It’s less than a week until I’ll be running a workshop at the Bournemouth Writing Festival. I’ll be sharing my experience of winning a publication contract with Bloodhound Books after entering a pitch competition for The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell. The workshop will include tips and hints for anyone wishing to develop skills in online pitching of a manuscript. The event is a new one on the Dorset writing scene and the programme has grown considerable since the inaugural year in 2023. I’m pleased to be delivering on Sunday 28 April 2024 alongside writing friends Paula Harmon and Alice Fowler. Do check out the full programme!
I purchased a Book Spa as a birthday gift for my daughter in 2023. It’s been a long time coming (I reserved a place for myself too) and we finally made the trip to Mr B’s in Bath this week. The Book Spa involves chatting with a member of the bookselling team over tea and cake to gain an idea of our interests. Nethmi then collected a tower of books for us to browse. (The Reading Spa includes £60 to spend on books, plus a Mr B’s mug and cloth bag and a £10 gift card for future purchases.) Here is the stash of books I chose.
I went with a broad range of requests (and likewise my daughter) but these are the books I took away with me:
A novel written in second person: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid. A riveting tale of one man’s journey from impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon.
I’m one of those people who struggle with Christmas. It’s a legacy from my childhood when money was tight, my father always drank too much and everyone made an effort to have a good time. Since my own children have grown up, it’s become a lot easier and we’ve introduced new Christmas traditions which I really enjoy like the 9am Christmas morning parkrun along Weymouth seafront. I also love visiting Weymouth on Boxing Day to see children riding their new bicycles and scooters. This year, the sea glinted silver under leaden clouds and was absolutely beautiful.
The new addition to our Christmas celebrations is Truffle, my daughter’s puppy. She’s still in training and tries very hard not to jump up, steal newspapers or lick everything off the kitchen floor. Unfortunately, my husband was clearing up his wine making kit (as if there isn’t enough to do on Christmas eve) when Truffle guzzled a few elderberries. My daughter was worried and rang the emergency vet who recommended a visit to the practice in Bournemouth. They duly set off but avoided a consultation charge by ringing a special phone number to be told Truffle hadn’t eaten enough elderberries to poison her.
My husband always cooks the Christmas dinner (my contribution is making red cabbage in the slow cooker). It was a splendid meal followed by music (I can play Jingle Bells on the piano – thanks to learning how to read a few notes on Duolingo‘s music programme) and singing – I just had to share with everyone my karaoke performance of Killing Me Softly which (after hours of practice), I’ve finally nailed. Well, the first verse anyway.
As for writing, I’ve submitted the opening 25,000 words of my new novel to Kate Nash’s mentoring BookCamp 2024. I thought I’d have it finished before Christmas but there was more to do than I’d anticipated. Several 6am starts and I sent it off yesterday. Hurray! (Now I need to go through the rest of the novel with a fine-tooth comb.)
I’ll close with a couple of Christmas snaps and greetings to you and yours for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2024.
Apologies for the extended gap between posts. Behind the scenes I’ve been busy working on my latest novel – and also a couple of pitches which I submitted as part of Bookouture’s annual pitch party on 5 December. Here are two pitches I submitted for a novel which has the working title The Upgrade.
MORIARTY x CLARK-PLATTS
During a holiday on a remote tropical island, a woman gets caught up in tensions between the local population and rich tourists. The husband she should be able to trust is the reason she’s a target. Can she escape the ensuing danger?
FOLEY x THE WHITE LOTUS
Three mismatched couples form a competitive friendship while on holiday. Amongst the flirt, the bully and the show-off is somebody with a secret. Temperatures rise and storms threaten. Who’s to blame when one of the group goes missing?
If you’d like to help me out with a little market research, please let me know in the comments which pitch you prefer. There’s another opportunity coming up with Kate Nash Literary Agency for their 2024 Bootcamp Mentorship and I’d like to get my ducks in a row.
Yesterday I was invited to join Sampford Courtenay Novel Writers to talk about The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell. It was a really fun morning where I got to share lots of tips and tricks for completing a novel. If you’d like me to attend your writing or book group (so long as it’s accessible from Dorset or London), please let me know.
Much of August was taken up with a rather wonderful cruise around the Norwegian fjords. We went because I’d bought a lavish evening dress in 2022 and hadn’t had a chance to wear it. There was also the small matter of a 32nd wedding anniversary to celebrate. (Our 30th was a damp squib thanks to Covid.) I wasn’t entirely confident cruising was going to be our thing and I couldn’t imagine what it would be like on the ship – my nearest comparison was a shopping centre! I’m pleased to report P&O’s Aurora was a delightful place to spend time. Here are my top three highlights of the holiday:
Skjolden
After two days at sea looking out on nothing more than (thankfully) flat, grey water and the occasional cargo ship or off-shore wind farm, we woke up in Skjolden (otherwise known as the king of fjords). We went for a walk around a lake and admired the reflections in the water and strolled past a couple of dramatic waterfalls.
Visits to Norwegian towns
We docked at eight different places. Usually we could walk straight off the ship but on one occasion had to catch a tender. Most of the towns boasted churches, museums and riverside walks. I can’t say these brief visits really provided a sense of place but the beauty of the fjords in which they were nestled was undeniable.
Onboard activities
Each evening we were provided with a programme of events for the following day. During the cruise, I enjoyed lectures on art and Norwegian history, I joined line dancing and dance fit classes as well as regular sessions at the gym. I even attended a vocal workshop. We were allocated a dinner table in the restaurant at 8:30pm and found our travelling companions to be great fun. And, of course, there were two occasions when I got to wear the lavish green evening dress on formal nights. Thanks to plenty of exercise and portion control on restaurant servings, I avoided putting on any weight.
