Please give a warm welcome to author Maria Savva

Tell us a bit about yourself

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I live in London, and have worked as a solicitor for about 25 years. I currently specialise in Family Law. I work in a university and supervise students at the legal advice centre within the university, where we give free advice to the public. The students I’m supervising are training to become barristers. It’s quite a unique set up. I also take them to court each week, and we assist people who attend court without representation; the students get advocacy experience, and the clients get free advice, so it’s good for everyone, I think.

Have you always wanted to become an author?

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It wasn’t something I consciously chose to be. I’ve just developed a habit of writing over the years, and it’s not something I could stop doing now.

I’ve always had a vivid imagination, and I loved creative writing at school. I was a bookworm when I was a child, reading hundreds of books, and I always dreamed of writing a novel. I remember watching films when I was younger and seeing the credits, ‘based on the novel by…’—it’s always been a dream of mine to have a film made based on one of my books.

I started writing short stories in my mid-twenties and then challenged myself to write a novel when I found myself out of work when I was about 27. That’s when I wrote “Coincidences”. After that, I never stopped writing. I enjoy it.

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What was your inspiration for your current book/series?

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My new novel, “Evil Never Dies”, is a sequel to my novel “The Spider”. It will be published sometime this year. I already have a lovely cover design, by Kat from Aeternum Designs, who designed the covers for my books “A Time To Tell”– second edition, “The Spider”, and “Lost and Found”.

The edited draft of “Evil Never Dies” is currently with beta readers, and once I get their feedback I will make the final tweaks and publish the book.

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I suppose my inspiration for “Evil Never Dies” would have been the character Rex. I became intrigued by that character when I wrote “The Spider” and wanted to write another book to see how far I could explore this strange individual. I’m not sure whether it’ll become a series, but I can say that I think the ending to “Evil Never Dies” is open enough for at least another book to be written.

Time will tell.The inspiration for “The Spider” was probably, like most of my writing, inspired by the world around me. and usually darker side of life and human behaviour, which I try to make sense of in my writing and in the characters that I create.

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What are you working on now?

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I am at that point where I’ve just finished a novel and haven’t yet started the next one. I’m always writing, though, whether it’s blogging or short stories. I have just written a new short story, which will be available free to all subscribers of Darcia Helle’s newsletter. Darcia is one of the best indie writers out there, and she recently contacted a few authors to put together a free anthology. I’m happy to be part of that. As well as the new story that I wrote for the anthology, it will also feature one of my stories, “Where Do We Go?’, that was originally published on The Write Launch, online literary magazine.

I am hoping to find time to put together another collection of short stories soon.

Do you have any quirks while writing?

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Not really, not anymore. I just write. I can write anywhere, these days. I used to only write while sitting up in bed in the evening, and only ever with a pen and paper (I wrote my first three novels, and many of my earlier short stories, with pen and paper in the old-fashioned way). I used to also always need complete silence. But now I can just pick up a pen or start typing whenever and wherever.

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What are your hopes for the future?

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World peace. Is that even possible? I don’t like seeing and hearing about all the endless hate and violence every day. I also don’t understand why people are so intolerant these days and get offended so easily. I’m hoping people will become more understanding and kinder.

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Do you have any advice for new authors about the publishing world?

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Not really. People write for many different reasons. The only thing I would say is always remember that not everyone is going to like your writing and that’s okay.

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Do you have anything to say to your readers?

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I know I have at least a handful of loyal readers, and to them I would like to say thank you. Thank you for taking time to read my books and stories, and for the wonderful reviews. I am grateful that you have chosen to read my books and that you enjoy them. It makes me happy to think that my stories can entertain others, as that is what writing is all about really.

Buy links

Amazon

The Spider

Author links

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Website

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