Blood Floral - Psychological Suspense by Claire Shelvin

Claire Shevlin is a Northern Irish writer who sold her first story, age seven, to her mother for a highly competitive rate of Maltesers. She’s lived and worked in Australia, England and the Welsh border, but has been settled now for over a decade in her native Belfast. Blood Floral is her first novel and was a highly commended entry in the Irish International Debut Novel Competition 2024. Her fiction writing has also been shortlisted for the Brian Moore Award and longlisted for Mslexia short fiction and flash fiction competitions. She has been published in multiple magazines and anthologies.

Her day job is as an NHS consultant in intensive care and anaesthetics, and she has published non-fiction academic articles and chapters in related subjects. 

What made you enter the Cheshire Novel Prize?

I was drawn to it by the diversity of the judging panel and the guaranteed feedback. I think there’s a lot of competitions out there in which your entry disappears into the ether, and unless you’re listed or you win, you never hear anything else about it. In the Cheshire, the panel that assesses the top hundred entries are all experienced professionals whose job it is to critique whether a story holds together and if it has commercial viability. Potentially having access to that expertise was very appealing to me.

What did it feel like when you were LL and then SL?

I was at work when Sara rang me to tell me I had made the longlist. I’d had a lot of complicated phone calls that morning about something entirely different, so it took me a minute to shift gears and take in what she was saying. So, confusion was the main emotion, and I’m sure I probably sounded a little slow on the uptake!

I was genuinely shocked to find out I was on the shortlist. I’d seen the Instagram post go up about the date/time of the shortlist announcement, and just assumed if I hadn’t heard by then, then I hadn’t made the cut. When Sara rang this time, I was mentally rehearsing my ‘That’s ok, I understand, I’m happy just to have made the longlist’ speech, but I didn’t have to make it.

What was the reaction from those around you/family and friends?

My family and friends were delighted for me and very supportive as they always are.

I actually think this was the first time I’d told anyone at work about my writing. While of course we shouldn’t need external validation to be able to say we’re a writer, there’s no doubt it helps. After some reassurance that the majority of writers, even if published, continue in their day job - and so this definitely wasn’t me announcing my resignation - everyone was very happy for me.

How did you come up with the idea for your book?

I have a lot of ideas, but this was one I couldn’t let go. In a random magazine in a dentist’s office, I came across an article that was basically a day in the life of a water diviner somewhere in rural US. It speculated there might be a genetic component to the ability of water divination, an evolutionary advantage that led to some people having it encoded into their DNA to locate water. That made me think about how blood is basically 50% water and wonder what it would be like if someone had a genetic affinity for blood, and able to see patterns in it. I’d been wanting to write a crime/thriller novel set in Ireland, and in moving from Ireland to England and back again, I’ve been very conscious of the difference in mortality rituals and attitudes between the two countries. All of that kind of coalesced and resulted in Blood Floral, a police procedural based in ‘reality’ except for this one thing, this

talent of the protagonist. I actually woke up from a dream one morning with the final scene of the novel in my head as well as the current working title!

What’s it about?

At its heart, Blood Floral is about Ríona Kane, a highly qualified forensic analyst who specialises in blood spatter. She’s socially introverted, prickly and not particularly accommodating to different viewpoints. She is also very defensive about a familial ability she has - an affinity for blood and the ability to see patterns in it. This talent means she is able to sense things about the victims of violent crime and their last moments.

She becomes involved with a series of murders where the victim has been chosen at a particular pivotal moment in their lives - a bride shortly before their wedding, an influencer on the verge of mega-celebrity, an innocent man who has just been released from prison for a crime he didn’t commit. She knows the same killer was responsible for all these deaths, but she has to convince her sceptical colleagues in An Garda Síochána and at Forensic Science Ireland of that. At the same time, she’s juggling a new Garda liaison officer and a new romance - all whilst avoiding a killer who seems to be taking a distinct interest in her.

What’s your writing routine?

I would love to have a writing routine. One of my favourite procrastination activities is to watch videos on YouTube where aspiring writers try out the writing routines of various famous authors like Stephen King and Haruki Murakami.

In the past, I’ve tried various ‘tricks’ - using an hourglass for sprint writing, or a scented candle to trigger the idea it’s now writing time. After a keyboard ruined by multiple grains of sand (the hourglass broke) and a favourite T-shirt with a burn mark (smouldering match), I’ve accepted the universe has spoken and writing routines are not for me.

Since accepting that, I’ve gotten a lot more writing done. It helps that I’m a fast writer, deadlines motivate me, and I also have a rescue dog with severe separation anxiety. If I’m not walking him, he is only happy if I’m sitting still in one place where he can keep an eye and ideally paw on me.

What’s next for you?

I’m currently working on completing edits of Blood Floral. The final third was edited rather hastily as I never imagined I’d make the shortlist so I’m revising it at the moment.

As hard as it is to tear myself away from the world of Ríona and O’Riordan, I also have the first draft of another crime/thriller novel set on a remote island off the Galway coast on the go.

What are your favourite books and why?

My favourite book is usually the one I’m reading, as I stop reading books I don’t like. I’m reading the latest in Jodi Taylor’s Time Police series at the moment.

My favourite re-reads - especially when I’m tired or in need of a comfort read - seem to be older books. Like James Herriot’s Yorkshire vet series, all of Georgette Heyer’s regency romances, and pretty much the entirety of Agatha Christie/Mary Westmacott.

Any tips for writers intending on entering the competition?

I think, whatever the outcome, it’s a worthwhile thing to do. It’s putting your writing out there - which is a vote that you yourself believe in it. It means that people experienced in evaluating fiction will have read it and given you feedback on how to make it better. If you’re interested in traditional publishing and make it to the long list or long-long list, you’ll have the added benefit of knowing that people whose job it is to look at fiction with commercial viability in mind will have looked at it.