Where does author Morwenna Blackwood get her ideas from? (edited)

~ Paula Williams ~ Leave a comment

First, I have to start with an apology.  To you, my readers who are no doubt waiting anxiously for my latest blog post.  Or maybe not. (;-)

But most of all, I owe an apology to this week’s featured guest. I interviewed Morwenna Blackwood in my Idea Store column in Writers’ Forum a couple of months ago when Morwenna told me about the inspiration behind her series of novels and I wrote at the time that a fuller interview with Morwenna would appear on this my blog.

But then, like so many households, we had an unwelcome visitor by the name of Covid 19 turn up uninvited on our doorstep.  And like many an unwelcome guest, they were extremely disruptive, made a thorough nuisance of themselves and definitely outstayed their welcome, leaving us, when they eventually did go, with our house and our lives in chaos and our heads in a state of total brain fog.

Which is another way of saying that I’m sorry but my fingers, my laptop and my brain haven’t been talking to each other very much lately.

However, all is now behind us (hopefully), we’ve crossed our unwelcome visitor off our Christmas card list and my brain has started to function again.  Or as much as it ever did.

So, in my Idea Store column in Writers’ Forum I told Morwenna how I’d read and throughly enjoyed her novel The Glasshouse, even though it was way out of my reading comfort zone.  I asked how how she came up with the idea for the book which was when I discovered it was actually the second part of a three book series. Such is her skill as a writer that I didn’t even realise that as I read the book and am certainly looking forward to reading the others in the series.

Below is the fascinating and thought provoking quote she gave me for the magazine article.

Morwenna

Once upon a time, when I was sixteen and at college, sitting at my desk in a Communications Studies class, my tutor, Annie, was teaching us about how something and something else were inextricably linked. I kind of missed the point of the lesson because I can’t remember what she was actually talking about, but I’d never heard the word ‘inextricably’ before and fell in love with everything about it.

I remember thinking at the time – I can still see where I was sitting and my old folder! – when I write my books, I’m going to write about a point in time as if affects everyone around it, and the characters will all be linked but they won’t know it. I thought about writing from the points of view of four friends – separate narratives rolled into one. The idea stayed with me, literally, for years, and I wrote a load of stories, messing about with format. As I’m also fascinated by the that fact that perception is everything, even our concepts of reality, I decided to write something based on my own experience of mental illness.

Throughout my life I’ve been in and out of various psychiatric units. In one hospital, I remember a member of staff commenting on the fact that one of the psychiatrists was very good looking – I hadn’t noticed until then! – and I wondered what would happen if a doctor fell in love with a patient or vice-versa; I explored the idea in the piece I wrote for my MA dissertation, and this transpired to be the bones of Glasshouse.

Muse were the inspiration for the band in Glasshouse, ‘Charcot’; along with all the gigs I went to in my teens and twenties. I found the name when I was planning a presentation on ‘Hysteria’ as part of my MA. Jean-Martin Charcot was a French neurologist, who is best known nowadays for his work on hysteria and hypnosis; Freud was one of his students.

Although I had this fairly well-developed story, something told me that I couldn’t begin with it; instead, I wrote The (D)Evolution of Us first.

When I first fell in love, I fell in love hard. I was ill at the time, which exacerbated the situation, and when the relationship began to crack, I couldn’t understand what this lad was feeling, I’m ashamed to say. Elements of Adam and Cath came from that.

In truth, I am a survivor of abuse, and really this whole series of books (the published two, the third that’s in edits, and all the others in my notebooks and in my head) came about because I wanted to try to understand why people do the things they do – what makes someone cross a line. I hope one day to take a course in criminal psychology.

Everyone has their reasons, or, rather, catalysts, and our choices make us what we are to others. As I said, it’s all about perception – that’s why my website tagline is It’s all in your mind. I’ve spent a great deal of my life in existential crisis!

In essence, I got my ideas for this series of novels from my own experience of life, and my attempt to make sense of it.

Me

Thank you so much for that, Morwenna. That’s fascinating and I’m really looking forward to reading more of your work..   But let’s move on to your writing in general.  What inspires you most?  Is it characters? Settings? Or, maybe, books you have read?

Morwenna

I don’t think any one thing inspires me ‘most’. I kind of mash things together in my stories, so inspiration might come from a sentence I overhear walking down the street, or, in the case of Glasshouse, a turreted B and B by the sea. Novels aren’t written in a vacuum, and my personal experience of life pops up in various guises. And as a writer, of course I’m a reader. I love the exquisite and lyrical memoir writing of Horatio Clare, the bonkers stream-of-consciousness and snap-shot tripping of William H Burroughs, the bittersweetness of Jack Kerouac, and the absolutely incredible Dracula, by Bram Stoker, Joyce’s Ulysses, Luke Rhinehart’s, The Dice Man…so many!

Me

So how did your writing journey start?  Have you always written?  And what was your first published piece?

Morwenna

Writing has been the only constant in my life. I can’t remember ever not having written. The first proper story I wrote was about a frog. I was six years old, and I got told off because I wouldn’t stop writing it! It went on for a whole exercise book, and I never finished it! I took my first degree at the Uni of Manchester, because it had a great creative writing element, and wherever I’ve lived, I’ve joined writers’ groups and taken courses.

I self -published a novel – under a different name – when I was 36, but I didn’t have a clue about the industry, and have since taken it off the internet, although it might turn up in a different guise one day! Twenty years after my first degree, I took a Masters in Creative Writing at the Uni of Exeter – my dissertation eventually became Glasshouse. But it wasn’t until I took a course with Imagine, (click on the name for the link) called Novel in a Year, that I was ready to take my writing seriously, and approach agents and publishers. The (D)Evolution of Us was published by darkstroke, an independent publisher, in May 2020. And there’s no stopping me now!

Me

That’s great to hear. And what are your future plans?

Morwenna

Keep going and see what happens! As I mentioned earlier, my third novel is with my editor right now, and I’ll approach publishers when I’m happy with it!

I’m also writing a non-fiction book, and a short story. I have several other novels in the Glasshouse series planned out, and a whole load of possible plots for other works, including a tongue-in-cheek piece called My Boyfriend Invented the Jagerbomb.

Me

That’s certainly an intriguing title!  I’ll look out for it.  Now, how about telling us three things that we might not know about you.

Morwenna

1.  I Have forgotten how to ride a bike

2. I can read music

3. I threw my bra at Jarvis Cocker at a Pulp gig in 1995.

Me.

Hmm. Well, I can still ride a bike and I can also read music. But I have never thrown my bra at Jarvis Cocker or anyone else come to that! So if I tell you it’s never too late to learn to ride a bike, and you tell me, it’s never too late to ….. well, maybe not!

Thanks for a great interview, Morwenna. it was fascinating.

Edited – Hot off the press

Since this interview, Morwenna’s third book, Underrated, has become available for preorder. It will be published on February 14

And finally, those all important social media links and buy links

Social Media Links, blog, website etc.

www.morwennablackwoodauthor.com – website and blog

www.facebook.com/morwennablackwood -facebook

www.amazon.com/author/morwennablackwood – amazon author page

@MorwennaBlackw1 – Twitter 

morwennablackwood_ – Instagram

The all important buy links.  

