CATE QUINN is a former journalist for The Guardian, The Times and The Mirror alongside many travel and lifestyle magazines. She is also the author of Black Widows and The Clinic. A travel journalist for ten years, Cate has called many countries home, but currently lives in Devon, England, with her beloved partner and two children.

Cate Quinn dives into the wild things she’s done in pursuit of her books — from living with nuns and gatecrashing weddings to working as a Tokyo hostess. The journalist-turned-author explores how her past made her a better story-hunter and how that spirit of investigation fuels her craft as a thriller writer — building tension, creating secrets, adding psychological twists, and pulling off the perfect surprise.

The first thing I learned as a hostess is Japan, is don’t eat the crab claw crackers. They are for the clients. And the first thing I learned living with nuns, was not to pile your plate to appear polite – wastefulness is a sin.

As a writer and a journalist, these are just a few of the life lessons I picked up hunting out stories the only way I knew how – getting in at the deep end. But for a long time I regarded my ‘fiction writer’ dream as entirely separate to my journalist job – something I enjoyed doing to pay the bills whilst waiting for a publishing deal. In the background I was madly writing fiction, sending out manuscripts, never thinking the two worlds would meet.

So how did I finally realise I could merge those two disciplines? It took me far longer than it should have. Working fifteen years as a journalist, I was in the habit of trying every single experience that came my way – you just never knew when the next story idea would come. I would work all kinds of interesting and bizarre jobs in the name of a good story. From movie extra to making surgical equipment (yes really! They should never have let me do that), to picking tea on a Kenya plantation. One of my stories involved getting hired as a “hostess” in a Tokyo hostess bar, pouring drinks for weary salarymen. I learned a lot. Including some Japanese, and a better understanding of a culture very different to my own.

But it was only halfway through writing my first contemporary thriller Black Widows, something clicked. The book was about a polygamous Mormon marriage, where one of three wives murders their shared husband. I’d drawn partially on some experience of religion in my own family for this, but I really wanted some first-hand accounts from people living out these kinds of marriages right now. I reasoned, as a journalist, people were often very open to speaking with me about their work or life – would it be the same as an author? It was. I tracked several lovely married Mormon ladies in polygamous marriages, and I loved hearing their stories. This was a revelation. I could interview real life people. And I didn’t just rely on experiences that had personally happened to me. I could make them happen.

My next book, The Clinic, drew on my own experience of rehab, and used a lot of very raw and real memories of that time. But it was during this process I figured out the second part of how journalism could actively inform my writing. The luxury “clinic” in my book was based on some of the best experiences I’d had as a travel journalist. A scrapbook of the unusual spas, and facilities. But there were a few things for the story I hadn’t tried and was struggling to picture. One was a cryotherapy chamber where the temperature drops to -110C (did I mention I HATE getting cold) and another was an indigenous sweat lodge. I boarded a train to London, and did cryotherapy in a prestigious Chelsea Clinic, putting on stylish mitts and booties, alongside impossibly groomed ladies. It was so cold the inside of my nose formed snow. I left the tank feeling like I’d drunk three espressos and filled with inspiration for my book. The next trip was to Mexico. I sought out a sweat lodge, fairly sure I’d be fine, since I like heat. Genuinely thought I might die. Emerged reborn, filled with bonhomie for my fellow sweat-lodgers, and ran straight to my notebook.

I struggled a long time with giving myself permission to full-on investigate, explore, interview and inhabit places I wanted in my stories. I felt like an imposter – who did I think I was, Dan Brown? How could I justify the expense and time doing these things? As a journalist I was gifted all these wonderful experiences for free. This was my own money. How could I, for my job, spend cash on travelling to different experiences, or spend time away from my kids in a nunnery. What if the book didn’t sell, and I’d expended all that time and cash for nothing?

But by my third book, The Bridesmaid, I was starting to give myself more and more permission to actively do the things. I took up residence with some nuns – a story idea still percolating, since they were so incredibly nice they ruined my vision of killers in the nunnery. Somewhere along the way, something fired up some memories of a celeb wedding I wound-up on the guest list for in my journalist days, and The Bridesmaid began to take shape. This brought up the opportunity to hit up all my celeb contacts and bookers so we could reminisce  over all the great stories we had of famous people behaving badly – spoiler – you would not believe the things that happen when alcohol starts flowing. I was also able to get myself on the set of an influencer shoot. What became more and more clear, was people want to help authors. They’re excited by the process of writing stories, they want to pitch in.

If I could summarise what I’d learned, I’d say experience, is never, ever wasted. And I wish I’d started sooner, giving myself full permission to really live out my stories in the way that worked for me. I got caught up in thinking no ‘serious’ writers did it that way, and lost track of the fact that every book is unique, just like every author.

So if you’re an author thinking of living out an experience for your books, I hereby give you full permission to personally partake in any weird and wonderful event for the betterment of writing. Even if this seems possibly decadent and something you’ve always secretly wanted to do. Especially for that reason. So try everything, without apology, and if anyone asks, tell them, as a writer, your job is to have an interesting life. And yes, in many cases, this is also tax deductible.

If you’d like to know more about the kind of background experience Cate puts into her books, you can head over the catherinequinn.com/thebridesmaid. Readers can find out the celebrity wedding gatecrash that made it into her latest book, The Bridesmaid.

The BridesmaidThe Bridesmaid by Cate Quinn

After a celebrity bridesmaid is murdered ahead of a high-profile wedding, forensic attorney Holly Stone is drafted as an undercover replacement. The bride, Adrianna, is hell-bent on having the wedding of a lifetime, and she will stop at nothing to get her way. As the wedding day approaches, it’s clear that more than one murder is afoot, but Holly will have to tread carefully in order to find the culprit and survive the wedding.

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