Tuesday, May 3, 2022

The Enlightenment Show Interview With Vanessa Savage

Welcome to The Enlightenment Show, Vanessa! I’m so excited to have you joining us. Congratulations on your book, THE NIGHT THEY VANISHED, that just released! It’s a thrilling and shocking ride.

 

  •            Can you give the readers a brief synopsis of what THE NIGHT THEY VANISHED is about?

                    Hanna has a good life. Estranged from her family, she’s moved on from a troubled past to a life where she has a good job and is surrounded by loyal friends. Adam is a web developer. As a sideline, he’s built The Dark Tourist, a website that explores sites of notorious crimes in the UK. One day, a new house is listed on the website. It tells the story of a terrible crime – a family murdered; the killer never found. The date of the crime is today. The family is Hanna’s. When she rushes home, the house is abandoned and her family has vanished. Adam is insistent that his site was hacked, that he never put the house on there. Hanna and Adam have never met before now, but there’s a dark connection that links the two of them, and in a race against time to save Hanna’s family, they have to find that connection before it’s too late…

  •          What was one thing that surprised you about your main character, Hanna?

                   It’s a very small thing, but I was surprised when I wrote her first scenes, to find she doesn’t drink alcohol. It wasn’t something I planned; it was just something I knew as I started writing. It was a clear marker of her determination to overcome the mistakes of her past.

  •         Hanna has quite a past of trauma and family dysfunction. Where did you draw from to write the emotional scenes tied to her pain and fear?

                  I think this is where the ‘write what you know’ advice comes from. I haven’t experienced the trauma and dysfunction that Hanna has, but like everyone, I’ve experienced fear and grief, pain and insecurity. I understand the emotions although my life experiences are quite different and I’m able to draw on my own emotions when writing from Hanna’s point of view.

  •       What inspired you to dive into creating THE NIGHT THEY VANISHED?

                My first novel, The Woman in the Dark, focuses on a family who move into a notorious ‘murder house’, and have to deal with the curiosity of strangers as they attempt to make a place of tragedy into a home. As part of my research for that novel, I became fascinated by the idea of dark tourism and it sparked a ‘what if’ question that wouldn’t go away until I began writing The Night They Vanished - what if you found your family home listed as the site of a terrible murder on a true crime website? And then you can’t get hold of your family, they’ve vanished into the night… What really happened the night they vanished? Where is the family? Who listed the house on the website? And why?

 

  •       Have you had something vanish in your life that left you asking questions? What happened?
               Many years ago, we had a pretty cat who liked to wander. She wore a collar and was very sociable. She disappeared for about three days once and came home looking very well-fed and wearing a completely different collar. We bought her another collar and a few weeks later, the same thing happened. And then it happened again. Over the next few months, we got through a lot of collars and each time, she’d come home from one of her wanderings wearing a different one. Eventually, she vanished completely and despite us putting up posters and searching and asking neighbours, she never came home. I don’t think anything happened to her – I believe she chose her second home over ours. Perhaps they moved away and took her with them. Perhaps she just preferred the food they gave her!

  •    What are three character traits that you like about Hanna? Why?

              I like her strength and determination – she went off the rails as a teenager and has really turned her life around since. She fought her demons and won and is determined not to let herself be dragged down again. I also like her sass and bolshiness! I’m far more reserved and shy away from confrontation, so I admire her confidence!

  •    I love how you mention that you realized that you wanted your characters to kill each other, not kiss each other šŸ˜Š What do you love about writing thrillers and mysteries that keeps you coming back for more?

            I started out writing women’s fiction, character driven fiction that was all about the lead up to the happy-ever-after. But the more I wrote, the more I became fascinated by the darker side of my characters. Relationships – whether romantic or familial – are at the heart of my writing and for me, a psychological thriller is the flip side of a romance novel; it’s what happens after the happy-ever-after moment, how a relationship breaks down, how a friendship can spiral into paranoia and obsession… that’s what fascinates me as a writer. In real life, I’d much prefer the happy-ever-after.

 

 

                                                INNER CHILD SEGMENT

  •      What is your favorite tea? How do you like to make it?

               I drink a lot of coffee in the mornings, but in the evening, I prefer a cup of green tea, made simply with boiling water and teabag in a favourite mug!

  •     What’s something mysterious and suspenseful that excites you, and that most wouldn’t know about you?
              In common with many crime writers, I like to think I’m a very nice person in real life, who has never committed a crime and does not live a dark and tortured life! I’ve had many people who know me in real life express surprise at some of the dark turns my fiction takes…

  •   What are a few things that you love about living by the sea in South Wales?
            Living by the sea in the summer months is wonderful – ice cream at the beach, sunbathing on the sand, the buzz, the excitement… but mostly, I love living by the sea out of season. The beaches are quieter but just as beautiful. I can walk the coastal paths with my dog for hours without meeting another person and it’s like my own private paradise. But, there can also be something eerie about a seaside town in winter, and the lonely, windswept beaches, with the mist creeping in from the sea have inspired the fictional settings for all of my books…

  •   What’s the oddest food combo that you’ve liked and tried, or just tried?

            One Christmas, a friend persuaded me to try a slice of fruitcake with a chunk of blue cheese on top. I’m not sure it’s an experience I’ll repeat!

  •  What advice can you share with our readers about living a joyful life?

          Appreciate the little things that make every day joyful. I think living through a global pandemic taught many people this – to take the opportunity to reconnect with family and enjoy the smaller moments. Don’t spend too much time regretting mistakes you’ve made – learn and move on. Don’t spend your life constantly looking forward to the big things, or wishing you had more money, were more successful or more anything – appreciate what you have.


       Thank you so much for being with us, Vanessa. Congratulations again on the release of THE NIGHT THEY VANISHED!! It’s been an absolute pleasure getting to know you.

 

 

 

 

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