Mahi Cheshire studied with us back in 2018. She is represented by Curtis Brown agent Isobel Gahan and her debut thriller Deadly Cure is out now from Harvill Secker.
Mahi has been shortlisted in two categories at this year’s Dead Good Reader Awards! Deadly Cure has been nominated for The Cold as Ice Award for Most Chilling Read and The Dead Good Recommends Award for Most Recommended Book. Find out more and vote for Mahi here. Voting closes Mon 18 July.
We spoke to Mahi about how her work as doctor helped inspire the hospital setting of her debut thriller and her advice for aspiring authors.
You joined our online YA and Children’s Fiction Writing Studio led by Emily Barr in 2018. How did your time studying with us impact your approach to writing?
I found it really
helped to have feedback from Emily and the other writers on the course, and
also to give feedback on other’s work. We can be so familiar with our own work
that it’s difficult to see things from an external perspective and see what
works and what needs fixing, so I found the course super helpful for that. It
also helped having accountability, all of us were working on our pieces at the
same time and checking in with each other or posting work for feedback at
certain dates really helped me to progress my draft. There is also lots of
advice that I’ve taken away and use, both about the craft of writing and
approach to finishing a project. One piece of advice from Emily which I loved
was that we don’t need to be actively writing to think about the work. That
can be done at any time, even when doing chores etc, and then when you get to
the laptop you know exactly what to write and can get on with it.
You’re represented by Curtis Brown agent Isobel Gahan. How did you know that you’d found the right literary agent?
I’m really lucky to
have a great agent in Izzy. We had a meeting before I signed and discussed my
work in progress and the ideas she had for revision which I agreed with and
were line with my vision for the book. I think that’s a really important thing
to bear in mind when looking for an agent. Izzy’s way of working with clients
which involves being hands on and editorial suited me well too as I find
sounding out ideas and getting feedback really helpful in improving my work. She
was also so approachable, open to answering my many questions and happy to
explain things which I wasn’t familiar with as a newbie author. And open to
work which didn’t fall under the genres she represented at the time, something
which was really important to me as I love the idea of working across different
genres. I think ideally an author an agent should have the similar visions for
both their current work and for the longer term.
Your debut novel Deadly Cure
is a gripping medical thriller, out now from Harvill Secker. Can you tell us
more about the novel and the inspiration behind it?
Deadly Cure is a psychological
thriller set in a London hospital, about two doctors/best friends who fall out
over a job researching a cancer vaccine. When one is murdered, the other
becomes the prime suspect. The main character Rea’s voice, and the prologue
came to me quite early on but I didn’t quite know what to do with it until I
spotted a certain hidden area in a hospital I worked at. No spoilers so I won’t
say too much about it here! But it ended up being a very important part of the
plot. I did a lot of night shifts in my training and found the combination of
the eerie atmosphere in the hospital at night, with hardly any people around,
as well as the groggy and exhausted feeling of nights, also sparked something
in the story. Rea is a somewhat unreliable narrator at times, for other
reasons, but also amplified by that night shift state of mind. The hospital is
such a high stakes environment, so I found it lent itself to the drama of a
thriller. Deadly Cure is kind of like Grey’s Anatomy with a
psychological thriller twist.
Would you say that
your experience working with the NHS helped you incorporate medical details in
your novel?
Yes, absolutely. I
did most of my training in hospital, so the environment is very familiar to me.
Because of this scene setting e.g. on the wards, in A and E, was more
straightforward. And knowing how the hospital works, the hierarchies of job
roles and little details like that helped. Having medical knowledge really
saved me a lot of research too! That said, I did consult with doctor friends to
make sure I’d got details right at various points which concerned specialties I
hadn’t directly worked in. We often encountered ethical dilemmas in the medical
field and while we have set guidelines to deal with things, these situations
would often spark discussions within the team and questions as to what actually
is the right thing in certain situations. So that’s something I put into Deadly
Cure, with an ethical dilemma that underpins the story.
You were originally
working on YA before gaining a publishing deal and making waves with your debut
thriller. What prompted your genre change?
I had been working
on Deadly Cure before the YA book but it needed a rewrite, so I started
doing that while the YA was out on submission. I suppose as a distraction from
the submission stress! It’s a completely different book to the YA so it was
nice to have that change. It was fun to try things like different formats with
letter and diary entries, changes in points of view and time shifts. I found
writing crime/thriller a really interesting process as there was licence to try
lots of different ways of presenting the information, to keep the reader
guessing, which may not always work in another genre.
Can you talk us
through your writing routine?
I balance writing
with looking after my toddler and my work as a GP so my writing routine is a
bit all over the place at the moment! I just try to get it done whenever I can,
mainly at my little one’s nap time or after bedtime. I’ve found using a notes
app that syncs so useful for this, so I can even do a bit of writing on my
phone when I get a few minutes and pick up again on my laptop when I have more
time. My mind tends to be fresher in the morning though, so if I do get time to
write first thing, then that’s usually the most productive time for me.
What’s been your
favourite book of 2022 so far?
I just
finished Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura and loved it.
It’s part magical realism/fantasy, about a group of teens who have been, for
different reasons, avoiding school. They meet by accident in a mysterious
castle, accessed via mirrors in their bedrooms. It was so unexpected and
moving.
What advice do you
have for the aspiring authors reading this?
Don’t give up! If
you really want to be published, then be prepared for rejection as it happens
to most writers at some point or another. The important thing is not to take it
personally, which can be easier said than done I know, but it’s such a
subjective industry so if you can make your book the best it can possibly be,
then it will connect with the people who are right for it. The other thing I’d
say, which helps with dealing with rejection and more, is to find your writing
community. Being an author brings up such unique situations and it helps to
have people on your side who have been there and get it. It’s so nice to be
able to vent to each other when needed, to support each other and shout about each
other’s achievements when things are going well.
Finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
I’m working on another psychological thriller, this time set in Sri Lanka, about a surgeon who takes a job caretaking an old bank building in Colombo and becomes embroiled in the mystery surrounding the house, involving a woman who went missing. It’s quite a different book to Deadly Cure, with a gothic feel and shaping up to be quite creepy in places! I’m also working on something else which I don’t think I can talk about just yet, but hopefully soon!
Get your hands on a copy of Deadly Cure.
Vote for Deadly Cure in the 2022 Dead Good Reader Awards.