Mybook.to/devolution – The (D)Evolution of Us

Mybook.to/glasshousenovel – Glasshouse

https://my book.to/underrated. Underrated. Publication dated 14/2/22

Author Bio

When Morwenna Blackwood was six years old, she got told off for filling a school exercise book with an endless story when she should have been listening to the teacher/eating her tea/colouring with her friends. The story was about a frog. It never did end; and Morwenna never looked back.

Born and raised in Devon, Morwenna suffered from severe OCD and depression, and spent her childhood and teens in libraries. She travelled about for a decade before returning to Devon. She now has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Exeter, and lives with her husband, son and three cats in a cottage that Bilbo Baggins would be proud of.

Morwenna is the author of best-selling noir psychological thrillers, The (D)Evolution of Us, and Glasshouse, published by darkstroke. The novels standalone but the characters and events interconnect; the third novel in the series, Underrated, is in progress.

 When she is not writing, Morwenna works for an animal rescue charity, or can be found down by the sea.

She often thinks about that frog.

Where does romantic suspense author Morton S Gray get her ideas from?

~ Paula Williams ~ 3 Comments

I’m delighted to welcome romantic suspense author, Morton S Gray to my blog this week.

I featured her recently in my Ideas Store column in Writers’ Forum because I had recently read and enjoyed The Truth Lies Buried with its engaging characters, lovely setting and a great storyline.  I was intrigued to find out where the idea for the book came from.  So I invited her on to my blog and thankfully, she said yes.

Me

Welcome, Morton and thank you for agreeing to answer my questions, particularly the one all writers are said to dread.  (Although I love it when people ask me that question!)

Where do you get your ideas from?

Morton

I have no problem finding ideas for books, it is more the time to write up all of them I struggle with.

At a writing workshop run by author Linda Gillard at a Romantic Novelists’ Association conference, Linda handed out postcards to evoke a descriptive piece of writing. My postcard was an advertising postcard for a company producing quirky garden buildings, the one in the picture was a fairy-tale castle complete with pointed turret towers and arched windows. I dutifully completed the descriptive writing and then, after the course, started to ponder who would live in a house like that and Carver Rodgers, carpenter and hero of The Truth Lies Buried was born.

For me inspiration can come from anywhere. The hero of my first published novel, The Girl on the Beach was conjured from a model’s face in a clothing catalogue. The first scenes at a high school art competition were from an art exhibition at my son’s school. I have been known to furiously scribble down bits of overhead conversation in cafés and have an overflowing file containing pictures of potential characters, rooms and locations.

Ideas and themes come to me at inopportune moments, like when I’m driving or taking a shower. I do try to keep a notebook to hand, particularly in the bathroom, but have been known to have opened out empty cardboard toilet roll tubes with closely scribbled writing on them in my ideas pile. I love writing first drafts long hand when I have the luxury of time and have been known to write at my son’s swimming lessons, sitting in doctor’s waiting rooms, on trains, planes and buses. I even tried to capture my feelings of trepidation when I was waiting to be taken down to the operating theatre one time.

My fictional seaside town of Borteen, which has been the location for six published novels so far, is very real to me. I can walk along its streets in my head and have drawn a map on several pieced together sheets of paper with the key locations marked and images stuck to the map depicting how I see the buildings, beach and caves.

It sometimes feels like I am an empty container and ideas like to find their way to me to fill this up when I least expect it. The process of piecing diverse ideas together for characters and scenes almost like a patchwork quilt is for me the most exciting part of writing a novel.

Me.

That’s brilliant.  I love the sound of Borteen which you have brought so vividly to life.  You’ve mentioned you have based six novels there.  Are your books a series? Or can they be read as standalone?

Morton

For the past few years, I have been writing stand-alone novels, but set in my fictional seaside town of Borteen. Inevitably in a small town, some characters from previous novels have a role in a new story, but the books can be read in any order.

Me

And how would you describe your genre?

Morton

My books are usually categorised as Romantic Suspense, but I describe them as romance with a mystery to solve.

Me

So far I have read two of your books (and very much looking forward to reading the others) and have loved the mystery element in both.  What inspires you most?

Morton

My inspiration can come from anywhere. It can be a couple of words in a song or even a phrase overheard in a café. I can see a face in a magazine of clothing catalogue and a character can develop from there. If I let my mind freewheel, a story often appears. I have absolutely no problem finding ideas for novels, it is more the time to write up all of them I struggle with.

Me

How did your writing journey start?

Morton

I truly cannot remember a time when I haven’t written or read avidly. Those were my favourite things at school. I used to hide away and write poems as a child and wrote my first novel aged fourteen. That first one, which I still have, features galleons and pirates. I think it was inspired by the Errol Flynn films I used to watch with my nan on Sunday afternoons.

Inevitably life got in the way and I didn’t take my writing seriously until I was in my fifties when life took yet another turn. I won a short story competition and began to attend a weekly writing class. My first novel was published after I won Choc Lit Publishing’s Search for a Star competition in 2016 with the manuscript that became The Girl on the Beach. I guess I am the proof that it’s never too late.

Me

Indeed it’s not.  I’m looking forward to seeing those pirates and galleons make an appearance in a future Borteen novel. (Now there’s a challenge for you!)

Finally, tell us three things we might not know about you.

Morton

  1. My favourite period of history is The English Civil War – I have more books in my study about this period of history than anything else.
  2. I’m an avid family historian and have been for many years, even teaching the subject at night school at one point.
  3. I make my own soap. I’ve been on a mission to reduce the amount of plastic in my bathroom and as a part of that I went on a course to learn to make and perfume my own soap and I now use solid shampoo bars.

Me.

Thank you so much for answering my questions so patiently – and I too have discovered the joy of using solid shampoo bars. (I don’t make my own though, but maybe one day…)

Author Bio

About Morton S. Gray

Morton lives with her husband, two sons and Lily, the tiny white dog, in Worcestershire, U.K. She has been reading and writing fiction for as long as she can remember, penning her first attempt at a novel aged fourteen. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and The Society of Authors.

Her debut novel The Girl on the Beach was published after she won the Choc Lit Publishing’s Search for a Star competition in 2016. Her other books for Choc Lit are The Truth Lies Buried, Christmas at Borteen Bay, Sunny Days at the Beach, Christmas at the Little Beach Café and Summer at Lucerne Lodge.

Morton previously worked in the electricity industry in committee services, staff development and training. She has a Business Studies degree and is a qualified Clinical Hypnotherapist and Reiki Master. She also has diplomas in Tuina acupressure massage and energy field therapy. She enjoys crafts, history and loves tracing family trees. Having a hunger for learning new things is a bonus for the research behind her books.

You can catch up with Morton with the following links:-

Website and blog at www.mortonsgray.com

Twitter @MortonSGray

Author – https://www.facebook.com/mortonsgray/

Instagram – htwww.instagram.com/morton_s_gray/

Morton is celebrating two things at the moment, the release of her sixth novel for Choc Lit – Summer at Lucerne Lodge and the paperback release of Sunny Days at the Beach.

