A Red Letter Day by Ann Evans
Today is something
of a Red Letter Day for me, as it sees the release of my first adult
crime novel. It's called Kill or Die, and while it's not self
published, I hope you will indulge me giving it a little mention
here. It's being published by Bloodhound Books, who have been a real
pleasure to work with.
I think we've all
had bad experiences at some time or other with some publishers, but
I'm feeling really fortunate to be working with two publishers who
are just brilliant. My other one is Badger Learning who I write hi-lo
books for reluctant teenagers.
I'm not exactly new
to writing crime, as my children's books for Scholastic back in the 1990's
featured murder mysteries - but murder in the best possible taste!
No blood or gore. Whereas in Kill or Die there's definitely bit of
the sticky red stuff!
It's funny though,
how it's okay to write about murder – unless it's involving
animals. When I was just starting to write Kill or Die, I mentioned
to my writers' group that the victim's dog gets killed… well there
was outrage. “You can't kill the dog!” they all yelled. So back
to the drawing board, and the dog survives!
I've been reading
quite a few crime novels recently, and felt inspired enough to book
for the Harrogate Crime Festival which runs from 20th -
23rd July. It sound fantastic, with some big names there
including Dennis Lehane, Lee Child, Ian Rankin, Peter May, Stuart
MacBride, Joseph Finder, Arne Dahl, Kathy Reichs, Brenda Blethyn,
Robson Green and James Runcie.
Also there's going
to be a new Agatha Christie exhibition launching there featuring rare
photographs and documents from both Agatha Christie and Collins'
archives. It all takes place at The Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate,
which is the hotel Agatha Christie was found to be staying at when
she went missing for 11 days back in 1926.
I've done an article
on it, if anyone wants to read up about it:
Will anyone on
Authors Electric be going along to the crimefest? It would be good to
meet up if you are.
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