Murder and Mayhem with Michelle Somers

Michelle Somers writes murder and mayhem mixed in with a love story. Valerie Parv Award recipient and member of the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild, Michelle shares her experience writing romantic suspense.

Jump onto my website: https://www.sarahwilliamsauthor.com and join my mailing list to receive a free preview of my book and lots of other inspiration.

If you like what you see you can become a patron for just a couple of dollars a month. You will also have access to bonus episodes and insider information. Go to http://www.patreon.com/Sarahwilliamsauthor

Transcript:

Sarah Williams:            Welcome to Write with Love. I’m Sarah Williams, best-selling author, speaker, and creative entrepreneur. Each week, I chat to passionate and inspiring authors about their journey in creative writing. Some are traditionally published. Some do it themselves. Everyone’s journey is different, and everyone has something interesting to say. We all love love and love what we do. Today’s show is brought to you by our amazing fans and supporters on Patreon. If you’d like to help support the show and get some awesome bonus episodes, go to patreon.com/sarahwilliamsauthor to learn more. Now here’s today’s show.

Sarah Williams:            Good day. I’m Sarah Williams, romance author and independent publisher at Serenade Publishing. Today, I’m chatting to professional killer and matchmaker, Michelle Somers. Thanks for joining me, Michelle.

Michelle Somers:         Hi, Sarah. How are you?

Sarah Williams:            Good, thank you. Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your author journey?

Michelle Somers:         I can. I’m an ex-Kiwi, now Aussie. I’m a mother of three boys. I am a romance-aholic, a chocoholic, crime show addict, so many things. Look, I’ve always loved romance. I’ve always loved reading romance. I always toyed with the idea of writing, but it’s so funny, one of things that a lot people say, I never thought I could actually do it. I liked the idea of it, but I thought, “No, it’s going to be too hard. No, I’ll never be good enough so I won’t try.” It’s really funny because when my third child went to kinder, after many, many years of just toying with the idea, I suddenly thought, “You know what, if I can’t do this and show my kids that if there’s something that they really want they should actually go out and get it, if I can’t actually do that, then how can I actually tell my kids to do the same thing?” That’s exactly what I did. I grabbed a computer and I started typing.

Michelle Somers:         I wrote my first book in six weeks. It was a shocker. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had no clue. I did everything wrong. But I had finished a book. It would never be published, but that’s okay. I started writing my next one. I don’t know. I think we’ve all got to start somewhere and we all have a different journey. I think if anything, if there’s anything that I’ve really got out of this experience is that, you know what, if it’s something you really want to do just do it. Don’t worry about what people think. Don’t worry about how you might go, whether you’ll be good enough. At the end of the day, if it’s something you want, then you can’t really go through life and have those regrets and say, “I wish I could have. I wish I did.” Better to do and succeed than not do and never know.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah, that’s [crosstalk 00:03:15]-

Michelle Somers:         That’s my story.

Sarah Williams:            There’s a lot of authors or people even out there who say, “I’m going to one day. One day I will do it.” There’s this huge achievement just to finish a novel, let alone then publish and write another one and another one and another one and keep going. Yeah, it’s definitely an achievement. I was the same as you. I had to wait until I’d finished my kids. I was going through that what am I going to do now stage. Totally understandable.

Michelle Somers:         Totally, totally. We all have those stories where it’s like we think are we going to be good enough, what will people think, what will they say. It’s that whole thing of romance. People have this idea of romance and what it is. They don’t realize how much we all want it in our lives and how important it is to us to actually find somebody and fall in love. If we can read about that or write about it and I guess bring some happiness into other people’s lives by doing that, then that’s always a fun thing to be a part of.

Sarah Williams:            Absolutely.

Michelle Somers:         Yes.

Sarah Williams:            Brilliant. You write romantic suspense. Tell us about your books.

Michelle Somers:         My books. My husband says that I find two unlucky people, make them fall in love, and kill a few people along the way, but there’s always a happy ending. That’s how my husband explains what I actually do. I love romance, but I also love the crime aspect and the suspense. I’m fascinated with serial killers, which is kind of a bit of strange thing to be fascinated with, but I love the psychology behind why people do what they do and what makes somebody turn towards killing, whereas somebody else from that very same kind of background doesn’t. For me, exploring that in my books, as well as the romance aspect, because I do love a happy ending, is always a lot of fun. Do you want me to continue …

Sarah Williams:            Yeah.