Summer at Lucerne Lodge tells the story of Tanner and Rosie. They first meet at a charity auction held in the grounds of Lucerne Lodge on the outskirts of the seaside town of Borteen. However, that first meeting isn’t as innocent as it sounds, because Tanner has found a private investigator’s file on his father’s desk about Rosie and wants to know why …

Sunny Days at the Beach begins when commitment free singleton and craft shop owner Mandy takes in an abandoned teenager, but then gin distillery owner Graham arrives in Borteen with some unexpected news 

Buying links for Summer at Lucerne Lodge

Amazon http://getbook.at/SummeratLucerneLodge

Choc Lit for other retailers https://www.choc-lit.com/dd-product/summer-at-lucerne-lodge/

Buying links for Sunny Days at the Beach

Amazon http://getbook.at/PaperbackSunnyDays

Choc Lit for other retailers https://www.choc-lit.com/dd-product/sunny-days-at-the-beach/

Endings, Beginnings – and waiting for my homework to be marked.

~ Paula Williams ~ 2 Comments

I have recently typed two of my favourite words.  The End.  I have finally finished the fourth book in my Much Winchmoor Mysteries.

Of course, it isn’t the end of the process but merely the end of the beginning as it is now with my publisher.  And ahead of me (always assuming they decide they want to publish it, of course!) are the edits, the blurb writing, acknowledgements and   all the social media and marketing involved in the run up to a book launch.

It is exciting and terrifying in equal measure.

It seems like this book has been hanging around on my laptop for ever.  And, indeed, it has certainly taken longer to write than the previous three.  I started it just as Covid hit and I had a long period when I couldn’t write a shopping list, least of all a murder mystery.  And even when the brain fog began to fade, it took ages to pick up the pieces and join all the bits of the jigsaw together.  (And, as I write this, I am still not one hundred per cent certain that there aren’t any missing pieces)..

But I think I managed to tie in all the loose ends (apologies for the switching of metaphors) even though there was one scene that I don’t remember writing at all.

Usually, I leave the final scene until I’ve written the second, sometimes even the third draft.  And I thought I’d done so in this case and as I was getting closer to the end, I was still dithering about how to end it.

But there, to my astonishment, was the final scene.  And I honestly don’t remember writing it or making the decision to finish it the way I did.  But when I read it through, I really liked it and didn’t change a single word. Having said that, of course, my editor might hate it!

This stage of the book’s journey is very much like being back at school and that anxious wait to get your homework back.

Until then, I thought I would put myself in the hot seat this time and ask myself the dreaded question:

Where did the idea for Murder on High come from?

In fact it came from two very different sources.  The first was a local fundraising event, the other a non-fiction book that I’ve had for ages.

For many years we had a time share in the Lake District and would make the great trek north (from Somerset) every November,  I love the area and have set many short stories, three serials and two of my large print novels there.

I’ve always been in awe of the amazing work done by the Mountain Rescue teams and wanted to write about it so I bought several books as research material.  One of them was Rescue: True Stories from Lake District Mountain Rescue written by John White who for many years was a member of a Mountain Rescue Team.

The book was published way back in 1997 and I probably bought it around that time. One particular phrase stuck in my mind all that time.  He is describing a rescue involving an abseil which almost went wrong and he makes the comment that abseiling is only the second fastest way down a mountain.  

And the other source of inspiration?  That was a fundraising event in my village which involved abseiling teddy bears down from the top of the church tower.  This involved lowering the precious bears extremely carefully down from the top of the tower to their anxious owners waiting below.

And I thought, as I stood there watching all the activity, that it would make a great location for a murder because, as we all know by now, abseiling is only the second fastest way down a church tower.

So my thanks to John White and to the members of my village hall committee for the inspiration behind Murder on High.

So what’s next?  Is there a fifth Much Winchmoor in the pipeline?

There certainly is.   I have a title (Death of a Dame) and a victim but I have yet to settle on a murderer or, even, a motive.  Although I have a few red herrings lurking in the shallows.

I also have a shiny new Scrivener file, just waiting to be filled.  And a pile of real (as opposed to digital) index cards. And, once again, this takes me back to my schooldays.

I used to love the start of a new school year when we’d be given brand new exercise books and a new ‘rough book’.  This was a notebook that was only to be written in in pencil as once the book was filled up, we were supposed to go back to the beginning, rub it out and use it again. By the time the end of term came around, my ‘rough’ book had certainly earned its name and was decidedly rough around the edges. I would like to say that this was all about saving the rain forests, but it was far more likely to be about saving money.

The exercise books, though, were written in ink, as were the teachers’ marks and comments.  So each new school year was a new beginning.  All those C minuses from the previous year wiped away.  A clean slate.  And every year I promised myself that I would work harder and that this year my books would not be marred by C minuses and comments about ‘could do better’.

(My English teacher once wrote “shrunk to this little measure?” on some spelling corrections I was supposed to have done but hadn’t.  She said she’d let me off doing them if I correctly identified the quotation!  I could – and she did!  Please let me know if the comments if you did and I promise not to make you write a page of spelling corrections.)

So now, here I am back at school waiting for my homework to be marked.  And when it does come back, I know it’s going to be littered with red marks, just like my schoolwork was.

But no C minuses, I hope.

Certainly the process of being a published author is very much like being back at school. But I’m not complaining.  I absolutely loved school, apart from the C minuses, of course. So I am in my happy place when I’m writing.

But the marketing?  Ah no.  That’s a bit like me and the dreaded physics lessons.  I never could quite work out what was going wrong and why everyone else just seemed to ‘get it’ and I didn’t.  

And it was physics that earned me all those C minuses.

.

…..and finally, just because I can, here’s a random picture of Duke.

Where does crime thriller author Bill Todd get his ideas from?

~ Paula Williams ~ Leave a comment

I’m delighted to welcome to my blog this week Bill Todd, author of the Danny Lancaster series of crime thrillers.

I came across Bill as one of the contributors to the anthology Criminal Shorts which I have featured in previous blog posts.  I was interested in featuring him in my Ideas Store column in Writers’ Forum as I knew my readers would be interested in learning how a writer of a series manages to keep coming up with ideas.  

I was, therefore, delighted when he agreed to be featured both in my column and here on my blog.

Me.

Welcome, Bill and thank you for agreeing to sit in the hot seat and answer that question all writers are said to dread.

Where do you get your ideas from?

Bill

The old quote ‘Write drunk, edit sober,’ wrongly attributed to Ernest Hemingway, is not a reliable path to ideas although the odd glass or two can liberate the imagination. 

Sometimes it’s like lightening from a clear sky but in my experience ideas have three sources – news, travel and ‘what if…’ moments.

Plot ideas can come from anywhere, anytime. When they do I push them away, ignore them. If they keep muscling back into my consciousness then I think I might be on to something. 

I’m a journalist and travel writer and have written seven crime thrillers featuring wounded soldier turned investigator Danny Lancaster. 

My first book came from a shipwreck. I remember watching TV news of the container ship Napoli damaged by wind and waves in Storm Kyrill in the English Channel. 

When shipping containers washed ashore hundreds of people ignored police and scavenged the cargo. Booty included nappies, perfume and even motorbikes. My peculiar brain asked, what would happen if something dangerous washed ashore? The answers are in THE WRECK OF THE MARGHERITA.

