Carly Reagon: 'Write wherever you can – don't pause for breath until you finish that first draft'
BY Emily Powter-Robinson
22nd Nov 2022
Former CBC student, Carly Reagon, began her journey with us in 2017 on the Writing Your Novel – Six Months course. Her debut novel, The Toll House, is out now with Sphere.
We spoke to Carly about her time spent studying with us, the inspiration behind her gothic novel, and meeting her literary agent, Curtis Brown’s very own Cathryn Summerhayes.
You took our Writing Your Novel – Six Months course online back in 2017. How did your time studying with us impact your writing journey?
The course had a huge influence on me as a writer. Before it, I really struggled to edit my work. I would stare at my laptop for hours, trying to perfect a single sentence. It used to drive me mad! Learning how to self-edit was probably the biggest thing I gained from the course, apart from finding my brilliant writing group.
Your debut novel The Toll House is out now with Sphere, an imprint of the Little, Brown Book Group. It’s a gothic novel about a house with a mysterious history which begins to haunt a mother and her son. Can you tell us a bit more about the novel and the inspiration behind it?
I've always loved ghost stories and, after trying my hand at mysteries and romance, I decided to write one of my own. The story is about a single mum, Kelda, who buys an old toll house and finds a death mask hidden in the walls. Strange things start to happen and she soon realises she and her son are not the only inhabitants. It's inspired by a toll house in my local museum and a death mask I happened across on a writing retreat!
Many of our students find lifelong writing friends on our courses. Are you still in touch with anyone you met during the course?
I feel blessed to have made so many close friends from the course. I'm in regular contact with five others and we still share our work and discuss everything from writing to what we’re having for tea. My writing group does a brilliant job of keeping me sane! We go away once a year on a retreat (although, this year, I think the wine flowed more than the writing). I'm also still in contact with the wider group and brilliant course tutor, Suzannah Dunn, sharing and celebrating our writing successes (in 2022, at least 6 of us have had novels published!).
Dual timelines can be notoriously tricky to navigate but you manage to weave the past and the present together seamlessly. How did you go about approaching a dual timeline?
To be honest, I didn't think about it that much! I just started writing and the dual timeline happened. I wrote the book as it appears in print (as opposed to one timeline and then the other), so maybe that's why the two seem to connect. I was also careful not to get too bogged down with research in the Victorian sections as I knew, if I did, the writing wouldn't flow. I outlined the scenes to get the story down, then went back and filled in the historical details.
What advice would you like to share with the aspiring authors reading this? Do you have any tips for approaching agents as a debut novelist?
Write wherever you can – at the bus stop on your phone, whilst waiting at some sports venue for the kids, on your lunch break – don't pause for breath until you finish that first draft. That way, however rubbish your first draft will seem when you re-read it (because first drafts always do seem rubbish) it will still feel like a coherent whole. And, of course, you can’t edit your book and make it the story you really want to tell unless you have a draft to work with in the first place. In terms of querying agents, get out to literary festivals and meet a few if you can. I met my agent at a festival way before my novel was ready to send out. I'm not sure if it helped, but she did remember me! It's incredibly tough out there, so you need to build in a strategy for dealing with rejection (chocolate and moaning to my writing group worked for me). And remember, take a deep breath: you are more than just your novel!
It was through the course that you met your literary agent, Cathryn Summerhayes from Curtis Brown. How did you know that you’d found the right agent to represent your work?
As soon as I met Cathryn I knew I wanted her to be my agent. She's fun and down-to-earth and scarily good at what she does. There are some big names on her list! Plus we're both from Wales so we have a lot in common. My overriding question in deciding on an agent was: can I imagine working with this person?
As an author of a spinetingling ghost story thriller, you’re clearly a lover of all things spooky! What are some of your favourite gothic books?
My favourite ghost story of all time is Michelle Paver's Dark Matter. It tells the story of an artic expedition in the 1930s – the setting is perfect for an eerie tale. Recently, I've also loved C J Cooke's The Ghost Woods. However, I read widely, not just gothic or supernatural tales. It's something else the course taught me, if you want to write well, you need to read as much as you can.
Finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
I have a two book deal with Sphere, so I’m currently writing the second novel, another ghostly tale, this time set on a Welsh mountain.
Buy your copy of The Toll House here.
Find out more about our Writing Your Novel course, our flagship six-month course based online or in central London. Open for applications now.