It’s a bit late in the day, but I am delighted to tell you that I’ve signed with literary agent, Amy Tannenbaum, from Jane Rotrosen Agency

When I began my journey as an author, signing with such a well respected agent was no more than a pipe dream so to be able to say I am represented by a New York agency whose clients also include Robert Dugoni, Tess Gerritsen, Iris Johansen and Robert Brynzda, is a huge deal for me.

I have been incredibly fortunate and wouldn’t be in this position if it weren’t for the support I’ve had to get me to this point: bloggers, friends, and my editor, Lydia Vassar-Smith who has not only guided me, brought my writing on in leaps and bounds, but has also been a friend over the three years I’ve been with my publishers Bookouture, 

I am thrilled to be working with Amy and to tell you we have already signed for another police procedural with Bookouture. Here’s the announcement that also appeared in the Bookseller regarding that exciting news:

Writing is a vocation. When I first began back in 2009, I told my  husband I wanted to write a best-seller. His response was, ‘If you want this, your going to have to work at it.’ and I have. Every single day (including birthdays and Christmas) since 2009, with very few interruptions. My routine demands I rarely sleep and that I spend hours at the laptop.  The result has been rewarding – twenty-one books to date, since that conversation with my husband, and not one, but many best-sellers and awards and foreign rights deals.

I’m very excited about 2019-2020, and now that I’m working with Amy, there will be lots of exciting news ahead. Watch this space for further announcements and please sign up to my mailing list HERE for my latest news.

Asked recently at an author event where my inspiration for my crime novels comes from, I said simply, ‘life’. THE DARE, published on April 28th, is the third book in the Natalie Ward series and is to date my favourite but also the one that scared me the most.

Readers will know that I research each book extensively and THE DARE was no exception. Delving into the world of internet safety, I stumbled across instances where social media resulted in death – namely during games of dare.

Now, as a youngster I played Dare – a game in which your friends would encourage you too do crazy things like kiss the boy you fancied in your class, or spin around and around until you fainted – however,  some of the challenges young people have been taking up on social media go way beyond those seemingly innocent dares of yesteryear.

As we know, many teenagers are blinkered when it comes to safety first and due to a mixture of hormones and rebellious streaks combined with egging on by friends some take the online crazes to another level. I’m not talking the Bucket Challenge here – I’m talking duct tape, Tide Pod,  Fire Challenge, Kylie Jenner, and Cinnamon Challenge. Look them up to see what I mean but the one that stunned me was a craze that was huge in France where children would deliberately go missing for 48 hours.

Such madness could result in all manner of disasters and of course the idea became the catalyst for my book.

Although the book was written and submitted last year, I noticed that in February this year, the police in the UK issued warnings after the craze resurfaced and this challenge hit newspaper headlines again.

When I write my novels, I start with something dreadful or horrific that could easily happen to one of us or our children. It makes my writing more credible and I hope highlights some of the issues facing our society.

Where do I get my inspiration? I don’t have to look far for it. It’s under our noses!

*****

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THE DARE

Jane’s daughter is a good girl. But what is she hiding?

When thirteen-year-old Savannah Hopkins doesn’t come straight home from school as she always does, her mother Jane immediately raises the alarm. With her blonde ponytail and red school jumper, someone must have spotted Savannah.

Detective Natalie Ward is determined to help the distraught mother – her own daughter is the same age as Savannah. But before Natalie and her team can get started, their worst fears are confirmed when the teenager’s broken body is found in nearby shrubland.

Evidence points towards a local recluse, but just as Natalie closes the net around him, one of Savannah’s friends, Harriet, is reported missing. Harriet might look grown up and sophisticated but she is only fourteen…

As Natalie delves into the lives of both girls, she soon discovers a sinister video on both their phones, daring the girls to disappear from their families for 48 hours. She’s sure this is the key to the case, but before she can act, Harriet’s body is found discarded on a roadside.

Natalie’s superiors don’t have to put any extra pressure on Natalie. Devastated, she and her team work without sleep, watching that video over and over. But just as she thinks they’re getting close, the person Natalie loves more than anything goes missing.

Natalie is no stranger to loss. She is terrified and the clock is ticking. Can she push through her fear to catch this depraved killer, before her loved one becomes the next victim?

This gripping rollercoaster of a read will have you up in the small hours turning the pages. Fans of Angela Marsons, Rachel Caine and Robert Dugoni will love The Dare.

I don’t know about you but when I’m lost in my manuscript, I can type hour after hour. I caught sight of myself the other day and well, I bore an uncanny resemblance to a vulture. Inevitably this poor posture takes effect and like many of my fellow writers, my shoulders, neck and back ache like crazy some days.

Having suffered with serious back problems for decades I already write while sitting on a stability ball rather than a chair. It ensures I maintain an upright position, but I have been known to topple off on many an occasion much to everyone’s mirth, and it requires concentration to stay on the ball in the correct position for lengthy spells. I recently heard that sitting on a memory foam pillow can help writers from getting too sore, so maybe that’s one to try out.

