my questions.
Did you always dream of being a writer?
Absolutely. I have loved writing ever since I first could hold a pen, and made my poor mum read some perfectly terrible short stories over the years. I remember buying my first laptop – it was a giant black brick, with a tiny screen, and cost twice what a laptop costs these days, and this was the late 90s! But it became my most treasured possession. Finally I could move around the house with my writing, instead of always being stuck at a desk in front of a large PC.
Your newest book is called His Other Life, what is it about?
His Other Life is the story of a woman, Grace, discovering things about her husband after he pops out to get take away food and doesn’t come back. Grace’s voyage of discovery, I suppose.
What was your inspiration for the book?
I find the idea of someone simply abandoning their life without any apparent preparation completely fascinating. You read about it in the news all the time, don’t you, where someone has just gone out to post a letter and is never seen again. I want to know what happened in that twenty minute period!
Carry You, your debut novel, was published last year, tell us more about the story.
Carry You is about Daisy, who‘s in a deep depression after losing her mum to cancer five months earlier. She’s at the lowest point in her life she’s ever been, but fortunately she has the world’s best best friend, Abby, who persuades her to complete the London Moonwalk. Abby gets Daisy back on her feet, literally and figuratively!
What books or authors have most influenced your life most?
Is it too teed to say Jane Austen? I admire her so much because she had to write everything long hand, in ink, with a feather. So maybe five words a minute. How did she do it? Also she was writing and being published in a society where women were not expected to do anything much at all, so she was really up against it. I also love Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella and most of all, Jenny Colgan. My hero(ine).
How would you describe your style of writing?
I suppose you could say it’s romantic, dark and funny. Although telling someone what something is like is never as good as demonstrating it! It’s what I’m aiming for, anyway. I very much hope I’ve achieved it.
His Other Life
He was hiding a terrible secret...
Grace’s new husband Adam seems like the perfect package. Good looking, great job, completely charming – almost too good to be true...
So when Adam suddenly disappears from Grace’s life, she is left bewildered and heartbroken. And with a lot of unanswered questions.
As she tries desperately to find him, Grace opens a Pandora’s Box of secrets and lies – and starts to learn that Adam wasn't so perfect after all.
What shameful secrets was her husband hiding? Is Grace in danger? And can she survive the truth? However terrible it may be...
About the author
Beth Thomas wrote her first book at the age of six. It was a short social commentary about ethnicity and fear of being different, incorporating magic, travel, adventure and ultimately, murder. The death at the end was an unexpected shock and came about as she had no idea how else to end the story. She thinks she's improved since then, and hope that now her endings are a little more planned and satisfying. She lives in Kent with her family.