Michelle Somers:         … rattling?

Sarah Williams:            Yeah, keep going.

Michelle Somers:         My first book, Lethal in Love, was written after I had tried to write five novels. This was my sixth attempt at being published. Every single one of my novels was a straight contemporary romance, no suspense. I had these little bits of suspense kind of creeping in, but I kept on ignoring it. Finally, one day, I turned around and I was like, “You know what, I actually need to write what my subconscious is telling me to write.” I started writing this book. It was about a detective, a homicide detective, and a reporter. Something happened, I don’t know. It just flowed. It worked. I started entering competitions. I started finaling, which was really amazing. I thought, “You know what, I’m actually onto something here.” Lethal in Love was born. It was an amazing revelation for me.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah.

Michelle Somers:         In terms of my journey.

Sarah Williams:            I remember that when that one came out, and it came out a lot of shorter kind of like a serial.

Michelle Somers:         It was, yeah. Six part serial.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah. Now, you can buy it and it’s the complete volume.

Michelle Somers:         Yes. Yes.

Sarah Williams:            Extraordinary-

Michelle Somers:         Sorry. It was the same thing actually. I went to a Romance Writers of Australia conference and I actually pitched my book to four people, two agents, two editors. I was lucky enough to get four requests, so I sent my book off to four people. One of them was [Lex 00:07:12] Hurst from Penguin Randomhouse. As soon as she got it, actually, she wrote back and said, “I can’t wait to read this.” It was a partial, so within 24 hours she got back to me and she’s like, “Oh my God, I’ve read what you sent me. Send me the whole lot. I need to read it.” I was like, “Wow.” I did. She came back to me in a week later. She said, “Look, I’ve got a proposal for you. We’re looking at trialing a new line. It’s a serial. We’d like to have your book as the first of that particular line.” That’s what they did. They posed the idea. I thought it sounded like a really cool, interesting idea, so I went with it.

Sarah Williams:            Excellent.

Michelle Somers:         That was my publishing story.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah. You’ve continued to be published by Penguin or have you jumped ship?

Michelle Somers:         No. Yes, there was a lot of changes in Penguin. Lex has since gone. It was Penguin Randomhouse. They merged, and then there was a lot of stuff happening behind the scenes. When I finished my second book, I sent it to them. I hadn’t heard anything for quite a while, so my second book, Murder Most Unusual. When I contacted Lex, she said, “Look, there’s so much happening at the moment. We’re not taking on any books. If you were keen, you can wait and see what happens,” but she was leaving and she was moving across. I thought, “You know what, I actually would like to see how I’d go at self-publishing.” I thought it would be an interesting thing to have one book with Penguin, one book self-published, and see how I’d go with actually controlling the whole process. It was actually quite exciting to me because I totally love my cover of my book. I don’t think I would have had as much control with Penguin running the show than I would have had myself. Should I show you my cover?

Sarah Williams:            Yes, please. I was just going to ask.

Michelle Somers:         There, if you can see that. That’s my cover. Isn’t that amazing?

Sarah Williams:            It is beautiful, wow.

Michelle Somers:         Murder Most Unusual. That’s my second in my Melbourne Murder series.

Sarah Williams:            Excellent. Melbourne, they’re all based in Melbourne?

Michelle Somers:         They’re all based in Melbourne. I decided there because it’s a place I know and love. Yeah, it just came to me. The idea just came to me. This one was quite fun to write, too. I had some really quirky characters.

Sarah Williams:            Brilliant. You’re a Melbournian anyway. How was that, writing about the city you live in? You must be envisioning murders happening on every street corner.

Michelle Somers:         I do. I do. Don’t we all? I don’t know. I think, as writers, we always imagine things happening, whether they be murders or romance or something in relation to our books. I often find myself thinking, “Oh, okay,” looking at couple there, “What if?” Or I’ll see somebody driving past [inaudible 00:10:13] and there’s somebody in the backseat and they’re not looking as happy as they could look, and I’m thinking, “Okay, what’s their story? What could I turn that into?” There’s always a story everywhere. It just depends on how deep you dig.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah. What is the storyline behind Murder Most Unusual?

