AmeriCymru: Hi Norma and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. When did you first discover your passion for writing and literature?

Norma: I have always had a passion for writing, but could never devote enough time to it, because of pressure of work. As a child I loved writing essays and stories. My professional career as a teacher, specialising in English Literature, nurtured my love of good books. I wrote a number of academic articles for journals such ''Management in Education'' and I also wrote an article for a book called ''Take Care Mr. Blunkett'' about curriculum issues. However, at the back of my mind there was always a hankering to write fiction. When I took up writing full-time I decided to write about my experiences as a child growing up in the Welsh valleys, but I was really interested in creative wrting. I enjoy writing fiction. For me it is a pleasure, not a hardship.

AmeriCymru: Season of The Long Grass is a true story of a childhood spent in the Cynon Valley in the fifties. Care to tell us a little more about the book and how life in he valleys has changed since that time?

Norma: My first book ''Season of the Long Grass'' is a journey through childhood to adolescence and the realisation that everything changes. It depicts the importance and strength of family life in the Welsh Valleys in the 1950s. A mining village wasn''t just a community, it was almost an extended family where people looked out for each other. Front doors were never locked during the day, the pubs closed at ten o'' clock and were shut on Sundays. Families sat around the table to eat and talk about their day. Television didn''t invade households until the late 1950s so entertainment was mostly board games and family activities.

Children could play ball on the main highway, because there was very little traffic compared with the present day, and vehicles were much slower. Whole streets went to the seaside together and the generations mixed together, unlike today. After ten o''clock the local dance hall was full of all ages from teenagers to grannies. Alcohol wasn''t served in the dance hall, only soft drinks and snacks, but it didn''t matter. Teenagers didn''t go into local pubs, because they knew they would be seen by somebody who would report back to their parents.

Discipline in schools was much stricter and the cane was administered just for being late on a few successive days. I remember being told that if a strand of hair was placed across the palm of the hand the pain of the cane wouldn''t hurt. They were wrong! There was more respect for the police. Children were not afraid to approach a policeman if they needed help. Conversely, most misdemeanors were dealt with by dragging the miscreants home to be punished by their parents. Going to Sunday School was positively encouraged and being drunk was frowned upon. It was altogether a gentler way of life where people looked out for each other.

Unlike today children were free to play and roam the mountains without fear. No problems with health and safety when climbling trees, playing conkers or building bonfires for Guy Fawkes night. Children ate what they were given, because they had been brought up on war rations which didn''t completely end until about 1953/1954. Designer clothes and trainers didn''t exist for children. They were expected to dress like children and wear what they were given to wear. Sex was only spoken about in hushed tones and never in front of the youngsters. There was no sex education in schools other than human biology. Most information was acquired behind the bike shed or from older siblings.

Even though there was pressure to do well in school and pass the ''scholarship'' to get into grammar school, there were fewer pressures on young people than today. Nowadays children want the latest fashion, indulge in anorexic diet fads and can''t wait to become fully-fledged adults. In the 1950s children were content to be children until ''teenage culture'' became fashionable.

AmeriCymru: Your second novel The Regis Connection is set in Berlin and Russia. What inspired you to write a thriller set in the WWII and cold war eras?

Norma: Your second novel ''The Regis Connection'' is set in Berlin and Russia. What inspired you to write a thriller set in the WWII and cold war eras? ''The Regis Connection'' was inspired by my time living in Berlin during the Cold War. I had many conversations with Berliners who had experienced the Soviets marching into Berlin at the end of the Second World War. They related what happened and the differences in how they were treated by the Soviets and the Allies. I also met people who had been involved with resisting Hitler. One woman told how soldiers broke into her house and shot her husband, because he refused to join the Nazi Party. Subsequently, she was forced to become part of the Lebensborn, a programme that used blonde, blue-eyed women to increase the population of Aryan children often fathered by SS officers.

