Neil White
Neil White may be a successful author, now on his third book Last Rites, but he is also a criminal lawyer and family man, it's amazing he finds the time for anything else.
But I caught up with him to talk about his new book, his career and how he manages to fit everything into twenty four hours.
So what have been up to recently?
Writing really and that's pretty much it, I'm about half way through what will be the fourth book, so I'm trying to make some hay with that and convince myself not to go out in the garden because it's really sunny.
Your latest book is the Last Rites so what is it all about?
It's a tale of ghastly deeds in the shadow of Pendle Hill. It's the third book in the Jack Garrett series, he is a reporter who lives with a detective, and there has been a murder of a teacher’s boyfriend in the small Lancashire town that he lives in.
He gets wind that perhaps the young teacher suspect isn't the suspect that she ought to be so he starts looking into it and discovers it has links with Pendle's dark witchy past.
So how does the writing process work for you do you start with plot or characters?
Probably more plot lead, I tend to see something in either the news or general criminal research and I'll think that’s a good background for a story and I try and craft the plot around the idea.
And that was the process with the Pendle witch thing I thought it was an interesting local story and quite good to craft a modern day murder around that story.
You are a criminal lawyer so how much influence does your work have on your writing?
Erm I don't tend to use, little snippets come in and things that I pick up at work from the police or on a call and those are little side things that may fit in, but I never use cases or recent cases.
Obviously it's not fair on the police to start using confidences but what it does do is it makes you realise that there is no limit to evil cruelty whatever sick thing you can think of you can usually find a sicker thing in a file.
You realise that you be too gratuitous because someone has done worse so you don't have be too fearful of thinking that someone wouldn't do that because they would, they probably have, and I could probably find you a file showing you that they have.
What was it that drew you to the crime genre don't you get enough of that in your day job?
I think I have always been draw to it, even as a child I was drawn by the likes of the Crown Court series, and as a child I wanted to be a police office, when I lived in Wakefield, and that turned into a criminal lawyer so I think I have always liked crime and been interested in it and what makes people do the things that they do.
But I was initially drawn to horror, the Stephen King stuff, but it gets to a point where it doesn't scare you anymore because you have seen it all before but with crime can always intrigue you and leads you to think how would I get out of this particular situation where horror is just another scary story.
Ok so you are a criminal lawyer so how did you get into writing and why did you decide to pursue it?
I had always wanted to be a writer and when I was in college I would always say that law was what I would do until I could become a writer. I started writing as some as I finished studying, I finished studying in 1993 and starting writing in 1994, so even when I was still training to be a solicitor, when I was doing my two years training contract, I was writing then and was always plugging away at it until I got published.
And getting a book deal can be quite a long process with manuscripts being knocked back so how did it all work out for you?
What I took from it was if ever two people said the same thing about something that I had done that I would think that was probably right, I can accept that there might be different views, but when you have two people saying the same criticism I think that they are right and I look again at where I have gone wrong.
I finished a book, I sent it off and two people wanted to see more of it, I sent more of it but it got knocked back and then the children came along and I had a couple of years where I thought that it was not to be. But then I started writing again and had another go at it so it was peaks and troughs, and at the same time I had children coming along and had my job to do.
So while I wasn't constantly plugging away I would have these bursts where I would think 'Oh I'll try another book'. The second book that I wrote was the one that got the publishing deal, it became Fallen Idols, but it was just a matter of trying to get better and see where you are going wrong and eventually someone will take you on, and if they don't they don't.
So you are a father, a lawyer and a writer how do you fit it all in to a day?
I squeeze it in one day I looked up and I thought my god the kids have grown up (laughs). I found it most difficult when I was a criminal defence lawyer because you tend to work longer, midnight telephone calls from the police station.
But as a prosecutor it's more of a nine to five there's no real out of hours work I can come home at tea time, I set myself a target now of a thousand words a day and that's how I keep on track, but I only work three days now so I fit my writing around that.
What is your inspiration and how does the research process of a novel work for you?
In terms of the actual research of the subject matter I quite like that, I like having a dig around to see what you can find, but there's a temptation to put everything that you have discovered into it which can sometimes spoil the book, you have to reign that in. In terms of preparation I tend to plot mine out a fair bit then deviate from it as it write but knowing where it will end up keeps me on track.
Because I work and have a family as well having a book a year coming out I'm always worried that I will fall off track slightly so I try and work on it every night and just work towards finishing the book.
Jack Garrett has been a recurring character over the three books so where did he come from?
I think he is me if I had more courage; I try to make him a braver and bolder version of me. If it was me facing adversity I would shrug my shoulders and go 'oh well those are the breaks' so I try and imagine what I would do if I had the balls.