When I was a kid I was a huge fan of rock bands, going to Zeppelin and Deep Purple gigs. The crazy lifestyle of drugs, groupies and trashing hotel rooms was admired back then but would raise a hashtag Twitter storm today. I wondered if consequences from those wild days might come back to haunt the aged rockers and so DEATH SQUAD was born.

I’ve always loved travelling, Interrailing in my teens and later visiting more than 40 countries as a travel writer. One favourite is Namibia, south west Africa. It’s like another planet, ancient deserts, multi-coloured cliffs, centuries-old trees preserved by fierce dry heat.

This inspired a plot that became ROUGH DIAMOND.

The same principle applied using Gibraltar as a character in ROCK HARD. This tiny spec at the entrance to the Med is dripping in history and just shouts stories.

Focusing on a plot can be a very single-minded activity so next I decided to challenge myself with something shorter. Brighton is a party city but it has a dark side. Homelessness, drugs and violence are real issues. I wanted to explore this and met many wonderful people while researching. The result was a novella and six short stories, GARGOYLE PIXIE DOG.

Then I had the urge to write something that needed an isolated, tranquil setting before the storm hits. The Seven Sisters and Cuckmere Haven on the Sussex coast was the perfect place and I loved writing GODLEFE’S  CUCKOO. 

I’ve had a passionate lifelong affair with the great British pub. Few things match the rush of tiny bubbles rising up a freshly-poured pint of real ale, impatient to bathe your waiting tastebuds. A locked pub murder mystery seemed an obvious move and, after much dedicated research, this became LAST ORDERS.

There’s no rhyme or reason to the birth of ideas. It’s just a case of keeping eyes, ears and mind open. And a notebook handy.

Me

Great answers, Bill – and I’ll certainly remember the tip about keeping a notebook handy.  Thank you so much.  As space in the magazine is limited, this blog now gives us the chance to go into your writing career in a little more detail.

How would you describe your genre?  And do you write a series or can your books be read and standalone?

Bill

I describe my books as crime thrillers, a mix of detection and action. All seven feature wounded ex-soldier turned investigator for hire Danny Lancaster but all are self-contained. They can all be read as standalones and you can dib in anywhere. 

Me.

What inspires you most?  Is it characters, settings or maybe books you have read?

Bill

I think it’s a cocktail of characters and settings. Each element affects the other and, using my experiences as a travel writer, the settings are often characters in their own right as they influence characters and drive the action. 

I’m always pleased with one of my characters when they abandon their carefully-plotted path and go off at a tangent. It’s as if they’ve developed a life of their own which has to be a good thing.

Books I have read had an influence in the early days. I was a big fan of Frederick Forsyth, Len Deighton and Jack Higgins. 

Me.

And how did your writing journey start?  Have you always written?  And what was your first published piece?

Bill

When I was very young my grandfather Bill, a countryman living in town, wrote a series of short stories about the adventures of cave boys Wilto and Johto, based on me and my brother John. 

It’s very un-PC, featuring hunting and trapping, but I treasure the yellowed and cracked notepaper it’s written on.

Grandad’s stories were an inspiration and I’ve written for as long as I can remember. 

Working on newspapers and family life has filled much of my time, although I still wrote, so my first published work was probably my first Danny Lancaster novel.

Me.

That’s wonderful!  I’m sure your grandfather would have been thrilled and delighted by your successful writing career.

What are your future plans?  More Danny Lancaster, I hope!

Bill

I have a number of irons in the fire. Some are glowing gently, others are red hot. There are ideas for a new Danny Lancaster and a standalone thriller as well as a book of my travel diaries and, perhaps, editing my grandfather’s Wilto and Johto stories. Not sure yet which way I’ll go. I’m still waiting for the muse to decide.

Me.

Exciting times!  I look forward to seeing which the muse decides for you.

Finally, Bill, how about telling us three things we might not know about you?

Bill.

  1. My spiritual home is a small place on Crete but I’m not saying where.
  2. I am addicted to steamed apple pudding but no one makes it like my late lamented grandmother Jean. 
  3. I’ve been tear gassed twice. Once by Greek riot police and once by the United States Air Force. In both cases I was an innocent bystander.

Me.

Ouch!  But at least you can write with confidence about how it feels to be tear gassed.  Nothing is ever wasted to a writer, is it?

Thank you so much for answering my questions for fully and so patiently.  And the very best of luck wherever your muse agrees to take you.

Social Media Links, blog, website etc.

Website: www.billtodd.co.uk

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5804102.Bill_Todd

Twitter: https://twitter.com/williamjtodd – @williamjtodd

Twitter: https://twitter.com/@DannyLancaster3 – @DannyLancaster3
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DannyLancasterInvestigates/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/billtodd_writer/ – @billtodd_writer

The all important buy links.  

THE WRECK OF THE MARGHERITA http://mybook.to/WreckOfTheMargherita – Free ebook 

DEATH SQUAD http://mybook.to/DeathSquad – 99p/99c

ROUGH DIAMOND http://mybook.to/roughdiamond – 99p/99c

ROCK HARD http://mybook.to/rockhard – 99p/99c

GARGOYLE PIXIE DOG http://mybook.to/GargoylePixieDog – 99p/99c

GODLEFE’S CUCKOO http://mybook.to/GodlefesCuckoo – 99p/99c

LAST ORDERS http://mybook.to/LastOrders – 99p/99c

Author Bio

As I kid I lay in bed at night making up stories in my head. Soon they transferred to paper and then screen. I’ve always written. 

My career has been in journalism and travel writing but I have wound that down a little now so I can write more for myself.

In addition to my seven Danny Lancaster crime thrillers I’ve written three brief military histories.

GUNNER is based on my father’s World War Two diary. A CROCUS FROM JERUSALEM is an account of a great uncle serving as an infantryman in Palestine in 1917. PIGTAIL PILOT is the story of a young girl, passionate about flying, killed in an RAF training accident. 

Running in joint second place after writing are passions for real ale, interesting cheese, photography and Crete. 

However, much of my time now is occupied by three-year-old grandson Theo, a dinosaur fan and keen adventurer, and his baby brother Jack who enjoys staring and smiling.

Where does Trevor Wood, multi-award winning author of gritty crime thrillers, get his ideas from?

~ Paula Williams ~ Leave a comment

You know that moment when you read a book and think “This one’s a winner”?  It’s always exciting but even more so when the book you’re reading is a debut novel.  It sends a tingle up your spine, doesn’t it?

Well, I had one such spine tingling moment recently when I picked up Trevor Wood’s “The Man on the Street” – yet another great recommendation from my favourite Facebook group, UK Crime Book Club.

This is a well written, fast paced book with some wonderfully drawn characters and a most unusual “detective”, Jimmy Mullen, an ex-serviceman who suffers from PTSD and has ended up living on the streets.

So, as always, I asked Trevor where he got the idea for the books (and yes, I’m happy to say it’s a series of three) and whether he would agree to be interviewed for my blog.  And he said yes.

Me

Welcome, Trevor and thank you for the hours of reading pleasure you have given me and, I’m sure, many, many others.  I’ve read the first two books in the series and am now eagerly awaiting number three which I understand is due out early next year.

So, the question all writers are said to dread!  Where did the idea for “The Man In The Street” come from?

