She knows what’s best for her son, and it’s not you.
Eve has an idiosyncratic relationship with the truth, is a borderline psychopath (according to her psychologist friend Claire), and has a rather colourful past. But her heart is in the right place. Having recently met Gideon everything seems, at last, to be working out rather well for her. Then he introduces her to his mother. Marjorie clearly believes that she knows what’s best for her son, and it’s definitely not Eve.
Over the next few months Eve struggles as Marjorie seems hell-bent on undermining her relationship with Gideon at every opportunity. Then, a chance meeting with someone very close to Marjorie confirms Eve’s worst fears – there are literally no lengths to which Marjorie will not go to get Eve out of her son’s life. Using her own ingenuity, and with help from some very unexpected quarters, Eve finds herself caught up in a very high stakes game indeed, in which there can be only one winner.
What people are saying:
“So many secrets, so many characters involved, and Eve was playing them like marionettes! Great read.”
Scarlett Readz and Runz (Reviewer)
“There is so much going on in this book to keep the reader engaged. The characters are great. It is funny, fun, and just made me smile. I really enjoyed this book.”
Karen Whittard (Reviewer)
“This book was a nice surprise.”
Claire Sherman (Librarian)
“A hysterical read… Eve’s narrative digressions are pure enjoyment… will keep you in stitches. In-laws and Outlaws is the perfect diversion.”
Underrated Reads
“This was a fun read… there were many twists and turns.”
Winding Words
“Do yourself a favor and read this funny book.”
Goodreads
“A clever and well written book that I would highly receommend.”
Rachel Kennedy (Reviewer)
Purchase Links:
Amazon – UK / US
Author Interview:
1: Tell us a little about yourself and what got you in to writing?
I live in London, a city I love with a passion and can’t imagine ever wanting to leave. I have been a freelancer for many years, first of all in brand development and then as a copywriter. I really enjoyed freelancing as it gave me time to focus on writing in between contracts.
I’ve always loved writing. I realised I might have some skill when at primary school my stories were turned into ‘books’ by Mrs Greenhalgh, while a tutor at university told me that my writing skills were instrumental in getting me a degree, as I could make it appear that I knew much more about a subject than was often the case.
Then I met an Australian and for six months we lived on opposite sides of the world. Every week I wrote this Australian a letter. I loved writing these letters and the Australian loved reading them. When we were finally reunited* I realised that I wanted to keep writing, so I started writing fiction.
Now I write fiction full time, except on Mondays when I volunteer at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. If you call them on a Monday to make a donation it might be me you speak to.
*Reader, I married him.
2: Do you have a favourite time and place where you write?
I try to write to treat writing like a job, and so I aim to begin at around ten, break for lunch at one and then write again from two until about five. That makes it sound as if I’m very self disciplined, which is not true. Whoever said that the pram in the hallway was the enemy of art had clearly never come across the internet.
Where I write depends on the weather. On sunny days I follow the sun from room to room, and when it’s cold I sit by the fire. I don’t have a desk (it feels too ‘worky’) but sit in an armchair with my PC on my lap. I’ve never written in a cafe. They are too noisy, offer too many distractions, and the coffee is cheaper at home.
3: Where do your ideas come from?
Anywhere and everywhere. Sometimes an idea might develop from something that’s happened to me, but then I take that and bend and twist into a narrative that I hope will engage people, as real life stories don’t tend to offer up perfectly formed story arcs without quite a lot of help.
Other times an idea might come out of a more abstract conceptual or philosophical idea that grabs my interest. I’m currently finishing a book inspired by the idea of the multiverse. This posits that there are infinite universes out there in which infinite versions of each of us exist. What might happen, I wondered, if you could visit these other universes?
4: Do you have a plan in your head of where the story is going before you start writing or do you let it carry you along as you go?
I usually have an overarching idea of the whole story. I will know a few of the key points on the way that I need to get my characters to, and I generally know how the story will end. From there a story will unfold, often in ways that are a complete surprise to me. Our heads are stuffed full of experiences, ideas, and connections that we aren’t consciously aware of. The process of writing, or doing anything creative, brings things into awareness that we didn’t even realise were there. It’s an amazing process.