Michelle Somers:         Murder Most Unusual, okay, I’ll tell you how it came to me and then you’ll understand what it’s about. It actually came to me as a scene. I have a picture of this woman out in the middle of a field in the dark. It’s been raining solid for a couple of weeks. This is the first week of no rain. She is struggling with something in the mud. I had no idea what it was. I started thinking, “What is she actually doing out there in the middle of the dark, quite secretly, and struggling with something?” That’s the idea I came up with, this romantic suspense author who believes that before she writes a murder she has to commit it. She doesn’t believe in killing people, so she has a mannequin called Ronaldo. Ronaldo actually goes with her on these trips where she actually will kill him over and over again to make sure that her murder scenes make sense. That’s Stacy. Of course, when you have a homicide detective who’s wanting to solve homicides, and there are some homicides that are very similar to the murders in her books, it makes for a very interesting story. That’s kind of the story behind Murder Most Unusual.

Sarah Williams:            It does sound great.

Michelle Somers:         It was fun.

Sarah Williams:            Excellent. You’ve been involved, you were saying before, with the Romance Writers of Australia for a few years. Have long have you been part of that association?

Michelle Somers:         Wow. I would say for the past six or seven years.

Sarah Williams:            Excellent.

Michelle Somers:         I actually remember when I joined. It must be six or seven years. About as long as my writing journey.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah. You’ve entered lots of competitions and you’ve done quite well on a few.

Michelle Somers:         Yes. Yeah. I think I’ve been very lucky with the judges have liked my stories. That’s always a bonus. I have been, both in Melbourne, sorry, in Australia, and in America, as well. I’ve also finaled in a few competitions over there, which was really nice. Yes.

Sarah Williams:            I was talking to Valerie Parv last year, because she knows you very well because you won the Valerie Parv Award, that would have been about three years ago. Am I right?

Michelle Somers:         Four years ago, I think.

Sarah Williams:            Four years?

Michelle Somers:         Was it 2013, I think?

Sarah Williams:            Yeah. Tell us about the experience, winning the Valerie Parv and how that experience worked for you working with Valerie.

Michelle Somers:         It was amazing. Valerie is amazing. She is an incredibly, a beautiful lady and so giving and open with her experience and her knowledge. It was really funny, actually. When I first started writing and I decided that romance was going to be my genre, I had a look at what was out there in terms of development. One of the things I had in my vision was I need to win the Valerie Parv competition to be able to actually write the way I want to write. I want to write well. I had it in my sights. I had actually met an ex-Valerie Parv winner, Anna Cowan. She raved about Valerie. That was another thing. I was like, “Okay, I need Valerie.”

Michelle Somers:         That’s when I started entering the competitions. I entered a couple of years in a row and not really got anywhere very fast with different books. Then Lethal in Love came along, and that’s when I entered Lethal in Love and was lucky enough that the judges marked it very highly. I finaled, and then Valerie read it and she enjoyed it. She decided to choose me, which was wonderful because it was such an experience. I would recommend that any new, emerging or aspiring author, writers who actually want to do well and to actually learn the craft to enter that competition. If you get Valerie, you get an amazing, just a mentor and a friend, as well. She’s now a friend. She’s very special.

Sarah Williams:            Valerie is just brilliant. Her books are spectacular. She did a great interview last year. At a workshop. I was living in [Townshall 00:15:06] at the time, and so she did a workshop for us out there. That was just a brilliant workshop. She’s a real asset to Australia and to the Romance Writers of Australia as well. That is definitely, probably the best award you can win through the RWA Australia.

Michelle Somers:         I totally agree. Totally.

Sarah Williams:            Brilliant. You’re still a member of the RWA. You’re still going to conferences, which is great. I always see you there.

Michelle Somers:         Yes.

Sarah Williams:            This year, or was it probably, yeah, this year, you started doing a blog for them as well. Tell us about that.