Trevor

The idea for The Man on the Street came out of sheer necessity. I was on the inaugural Crime Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. I signed up for the course for two reasons. The first was that although I had previously been a relatively successful playwright I felt that the two writing disciplines were almost entirely different and needed help to make the switch. The second was that the deliverable at the end of the course wasn’t a theoretical essay or thesis it was a 90,000 word crime novel.

It was only when I got to the first residential that I realized everyone had already developed an idea for their book except me. So the moment I got home I sat down with my wife and brainstormed ideas. One of the many things I love about modern-day crime fiction is the way you can explore almost any social issue within the guise of a crime novel and I was keen to write something outside the standard police procedural format. As soon my wife said ‘what if a homeless man sees a murder’ I knew that was an idea worth exploring, the only problem was that I wasn’t sure that I was the right writer to explore it.

Fortunately, as soon as I started to do some research one of the first things I came across was a statistic that suggested that around ten per cent of the homeless are ex-servicemen. That gave me a way in – before I started writing I was in the Royal Navy for 16 years. I was fascinated to explore how someone who had once, at the very least, been organized, disciplined and capable of working under intense pressure, could end up living on the streets. The answer in many cases was PTSD. I was in the RN during the Falkland War and though I was never sent down to the South Atlantic I had many friends who were and knew how deeply it had affected them. My protagonist, Jimmy Mullen, was starting to take shape. 

My next breakthrough was to read about a new book in the Big Issue. The Veteran’s Survival Guide was written by an ex-soldier called Jimmy Johnson, who had served two tours in Belfast and ended up with PTSD. His condition was so bad that he killed a man whilst suffering an extreme flashback and is now in prison for life. The book is his way of trying to prevent anyone else going through a similar experience, primarily urging ex-servicemen to seek the help they need.

The last piece of the jigsaw that I needed was to learn more about homelessness so I started volunteering at the People’s Kitchen in my home city, Newcastle. It’s a charity that feeds around 200 people every day, amongst other services, entirely run and manned by volunteers. Working there, as a cook, every Tuesday afternoon has been eye-opening and helped me understand the difficulties and experiences that Jimmy experiences in The Man on the Street.

Me

That is fascinating and your painstaking research certainly paid off as the world you have created is very believable as are the characters.  So, how would you desc ride your genre? 

Trevor

I looked back to when I was pitching the book to agents and back then I was calling the book a ‘character-driven crime thriller which combines social realism with great pace.’ That’s obviously a bit of a mouthful so let’s go with gritty crime thrillers. 

Interestingly The Man on the Street was originally written as a standalone for the obvious reason that it has a homeless protagonist, rather than the standard cop or detective. However, every publisher who showed an interest insisted it should be a series as readers would want to read more about the main characters. I didn’t want to move away from reality too much, with a homeless man tripping over bodies as if he lived in Midsomer, so we eventually compromised on a trilogy. The second in the series, One Way Street is already out in e-book and audio with the hardback arriving on June 10. The third in the series, Dead End Street, will be published in early 2022.

Me. 

Well, you have certainly succeeded in writing something that combines social realism with great pace.  What inspires you most?

Trevor

I had never been to Newcastle before I met and married a Geordie in my early thirties but fell in love with the place immediately and really wanted to capture the passion and energy of the place in the books so that’s one big inspiration. 

I also like crime writers who managed to say something about the state of the nation in their books, Eva Dolan, Denise Mina and Doug Johnstone spring to mind so that’s another.

Me.

You’re in great company!  Tell us a little about your writing journey.

Trevor

When I left the Royal Navy I retrained as a journalist and met Ed Waugh on my journalism course. We became firm friends almost instantly – we car-shared to the course and both were keen music fans and had the same taste in comedy shows. 

A few years later we decided that we should try and write something together. Amazingly our first play, Good to Firm was on stage within six months of starting out. Our second play Dirty Dusting was a massive success, touring all over the world and is still touring now (when the theatres are open anyway). We went on to write around a dozen plays together, all of which had productions in the North East before moving to other parts of the country. You can check out our plays at www.edwaughandtrevorwood.co.uk 

Me

And future plans?

Trevor

The third book in the Jimmy Mullen series is just being edited at the moment. I have a deal for one further book with my publishers and I’m currently working on a standalone thriller set in the wilds of Northumberland, which has given me a great excuse to go on some fantastic walks around the country recently!

Me

And finally, how about telling us three things about you that we might not know?

Trevor

1.   At my advanced age of 61 I played for the triumphant England Crime Writers football team against our Scottish counterparts at Bloody Scotland the last time it was on in 2019. We won 3-0. 

2 I’m the all-time leading run scorer for Mallards CC – the self-acclaimed friendliest cricket club in the North East. That’s not as impressive as it sounds – I’ve played a lot more games than anyone else and we’re not very good. Our website is a lot of fun though, especially the match reports and player profiles. You can see mine here: http://mallardscc.org.uk/player-profiles/trevor-wood

3   When I was 16 I appeared with my mum on the TV quiz show Three Little Words. Your partner was given a word and had to give you a one-word clue so you could guess what it was. The first word my mum was given was ‘illegitimate.’ She didn’t shy away from going for the obvious.

Me

Brilliant!  Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions.

Author bio

Trevor Wood has lived in Newcastle for 25 years and considers himself an adopted Geordie, though he still can’t speak the language. He’s a successful novelist and playwright who has also worked as a journalist and spin-doctor for the City Council. Prior to that he served in the Royal Navy for 16 years. Trevor holds an MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) from UEA. 

His first novel The Man on the Street, which is set in his home city and features a homeless protagonist, was published in March 2020. Lee Child described it as ‘an instant classic.’ It won the Crime Writers’ Association’s John Creasey New Blood Dagger for best debut and has recently been longlisted for the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year. It’s also shortlisted for the Crimefest Specsavers Debut Novel of the Year. The sequel, One Way Street, was released on e-book and audio in October and was published in hardback in June 2021. 

Trevor is one of the founder members of the Northern Crime Syndicate and is a volunteer at the People’s Kitchen in Newcastle, a charity that provides hot meals for more than a hundred people every day.

Social Media Links, blog, website etc.

Twitter @TrevorWoodWrite

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/trevor.wood.3150

Website: www.trevorwoodauthor.co.uk

The all important buy links.  

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trevor-Wood/e/B07V43Y9YX

Bookshop.org https://uk.bookshop.org/books?keywords=trevor+wood

https://www.forumbooksshop.com/

Where does Nathan Dylan Goodwin, author of the Forensic Genealogist series, get his ideas?

~ Paula Williams ~ 2 Comments

I am delighted to welcome to my blog this week Nathan Dylan Goodwin, author of the Forensic Genealogist series of mysteries.

I am not very keen on television programmes that feature ‘celebrities’ but the one I make an exception for is Who Do You Think You Are? where a series of experts help celebrities to trace their family trees and discover their ancestors. (Although I think the programme would work equally as well, if not better, with non-celebrities).

So I was intrigued and delighted when I came across Nathan’s book, Hiding the Past, which had the words ‘A Morton Farrier Forensic Genealogist story’ above the title.  What, I wondered, was a Forensic Genealogist?  So I read the book to find out.

