Pregnant cause

DARLINGTON-born Claire Moss always intended to write a thriller but instead came up with a newlyreleased contemporary romance, Northern Soul Revival, which she admits her husband, Andrew, hasn’t even read yet. “He’s yet to read it and express an opinion because he said he wanted to wait until it was published. So I have to wait and see what his verdict is. I think it is astonishing, but it’s nice he’s left me to it,” says Moss, who has recently moved to Thirsk, North Yorkshire.

It took her five years to put together the novel before having it published by Snow Books.

“I started writing it because I needed to write and I felt I had to get it finished before I could write another book. And I’m writing another romance book now because I enjoyed it so much.

“This book just seemed to pop fullyformed in my mind and it’s wonderful to have the actual book in my hand. It’s amazing,” says the 32-year-old of the novel which was written as she travelled the world, lived in six towns, got married had a baby and is expecting another.

The plot, set in a fictional Northern town called Seeley, involves Joss sleeping with old schoolfriend Carl because he’s off to Tasmania and she’s discovered her boyfriend is a love cheat. The complication is that she becomes pregnant and opts not to tell Carl, even though she informs nearly everyone that he knows.

In fact Joss decides to ignore the whole problem of being pregnant until she’s homeless, jobless and about to meet Carl and his Australian girlfriend at the wedding of her best friend.

“My natural style is light-hearted and humorous,” says Moss who chose to tell the story alternating between the voice of Joss and Carl.

“To tell a serious story like this in quite a dark way is quite a British thing to do.”

Interestingly, she is writing for a generation who don’t consider having children outside wedlock as anything out of the ordinary, but she still manages to secure an air of scandal about Joss’ behaviour.

“I think it comes from the idea that although most people aren’t married they are in a relationship when they have children. The thought of having a child with someone you’ve never had a relationship with is something unusual. It would be nice to say that it was based on someone I know but really it’s not I’m afraid.

“This thing about going into denial (about being pregnant) is something I do know about,” she says and has created a climatic wedding speech moment where a drunken Carl rants at heavily-pregnant Joss upon learning he’s to become a father.

Discussing the locations she chose, Moss says that Tasmanian scenes are based on her own experiences there in 2005 and were put in to demonstrate the contrasts between Australia and the North-East.

Northallerton is mentioned but she says that Seeley is actually an amalgamation of Thirsk, Yarm and other North Yorkshire market towns.

“The title almost came to me before the book did purely because the two got together at a Northern Soul revival night and it’s a story of renewal and beginning a new life. It’s an interesting title because I think it will draw the attention of older readers as well,” Moss says.

And romance being romance, what decision did she make about describing the man-meets-woman passages in an age when TV and film has often gone full frontal?

“I’m not a fan of reading graphic sex scenes in books. I find it a bit embarrassing and they never achieve what they set out to do. They are never titillating, you feel almost embarrassed for the participants which I don’t think is the idea,” she says.

And on the fact that her book most definitely has a beginning, a middle and an end, Moss replies: “I used to go to a writing group and the tutor said there was nothing wrong with telling the reader what is happening at any one time.”

Did she feel she took a gamble by switching between a male and female “voice” in each chapter? “I didn’t think of it as a big thing but a few people have commented on it and said it was unusual.

For me it seemed the easiest way of telling the story because you weren’t having to have one character second guessing the other. This way the reader has a clearer picture. It’s only since it’s been published and men I know have read it that I’m confident that I can write from a male point of view. So I’m pleased about that and the fact I’m in touch with my masculine side,”

she jokes.

Moss attended school at Hurworth and Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form before studying at Sheffield where she began her working career. She’s busy at work on her second novel and knows that contemporary romance is harder to write about when young people are increasingly cynical about commitment.

“It has to be believable and I think that people have to have worked through every problem before they can live together. I think the way my husband and got together is a very dull story… I don’t think anyone would publish it. We met in the first term of university and have been together ever since. Maybe that’s why I have to write these books,” jests Moss who has a twoyear- old son called Kieran and is expecting her second child in March.

“What I really wanted to do was write novels for young women who didn’t live in London and work in the media with maxed out credit cards and buy their shoes from Prada. I wanted to write for women that I could relate to.”

■ Northern Soul Revival, Snow Books