5: What genre are your books and what drew you to that genre?
I’m not sure I fall into a specific genre, although the best way to describe my writing might be contemporary women’s fiction. That doesn’t mean, though, that I write specifically for women. I hope that everyone can enjoy my stories. It is true though that my central characters, the ones that drive the story forward, are primarily women.
My heroines are intelligent, capable, resourceful women who solve their own problems. Romance might play a part in their stories, but it’s not the main driver. Women have an awful lot more other than romance and family concerns in their lives, and I don’t think enough stories reflect this. And funny, I can’t write serious novels, just can’t do it.
6: What dream cast would you like to see playing the characters in your latest book?
In-laws and Outlaws is written from the perspective of Eve, and as I wrote I kept hearing her speaking in Katherine Parkinson’s voice. She was in the IT Crowd on C4 and the first series of a comedy called Stop/Start on BBC R4. I think she is a brilliant comic actress. That’s as far as I got with casting I’m afraid!
7: Do you read much and if so who are your favourite authors?
I read all the time, but not always fiction. I love popular science books, and I’m fascinated by history. I’m never happier than when I learn something that gives me a new perspective on the world, but I like it when these books teach me things through people’s stories rather than by simply relating facts.
My first love is, however, fiction. To open a book and be immediately thrust into another, living breathing world, that seems as real as your own is as close to magic as it gets. I don’t have a favourite author, only books that have had a huge impact on me because they were so transformative and so immersive.
Some that come to mind include Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights trilogy, Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger, Wild Swans by Jung Chang, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke. In some cases it was the story that principally grabbed me, in others the writing, and in the very best it’s both. Where I read also has an impact on my feelings about a book. I can recall the experience of reading each of the books I listed almost as vividly as the book itself.
8: What book/s are you reading at present?
I recently went to Amsterdam and I’m now reading Amsterdam by Russell Shorto, an American ex pat who lives there. It’s a social and political history of the city in which Shorto uses a mixture of historical fact and vivid personal stories to describe the history of the city and how it became the liberal capital of the western world. Fascinating.
9: What is your favourite book and why?
Without a doubt it’s Pride and Prejudice. A feisty, opinionated heroine, a plot that works like a dream, and it’s funny! A masterclass in writing and one of the few books I can read over and over again and still be delighted by.
10: What advice would you give for someone thinking about becoming a writer?
First, write. I heard a composer say that the magic only happens when he is sitting at his piano, and I think that the same applies to writing. You simply have to sit down and get on with it. And don’t fill your head with other writers’ ideas about how you should work. Where, when and how you write is unique to you, there is no magic formula.
Second, edit. No one writes beautifully or totally coherently straight out of the blocks. Think of a book as Michelangelo thought of the marble that became David. You have to start somewhere, and you have to chip away at it for a good long time. A lot of what you write will be lost by the final edit, but if it isn’t there to edit, you’ve got nothing!
Third, take advice. I learnt as a copywriter not to be precious about my work. Everyone benefits from getting help, so long as it’s constructive and comes from people whose judgement you have reason to trust, just take it and use it to make the work better.
11: What are the best Social Media Sites for people to find out about you and your work?
To read a few pages of my book and to buy it visit – www.tinyurl.com/inlaws2018
To learn a little more about me and my writing visit www.facebook.com/KateFulfordAuthor or Twitter on @kate_author
About the Author:
Kate has had a varied career that has encompassed working in sales and marketing in the software industry, for brand and marketing agencies, several years as a freelance copywriter, and some time as a foster carer. She gained her first degree from the University of Warwick in the late eighties, but an interest in psychology led her to return to study many years later, when she obtained a Masters Degree from Goldsmiths, University of London. She did this with the idea that it might lead her in a new direction, which it did, just not in the way she had envisaged. At the back of her mind had always been the idea that she wanted to write fiction and so, having given up work to study and therefore having learned to get by on a lot less money, the time seemed right to turn what had only ever been a hobby into a full time endeavour. She has a distinctive authorial voice that refuses to take anything too seriously, not because she doesn’t think life is a serious matter but because she believes that it is almost always better when leavened with humour.
