Stephen Havard
What made you decide to become a writer?
Writing a book had also been something I’d always wanted to do, but like most things that passion had been put on the backburner with work and family life taking precedence. Then in March 2020 lockdown happened, and my life, along with the rest of the country changed completely. I was ‘working from home’ permanently and my daily commute of over 2 hours had suddenly disappeared. Despite the awful circumstances of the pandemic and lockdown, I sensed this was an opportunity to follow that dream of writing a novel.
How do you decide your plots? Are they taken from events that have happened to you? Do you base your characters on real people – or do you prefer to be fully creative and make them up?
Whilst the yearning to write a novel had always been strong inside me, what to write about was another reason why I’d never gone for it. Yet during those first few weeks of lockdown the idea of my debut novel locked into place, and it was an idea that was staring me in the face all along if I’m being honest now. Why not write about my other great passion, that of quizzing! And that’s what I did over the next seven months as ‘The Duel’ took shape.
It incorporated the world of quizzing, which I knew well after appearing on numerous TV quiz shows such as ‘The Chase, Pointless and Eggheads. It meant I could hit the ground running as I didn’t need to do extensive research of the subject matter.
‘The Duel’ was self-published in November 2020 and has been well received by readers that have bought it. It’s a story I’m very pleased to have told at last and hope it may lead to a full-time writing career eventually (fingers crossed).
How many books have you written and/or published, and which is your favourite? Why?
I’ve published 2 books so far, a full-length novel and a novella, with a third currently in progress. The 3 books are all interlinked around the same overarching story that started in ‘The Duel’. My favourite has to be that first book as that was where the story and characters were first portrayed and when this crazy and exciting journey that I find myself on started.
Is writing therapeutic for you, or does it cause you to stress out?
Since publishing my first novel in 2020, I’ve found the writing process a great way to relax from everyday life as I immerse myself in the story and characters I’m creating. As someone who also suffers with my mental health, I’ve also found that writing is an outlet for me to destress after work or at times when I’m feeling low. Writing and quizzing are my main passions, and both help me relax, the latter also helping make me a more confident person.
Would you write any genre, or do you stick to one?
I generally like to read crime thrillers, and this is the genre I’ve naturally found myself writing in. I’m also finding that all my books so far involve the world of quizzing in some way so aiming to move away from that with my next one. A new detective series is in my mind so watch this space!
How many hours a day or week would you say you spend writing? Is it a potential career for you, is it something you do outside your day job?
Unfortunately, I have to write around my day job which means a fairly haphazard pattern to the process. The dream is to one day leave the world of IT behind me and become a full-time author. It’s a dream I’m determined to achieve.
How do you market your books?
Social media is my main avenue of marketing my books, with X (still preferred Twitter as a name) being my main focus of targeting readers to my work. I’ve also done a couple of radio interviews and had an article in two local newspapers as I’ve tried to diversify my marketing approach as much as possible.
Tell me why you market them this way – how it helps. Would you be open to help when it comes to marketing and promoting your work?
I’ve used social media as it seemed the best way to target my work to a wider audience and also to connect with authors from around the world. I must admit I do find social media quite a tough nut to crack though, and sales have dried up after initial success. I know this lack of success is down to me as I don’t tweet regularly enough to grow my followers or keep engaged the followers I already have. It’s something I know I need to do better at this if I’m going to grow my sales in a meaningful way.
How do you react to reviews? Would you prefer just good ones or are you okay to receive a bad one occasionally? How does this make you feel?
I find constructive criticism welcome as I feel it improves me as an author but what I can’t abide are negative and nasty reviews from trolls. I’ve had a couple from the same individual where its pretty clear they haven’t read the book and have just decided to be cruel and vindictive for the sake of it. I must admit these types of review do make me sad and angry.