There are currently eight books in the series and I have stormed through every single one, one straight after the other.  I just couldn’t stop reading them!  And it was not helped by the fact that at the end of each book there was the opening chapters of the next one!  

I loved the mixture of history, mystery and the gradual unravelling of Morton’s own less than straightforward family history so I got in touch with him and asked if he would agree to do an interview for my column in Writers’ Forum and for this blog.

Me.

Welcome to my blog, Nathan, and, first of all, thank you for the many hours of reading pleasure you having given me through your Morton Farrier series. I have just finished the eighth in the series, The Sterling Affair, and am eagerly looking forward to the next one. So, how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

Nathan

Whilst undertaking an MA in Creative Writing at Canterbury Christ Church University, I began writing a story featuring a genealogist who tries to solve a crime in the past using genealogy, a kind of ‘Who Do you Think You Are?’ spin on the traditional detective genre. 

The story eventually became Hiding the Past, the first book in what has turned into an ongoing series with Morton Farrier as the main protagonist. Each book is partly set in the modern day and partly set during a different period in history where the crime has occurred. Morton is himself adopted and, whilst trying to solve the crimes (often getting himself into precarious situations during the course of his investigations), strives to discover the identity of his biological parents.

Me.

It’s a great idea and I have really enjoyed following Morton’s journey.  How would you describe the genre in which you write?

Nathan

My books sit within the growing niche genre of genealogical crime mysteries, a hybrid of crime, mystery and, oftentimes, historical fiction. When I started writing, there were very few books within this genre, but it is wonderful to see it flourishing with a variety of fantastic authors. It was only during the latter stages of writing the first book, Hiding the Past, that I realised that it had the potential to become a series. It was so well received that I decided to carry on. I’m still going!

Me.

I’m delighted to hear it.  Your most recent book is The Sterling Affair.  I really enjoyed all the twists and turns in this one.   

Nathan

The Sterling Affair – The Blurb.

When an unannounced stranger comes calling at Morton Farrier’s front door, he finds himself faced with the most intriguing and confounding case of his career to-date as a forensic genealogist. He agrees to accept the contract to identify a man who had been secretly living under the name of his new client’s long-deceased brother. Morton must use his range of resources and research skills to help him deconstruct this mysterious man’s life, ultimately leading him back into the murky world of 1950s international affairs of state. Meanwhile, Morton is faced with his own alarmingly close DNA match which itself comes with far-reaching implications for the Farriers.

Me.

I enjoy reading the notes at the end of each book where you detail the research that went into each one.  What inspires you most when you’re deciding what to write?  Is it characters?  Settings?  A particular moment in history?

Nathan

I’m most inspired by the nugget of a story—usually with factual elements—that I think I can weave into a fiction story. I just love the moment when the idea takes on a life of its own. For example, with my last book, The Sterling Affair, that moment occurred when I received an email from The National Archives announcing the release of new, previously classified MI5 and MI6 records. Having taken a cursory view online, and then a much more in-depth look at the actual documents held by TNA at their repository in Kew, London, I began to work on a story about a spy network operating in the 1950s. Ideas for characters and settings then begin to form and take shape out of such research that I undertake.

Me.

That’s fascinating.  And how did you writing journey start?

Nathan

I’ve always loved writing but never thought that it was something that I could do as a career, until I had my first non-fiction book, Hastings at War, published. It was followed up with three further local history books, which led me to want to explore fiction writing in the form of an MA in Creative Writing. 

It was during this course that I first came up with the idea for the Forensic Genealogist series, featuring Morton Farrier as the eponymous character who has to solve a crime in the past using genealogy. The first book, Hiding the Past, turned into a series and since 2015 I have been a fulltime writer.

Me.

And what about your future plans?  More Forensic Genealogist books, I hope!

Nathan

I have ideas for several more books in the Forensic Genealogist series, plus others for another series that I have started with The Chester Creek Murders, which was released in January 2021 and is about the use of investigative genetic genealogy to solve cold cases in the U.S. My notes file for future writing projects is huge.

Me.

Great. That sounds fascinating. I look forward to that.  Finally, tell us three things that we may not know about you.

Nathan

1. Long before commercial testing was available, I was DNA tested by the U.S Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in a project they were running to identify the ‘Unknown Child’ who had drowned onboard the Titanic. He was successfully identified as Sidney Leslie Goodwin.

2. I collect bowler hats and eagerly await the day that they come back into fashion so I can actually wear them.

3. Before I became a writer I had a range of glamorous jobs, including working in a chocolate factory eating packaging chocolate buttons, fruit-packing, a gardener’s assistant, fishmonger, delicatessen worker, drama technician and, most recently, a primary school teacher.

Me.

Thank you so much, Nathan, for a fascinating interview – and I look forward to the return of the bowler hat.

Author Bio

Nathan Dylan Goodwin is a writer, genealogist and educator. He was born and raised in Hastings, East Sussex. Schooled in the town, he then completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Radio, Film and Television Studies, followed by a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing at Canterbury Christ Church University. A member of the Society of Authors, he has completed a number of local history books about Hastings, as well as several works of fiction, including the acclaimed Forensic Genealogist series. His other interests include theatre, reading, photography, running, skiing, travelling and, of course, genealogy. He is a qualified teacher, member of the Guild of One-Name Studies and the Society of Genealogists, as well as being a member of the Sussex Family History Group, the Norfolk Family History Society and the Kent Family History Society. He lives in Kent with his husband, son, dog and chickens.

Social Media Links, blog, website etc.

Twitter: @NathanDGoodwin

Facebook: www.facebook.com/NathanDylanGoodwin  

Instagram: www.instagram.com/NathanDylanGoodwin 

The all important buy link.  

www.nathandylangoodwin.com 

https://getbook.at/TheSterlingAffair

Where do these talented Criminal Shorts authors get their ideas from? Part 2.

~ Paula Williams ~ 2 Comments

This is the second post featuring some of the authors who contributed to the Criminal Shorts anthology I talked about in my last post. It can be found here.

Towards the end of 2020 I was delighted to be included in this anthology which was collated by one of my favourite Facebook groups and sold in aid of a very special charity.

UK Crime Book Club is a thriving, well run book club on Facebook with a great mix of authors and readers. (As I write this there are 18.7k members, of which over 500 are authors, including big names  and some not-so-big names – like mine.)  

Link here to UKCBC

I asked the 22 authors who are included in the book where they got the idea for their stories from and had so many responses that I’ve had to publish this blog in two parts.

*****

Samantha Brownley (writing as Sam Thomas).

Short story: Six Pieces Each

“When I first started writing a story for Criminal Shorts, I had something completely different in mind that just wasn’t working,” she says. “Wondering what on earth I was going to write, I pulled out my stack of notebooks and found a detailed idea that I had written months before. Six Pieces Each is loosely based on my original plan. It came together over a weekend and changed dramatically as I got to know the main character, Josie. It’s quite a dark story in places, certainly different to what I have written before. It was my first published fiction and seeing it in print alongside so many wonderful authors has been a dream come true.”

Sam lives in Manchester with her husband and three children.  She loves to read crime fiction and  interviews authors for the UK Crime Book Club. She writes blogs for businesses and is a teaching assistant in a Primary School.  Six pieces each is her fourth short story and the first fiction she has ever put forward for publication.

