A Conversation with Novelist Shari Low

with Shari King

We are delighted to welcome authors Shari Low and Ross King — who write together as Shari King — to Omnimystery News today.

Their debut thriller, Taking Hollywood (Pan UK; August 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats), is set in the dark heart of sun-bleached Los Angeles.

We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Shari Low to talk about the book.

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Omnimystery News: Tell us how Taking Hollywood came to be written.

Photo provided courtesy of
Shari Low

Shari Low: Taking Hollywood grew from a conversation Ross and I have been having on and off for years. Ross and I first met as teenagers, when he was a DJ for Radio Clyde and I worked in a Glasgow nightclub. We've been friends ever since, although his life has taken him to LA, while I went on to run nightclubs in Hong Kong and Shanghai, with spells living in LA and New York. Ross's career has been multi-faceted in the performance industry (presenting, acting, writing, producing), while I gave up the wild world of nightclubs to write a dozen or so novels under the names Shari Low and Ronni Cooper.

A few years ago, we started talking about writing something together, perhaps a factual work about Ross's life as an entertainment anchor and correspondent in LA. Last year, we suddenly realised that what we actually wanted to write was a novel. We sat down to discuss it and several hours later we had the characters, the storyline, the settings … everything. Taking Hollywood is exactly how we envisaged it that day.

OMN: You and Ross live several thousand miles apart. What was writing the book like?

SL: Writing the novel was an absolute blast. We'd discuss, debate and map out every chapter as we went, with both of us pushing each other to make it better. Ross was in LA and I was in Glasgow, so we spent endless hours working together online. We once spent a whole weekend connected via facetime, working around the clock, and when one dropped off to sleep the other would keep on working and vice versa. It was a bizarre, but brilliant experience that we both really enjoyed — even the 4 AM disagreements about how a character would act in certain situations!

OMN: How did you go about researching the plot points of the story?

SL: The novel straddles two settings: present day Hollywood and 1980s Glasgow. Between Ross's amazing Hollywood life and my obsession with the movie world, we had the former covered — and we both grew up in 80s Glasgow so we were very much writing what we knew. One of the many interesting aspects of putting the book together was that we wanted it to have a soundtrack. Each chapter has been given a song title that is relevant to the narrative, so it was utter joy to go back and listen to all the songs of our younger years again: and yes, Deacon Blue, Simple Minds, The Blue Nile, Texas still sound as great now as they did then.

OMN: If you could travel anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, to research the setting for a book, where would it be?

SL: Ooooh, that would be bliss. I'd would delve into the lives of the characters in our series, so of course, I'd travel by private jet to LA. By day, I'd park myself by the pool in the Chateau Marmont, order up a cocktail, and just watch the world go by. Or hang out at movie sets and Hollywood boardrooms and watch the dramas unfold. By night I'd sample the glamour of the top restaurants and clubs, then trawl the shadows where the dark deeds take place.

OMN: Tell us a little more about the cover or Taking Hollywood. And had you always intended to use a pseudonym?

SL: Macmillan came up with the cover and we absolutely love it — it's exactly right for the book — dark, stunning, bold. We considered putting one or both names on the cover, but in the end settled on Shari King; it was an easy decision.

OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young? And did these influence how and what you write today?

SL: Absolutely. Ross and I grew up reading the same books and when we first discussed our collaboration, we were absolutely in agreement that we wanted our novel to have the flavours of the books that influenced our early lives. As a teenager, I learned about life, love and power from Sydney Sheldon, Harold Robbins, Jackie Collins, Judith Krantz and Shirley Conran. I'm also a huge fan of the crime genre, especially by the Scottish greats like Rankin, McDermid, Mina and McIlvanney. Taking Hollywood is a blend of all those influences — a thriller set in a twisted Hollywood world of power and money, with characters who have their roots in the dark, gritty danger of Glasgow's criminal underworld.

OMN: What's next for you?

SL: Taking Hollywood is the first in a series — book two is already underway and three further instalments are on the drawing board. Ross and I are looking forward to creating the kind of blockbusting, escapist summer reads that have always been in our luggage when we board a plane.

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When a budding radio DJ and actor met a young nightclub manager in Glasgow in the 1980s, little did they know that over 25 years and thousands of miles later they would still be friends.

Los Angeles-based Ross King is a four time News Emmy award-winning TV and radio host, actor, producer, writer and performer. He has starred in London's West End, appeared in over 10 movies and hosted TV shows in the UK, Europe, USA and Australia. Ross has also presented countless radio shows and has his own Sunday newspaper column.

UK-based Shari Low has published thirteen novels, including those penned under her pseudonyms, Ronni Cooper and Millie Conway. She is the writer of a newspaper column renowned for its biting humour and straight-talking opinions. Shari has written for television and is a regular radio contributor.

For more information about the authors, please visit their respective websites at RossKing.com and Shari Low.com.

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Taking Hollywood
Shari King
A Thriller

1993: In front of a galaxy of stars, three young film makers accept their Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Davie Johnston, Zander Leith and Mirren McLean, childhood friends from a rough housing estate in Glasgow, have taken Hollywood by storm.

But only they know what they did to get there …

2013: Twenty years later, Davie Johnston is the top host and reality show producer in town. Mirren McLean is a respected writer and movie director, and Zander Leith is box office gold. But they haven't spoken to each other in twenty years, their relationships devastated by one horrific secret.

Thousands of miles away, in a town where nothing is as it seems, a young ambitious journalist discovers a tantalizing story from the past. Tinsel Town beckons. She is determined to expose the kind of scandalous drama that usually only happens in the movies.

Taking Hollywood is not yet available to purchase in the US.