Acclaimed in Britain and the United States, Blacklands by Belinda Bauer (Bantam Press) is now out in South Africa. She tells us about her debut psychological suspense story, which to date has sold 30 000 copies in the UK alone.
Describe yourself in a sentence.
Interesting enough in person but not a patch on the imaginary thing.
Describe your ideal reader.
Someone who would rather burn dinner than stop reading.
What was the originating idea for the book?
I saw the mother of a long-murdered child on TV — still desperate to find his body 40 years after his disappearance. It hit me like a sledgehammer — how such a crime must ruin whole generations; how that lack of resolution must tear a family apart. Then I started to think about how I would feel if I were the grandchild of such a woman — and what I might possibly do to make it better…
Were the years you spent in South Africa significant?
I think growing up in South Africa definitely helped make me the writer I am today. If I’d stayed in England maybe my thoughts would have been smaller than they became. In South Africa everything has time and space to expand. When we first moved there in 1971 there was no TV. If anything is guaranteed to expand your imagination, that’s it! Plus, high school was so tedious and unimaginative that I had to make my own entertainment, even in the classroom. Instead of disrupting lessons, I would look out of the window and imagine a lion loose in the quad, or a madman with a gun. Real life has always been a bit of an interruption to me — all the good stuff is going on inside my head.
Describe the process of writing and publishing Blacklands. How long did it take?
Once I’d had the idea for Blacklands it just fell out of me and on to the page. It probably took me about four months and it was a joyful experience. I was so energised by the high of writing it. When I finished, I tried getting interest from publishers and agents, but had no takers. I saw the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award advertised and — although I didn’t feel it was a conventional crime novel — I entered and was highly commended. That led to publishers and agents (including some who had rejected it before!) coming to me, so I had my pick. I chose my agent, Jane Gregory, because she had approached me early on — on the basis of being shortlisted for the Daggers — then had yelled down the phone at me when I refused to sign with her before the awards.
Although by then I had other offers, I decided that she was just the kind of proactive person I needed to yell at other people on my behalf. I signed with Jane on the Monday after the awards, she sent Blacklands out on Tuesday and by Friday it was sold. After years of trying to get films made out of screenplays I’d been writing, it all seemed ridiculously easy. I sold Blacklands in August 2008 and it was published in January this year. It took so long that I really couldn’t get excited about it because I was sure I would die before it would ever hit the shelves.
Name some writers who have inspired you and tell us briefly why or how.
I was still reading Enid Blyton when I discovered Stephen King, so I read the two of them in tandem. I loved the cosy peril of the Famous Five and the Secret Seven, but I was also captivated by the sheer horror visited upon normal people by Stephen King. They both had a huge influence on me. When I write I am far more interested in the effect of events on my characters than I am in the events themselves, and Stephen King was the first person I’d read whose characters seemed like people I knew. It was a revelation to me. Suddenly my own mundane life seemed like valid material.
Do you write by hand, or use a typewriter or computer?
Computer. If I’d had to write by hand I would never have been a writer. Far too lazy.
What is the purpose of fiction?
To live another life. And you do’t even have to die to do it.
How do you see the future of the psychological suspense genre/sub-genre?
I have no idea. I have so little experience of it. Obviously, I hope that I will find a place in this genre because a lot of my stories involve crime in some sense, but I have no desire to be pigeonholed there. I like to write whatever takes my fancy.
Is there anything you wish to add?
Tequila?