Sleep – M.K. Boers

A marriage made in heaven, a murder made in hell.
Why kill the man you love?
Lizzy was struggling, everyone knew that.
He shouldn’t have done those things.
He shouldn’t have pushed her so hard.
And now, her children, her marriage, her hope – gone.
It was all her fault, she knew that, but was there a chance of redemption?
Lizzy Dyson’s on trial for her life. She knows she must pay for what she did, even if it wasn’t planned, but will the jury believe her?

I’m delighted to be taking part in the blogtour for M.K. Boers’ Sleep. I’ve got a Q&A with the author for you today.

What was the inspiration behind Lizzy’s story?

I wanted to explore what drives a woman to murder. Having experienced anger & frustration in my own relationships, I wanted to explore what could possibly push someone that far, especially someone who still loved their spouse so much. For women it can be hard juggling so much: work and running a home, and then if they choose to have children it’s even more. If they start to feel unsupported by their partner it can really tip the balance. I wanted the reader to understand and even feel sympathy for her.

Why did you use the topic of miscarriages as one of the factors?

Having children isn’t always that straightforward, although many men and women think it is. A large majority of women suffer miscarriages but you only find this out when you experience one yourself, as I did between my two children. Mine was early on but it was still an emotional ride, but I have many friends over the years who have had multiple losses & some quite late on. It can destroy a person and a marriage. It’s a subject that isn’t talked about very often, if at all. And although I only touched on it lightly with Tony’s character, it affects men too. I considered his affair to be, in some ways, his way of dealing with that loss and what was happening to his wife.

Lizzy clearly suffered a breakdown; did you find that difficult to write?

I didn’t, it sort of wrote itself. From the opening it is clear that Lizzy has had a break from reality and lost it completely. I have spent time in therapy myself, both in my early 20s and early 40s due to a traumatic childhood, so I understand the process of analysing and taking yourself apart and putting yourself back together. I knew what a therapist would say or do, and how they would direct her to help her gain clarity. In some ways they were the easiest parts of the book for me.

This is your first psychological thriller, do you plan to write more?

I don’t tend to write within genre lines. I didn’t really know what this book was until another writer friend read it and defined it. I always tend towards darker stories, even horror, particularly in terms of people’s minds – my flash collection Mostly Dark contains many of them. But I also like exploring science fiction and am currently working on a sequel to my novella The Game (found in my short story collection, Slipping Through). In this story a the dark villain is playing mind games with his victims forcing them to chase him through different parallels universes in attempts to get to their own time. What can I say, a sick mind intrigues me.

And finally, who was the most difficult character to write in Sleep & why?

Tony was actually quite hard because I liked him. He had a good heart and really loved Lizzy. I found it hard to turn him into a bad guy. For a while I wasn’t sure he was coming across bad enough until my early readers expressed a hatred of him. I think maybe because Lizzy is the main point of view and she still loved him that it was hard for me as the writer not to as well.

(Mostly Dark & Slipping Through are written under pen name Miranda Kate)

You can get a copy of Sleep, by M. K. Boers here.

You can find out more on her website, or Twitter @PurpleQueenNL

Miranda Kate spent her early childhood in Surrey, in the south of England, and her teens moving round the UK, but currently resides in the Netherlands. Miranda has been featured in several Flash Fiction anthologies, and has published two collections, one of dark flash-fiction tales, called Mostly Dark, and another of science-fiction stories, called Slipping Through. The latter containing a short novella, for which a sequel is forthcoming.