The last few years, I’ve also been suffering from frozen shoulders – a condition that sounds mildly amusing but is in reality, absolutely agonising and results in lack of sleep and perpetual pain. It’s something many writers can expect to get, so be warned. I was given cortisone injections into each shoulder but refused the operation that seemed inevitable because my surgeon advised me they would ‘defrost’ in time… five years to be exact. They took three years and three months and although I can move them more freely, my shoulders are like bags of rocks that would benefit from a daily deep tissue massage. Given that isn’t possible, I’ve been looking at other ways to resolve these writing aches and pains and apart from taking up QiGong, which is awesome, I have stumbled across massage balls.

These little miracles are so simple to use and cheap that it seems crazy not to give them a go. I bought mine for under £9.00. I chose the non-spiky version and tried them out immediately. Instant relief! It’s like experiencing a massage.

There are videos on YouTube to show you how to use them effectively but the simple act of placing them between my shoulder blades and a wall and then rolling against them was heavenly. Ten minutes later I felt like a new writer and got back to my WIP.

The object of this post is to stress the importance of taking breaks from your writing, no matter how involved you are. You need to stretch your hands, back, hips, shoulders and neck. If you don’t, eventually you will have health problems and speaking as one who has suffered more than her fair share, I live by the motto: prevention is better than cure.

So, grab yourself some massage balls and take ten minutes out to stretch and have a go at QiGong and you’ll be much more productive… and a lot healthier.

 

Yes… you did read the title of this post correctly. I’ve been seeing a lot of social media posts offering to teach writers how to write a book in month or ten days, but you can actually write a novel in seven days without any instruction or shelling out for a course or book teaching you how to do it.

Last Lullaby due out in December, was written in May this year in… seven days.

I hadn’t planned on writing the entire book. It sort of happened. I was supposed to be going away on holiday to a small gite in France with my husband, but he couldn’t go last minute. I took advantage of the peace and quiet to start work and boy… did I work!

Anyway, here is my light-hearted diary of how I accomplished such a feat:

Day 1 – I am alone. No distractions. It’s raining. I have provisions for a couple days – largely lager, crisps, and some ready-made quinoa which looks nice but tastes weird. I’m very excited because I can please myself and write… write… write.

Decided to watch a little online telly first and discovered Sneaky Pete on Amazon Prime. It looked interesting so I decided to watch it for a while to unwind.

Day 2 – Woke up at 11 a.m. Watching back-to-back Sneaky Pete all night wasn’t my best decision, still, I have all day today to work and it’s pouring with rain.

Typed until dinnertime some seven hours later. Decided not to watch Sneaky Pete Season 2 and opted for Spooks instead. Couldn’t sleep afterwards because I’d been scared rigid by one scene in Spooks. Decided to write to take away the fear. Conked out at 5 a.m.
Day 3 – Woke up at 7 a.m. Two hours sleep and I felt fine. Got no milk and couldn’t be bothered to get dressed and go to shop, so drank a can of lager for breakfast and returned to bed to type. Got up when the battery on my laptop ran out and I had to find the charger. Stopped by fridge to collect can of lager and some crisps. Returned to bed. Typed.
Day 5 – Realised I’d typed for two days solid without sleep. The story is in great shape but maybe some shuteye would be good at this point. Drank a can of lager and ate the last of the quinoa for breakfast. That perked me up so I abandoned the idea of sleep and having reached a critical part in the storyline, typed.
Day 6 –  Checked in on social media and frightened myself at how many notifications there were. Couldn’t face them so logged out again but not before I read the cheerleading messages left by my fellow authors in our Facebook group who knew what I was trying to achieve. Felt boosted and remotivated. Cleaned my teeth and gargled with a glass of lager to celebrate the book coming along nicely. Typed all day and into the early hours, pausing only to demolish the remaining crisps and lager.
Day 7 – Last day today so got up at 4 a.m. to begin writing. It has finally stopped raining and the sun came out. but I resisted the urge to lie in sun all day doing nothing and typed.

7.30 p.m. I’ve just  ran around the gite, shouting “I did it.” Fell over my trousers which are now so loose on me they slid down over my hips. Cheered again. Double bonus – the first draft of the book is written and I’ve lost weight Yay!

*****

I would like to add that Last Lullaby has been through a strict editing process since that first draft and at the time of writing this post, still has to undergo a final proof check, but I’m very happy with the result and early reviews are extraordinarily good.

So if you fancy shutting yourself away, avoid sleeping, eating and washing for an entire week, then you too will be able to write a book in seven days. Bonne chance!

*****

ARC reviewers are giving a massive thumbs up to Last Lullaby: “awesome” “even better than The Birthday” “I don’t want it to end it’s soooooo good!”

#LastLullaby Out 7th December but available to pre-order right now:

Amazon: http://geni.us/B07HRW35Q5Cover