Welcome Natalie Grace Lewis to Bookmarks and Stages.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to do a Q&A style interview with you as part of the Random T. Tours blog tours, who I thank for the opportunity. Please note, I am unpaid and did not receive anything for this interview, except access to the author, who graciously answered the questions with very interesting, illuminating answers.
Natalie Grace Lewis is a British author of contemporary gothic fiction. Her work combines haunting settings, family secrets, and supernatural elements to explore memory, loss, and the stories we inherit. She is drawn to historic cemeteries, ruined churches, identity, forgotten pasts, the relationship between memory and truth. She also likes visiting old bookshops.
Her debut novel is The Hollow Garden, set within a decaying Victorian graveyard, where old tragedies refuse to remain at rest.
We discussed all of this, including the attraction to the gothic/horror genre, including that 90’s Point Horror series, fragmented memories and the fascination of secrets hidden or contained in mausoleums and gravestones and more…
Check out the intriguing cover that would look mysterious on anyone’s bookshelf and then let’s begin the interview.
1. Who or what inspired you to write books?
There is no particular author that inspired me to write; the habit of writing came from needing to get the stories I’d made out of my head. I am fascinated by the choices we do not make and the roads we could have travelled. Creating a narrative is my way of experiencing those lost decisions and sharing them with others.
There is also something special about writing; in that whatever a person reads, they experience the story differently in their imaginations. That inspired me to write rather than draw or film my stories, so a reader can make the story their own. I’m the kind of person who won’t watch a film based on a book if the actor or location doesn’t meet with the expectations in my head…
2. The Hollow Garden is Gothic/Horror, what attracts you to this genre?
I grew up reading the Goosebumps and Point Horror books and for a long time, I was obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I couldn’t relate to the supernatural elements of the stories, but often those same elements were metaphors for experiencing life.
There is something comforting and enticing about darkness, a person can never really know what’s within. Gothic / Horror takes me through a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions that I haven’t experienced in other genres.
3. Kyra is haunted by fragmented memories of her friend, Eleanor’s death. What research or how did you go about creating a world where this occurs to ensure it was someway grounded and feel real?
Our minds can go to some dark places when we experience loss and what we see and feel is often not reliable. At the same time, those experiences and emotions inform how we understand and live our lives. Whilst I haven’t experienced Kyra’s trauma, I was able to draw on my own experiences of loss and the guilt of what should have been done or said in someone’s final moments.
4 There are secrets hidden behind graves and mausoleums. What fascinates you most about these places?
As part of my undergraduate degree, I studied landscape history and I really enjoyed visiting graveyards as part of my studies. This continued when I finished university, and I love a trip to London to wander around Abney or Highgate.
The monuments in these places give the modern world names and dates, but nothing about the past lives lived or the loved ones left behind. At the point of burial, there would have been an outpouring of grief and love and the marble headstones and ornate mausoleums were built to last. Yet, decades later, nature takes back the plot and the stone, and the family has long moved on. It’s this juxtaposition of history, nature and emotion that I find fascinating.
5. Kyra is forced to confront the tragedy. That feels quite big, emotionally, did you feel any part of what she feels, if so, how did you deal with that in-terms of self care?
As adults, we are all forced to deal with the remains of the past. For me personally, Kyra’s story became an outlet for grief that I couldn’t express. The Hollow Garden has existed within my head [and many battered note books] for twenty years, but only through experiencing grief, did the story take its proper shape. After writing dense or emotional scenes, I take long baths or quiet walks – usually in a graveyard near to my house – to help my creative brain rest. I recently found that bus and train journeys, with no book or music, are just as good for a mental reset.