Michelle Somers:         Yes. My Simply Writing blog, when I first started writing, I tried to read as much as I possibly could and learn as much about the craft. One of the things I’ve discovered over the years is that there are so many things that we’ve got to remember as writers, the show don’t tell and the deep point of view and the this and the that. A lot of the time, we read these books and they’re quite complex. We come out almost more confused than we were when we went into reading them. My whole idea is simplifying these ideas and making them really accessible to newbie authors. I started an idea of Simply Writing. I actually wrote a book. I’m going to show you my book. My Simply Writing Simply Synopsis. Basically, what I wanted to do was take something that was really complex and that most writers and authors absolutely hate doing and put it into a format which actually becomes quite fun. It makes it so easy to do.

Michelle Somers:         That was the idea for my Simply Writing series. Then I suddenly thought, “Oh, what if I could actually do this on a monthly basis and take topics and simplify them for people, make them easy, so that writers can go away and actually practice the idea and actually build on that in terms of their writing?” That’s where the Simply Writing blogs came about.

Sarah Williams:            Excellent. You’ve got the one, Simply Synopsis, published. Are you going to have more in that series?

Michelle Somers:         I am. I’ve got a few plans actually. I’ve got ideas for another book called Simply Characters, where I’d like to break down the idea of how do we build up a character and how do we make three-dimensional, believe characters, and looking at it in a way that hasn’t been looked at before. I also want to … I’ve got an idea, also, on queries, blurbs, and pitches. I want to have a look at that and see how people can actually query and pitch their book and then write a blurb that’s going to engage readers to actually want to read their story. That’s another idea. I’m not sure which one. I’ve actually started both of them. I’m not sure which one is going to come out first now, but that will be something to look for in the future.

Sarah Williams:            Obviously, you like teaching and you like being able to share what you’ve learned with other authors. Do you do mentoring and workshops and those sorts of things, as well?

Michelle Somers:         I do. Up till the end of last year, I was actually mentoring somebody. I do do mentoring on a one-to-one type basis. I also love doing workshops. I’ve done a few workshops through the RWA and through my Melbourne Romance Writers’ Guild. I’ve done quite a few workshops there. I’m always open to workshops. I’ve done an [inaudible 00:18:56] last year through the RWA, the online workshops. Do you know what? I actually really enjoy sharing what I know. I think that’s one of the great things about it being the romance industry. We do share knowledge. That’s how I learned everything I’ve learned, through other, more experienced authors sharing their ideas and their knowledge and their wisdom with me. If I can do the same thing back, it’s that whole paying forward thing, isn’t it. I think we make the industry a better place by helping the others out there to become better writers.

Sarah Williams:            Absolutely. Yeah, no, that’s brilliant. Tell us about the Melbourne Romance Writers’ Guild.

Michelle Somers:         Melbourne Romance Writers’ Guild is an amazing group of women. I’ve actually been a member of them longer than I’ve been a member of RWA. I discovered them first, and they told me about RWA. When I first started writing, I didn’t actually realize there were any writing groups out there. I started writing by myself at my computer, not a clue. My husband went to a conference and he actually sat next to a gentleman, and they were talking about their wives and their partners. The guy said, “My partner writes.” My husband says, “Oh, my wife writes, too. What does your partner write?” “Romance.” “Oh, my wife writes romance, too.” “Oh, well, your wife must join the Melbourne Romance Writers’ Guild. They’re really …” that’s what it did.

Michelle Somers:         I’ve joined them ever since. We’re the largest face-to-face critique group in Australia. It’s affiliated with RWA. We have about 33 members at the moment and basically we’re a support group. We have a Facebook group, private Facebook group where we support each other, egg each other on, we have writing sprints, and just basically share knowledge and support. It’s incredible. I’m the treasurer of the group, which I love doing. I love being part of it and love helping newer authors who come in to succeed, I guess.

Sarah Williams:            I do know a few of the other members. It’s fantastic, because you’ll see somebody on Facebook who’ll go, “My friend Michelle just put on this book.” The social media share, which can be so great.

Michelle Somers:         Absolutely. They’re awesome. Beautiful. Good friends now, as well.

Sarah Williams:            No, that’s fantastic. What are you working on at the moment, Michelle?

Michelle Somers:         I’m working on, as I said, my non-fiction series, but I’m also working on two projects. One is a novella that’ll be coming out as part of a box set for the Melbourne Romance Writers’ Guild at the end of the year, a Christmas box set. That’s my bee story. No people lose their life in the story, but there are bee deaths, I’m sorry to say. It’s the whole suspense thing. My second thing that I’m working on at the moment is a romantic suspense set in Chicago. It’s James Bond meets Stephanie Plum, with a Quantum Leap twist.

