Martina Cole

"My name’s Martina Cole and I’m a crime author.  About two years ago I moved over to Kent because I found the house of my dreams. I think most people look all their lives for a house that they really want to live in and I found mine here. It’s a very old mediaeval place and this library here where I am now
really gave me a really great feeling when I came in here and it’s somewhere that I felt that I could work.  

This room contains so much of the things that I really really love, I mean I collect first editions so there are obviously a lot of first editions on the shelf. A lot of the books obviously are research books, so in between you know you might, I’ve got a first edition Rebecca and I’ve also got The A-Z of Serial Killers.  So it’s quite an eclectic mix of books.

This has also got photographs here of people that I love and care about. I’ve got my parents on my desk, a very old photo of my parents. I lost them when I was very very young. There’s an ormolu clock here that I bought in Ireland in one of the oldest clock shops in the world in Cork.

There’s a dried plant that is just so ugly but I had to buy it. So most of the things in this room are probably quite whacky, but then I think I’m a bit whacky deep down as well.

I think for me what I love most about this room is that every individual thing in here is something that is very close to me and something that I care about so for me when I’m sitting writing that’s very important that I’m somewhere where I feel really comfortable.

I work through the night, about 10 o’clock at night when everybody else is getting ready to go to bed, I put on a huge pot of coffee and I just sit down and then I start to work.  I think during the night I can think better about you know how I’m going to create the characters, what they’re going to do and what’s
going to happen to them. This house is actually haunted, so it probably would have been a lot better for me if I’d have been a horror writer of some description. But I think for me the time to be alone and the time just to sit and think without any any distractions, no phones, the night just works for me.

During the day I tend to work more on the television side of stuff, or probably more on the research if I have to meet people or find something out. And as you can imagine I’ve met some strange people over the years when I’m researching.  

Most authors get you know if someone helps them with research, most authors get ooh can you put me in the front of your book?  I tend to get don’t you dare tell anyone that I’d spoke to you or who my name is or where I am.

The books take about a year from you know the initial idea with the research through to actual writing it.  I do four or five drafts on mine, I write really really quickly. The last draft especially I will write within a month.  

All my friends and family know that when I’m on the last draft it’s really pointless trying to get in touch with me because I just don’t stop until it’s finished.

When I was a girl and I was at school I used to lay in my bed and I used to day dream that I was a writer.  It was something that I always wanted to be. I didn’t think that I’d achieve my objective, because I didn’t think I had the right background or environment. So to achieve what I’ve achieved over the years,
I never dreamed in a million years that the books would become as big and as powerful as they are. But I always say to people you know, if you don’t give it a try you’ll never know will you?"