Reviews

‘Footfall is as engaging as it gets. Cassandra James is . . . a terrific character, beautifully honed from seemingly staid academic to feisty heroine . . . a truly breathtaking read.’

- TANGLED WEB

The social life of a crime-writer

Writing a novel involves spending an awful lot of time on one’s own. It can be difficult to meet other writers and that is where the Crime Writers’ Association is such a godsend. I joined in 2002 when my first novel came out and through the CWA I have made some very good friends. They […]

Where do you get your ideas?

This can be a difficult question to answer. But in the case of my short story, ‘Accounting for Murder,’ which appears in the new CWA anthology, Mystery Tour, edited by Martin Edwards, I know exactly where I got the idea. About eight years my husband and I bought a small, derelict house in Northern France. […]

Twelve photographs in search of an author: The Starlings and Other Stories

Last Saturday I was at the launch of The Starlings and Other Stories at Waterstones in Wrexham. Nine of the twelve authors were thereĀ along with David Wilson, the photographer whose work inspired our stories. I did wonder if we would outnumber the audience (it’s been known to happen with smaller groups of writers than this!), […]

Inspiring photographs by David Wilson

I’ve been busy with some short stories lately. It’s especially interesting, I think, when one is writing to a brief. The first time I didĀ that was some years ago when Ra Page at Comma Press asked me if I’d like to try my hand at a horror story involving modern technology for an anthology he […]

Interviewing crime-writer Kate Ellis

Interviewing crime-writer Kate Ellis

Posted on Jul 3, 2014 in Kate Ellis | No Comments

Kate Ellis’s new novel, The Shroud Maker (she is so good at titles) has recently appeared in paperback. She kindly agreed to be interviewed on my blog. I began by asking her how she carves out time to write. What is her writing routine? Over to Kate: How do you carve out time to write? […]

Crime Fiction Round-up

Crime Fiction Round-up

I’ve decided to have an occasional round-up of crime fiction that I’ve enjoyed and I’m featuring three novels today.I came across a review of The Mangle Street Murders by M. R. C. Kasasian on one of my favourite blogs – http://clothesinbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-mangle-street-murders-by-mrc – and thought it sounded worth a look. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is set in […]

The Pram in the Hall

The Pram in the Hall

‘There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.’ There is some truth in this famous statement by Cyril Connolly. I guess that Connolly was thinking more of male writers and the necessity to support a family and the need to write for money. Still it is worth noting that […]

What I Did on My Holidays

Or, rather, what I read on my holidays. I really enjoyed Kate Ellis’s PLAYING WITH BONES, one of her Joe Plantagenet series, let in a lightly fictionalised York. There is an element of the supernatural in these and it was satisfyingly creepy! And as we were in northern France I took with me Adrian Magson’s […]

A rose by any other name?

Posted on Aug 31, 2010 in book titles, Gone With the Wind, Kate Ellis | 5 Comments

Titles are very much on my mind at present as I mull over the options for my recently completed novel. Of course whatever my agent and I settle on, it won’t necessarily be the title the book ends up with, but still . . . you want something that’ll get you off to a good […]