You may notice the lavish green dress matches the cover of The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell perfectly. From today for the whole month of September, you can buy a kindle copy for only 99p. Do check out the other suspense titles from Bloodhound Books, too.
First there was my daughter’s wedding. Here is the gorgeous girl and her lovely husband.
I wrote a poem for the happy couple and read it at the service.
Then I was in a drama showcase where I performed in a scene from Ladies Day as Pearl, a fish packer from Hull. (I even managed to crack a northern accent.)
for the release of The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell
At two o’clock this afternoon Bloodhound Books officially revealed the cover of my new novel The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell. Doesn’t it look splendid? The pumps and tote bag give a distinctly 1970s vibe to the mystery while the rest of the branding suits the psychological suspense elements. To be honest, it’s a relief to have this off my desk and going out into the world in less than 4 weeks. The final stages of bringing a novel to publication is a mixture of joy and panic. Release day is Monday 3 July but if you’d like to get your UK copy organised early, here’s a Kindle pre-order link. (The paperback version should be available shortly.) My thanks go to Suzanne Goldring, Joanna Barnard and Jacquelyn Mitchard for the endorsements.
An enthusiastic early reader has posted a five-star review on Goodreads. It’s a real shot in the arm when someone who’s read my previous books says The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell is her favourite to date.
Maria and I are both published by the leading independent fiction publisher Bloodhound Books. On signing my contract, I was encouraged to interact with other Bloodhound Books authors through a private Facebook group. This was where Maria and I met and we’ve taken this connection to a new level through this interview. I’m sure you’ll find Maria’s writing journey inspiring and her debut novel a sinister yet fascinating story. Here’s the blurb for The Devil’s Own.
A set of century-old diaries found in an attic draws an Irish couple into a tale of murder and madness, in this absorbing new suspense.
After forty years in the Irish army, Brian is looking forward to retiring and spending time with his wife—though he worries about adjusting to civilian life. While clearing the attic before they move house, he makes a discovery: three journals dating back to the early twentieth century.
One was written by Arthur, an ex-Connaught Ranger; another by Arthur’s wife, Edith, a colonel’s daughter; and the third by Henry, a British soldier and Arthur’s best friend.
Brian and his wife are soon engrossed in reading the diaries and following the intertwined stories of these three people from the past. But it soon becomes chillingly clear that these diaries contain more than the daily adventures of ordinary lives. Because one of the three is a killer . . .
Thank you, Maria, for joining me on The Writer is a Lonely Hunter and agreeing to answer the questions that struck me while reading your impressive debut novel.
What steps brought you to write The Devil’s Own?
The gem of the idea for this book has been lying dormant in the back of my mind since I first saw the Curragh Camp, way back in 1978. I was working, waitressing with my mother at a dinner dance in one of the messes. My career as a waitress was very short-lived! During a break over a cup of tea, we got talking to the army chef about the building we were in, the history of the camp and the general consensus on the night – if only walls could talk.
Little did I know I would end up living in the camp, albeit for a short time around 1993. The Curragh is filled with history, going back to the days of British rule. My husband was born in the Curragh, grew up there. At one stage it had a vibrant community, completely self-contained. I was fascinated by the stories I heard from his family and our friends about the people who lived in the camp. I didn’t write them down at the time. It would take another forty years for that first spark of an idea to come to fruition.
It was International Women’s Day on Wednesday 8 March 2023, a global event which celebratesthe social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. As my contribution to the day, I joined a group of readers and writers at Bridport Library where there was a series of events including a writerly quiz, a lucky dip and talks by local writers. I was delighted to be interviewed by Sarah Scally who asked some searching questions about This Much Huxley Knows. Also on the programme was Nikki May who enjoyed phenomenal and rapid success with her novel Wahala, which tells the story of three Anglo-Nigerian best friends and a fourth woman who infiltrates their group. (I have the novel on order from Dorset Libraries and will watch out for the TV series coming on the BBC.) It was refreshing to hear about her writing journey where it took five years to become an overnight success.
It has long been an ambition to visit Ávila, close to Madrid in Spain. I love walled cities such as York and Ávila is equally impressive. ( I love to see the housing inside the walls.) When I realised it was possible to volunteer with Vaughan Town at el Barco de Ávila (a town not too far from Ávila), this killed two birds with one stone.
Vaughan Town is an organisation which recruits native English speaking volunteers to improve the spoken language skills of Spanish business people. Participants experience English emersion with over eighty hours of contact. As volunteers, David and I got to stay in a four-star hotel for six nights with all meals provided (three courses with wine at lunch and dinner plus a sumptuous breakfast). Volunteers came from Canada, England, the USA and Ireland. It was a unique opportunity to meet interesting people and converse with members of this intergenerational group. As well as one-to-ones, there were scripted telephone calls, group activities, presentations and comedy sketches. It was a rewarding experience to be part of the journey that saw participants develop their skills and fluency in using spoken English. I thoroughly recommend volunteering.
I’m here as the narrator in Cinderella (if you can see behind David’s head).
Now I’m back at home again, there’s lots of catching up to do. I’m continuing to work on a new novel set on a tropical island which focuses on the tension between affluent holidaymakers and local communities. The Vaughan Town experience has given me ideas for another story, so you could call it research.
But, the new priority for this week is getting in a practice run in preparation for the Weymouth half marathon on 19 March. Wish me luck!
the writer is a lonely hunter 