11 July 2024 marks 30 years since I lost my dad. It’s also the birthday of the character in the novel I started to write immediately afterwards. I’m now, for various reasons, rewriting that novel.
Since I finally ‘came out’ as a crime writer last spring, with the publication of Her Last Chance, the first in the DI Crow crime thriller series, the questions I’ve been asked most by those who know me is, ‘Where did the urge to write crime come from?’ usually followed by ‘What on earth goes on in your head?’ After all, once I yank my leopard print shopping trolley out of the cupboard and head off to the local supermarket, the only crime-busting hero I remotely resemble is Miss Marple.
Most of the time authors carefully select their settings, but sometimes the story just revs its engine and takes you off to who-knows-where. Hence I found, completely by accident, this one little scene in The Undoing of Arlo Knott setting itself at an old workplace of mine – Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham.
After lots of work and a long journey, and tons of support from the brilliant team at Inkubator Books, Detective Inspector Al Crow is finally ready to take on his first shift in the outside world.
A little about my third book, which takes me in a new direction, and into some potentially treacherous waters… In this novel, a bunch of private Caribbean islands band together to create a brand new nation, the ‘People’s Republic of Love’, governed by the citizen with the most followers on social media.
Like many community groups, we powered down a bit during the pandemic. Meetings happened on zoom, then sometimes outdoors when it was permitted, then back to zoom, and now we are in a hybrid world of mostly meeting in person but with the option of joining via laptop. It is interesting how writers have been…
We’re back! Yes like most other people we’ve been quiet for a while, but we have been busy too. We’ve watered our gardens, we’ve baked our bread and zoomed from time to time but we’ve also changed things and done things, so welcome to our new name and web presence. No special reason, just time…
A lot of books are published every year. In fact the UK publishes more books per capita than any other country. So from an author’s point of view, no matter how good your work is, its success will depend entirely on whether it gets noticed. I’ve been in Writers Unchained for a few years now,…
Two book launches in the last month! It’s been a bumper summer for Writers Unchained members. A Forbidden Love Kerry Postle launched her fabulous second book A Forbidden Love at Max Minerva’s Marvellous Books in Bristol this July. The audience were fascinated to hear about where Kerry’s research had taken her – into the intricacies…
Hello fellow writers and readers and apologies for being off the scene for a while. However we have some excellent news to report and can also give you the heads-up for our next event in October, part of the annual Bristol Litfest extravaganza. First, the good news. In between all that short story action last year,…