Interview With Frances Drake
Frances Drake is the very worthy winner of My Weekly’s recent Avon Short Story competition – and you can read her prizewinning entry, The Seaside Locket, inside the pages of My Weekly (on sale Nov 1).
Now meet the lady responsible for those lovely words…
Frances Drake
Can you tell us a little bit about you please? Your background, work, etc…
I grew up in Kidlington, a very large village, north of Oxford. I met my husband at St Andrews University. We moved to Yorkshire in the late 1980s after we had completed our postgraduate degrees. My daughter and son were both born in York. I worked for the University of Leeds in the Geography Department for nearly 20 years before I retired in October 2018. I was a lecturer in Weather and Climate. Although I wrote scientific articles, I have not written any fiction since my O levels, many years ago now!
Where did you get the idea for The Seaside Locket?
In my family we have a small gold locket that is passed down to daughters on their 21st birthday. It is not expensive but has great sentimental value. My daughter has just got married and I was thinking about the locket, as I wore it on my wedding day. The idea of a small token that has a great deal of meaning and binds family together was the starting point.
What was your process for bringing the idea to life as a story?
Originally, the story was going to have a ghostly element to it. I had the idea of Mary, having lost the locket and then dying, searching the dunes unable to rest until she found it. At the end Mary and her husband would be reunited when the locket was found by Jackie. I realised, however, that the idea was too complex for a short story. I needed to focus on the main couple, Jackie and Ben, and their need to come together.
Who are your favourite writers?
I do like cosy crime! I am currently reading Julia Chapman’s Dales Detective Series, which follows the adventures of a detective duo in the Yorkshire Dales. Alexander McCall Smith and Richard Osman are also on my reading list. But for all time classic tales Jane Austen has to be my favourite writer. Her ability to wittily describe a character in a few telling sentences is amazing.
What’s next for you as a writer?
To be honest I am not sure. I think about stories as I try to go to sleep, so I have a few ideas for short stories. Although I have the beginnings, I find ending stories in a satisfactory way very difficult. Probably because I have fallen asleep by then! I would like to write a book based on my family’s experiences at the turn of the last century. My grandmother had a difficult life bringing up three girls after her husband was killed in an accident. Her story is one of triumph over tragedy.
What does it mean to you to win this competition?
I was stunned when I received the phone call from the editor. I couldn’t believe my first story, in almost 40 years, had won. It does prove the old adage that “it is never too late”. I have always thought of myself as the non-creative one in the family, having studied science for so long. Winning the competition has given me confidence in my creative abilities. You never know what you can do until you try.
Pick up My Weekly on Tuesday Nov 1 to read The Seaside Locket by Frances Drake.