Sarah Williams:            That’s great.

Michelle Somers:         Yes. That’s what I’m working on at the moment, too. It’s become bigger than Ben Hur. I’m looking at a series.

Sarah Williams:            Brilliant. Have you been to Chicago before or are you just researching?

Michelle Somers:         No. I’m researching. Google is a wonderful thing, and so is Facebook. In RWA, there are quite a few members who actually live in Chicago. I’ve had quite a few people help me with some of the geographical issues that I’ve had and answer questions about America and all sorts. That’s been really helpful. I like the idea of writing something set in America. It’s a bit of a challenge now.

Sarah Williams:            Definitely. Now that you’ve done the traditionally published route as well as the self-publishing route, what are you thinking for your future books? Are you going to continue to pitch or are you just going to do it yourself? Or maybe it’ll depend.

Michelle Somers:         I like the idea of both, actually. I like the idea of having control over some of my work, but also I would like the idea of pitching my Chicago series to a US publisher. That’s my thought. The novella will be self-published with my group. There will be other novellas and other stories that I will self-publish. I’d really like this series to go to a traditional publisher. It’ll be a bit of a mix.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah, fantastic. Any plans on going to Romance Writers of America conference any time soon?

Michelle Somers:         I would love to. It’s a little bit difficult at the moment. We’re building a house, so any holidays are on the back burner, but I would love to. I’ve looked at the RWA America conferences often and looked at what they offer. Their workshops and just meeting the authors over there would just be amazing. It’s definitely in the future. I just don’t know how far into the future.

Sarah Williams:            I know. We’ve started a Romance Writers of Australia who are going to America 2019, when it’s in New York, for that conference. I reckon there’s probably 30 or 40 of us already in this group all just sharing ideas on how much it’s going to cost and where they’ll stay and what they’ll do while they’re there. We’re all trying to work out if we should do workshops and pitch and all sorts of things.

Michelle Somers:         Wow.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah, it’ll be interesting.

Michelle Somers:         That’s exciting.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah. Aussies take over New York City. Stay tuned.

Michelle Somers:         Watch out, New York.

Sarah Williams:            Between us and the Kiwis, it’ll be intense.

Michelle Somers:         That’ll be awesome. I think if you’re going in a group, as well, being able to share accommodation and have that network, it’ll be so good. You’ll be able to share costs. It’ll make such a difference.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah, that’s it. Excellent. Where can we find you online, Michelle?

Michelle Somers:         I’m everywhere, man. Facebook, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest. I’m on YouTube. If you go to my website, it’s www.michelle-somers.com, you can find all the links there. Obviously, my books are on Amazon, iTunes, [Kobo 00:25:56]. Everywhere, everywhere. Although, actually, at the moment, Murder Most Unusual is on Kindle Unlimited for a limited time. Anybody who’s on Kindle Unlimited can pick that up for free. I think that’s all. That’s the best place to get me, on my website. I do have a newsletter that I send out once in a while. It’s not a regular thing. I send it out when I have news. I don’t spam people. If they would like to go to my website, you can actually sign up for that. That’s quite fun. I normally put some interesting content in there, as well as some news on myself.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah, I think you give away a little free short story or something as well when you sign up?

Michelle Somers:         I do. Cold Case for the Heart is my short story. You get that free with any signup. That gives you a taste of my writing, to see whether it’s something you actually like before you commit.

Sarah Williams:            That’s it. Absolutely brilliant. Cool. Thank you so much for chatting to me today. I really appreciate it.

Michelle Somers:         Thank you, Sarah. I’ve had fun. It was good.

Sarah Williams:            Good. Thanks for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed the show. Jump onto my website, sarahwilliamsauthor.com and join my mailing list to receive a free preview of my books and lots of inspiration. If you like the show and want it to continue, you can become a sponsor for just a couple of dollars a month. Go to patreon.com/sarahwilliamsauthor to find out more. Remember to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and leave a review of the podcast. I’ll be back next week with another loved up episode. Bye.