For my chat with Dr. Jo O’Neill, we’ve taken thermoses of hot tea and gone out for a ramble in (as I imagine it) a lovely grey drizzle of a day–a fitting background to discuss the profound depths explored in her writing, and her commentary about the world today.
Once a projects director, travelling and working wherever in the world her job took her, Dr Jo O’Neill hung up her construction helmet early in 2024, to settle in England and start a new journey as a full time writer.
Jo has always written, but with such a full-on career, she had to limit her output to satirical short stories, and a growing volume of poems that captured the quirks, oddness and oftentimes hilarity of corporate life. When, three years ago, she started to get the itch to write novels, something had to give. And when her Company announced a ‘final final re-organisation’, just a year after their ‘very last, ultimate, final reorganisation’ which in itself had been just 18 months after their ‘definitive, last ever reorganisation,’ Jo decided that fate must be calling her towards a creative career, and she hasn’t looked back.
The plot for More Than Us came to Jo, almost fully packaged in a vivid dream at the end of 2023. She already had two other books in mind at that time – one based on a transcript of an actual Spanish Inquisition trial that she came across in 2012, the other based on the Scottish Witch scare of 1597. It was More Than Us that demanded to be written first.
Jo’s writing crosses over genres – psychological thriller, contemporary, historical and supernatural/horror – but what all her stories have in common is that they explore character and group psychology, and resilience in the face of the darkest sides of human nature.
Now with More Than Us approaching publication, and the other two books (The Accidental Heretic and 1597) almost complete, Jo hasn’t regretted her decision for a single moment. She is living the dream, in a Berkshire village with her husband John – a professional artist, and their labradoodle Tanzie.
https://www.jo-oneill.com/pre-order-or-buy
https://bookguild.co.uk/bookshop/crime-and-thrillers/more-than-us
More Than Us by Jo O’Neill | Waterstones
More Than Us by Jo O’Neill | Foyles
More Than Us by Jo O’Neill 9781835742693 Coles Books
https://www.amazon.co.uk/More-Than-Us-Jo-ONeill/dp/1835742696
More Than Us a book by Jo O’Neill.
Willow Croft: “Hey, look at that derelict Victorian mansion . . . let’s go explore it!” What’s the most unusual setting you’ve read about in a horror/thriller book, or included in your own creative works?
Dr. Jo O’Neill: It’s a domestic scene in More Than Us. A nondescript flat in London, a couple making an omelet. It’s the banality of the scene that makes it weird, because they don’t know there are four dead women with them – victims of the man. One stands silently in the centre of the kitchen whilst the man unknowingly moves around her, two sit on the sofa bickering like flatmates, and the fourth sits next to the woman, making snarky comments she can’t hear. The scene is set up for a surreal cross-purposes conversation and an incident that’s so absurd as to be darkly funny and terribly sad.
Willow Croft: “It was a dark and stormy night . . .” What are your go-to comfort foods, drinks, or other ways to wind down after a long day (or night) of writing?
Dr. Jo O’Neill: When I’m deep in the process I think about plot, scenes, character and prose all the time. Too much. When I first started I gave in to it, but it’s not sustainable. I learned that it takes more discipline to wind down than to just sit and write. So I take exercise outdoors everyday – whatever the weather, and I made a deal with my husband that I will always stop writing before 7pm. I do cheat a bit on the last one – I might read back over my prose in the evenings. But what I have learned is that I write much better when I force myself to take breaks, and if I am stuck on a knotty plot issue (which is often), it will untangle better while I am out walking the dog than if I sit at my desk trying to force it.
Willow Croft: “Did you hear that noise?” Everyone, even us horror/suspense writers, have our night terrors. What is it that frightens you the most?
Dr. Jo O’Neill: There is nothing that anyone can write, in any genre, that is as frightening to me as what I see every day. It scares me that our rhetoric has got more divisive, more aggressive, that long fought-for rights are being discarded and history’s lessons lost or ignored. There is a creeping erosion of empathy and it seems that noisy declarations are valued more than facts and truth. Sometimes I think I would rather face Stephen King’s darkest imaginings, than switch on the news and see what’s become of our sense of right and wrong. This fear is reflected in all my books. It’s not the fact that More Than Us has ghosts in it that make it ‘horror’ – the ghosts are just a device to give agency to the victims. The ‘horror’ is that coercion and violence are enabled by a toxic culture. And the fact that this is true, that these things actually happen – that’s the horror.
Willow Croft: “I’m sure it was nothing. But I’ll just go outside and check, anyway. Alone. With no weapons.” Have you ever gotten writers’ block? If so, how do you combat it? Do you have certain rituals or practices that help get you into the writing (or creating) mindset?
Version 1.0.0
Dr. Jo O’Neill: I’m not sure it’s ‘writer’s block’ as such – but every now and again I procrastinate over a pivotal scene. For example there’s a scene in More Than Us where a person that’s been groomed has to make a character-defining choice. I kept putting it off. Too much pressure. Too big a scene. So I created a new document called ‘sandpit’ and just threw words about – a stream of consciousness from inside my character’s head. I let myself write ugly. Then I slept on it and by the end of next day, I had the chapter. I do that now every time I get stuck. Create a sandpit, let yourself play messy, write ugly.
Willow Croft: “Don’t go into the basement!” Are you an impulsive pantser or a plotter with outlines galore? What other writing/industry advice would you share with your fellow writers & creators?
Dr. Jo O’Neill: Plotter. I develop character outlines, story arcs and structure before I start writing. I feel free to write if I don’t have to worry about where it’s going. But it’s not that simple. About a quarter of the way in, my characters become real people and they don’t always want to play nice. They like to head off in their own direction and I let them. If I didn’t, I think the novel would be stiff and the story feel contrived. So whilst I always work from a ‘plot’ it’s a live document that I update and adjust as my characters demand.
Willow Croft: “Ring ring!” It’s the middle of the night and the phone mysteriously rings. Which notable writer, or person from history, would be on the other end of the line?
Dr. Jo O’Neill: Okay, hear me out on this one. Thomas Hardy. I’ve had this conversation with a few people and they groan and talk about their English Lit curriculum. But Hardy is a writer that I love love love. His books explore our darker sides with such honesty, and he understood human psychology so unbelievably well that I swear I’ve met his characters in my own life. And in his writing he was ahead of his time in calling out the injustices of patriarchal control, and in his empathy for his female characters. I’d love to ask him what happened in his life that shaped his stories, and what he’d make of the world today.
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“Bringer of Nightmares and Storms.” Horror writer Willow Croft is usually found lurking deep in the shadows of their writer cave, surrounded by formerly feral (but still fierce!) cats for company.
