BLOG TOUR ~ Saving Sophie by Sam Carrington

Hi Everyone,

Today is my stop on the Blog Tour for Saving Sophie which is Sam's debut novel. I am thrilled be taking part in this wonderful Blog Tour and delighted to welcome author Sam to my blog with a guest post about how her job had an influence on her writing from her and a BIG thanks to Helena Sheffield from Harper Collins/Avon for allowing me this opportunity to take part with some other fab book bloggers too. You can find out who else is taking part in this fabulous Blog Tour below.

So without further ado, here it is............

When I settled on the topic and themes that would become Saving Sophie, I put aside (safely, in a notebook) the heaps of other ideas for novels that were floating around in my head. I think, as a writer, you look out for inspiration in all sorts of places: a snippet of overheard conversation, a news article tucked away at the bottom of a column, a Facebook post or Tweet – they can all become ideal starting points for building a plot for a novel.

So I have plenty of options of where to pick up a great idea.

But on top of these sources, I am also able to draw on my real-life experiences from when I worked with offenders in a male prison. Far more than merely gaining an insight into prison life, I got first-hand experience of the criminal mind. I found the job – facilitating offending behaviour programmes – to be the most fascinating, sometimes frustrating, often rewarding job I’d had. Working in both one-to-one and group environments with individuals whose offences varied from minor and drug-related crimes to rape and murder, was often challenging. Because I had access to the details of crimes, and heard men talk openly about them, it meant that my mind was often filled with some pretty horrific stuff.

What do you do with all of that?

Sometimes I’d come home and find it impossible to switch off. I even lost my love of reading crime and thriller novels for a while – disquieting thoughts would intrude while trying to read the passages and I’d find myself reading the same line over and over, finally giving up. Some crimes in particular were harder to get out of my mind than others.

Now I have left the service, though, those experiences have come in handy for my novel writing. I wouldn’t ever write about a real offender of course, but from a personal perspective I feel I can more easily draw on the emotions I felt when working with them and listening to them speak about their crime and their victims. In addition, I think I’m able to portray the darker characters and situations that I write about in a more informed way, hopefully giving a feeling of authenticity.

I have plenty more villainous activity and twisted minds in store for future books. In my next novel, I’ll be introducing forensic psychologist, Connie Summers, whose life is about to get very complicated when she’s linked to the murder of a prisoner…