I deliberately chose a reporter as the hero because I tried writing from a lawyers perspective and I became obsessed about detail and obsessed about making it accurate, sometimes accurate can be boring the day to day job of a lawyer really isn’t that exciting.
So thought no I can’t do it like this because I’m making it not interesting, that’s why I can’t watch British legal dramas because they are not accurate, and I know that that is artistic license, but I prefer American versions because it might be just as inaccurate but I don’t know about it.
And what does writing give you?
I don’t know really. I think a sense of pride that what I’ve done people are enjoying and it’s sort of fulfilling my ambitions, it’s a good feeling of self fulfilment.
You are now on your third book so how surprised are you by your own success?
Erm well fairly because it has gone much beyond what I would have hoped if I go back five years when I was unpublished I would have been happy to see something that I had written on a book shelf anywhere but to be picked up by Avon, one of the biggest publishers, was a surprise in it’s self and to get to this point has gone beyond what I would have hoped for really.
All I try and do is to try and write a book that I would want to read and hopefully if I want to read it then other people will as well and that is always my starting point; have I written a book that I would spend £10 on read on a beach and think yeah I enjoyed that?
So who are you reading at the moment?
I think I tend to read, like most people do, I go for the three for twos at Waterstones and I look at the charts in Smiths and if it has got a big label on the I tend to think that will be quite good. At the moment I’m reading The Girl with the Dragon tattoo, which was recommended to me by someone at Borders. I’ve got a holiday coming up so I have got a few to pack away for then.
And finally what is next for you?
Another book hopefully. I just keep on doing what I’m doing and I hope to improve as I go along and what will be will be.
Last Rites is out now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Neil White may be a successful author, now on his third book Last Rites, but he is also a criminal lawyer and family man, it's amazing he finds the time for anything else.
But I caught up with him to talk about his new book, his career and how he manages to fit everything into twenty four hours.
So what have been up to recently?
Writing really and that's pretty much it, I'm about half way through what will be the fourth book, so I'm trying to make some hay with that and convince myself not to go out in the garden because it's really sunny.
Your latest book is the Last Rites so what is it all about?
It's a tale of ghastly deeds in the shadow of Pendle Hill. It's the third book in the Jack Garrett series, he is a reporter who lives with a detective, and there has been a murder of a teacher’s boyfriend in the small Lancashire town that he lives in.
He gets wind that perhaps the young teacher suspect isn't the suspect that she ought to be so he starts looking into it and discovers it has links with Pendle's dark witchy past.
So how does the writing process work for you do you start with plot or characters?
Probably more plot lead, I tend to see something in either the news or general criminal research and I'll think that’s a good background for a story and I try and craft the plot around the idea.
And that was the process with the Pendle witch thing I thought it was an interesting local story and quite good to craft a modern day murder around that story.
You are a criminal lawyer so how much influence does your work have on your writing?
Erm I don't tend to use, little snippets come in and things that I pick up at work from the police or on a call and those are little side things that may fit in, but I never use cases or recent cases.
Obviously it's not fair on the police to start using confidences but what it does do is it makes you realise that there is no limit to evil cruelty whatever sick thing you can think of you can usually find a sicker thing in a file.
You realise that you be too gratuitous because someone has done worse so you don't have be too fearful of thinking that someone wouldn't do that because they would, they probably have, and I could probably find you a file showing you that they have.
What was it that drew you to the crime genre don't you get enough of that in your day job?
I think I have always been draw to it, even as a child I was drawn by the likes of the Crown Court series, and as a child I wanted to be a police office, when I lived in Wakefield, and that turned into a criminal lawyer so I think I have always liked crime and been interested in it and what makes people do the things that they do.
But I was initially drawn to horror, the Stephen King stuff, but it gets to a point where it doesn't scare you anymore because you have seen it all before but with crime can always intrigue you and leads you to think how would I get out of this particular situation where horror is just another scary story.
Ok so you are a criminal lawyer so how did you get into writing and why did you decide to pursue it?
I had always wanted to be a writer and when I was in college I would always say that law was what I would do until I could become a writer. I started writing as some as I finished studying, I finished studying in 1993 and starting writing in 1994, so even when I was still training to be a solicitor, when I was doing my two years training contract, I was writing then and was always plugging away at it until I got published.
And getting a book deal can be quite a long process with manuscripts being knocked back so how did it all work out for you?
What I took from it was if ever two people said the same thing about something that I had done that I would think that was probably right, I can accept that there might be different views, but when you have two people saying the same criticism I think that they are right and I look again at where I have gone wrong.
I finished a book, I sent it off and two people wanted to see more of it, I sent more of it but it got knocked back and then the children came along and I had a couple of years where I thought that it was not to be. But then I started writing again and had another go at it so it was peaks and troughs, and at the same time I had children coming along and had my job to do.