Deal Sharing Aunt: Found, Near Water by Katherine Hayton Interview, Excerpt & Giveaway

Friday, November 21, 2014

Found, Near Water by Katherine Hayton Interview, Excerpt & Giveaway

Found, Near Water

by Katherine Hayton

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BLURB:

Rena Sutherland wakes from a coma into a mother’s nightmare. Her daughter’s is missing – lost for four days – but no one has noticed; no one has complained; no one has been searching.

As the victim support officer assigned to her case, Christine Emmett puts aside her own problems as she tries to guide Rena through the maelstrom of her daughter’s disappearance.

A task made harder by an ex-husband desperate for control; a paedophile on early-release in the community; and a psychic who knows more than seems possible.

And intertwined throughout, the stories of six women; six daughters lost.

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Excerpt

I set out the chairs in a circle. In my head I counted off each person as I placed their seat. Terry, dead daughter; Ilene, missing daughter; Kendra, missing daughter; Joanne, sick daughter; Christine, dead daughter. That last one is me, by the way.

There used to be a need for more chairs. I had quite the group running at one stage. Not now. We’ve dwindled and whittled our way to a close knit bunch. Like a knitting circle with barbed tongues driving all the young and optimistic members away.

I remember when I was talked into setting up this group. I was whining away to an old colleague one day and she mentioned that I may be helped by a support group. A support group! I “reminded” her that I was a fully qualified psychiatrist who had once had a roaring career until I realised how futile the entire field was. I wasn’t someone who attended a support group. I was the one to run it.

Famous last words.

There was a crunch of gravel outside and I walked to the window to have a nosey. Not one of mine. An elderly gent made slow progress towards the temporary library. He swayed so deeply from foot to foot he looked like a Weeble in full wobble.

I laid out a half packet of stale gingernuts which had mysteriously survived in our pantry and hoped that no one was feeling too hungry.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Bio:

Ever since I was three year’s old I’ve been reading everything I can lay my hands on. It’s been my passion, my solace, my comfort. I used to look forward to Wednesday nights which were the time that my mother would take me, and any of my siblings who wanted to go – so usually just me, to the library.

It would be wonderful, thrilling, and risky. I was only able to take three books out each week, and only one of those could get a free pass on fees. If I picked the wrong one I would be stuck with it for a whole week. Not only stuck with it, but I’d have to read a bad book cover to cover because otherwise I’d have to do something else, and that was not really what I was after. I did go outside, and played outside, and watched TV like any normal kid, but that was just stuff you filled in time with until you could read again.

Throughout my childhood there was never anything I wanted to do but become a writer – it seemed the only natural progression to my life. Then I crawled inside a bottle for fourteen years, and when I popped back out I was working in an office job in a travel agency, my mother was dead, and I was clueless as to how I was meant to get my life back on track.

About the time I started to seriously study the craft of writing, something that used to come naturally to me but had grown incredibly hard through lack of use, I also had a change in career path into insurance (not as big a change as it might seem as it was really from one office job to another with a brighter future and better career path.) I started to challenge myself in my professional life, and my personal life, so instead of focussing in on writing I instead tried out a range of different hobbies, followed up on fleeting interests, tried to learn to play the saxophone which my partner was glad was a short-lived affair, and generally did all of the things I should’ve spent my teens and twenties doing but hadn’t.

But of course I always circled back to writing. Reading and writing. My passion remains the same but instead of skimming widely across any and all genres I’ve narrowed down and done a deep-dive into crime fiction which has been my favourite for over a decade now.

I love the fact that I’ve been reading the same genre of fiction for more than ten years now, and still find new and interesting things with every book that I pick up. Now I’m trying to bring something new and unique to me to the genre. And soon I might finally get back on track to being the person that I always wanted to be.

Interview:

1. If we were to come to your house for a meal, what would you give us to eat?

I’d either put no effort into it at all and let you eat slices of meat and cheese or a handful of nuts or something, or I’d take it as a seldom-occurring opportunity to bake up some creation of magnificent tastiness and go all out. I’d make sure you ring a few hours before you drop by or you’re definitely getting the first option. And don’t take it the wrong way if you do phone and we’re out when you come around. My darling and I are not social animals. If we lived in a castle that drawbridge would not be coming down over that moat at all.

2. Are you a romantic?

Ahhhh, no. I’m a realist. A realist who would actually appreciate it if her partner bought her flowers for her birthday or her anniversary or just because once in a while. But not in a romantic way. In a ‘look at what I got while you received nothing you bunch of losers In Your Face’ kind of way. Maybe I’m a competitive romantic?

3. Do you listen to music when you're writing?

God no – that would be too much of a distraction. When I listen to music, I tend to LISTEN to music. I’ve never been able to have it as a background noise like other people seem to manage it. The TV I can happily ignore even when shows I enjoy are on – I can just tune that sucker out – but music demands attention and I provide it.

4. Do you ever read your stories out loud?

This is one of those things that everyone says you should do, and I think YES! That’s easy I’ll definitely do that, and then I never actually do it. Apart from my muttering when I’m typing things out, and the voice reciting things inside my head on a constant loop-reel, I just can’t do it. Add to that the embarrassment I feel when I talk aloud even when no one is there and it’s just not a happening thing. I had to sell my Google Glass because I just couldn’t get the hang of talking aloud to it. Even when I was by myself. But I’ve definitely got this on the list to do the next time I’m writing, and if not then for sure I’ll do it the time after that. For sure.

5. What are your future ambitions?

I’m looking forward to when I can retire from work. I enjoy my day job a lot most of the time, but I think I’d prefer working if I didn’t have to. Like volunteering for things. You stand on a street corner with a bucket and the job sucks for the most part – but if you turn in your bucket and walk away when you feel like it, what are they gonna do? Yeah. That’s some awesome power there. Going in every day to a job you enjoy but which you can walk out of at a moment’s notice if it comes down to it. That would be good. Anyone reading this, if you’d like me to experience this as a reality please feel free to order thousands of copies of my book so I can bring my retirement date forward. You’re awesome. No you are.

Amazon Links:

Author Page: amazon.com/author/katherinehayton

Kindle: http://amzn.com/B00LNUMCZ2

Paperback: http://amzn.com/0473279932

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/kathay1973

Blogger:

http://kathay1973.blogspot.co.nz/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Katherine-Hayton/1481785105415848

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8390059.Katherine_Hayton