Sam is currently working on her first novel.

*******

T.G. Campbell.  Author of Bow Street Society series.

 Short story: The Case of the Devil’s Dare

“The idea behind the Bow Street Society is to celebrate the ordinary through the extraordinary by showing how the skills and knowledge we acquire through our everyday jobs can help us achieve fantastic things—like solving mysteries,” TG explains. “My idea for ‘The Case of the Devil’s Dare’ was shaped by my fascination with the ‘impossible’ crime, the supernatural, and the ramifications of refusing to look beyond personal opinions.”

Amazon author page

Tahnee Georgina Campbell wrote her first crime fiction story at the age of sixteen as a gift for her best friend. At only 40 pages long it fell considerably short of a “novel” but it marked the beginning of a creative journey that would eventually spawn the first of the Bow Street Society mystery novels; The Case of the Curious Client. During that time she attended the University of Winchester where she acquired her Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Studies and wrote a dissertation on the social and cultural importance of the works of Agatha Christie. 

The Bow Street Society is a fictional group of amateur detectives, operating in Victorian London, that feature in the murder mystery writings of award winning crime author, T.G. Campbell. Each of its civilian members has been enlisted for their unique skill or exceptional knowledge in a particular field derived from their usual occupation. Members are assigned to cases, by the Society’s clerk, Miss Trent, based upon these skills and fields of knowledge. 

The Case of The Curious Client won a Book Award with Fresh Lifestyle Magazine, an achievement she is extremely proud of. She’s written a monthly feature for the magazine ever since. Her features cover a range of topics from Hidden London to every day life in Victorian era London.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/T-G-Campbell/e/B01HV5P1XM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1623234590&sr=8-1

Website. www.bowstreetsociety.com

Contact. info@bowstreetsociety.com

*****

Robert Crouch, author of the Kent Fisher series.  (Featured here on this blog)

Short story. A Real Paige Turner

“I wanted to write something light, entertaining and fun. With a struggling crime writer as the sleuth and a femme fatale in the mix, I could pay homage to the golden age of private eye novels. There’s also a cheeky nod to Sherlock Holmes for good measure.”

Robert’s Amazon author page 

Can an ordinary person solve a murder?

Robert looked for inspiration in the Agatha Christie classics he loved and enjoyed. Why not create a modern day sleuth to solve the most baffling and complex murder mysteries in the time honoured tradition of the classic whodunit?

Maybe readers would enjoy someone they could relate to, someone a little different from the usual world weary police detectives with more traumas than a casualty unit. 

Using his lifelong love of murder mysteries and his experience as an environmental health officer, the author created an amateur sleuth with more baggage than an airport carousel. Contemporary themes and a cast of engaging characters, seasoned with a little romance and irreverent humour, offer readers an entertaining alternative to dark, gritty and often violent crime fiction.

Robert writes full time from his home on the South Coast, where he lives with his wife and their Westie, Harvey

Amazon author page. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Robert-Crouch/e/B01HFPCYOM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1623234950&sr=8-1

Website: www.robertcrouch.co.uk

*****

Barbara Norrey

Barbara holds a Masters Degree in Information Science and works as a medical librarian.  But ever since school she has always written although it wasn’t until she joined the UK Crime Book Club that she had the impetus to share her writing with anyone else.

“I promised I would try and write something for the anthology, but I had left it until the last couple of weekends before the deadline, and still only had a couple of vague, half-baked ideas floating about in my head. I had thought to write about a violent response to emotional bullying, which is so insidious and devastating, but also wanted to look at the idea of killing someone by simply looking the other way.

“So I attempted to examine and combine the two concepts – I hope successfully. That all sounds very stuffy – as once I started writing, the story morphed several times, flip flopped a couple more and then settled, heading for its conclusion. I think it worked eventually as planned, as a friend of mine said she didn’t actually like the ‘victim’ either! A couple of edits, tweaks and additions later the night before it was due to be submitted and job done – for better or worse.

“Stunned and honoured to be included, hugely grateful to Kath and Will for their further tidying up and also to UKCBC for the opportunity to wield my pen. Such a good feeling to be supporting the Red Kite Academy too”.

*****

Will Templeton, author of Births, Marriages and Death. (and co-editor of the anthology)

Short story. Heart of the Green

“Heart of the Green was the second time I’d visited my folklore/ fantasy inspired character Jack (o’ the) Green, so I had a bit of an idea who he was this time,” Will says. “The story itself grew from the idea of the proceeds of crime being “lost” in the forest, Jack’s domain, and so he’s enlisted to help find the loot. The relationships and motivations of the secondary characters changed over time, so much so that the “twist” was as big a surprise to me as I hope it was to the reader.

“The notion of steal from the rich to give to the poor snuck into my thoughts during the writing process, which then transformed the narrative, and conjured imagery such as the robins and the “little” boy, John, who wanted to live as an outlaw. The result was a cross genre tale which is a bit different but is hopefully entertaining.”

from Will’s Amazon author page

Many years ago Will Templeton worked briefly in the tax collectors’ office, and, deciding that wasn’t for him, he then tried his hand at such varied vocations as hairdresser, bricklayer and mechanic, before finally finding a place at Doncaster Register Office. 

He stayed there for over thirty years, working his way up from Receptionist to Superintendent Registrar, eventually throwing it all in to become a full-time scriptwriter. Over the years he has also written many plays which have been performed to glowing reviews. 

Births, Marriages and Death is his first novel

Amazon author page link   https://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B07YLXDFX4?

Will’s social media etc links. Https://my.bio/willtemp

*****

And finally, me!

Paula Williams. Author of the Much Winchmoor Murder Mysteries (and this blog)

Short story.  Dead in the Ground

My story is set during a wet and muddy Glastonbury Festival where a body is found, face down, in the mud. Did he fall – or was he pushed?  And is the wrong person arrested for his murder?  As the story moves on, it all becomes clear …. as the Worthy Farm mud.

But I have a confession to make.  I am lucky enough to live not far from the site but I have never been to the Festival – although I have been held up in the traffic jams many, many times.  But hey, I’m a writer.  I make things up for a living.

My amazon author page link

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paula-Williams/e/B004NO26ME?

Where do these talented Criminal Shorts authors get their ideas from?

~ Paula Williams ~ 1 Comment

Towards the end of 2020 I was delighted to be included in an anthology collated by one of my favourite Facebook groups and sold in aid of a very special charity.

UK Crime Book Club is a thriving, well run book club on Facebook with a great mix of authors and readers. (As I write this there are 18.7k members, of which over 500 are authors, including big names  and some not-so-big names – like mine.)  

The anthology, Criminal Shorts, is available in ebook and paperback format on Amazon (link here) and was the brainchild of authors Kath Middleton and Will Templeton.  Several times a year UKCBC produces seasonal short stories (eg Christmas, Halloween etc) written by UKCBC members and shared on the UKCBC Facebook page.

“The idea of compiling an anthology first occurred to me a while ago, when the ‘Seasonal Shorts‘ events became so popular,” Will Templeton explains.  “I discussed the notion with Kath Middleton, but between us we dismissed it as being too much hard work! 

“When the idea was raised again in the UKCBC admin group chat it became apparent there was a strong interest in it and we wouldn’t be able to duck out of it so easily. (Just kidding!). 

