Blackout
Blackout is a story about a woman waking up in Paris with no idea how she got there, and no memories from the previous three days. She has no money, no passport, and no idea where her baby is. It’s a short novel - it’s 20,000 words long rather than the 100,000+ my novels usually are - and so easily read in an hour or so.
How did you become involved in the Quick Reads project?
I was delighted when Cathy Rentzenbrink, the director of Quick Reads, asked whether I would be interested in writing a book for the 2014 series. I was desperate to sign up for it, and immediately started thinking about a story I could tell in 20,000 words. I hugely support the work Quick Reads does, encouraging people who would not normally read for any number of reasons, to pick up a book. Because these books are so short, they are achievable to even the rustiest of readers, and with any luck will lead people to read more.
Please tell us about the inspiration behind the story.
I wanted the story to start with a bang - to throw the reader into a mystery (how did she get to Paris? Where is her baby? How can she get home?) and to take them with the character, Sophie, as she works out what has happened. She has to fight against all odds to get home, and as she rushes around Paris on a mission to get back to her baby, disturbing facts about her past come to light. My feeling was that, with a book this short, you need to grab the reader from the first page and pull them with you through to the end.
To what extent has journalism helped you to write your books?
One word: deadlines. A background in journalism has given me a healthy respect for a deadline. I love the energy that comes with writing towards a particular point in time, rather than for some open-ended future.
Journalism has probably also given me the ability just to start writing. There is no point sitting and staring at a blank screen. No one’s going to pay you for that.
You have travelled around the world, so which is your favorite place to travel to?
There are so many places I’d go back to if I could, but at the moment I would head straight to Svalbard in the Arctic Circle. I am writing a book set there, and I would love to go and experience this time of year, when the pitch-black polar winter starts to lift and the sun comes up after months of darkness. It would be magical and if I could I would be there like a shot.
How did you come to write travel pieces for The Observer and The Guardian?
I had a job at the Guardian, working on the Diary column, but I knew my heart was not really in journalism. I loved working there, but I never harboured ambitions to be a reporter. One day a colleague announced that he was off to Scotland to write a novel, and I had a sudden realisation that if I wanted something new and exciting to happen to me, I had to make it happen. I emailed the travel editor then and there and asked whether I could go travelling for a year and write a column for her (fully expecting her to say ‘of course you can’t’). She immediately agreed, and so I was off around the world on my own, writing about the trip as I went.
Why did you decide to settle in France for a while?
I’d worked there as an au pair in my youth, and moved there, really, on a whim, because of the portable nature of writing. It was a ridiculous whim really, when my two boys were two years old and newborn respectively. All the same it was a wonderful five years. The first couple of years were like an extended holiday, and then reality set in and suddenly we had all the same old problems and we were foreigners too. However, my daughter was born out there on Bastille Day in 2006, and I will never regret any of it.
Why have you decided that Cornwall is the place to be for you and your family?
We moved from France to Falmouth because some friends had moved down here, we came to visit, and I fell in love with the place immediately. I love having the sea nearby (though my children love it more as they are all keen and capable surfers, which baffles me), and I love the clean air and the Atlantic, with all its possibilities, right in front of me. I think this is a good place for them to grow up, though I am also careful to take them to London from time to time because I do want them to be able to use the Tube and cross busy roads.
What is next for you?
More writing! I have three books on the go at the moment - a novel, a Young Adults’ book, and a children’s book which is called Mice Heist and which is so far just being written for fun. I also have a yearning to write a thriller set on the International Date Line, where you can sail between days and create strange alibis. That would, of course, mean a research trip to the Pacific Islands, which would be a terrible sacrifice, but I would do it if I had to!
Emily Barr, Blackout
You wake up in a strange room, with no idea how you got there.
You are abroad, in a city you have never visited before.
You have no money, no passport, no phone.
And there is no sign of your baby.
What do you do?