Was there a part/chapter of the story that you enjoyed writing more, can you tell us why?
My favourite chapter in Dead Men Lie is actually the most gruesome. I will not divulge too much of the plot line but suffice to say it involves a belligerent priest and a smithy’s furnace. I came upon this punishment one day when researching the Knights Templar. There I discovered the origins of the Friday the 13th myth and a Popes delight at the judicious use of torture. To influence a confession they used liberal amounts of goose fat smeared upon the legs then slowly roasted the legs over a fire. I just had to make Bayles suffer something similar.
There are probably some authors who would love to cause controversy and get banned! Can you tell us about your unintentional experience and how it affected you?
I never courted controversy it came looking for me quiet unexpectedly. Dead Men Lie was born from a small piece of family history which I embellished. Along with a question of how would a woman of substance be treated in the 1700’s if she were raped by a family member. Now I do not condone such actions nor have I glorified the attack, but without reading my book, and without discovering the outcome, certain employees of our town council decided that my book infringed their moral code. They said Dead Men Lie crossed some moral line and the people of my home town were not responsible enough to read a work of fiction because of this story line. I mean, I feel sorry for anyone who has suffered such an attack and as I said I do not glorify such matters but this is set in 1771, it happened, it was a fact of life then. If we used the same set of standards Charles Dickens ‘Oliver’ should be banned because of the child abuse aspect but that is classed as a classic my little story offensive can anyone see the difference?