I’m delighted to welcome Carol Mason over at Literature Love today to talk about her latest book The Last Time We Met, due for publication 16th October 2018 – one week today!
Welcome Carol, thank you so much for dropping by.
Thank you Callie! It’s lovely to have this opportunity.
The Last Time We Met is a re-release of The Love Market, which was published eight years ago now, so how did it feel to go back and re-visit the characters Celine, Patrick, and Mike?
It’s the strangest thing! Writing a book is such a long process that takes so much out of you that, when you’ve gone through countless drafts and the book is finally done, you almost have an element of relief. Or if not that, then certainly a sense of closure. But then you might re-read it years later and think Hmmm! I wish I’d pushed this aspect of his character a little harder, or, if only I’d written that aspect with a little of the wisdom I now have today…. So then to actually get that opportunity – it’s amazing! You can see your story with new eyes and bring aspects of it to a whole new level. You feel fresh and energized at the thought of adding one more textural layer… In the case of this novel, I always felt I could have given the reader so much more of a reason to care about Celine and Patrick’s relationship and their coming together a second time. I felt I’d always done a terrific job with the emotionally resonant and complicated nature of Celine and Mike’s separation, but had I really shown the depth of Celine and Patrick’s connection, both in the past, and in the present? Had I truly explored the indelible impression left by first love? So it was tremendously fun and rewarding to go back in and make this aspect of the story sing! I fell in love with Patrick myself, and SO wanted to be there in that moment when she first set eyes on him…
I’m so glad you said that. After reading both The Love Market and The Last Time We Met, I felt a much deeper level of empathy for Patrick’s character this time and was really rooting for him!
All of your books have a literary feel to them that explores what it is that makes us human. Celine’s story and the emotional pull she has endured is such a timeless one, but the contemporary world around us has changed quite a lot since you wrote The Love Market, particularly with the ever-increasing cyber world of social media. How did this impact on any editorial changes for the Last Time We Met?
I did use a few pop culture references in the earlier edition that certainly dated the novel, so they had to come out. And of course online dating is so much more commonplace now than back then, so I had to tweak that to explain how Celine’s matchmaking business, called The Love Market, would still be relevant today. Plus Patrick and Celine get to FaceTime, which I don’t think we’d heard of back then! These were fairly easy tweaks compared to delving deeply into a character’s reasons for being! And a good editor helps that process too. And, as you so cleverly observed, I had to change Brad Pitt (as a heartthrob reference) to Ryan Gosling – Brad, bless him, is getting a bit past his sell-by now!
Hehe, yes, poor old Brad!
Every book of yours that I read seems to just get better and better; each book evidence of how you’ve grown as a writer. Were you tempted to make big changes? Were you tempted to kill anybody off, or re-write the ending?
Oh thank you. That’s very flattering and of course what writers really hope for! Yes, it was hard to re-read old work and not want to rewrite it! Not because I thought the writing was inferior, but perhaps because I am 10 years older now and 10 years wiser and more mature, so I see people and life a little differently. I’m not as idealistic any more. Perhaps I’m not even as romantic as I once was! This was helpful in establishing why Celine would be a little mistrusting of Patrick’s feelings at first – she too is not the girl she was when they first met. Plus I was better able to get to grips with the concept of what love really means once the thrill of the first flush has worn off. All this added more depth to the story. But I must admit I was tempted to change the ending a little! I won’t say in what way, or I will give the game away. But, suffice to say, I reminded myself that 10 years ago I had written a love story and, while I could add to that story and improve that story in so many ways, I also wanted to stay true to it. When I finally handed this revised draft in I felt huge satisfaction with my ending – elements of the story might have changed but the characters at heart hadn’t. And that felt right.
I love both the title and new jacket design for The Last Time We Met. They fit really well with the design of After You Left, and I know I will just have to have both of them sitting next to each other on my Favourite’s Bookshelf. Do you have anything else in the pipeline? Something with another gorgeous cover to match After You Left and The Last time We Met perhaps (she asks hopefully!)
Thank you! And… yes! I have just gone through edits for my brand new novel that will be out March/April 2019. This one is called The Shadow Between Us. It’s about a marriage that is tested in ways a couple could never have imagined. It’s about what happens when one day, quite out of the blue, almost everything about your life changes, and how you ever find your way back from that. It’s a sad, touching story, but also a very hopeful one. In fact, it’s the story I think I always wanted to write from the time I first began writing, only I wasn’t sure quite how to shape it and pull it off – it felt bigger than I had the maturity for back then. So I am massively excited for this one! This book is actually part of a brand new 4 book deal that I have just signed with my wonderful publisher, Lake Union. So I’m thrilled to say that writing will be keeping me busy for the next little while. I have my other ideas all lined up and can’t wait to share them with you in due course.
How exciting – I can’t tell you how happy that makes me! Well, it has been an absolute pleasure talking to you Carol. I wish you every success with The Last Time We Met and look forward to chatting to you again soon to talk about The Shadow Between Us.
You can read my review for The Last Time We Met here:
About Carol Mason
literaturelove.uk 
What a beautiful cover and a fun interview, Callie! I really enjoyed this post. ♥️
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