Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in rural Northamptonshire, which is in the centre of England with my wife and kids. We’ve been here twenty years now, so almost feel like we belong!
Like so many writers, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t write stories. They are there, in my head, all the time and I have to let them out otherwise I’d go loopy.
I started writing seriously about eight years ago, released my first book in May 2015 and now have four books published.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest release is the novel ‘Too Good to Die’, the fourth book involving my London based private investigator David Good. I’ve set these stories in the 1980s, in part because I wanted to write about a time before the internet and mobile phones (well, they started to appear towards the end of the decade, but I haven’t got that far yet). I also spent time during the 1980s living in the part of London where the stories are based.
Inspiration is perhaps the wrong thing to consider here, because, as with so many of my stories, a thought, a sentence, a scene perhaps, simply pops into my head and off I go. No plot, I simply let the characters lead me where they will.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write with one eye closed as I find I get better focus like that. OK, OK, I made that one up. No, disappointingly, I don’t have any unusual writing habits.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I find the list of my favourite authors grows with time and include, in no particular order, Nick Hornby, Salman Rushdie, Rudyard Kipling and Patricia Highsmith.
What are you working on now?
Further books in the David Good series.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
If you want to spread the word then you can’t beat a permafree book. Readers are happy to consider a new writer if it costs them nothing but their time to turn the pages.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Find a writing style that suits you. There is so much advice out there it can seem over-whelming at times, so by all means try everything, but ultimately you need to settle on something that suits who you are as an individual and a writer. Then keep learning and refining your craft; this is a journey that never ends. I love it.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You have to write because you love it and would keep writing even if there was never any chance of selling so much as a single copy. If you don’t love the writing then you can be sure your readers will spot this a mile away.
What are you reading now?
I have just started reading ‘composed’ by Rosanne Cash, something I have been looking forward to for a while now. I usually have one fiction and one non-fiction book on the go, though can’t currently make up my mind which novel to read next.
What’s next for you as a writer?
More books! Lots more. I always have more ideas than I can ever hope to turn into books. I love finishing work on a book both because of the sense of completion I get and because it means I can start the next one. Deep joy!
I am also looking to develop an entirely new protagonist, though have not yet found the right character.
What is your favorite book of all time?
One book? You must be mad. Oh, if you insist. The one that pops into my head the most often is Erskine Childers’ ‘The Riddle of the Sands’. Published first in 1903, it doesn’t seem to get much attention these days despite being seen as the first recognisable espionage novel. As well as being a story of its time, capturing the looming sense of fear as WWI approached, it also so skilfully evokes the world of inshore sailing along the northern European coast that the very taste of the wind, the sea and the sand has never left me, despite my never having actually been there!
Author Websites and Profiles
Ben Westerham Website
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