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Meet the Author: Tom Batt #BookSpotlight #StreetSiren
Today I am delighted to welcome author, Tom Batt to Books, Life and Everything to talk about his writing life and his latest novella, a revenge thriller, Street Siren.
Welcome to Books, Life and Everything, Tom.
Would you like to start by telling us a little about yourself and how you started as a writer?
I’m 34 years old and have been writing since I was fourteen. I started writing screenplays, shorts and features, getting several produced as short films and finding success in competitions. During the pandemic, I was obviously spending a lot of time at home and so tried my hand at writing short stories. By 2021 I had a collection of around twenty. My attempts to get them published failed, so I decided to put together the best ones and self-publish them as a book. Old Wounds: A Nick Shelby Case and Other Crime Stories received positive reviews and encouraged me to keep writing. I published a second collection of short stories only as an ebook called MindSpaces and then followed it with the novella Street Siren.
Tell us about your latest book without giving the plot away.
Street Siren is about a young prostitute, Devlin whose lover, Roxy is brutally murdered for the purpose of a snuff film. The police are stumped for leads, but Devlin finds a connection between the snuff film and an adult film studio through a chance encounter. She suspects those responsible can be found there and decides to go undercover as an actress to track them down and exact her revenge one by one using her skills of seduction to lure them. It’s a dark tale of retribution set in a seedy 1980s London.
What are your writing routines and where do you do most of your writing?
I used to write in the mornings but soon found my brain doesn’t kick in until the afternoon and so I switched up my routine and now write later in the day. Most of my writing is done in my spare room which acts as an office, but sometimes I require a change of scenery and switch between the sofa in the living room or the dining table. I’m amazed by people who write in public places. I couldn’t as I’d be distracted by everyone and everything.
Which aspects of your writing do you find easiest and most difficult?
The easiest part of writing is the ideas stage. When you’re first building the characters and plot structure there is so much freedom you feel anything is possible for your story. The most difficult for me is the first draft as that can be the moment you realise certain plot points don’t work or you need to explain something better. When things are locked in one change can create a domino effect and disrupt something later in the story which can be incredibly frustrating.
Do you have any guilty pleasures which stop/help you write?
Video games are a guilty pleasure that can both stop and help me write. When I play video games I’m always thinking I could be spending this time writing. However, when my brain is focused on another task such as playing a game it seems to free up my mind and I’m able to think more clearly about my writing and solve problems. On top of that, video game storytelling is at such a high level now it can be a big inspiration.
Can you give any hints about any upcoming books you have planned?
I have another novella waiting in the wings to be released. It’s another crime thriller, this time set in modern-day London and revolves around bank robbers and the flying squad detectives trying to stop them. I’ve also started working on my first novel, taking place in 1940s Hollywood, but don’t want to say too much about the story yet. It’s an idea I’ve had since 2012, that I’ve been constantly reworking. However, I have no idea when that will be finished.
London, 1988
Young prostitute, Devlin Hunter is distraught when her best friend Roxy is found murdered, pushing her back into drug addiction. After a snuff film is uncovered depicting Roxy’s death by a masked killer, the police struggle for leads.
Devlin stumbles upon a connection between the snuff film and a local adult entertainment studio and infiltrates the company by going undercover as an actress. She tracks down those responsible and seduces each of them before exacting her brutal revenge.
However, the police are soon on her trail and it becomes a race against time to kill them before she is caught herself.
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