I lived in the British Sector about two hundred yards from the Wall and close to Gleinicke Bridge where spies were exchanged, as depicted in Hollywood films. Travelling into Charlottenberg, on the top deck of a double decker bus, it was quite normal to see armed Grepos manning the Goon Towers. Gunshots and minor explosions from the East German side were commonplace. Military personnel families lived on constant alert in case the Soviets came over the Wall to invade West Berlin. I actually travelled on the military train through East Germany and experienced the precautions put in place by the British Forces and also visited the Russian War Memorial in Treptower Park in East Berlin. Visits were only allowed with the military and were closely supervised. Compared with the thriving, cosmoplitan atmosphere in theWest, East Berlin looked shabby and poor. Many bombed out buildings were still in existence.

I was so intrigued by events and stories I heard that I decided to write a fictional story based on what I had heard and experienced.

AmeriCymru: You are currently working on your third novel. Care to tell us more about that?

Norma: My latest novel is also a thriller set in present times. Currently, it has the provisional title ''Until Tomorrow Comes''. It is now with the publisher. Below is a brief synopsis of the book.

Chief Inspector Brian Wallace is called in to investigate the murder of a naked victim, wrapped in a blanket, found at the bottom of an old engineering shaft in Shropshire. A local reporter informs him that another naked body was washed up on the beach near Portsmouth suspected of being thrown from a cross channel ferry. The murder had been swiftly hushed up leaving no record of the incident. Wallace is furious when he is warned against pursuing his investigation by the top brass.

Determined to find out if there is a link with the murder in Shropshire he contacts Ernst Dreher, his counterpart in Geneva, who has links with Interpol. Subsequently, he and his pathologist girlfriend, Jo Barnett, fly to Geneva to discuss the case. Unknown to Wallace, Jack Conrad, a former colleague in British Military Intelligence, is also in Switzerland investigating the disappearance of two British army officers, Bruce Foley, working for MI6, and Robert Macaleer of British Military Intelligence. Gradually, Conrad and Wallace uncover a sinister connection between the murders of the two military men, the brutal murder of a young woman in Shropshire, who is connected to Colin Lynes, a Russian ‘sleeper’, and an American senator found dead in a hotel room in Paris.

Their search for the two missing military men sets off a trail of events that leads them to a covert organisation, known as the Black Militia, hidden away in the Swiss Alps. It is headed by a man known only as the Generalissimo. Wallace infiltrates the facility and discovers the full extent of the Generalissimo’s plans before escaping with Conrad. When they return to capture him they find that the entire organisation has decamped. They recover a disk from the Militia’s crashed helicopter containing precise information about the organisation and the Generalissimo''s plans; information that makes their blood run cold. The plot is full of intricate twists and turns. The action takes place in England, Switzerland, Paris and the United States of America.

AmeriCymru: Where can we go to purchase your books online? Are they available on Kindle?

Norma: Both ''Season of the Long Grass'' and ''The Regis Connection'' can be purchased on Amazon.com/ Amazon.co.uk, the Welsh Books Council, Waterstones and other good book stores. Both have five star reviews on Amazon.

''The Regis Connection'' is now available on Kindle

''Season of the Long Grass'' will be on Kindle very shortly.

My new novel ''Until Tomorrow Comes'' will also be available on Amazon and Kindle.

AmeriCymru: What are you currently reading? Any recommendations?

Norma: I have recently read some good historical novels such as C.S. Sansom''s Shardlake series, ''The Revenge of Captain Paine'' and ''Last Days of Newgate'' by Andrew Pepper; also Philippa Gregory''s ''The Other Queen'', ''The Queen''s Fool'' and ''The Red Queen''. I also enjoyed Bernard Knight''s books.

AmeriCymru: What''s next for Norma Lloyd-Nesling?

Norma: I am not a single genre writer. After writing two thrillers I am now researching for a novel with an historical twist that moves from the 16th century to the present day. I am also writing a chic lit novel under a pen name. A little note for readers and members of AmeriCymru - my new novel, and any future books, will be published under the name Lloyd Nesling cutting out my first name and the hyphen.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

Norma: Getting published is extremely difficult on both sides of the Atlantic. It is hard to know what publishers want other than chic lit, celebrity autobiographies, and what I term ''doom and gloom'' books. Keep at it! You never know when you''ll hit the jackpot. In the meantime write for pure pleasure. Enjoy!