Anna Willett – Nightmare Thrillers

Anna Willet writes nightmare thrillers it’s best not to read before bed – and that’s the way her readers love them. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in todays Binge Reading episode Anna talks about facing her worst fears in her nail biting books and the traumatic experience as a teen that has colored her work. Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: The draw of psychological thrillersOn being an Australian thriller writerThe challenge of giving her characters a hard timeWestern Australia - one of the world's best kept secretsThe writers she admires mostWhat she'd do differently second time around Where to find Anna Willet:  Website: https://www.annawillett.info/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Anna-Willett-1732961043643247/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/AnnaWauthor/ What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. Jenny: Hello, Anna and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us. Anna: Thank you Jenny. It's a pleasure to be here. Anna Willett - Australian thriller author Jenny: I always start with a predictable question, but I do know it's one that readers like to have the answer to. Was there a 'Once Upon a Time' moment that catapulted you into writing fiction.  And if so, what was the catalyst? A life long dream realised Anna: I don't think there was any one catalyst, but I'm always wanted to write. Even as a child, I would write short stories. But then marriage and studying and having children and working eclipsed all of those ideas for many years. And so it wasn't until my daughters were older and I had time to actually consider what is it that I want to do, that I decided to take writing seriously and I started writing short stories. Cold Valley Nightmare - the second in the Lucy Hush thriller series by Anna Willett  And then about six years ago I started writing my first novel. Jenny: Fantastic, so now you've got to nine suspense thrillers that have described as real nail biters - the sort of thing that they advise "be sure to leave the lights on" and I can vouch for that . What attracted you to that particular niche of genre  - the psychological thriller? Anna: That genre has always appealed to me.  I don't really know what that says about my personality, but I do enjoy being able to examine the character's emotional state. I feel it's a meaty genre for me because I've always been interested in what motivates people in terms of their behavior. The 'fun' in being crazy scared So it's fascinating for me to write psychological thrillers. They allow you to dig into unstable emotions in a character and I feel like when I'm doing a good job with that I can create a sense of fear and paranoia and claustrophobia in my reader and it sounds crazy, but for me, that's kind of the fun of the psychological thriller. Jenny: Yes, and I'm sure it is for the readers, the ones who like those sorts of stories. They really enjoy having themselves scared out of their socks don't they? Anna: Yes, yes, and as a reader, that's what I enjoy when I'm reading these types of books. And so I want to write the sort of things that I know I would like to read. Jenny: Yes.