The Inspiration Behind Blood For Blood

‘Where do you get the ideas for your books?’ is one of the questions many writers I know dread. Afterall, how do you explain the apparently illogical flashes of inspiration that seem to come out of nowhere?

  The follow-up to BLOOD FOR BLOOD (NOTHING TO LOSE, coming out at the end of March) popped into my head during a walk on the Heath with my cocker spaniel. While Maggie snoofled amongst the fallen leaves and acorns, I was planning a murder.

  The idea for the book came to me as a question; what would you do if you knew you could get away with it? And how far would you go if you had nothing to lose? By the time I got back to my car I had the skeleton of a plot. Over the next few days I covered the bones, hunched over my notebook filling page after page till my arm got sore.

  By that point I already had a central character, ex-special forces criminal profiler, Ziba MacKenzie who ‘stars’ in BLOOD FOR BLOOD. Perhaps that’s why the idea was so easy to develop, I already knew Ziba and how she’d react. All I had to do was come up with a story, in this case a serial killer looking for his next victim and a profiler who looks just like his last.

  In BLOOD FOR BLOOD, Ziba became the focus of a killer’s interest. In NOTHING TO LOSE, she knows that if she gets too close again this case could be her final one. Still, she’s not one to play by the rules—especially when her secret investigation into her husband’s murder begins to attract unwanted attention.

  The inspiration behind BLOOD FOR BLOOD was very different not least because I didn’t already have a protagonist.

  I was talking to the brilliant Kevin Wignall in Harrogate last summer about what makes us write the characters we do. We’d been drinking a lot of wine so I can’t remember the exact conversation, but what we came down to is this: We either write some version of ourselves, or someone we’d deep down like to be.

  As a North London soccer mum whose idea of the perfect night is curling up on the sofa with my husband watching Modern Family, my fierce and feisty heroine couldn’t be more different to me. And yet although I’d love to have her people reading skills and ability take out an opponent twice her size with a double palm strike through the centre line- I wouldn’t swap my life for hers even for a second. (Mind you, her love interest has a certain appeal…)

  So where did she come from? In some ways I think we’re as much a product of what we read as of our environment. I’ve always loved Sherlock Holmes (though it seems unlike practically every other woman on the planet, Benedict Cumberbatch leaves me cold). I also love Thomas Harris and James Patterson. Putting Ziba under the microscope, I can definitely see the influence of those books and writers on her.

  But unlike Holmes and Cross, Ziba is female. As such (a bit like Clarice Starling) she’s an outsider pushing her way forward in a man’s world- Heaven help anyone who stands in her way! And although she can certainly hold her own in a fight, her mind rather than physical strength is her greatest weapon. Though given the tragedy she’s endured, it’s also her biggest threat.

  The plot behind BLOOD FOR BLOOD came to me almost by chance. I was flicking through a true crimes book one rainy afternoon in Waterstones when I came across a story that literally made my skin prickle.

  Sixty years ago, a little girl was abducted from outside her home while playing in the snow with her friend. Despite massive public interest and an extensive investigation, she was never found. Then in 2008, on her death bed a woman grabbed her daughter’s arm and whispered, ‘John did it, you have to tell someone.’

 Her pronouncement led to the case being re-opened and a man being arrested.

  It also became the seed for BLOOD FOR BLOOD.

  The book opens with a train crash. In the aftermath, Ziba helps a dying woman who passes on a cryptic message: He did it. You have to tell someone. Hours later, a serial killer with a gruesome signature, and dormant for twenty-five years, strikes again.

  As Ziba scrambles to profile him and predict his next move, she asks herself: What’s brought the London Lacerator back after such a long hiatus? And does his sudden return have anything to do with the woman on the train?

  The killer himself is based on another real-life cold case, but I’m afraid if I tell you which one, I might ruin the book for you.

  True crime continues to be a source of inspiration for me both for my books and the podcast I’ve recorded with two other writer friends. In Crime Girl Gang we discuss real life cold cases then ‘solve’ them from a fictional perspective (think Castle meets Serial).

  Reading over what I’ve written, I’m beginning to understand the real reason writers don’t like to be asked where they get their ideas from. Either it’s impossible to say. Or it would take a whole article to answer.

—

Victoria Selman wrote her first novel aged seven: twenty-five years later, her debut has now been sold into territories around the globe. After graduating from Oxford University, Victoria studied Creative Writing at the City Lit and wrote for the Ham & High and Daily Express newspapers. In 2013 she won the Full Stop Short Story Prize and her first novel, Blood For Blood, was shortlisted for the 2017 Debut Dagger Award.

Follow her on Twitter @VictoriaSelman

Find out more about her on her website: http://www.victoriaselmanauthor.com/

About BLOOD FOR BLOOD

Ziba Mackenzie profiles killers. Now one is profiling her.

Rush hour, London. A packed commuter train is torn apart in a collision. Picking through the carnage, ex-special forces profiler Ziba MacKenzie helps a dying woman who passes on a cryptic message: He did it. You have to tell someone.

When a corpse is found bearing the gruesome signature of a serial killer dormant for twenty-five years, Ziba is pulled into the hunt for the perpetrator. As the body count rises it becomes clear he’s on a new spree. But what’s brought the London Lacerator back after such a long hiatus? And does his sudden return have anything to do with the woman on the train?

Ziba scrambles to profile the killer in the hope of predicting his next move. But time is running out. And the closer she gets to uncovering his identity, the closer he gets to destroying hers.

Shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award

 

  

 

  

  

 

  

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing