Authors Electric

 I had the pleasure of two speaking engagements in April. The first was at Sunbury Book Club where I gave a talk titled - From Juliet Bravo to Cagney and Lacey to Happy Valley: Why I write female detectives. I gave an overview of how women were allowed to join the police force in the UK before exploring fictional female detectives on the page and the screen. I then had the chance to talk about my own female detective - DI Bernadette 'Bernie' Noel, before finishing with a little quiz. Then, at Books in the Park Festival in Beckenham, I had the fabulous opportunity to interview Janice Hallett. We talked a lot about her different experiences of writing (journalist, government speech writer, screenwriter and author), as well as look at her latest novel - The Examiner . It was such a lovely festival in a beautiful setting and well worth my while sitting on a tram for 55 minutes to get there! Unfortunately, none of my family could come with me so no photos of the actual event for me....

 Sometimes, things happen in life and then all of a sudden, you realise that you've lost a month - just like that! I'm not sure what happened to October but it disappeared under the weight of hospital trips, two operations and now a long recovery period for my husband. Writing wasn't on my agenda at all. However, I need to get back to it. I was on a roll before and was powering through the soggy middle of the book. Unfortunately, having stopped for a month, I think I'll be wading through treacle when I restart. Will I get to the end of my book by my next post in December? I'll let you know! In the meantime, I do have something to look forward to. I run author events at my local library with the help of the Friends of West Barnes Library and w e have an absolute treat for you this November! Janice Hallett and Joanna Wallace will be joining us on Tuesday 19th Nov at 7.30pm. Janice's debut, 'The Appeal', turned normal prose on its head as the story is cleve...

  As we head towards Christmas and the end of the year, it's time for me to reflect on my favourite books of 2023. There are still lots of books on my TBR pile but I do have a top ten to tell you about. And not all of them are crime fiction! So, in no particular order...  The Mother by TM Logan You wake up, your husband is dead and YOU are the prime suspect. Your children have been taken away, your life sent into freefall - and yet you can barely remember anything about the night you lost everything. Ten years later you are released from prison. What do you do? Do you accept your fate, your conviction and leave your children to be raised by someone else? Or do you stop at nothing to find out the truth about what  really  happened that night - and to get your family back? I absolutely loved this from TM Logan! A couple of his books have been made into TV adaptations and this one will be joining them soon. End of Story by Louise Swanson YOU KNOW HOW THIS STORY BEGINS O...

 June was National Crime Reading Month and there were lots of events up and down the country. I had three Murder In Merton events which went well - a Crime author fair at West Barnes Library, a panel at Wimbledon Library with Robert Gold, Saima Mir and Olivia Kiernan, and a crime writing workshop, which I did with Biba Pearce, at Wimbledon Library. Crime Author Fair at West Barnes Library It was a very hot day to come out but the library has air con! Four authors came to talk about their novels, chat to readers and sell a few books too. Amer Anwar gave a short talk on his extraordinary publishing journey. Huge thanks to Amer Anwar, Sarah Clarke, Biba Pearce and ML Rose for coming along. We had a quiz for our audience, which I didn’t think was too hard, but apparently it was, as only one person got full marks! The winner took home a selection of books, a notebook, pen, mug and, most important of all, a bag of my triple chocolate cookies! We had a great afternoon in the coolness of W...