“The charity was chosen by the admins as one of our author members has a child at the Red Kite Academy, (www.redkitespecialacademy.co.uk) so we felt they would be an ideal recipient of the proceeds.

“The call for submissions brought us a staggering number of stories of a very high quality. This made whittling down the entries to a manageable amount very daunting, assessing originality and ingenuity to finish with a selection to impress the most discerning reader. We hope we have succeeded in creating a unique and exciting book.”

And they certainly succeeded.  The anthology is a superb collection of finely crafted stories and I enjoyed every one.

So I asked the 22 authors involved if any of them would be kind enough to share with the readers of my Ideas Store column (in the UK magazine Writers’ Forum ) where they got the ideas for their stories from and was delighted when thirteen of them responded.  So much so I had way too much material for one issue of my single page column and I had to spread them over three issues!

Also, because of issues of space, I was unable to supply the authors’ links or buy links and am happy to rectify this here. 

I don’t want to make this post too long so I am splitting up the 13 authors who contributed quotes in my column into two posts, with the second being published within the next few days.

………………

Kath Middleton.   Short story: Dark Fires

“I began with the idea of a girl being set up to take the blame for her twin brother’s fire-raising,” Kath explains. “As she was the subservient twin, it would be easy for him to fool her, and make her incriminate herself. As the story evolved, I started to consider the concept of gaslight, so the whole focus changed. Sometimes you don’t write the story you thought you would.”

From Kath’s Amazon author page

Kath Middleton began her writing with drabbles (100 words stories) and contributed a number to Jonathan Hill’s second drabble collection. It wasn’t long before she moved up a size to contribute short stories to anthologies. Shortly afterwards, she progressed to writing longer pieces and her first solo work, Ravenfold, was published to much acclaim. This was followed by the novella, Message in a Bottle. There are now several more publications from short stories to novels. 

Kath likes to put her characters in difficult situations and watch them work their way out. She believes in the indomitable nature of the human spirit (and chickens).

Kath is retired. She graduated in geology and has a certificate in archaeology. When she’s in a hole, she doesn’t stop digging.

website – http://www.kathmiddletonbooks.com/

Amazon author page

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kath-Middleton/e/B00H1WWW2E%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

………………..

Brian Caves.  Short story. Brooks

“The idea behind this was to try an do something different…and I remembered the Francis Ford Coppola film with Gene Hackman as a surveillance operative. It was called The Conversation – superb film,” he says.

“And that’s what started the idea of Brooks, a gun for hire, a cleaner; someone who sorts out someone else’s mess. I thought why not two men in a room having a conversation about sleazy goings on with a Government minister? Brooks would question the minister about his unpalatable habits and actions, each of which is revealed as the conversation progresses. Ultimately, the minister accepts that he has to resign.”

Brian has published two full length novels, short stories and novellas.  He is currently working on follow ups to A Long Way from Home and The Tin Man,  a new full length novel set in the US called Close To The Edge and a book of horror shorts.

The link to his Amazon page is 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?i=digital-text&rh=p_27%3ABrian+W.+Caves&s=relevancerank&text=Brian+W.+Caves&ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1

………………..

Tony Forder.  Short story: Mission Accomplished

“My story, Mission Accomplished, emerged out of pure panic,” he admits. “I had no story, so turned to my most read characters in an act of desperation. My first thought was: what if I send Jimmy Bliss to Ireland to see his mum and [something] happens? My second thought was: what if I send Penny Chandler with him? That was it. I started writing their journey from the airport and finished the entire story in a single sitting.”

It’s a cracking story and a testament to the strength of his characters when an author can just sit down and write an entire story straight off!

From Tony’s Amazon author page

Tony J Forder is the author of the bestselling DI Bliss crime thriller series. The first seven books, Bad to the Bone, The Scent of Guilt, If Fear Wins, The Reach of Shadows, The Death of Justice, Endless Silent Scream, and Slow Slicing, were joined in December 2020 by a prequel novella, Bliss Uncovered. The next book, The Autumn Tree, is scheduled for release on 24 May 2021.

Tony’s other series – two action-adventure novels featuring Mike Lynch – comprises both Scream Blue Murder, and Cold Winter Sun. These are currently unavailable, but will be back in 2021.

In addition, Tony has written two standalone novels: a dark, psychological crime thriller, Degrees of Darkness, and a suspense thriller set in California, called Fifteen Coffins, released in November 2020.

Link to Tony’s amazon author page

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tony-J-Forder/e/B01N4BPT65

His website is www.tonyjforder.com

………………..

Jan Edwards.  Short story.  Down to the Sea Again

“DCI William Wright is a character from my Bunch Courtney crime series,” she says. “Wright was following a lead in my current work in progress that went nowhere useful.  It is referenced in a very minor way in the book’s narrative, but I knew it was never going to fit, no matter how hard I tried.  Trouble was that tentacle of thought simply refused to lay down and be quiet and so ‘Down the Sea’ came into being.”

From Jan’s Amazon author page

Jan Edwards is a UK author with several novels and many short stories in horror, fantasy, mainstream and crime fiction, including Mammoth Book of Folk Horror as well as various volumes of the MX Books of New Sherlock Holmes Stories. Jan is an editor with the award-winning Alchemy Press (includes The Alchemy Press Books of Horror series. Jan was awarded the Arnold Bennett Book Prize for Winter Downs, the first in her ww2 crime series The Bunch Courtney Investigations.

Winner of the Arnold Bennett Book Prize; Karl Edward Wagner award; Winchester Slim Volume award (for Sussex Tales). Short listed for both the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction and Best Collection.

To read more about Jan go to:  https://janedwardsblog.wordpress.com/

Jan’s Amazon page link here

………………..

Susan Handley.    Short story.  Robbed

“My story, Robbed, came from thinking about how someone who has served a prison sentence might feel when they are released,” she explains.

“So many things will seem familiar, yet so many things will have changed. The story starts with Robbie, on his release day, coming out of prison, determined to reclaim his dues and settle a few old scores.”

From Susan’s Amazon page

Susan Handley grew up in England, in the Midlands and despite a love of literature, and crime fiction in particular, she never dreamt of being able to carve out a career as a published writer. But the desire to write never left her and after years of writing by night she has at last been able to share the results of her efforts.

Susan now lives in a small village in rural Kent with her husband and two cats. When she’s not indulging in her love of writing crime fiction she loves walking (the hillier the better), bike riding (the flatter the better) and tending her veggie patch.

Susan has published three novels. A Confusion of Crows is the first to feature DC Cat McKenzie, a one-time marine biologist turned detective. In the second in the series, Feather and Claw, Cat is holidaying on the sunny isle of Cyprus when the death of a fellow guest sees her put her holiday on hold and turn detective. In the third Cat McKenzie mystery, The Body Politic, Cat finds herself investigating the violent death of local councillor. As she uncovers the truth, Cat learns as much about herself as she does the dead man. 

Susan has also produced two short story collections: Crime Bites Volume 1 and Volume 2. Full of bite-size crime stories there’s bound to be something to suit all tastes.

The link is

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Susan-Handley/e/B078YRLWQP?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1623160417&sr=1-1

………………..

Cecilia Peartree.  Short story: The Coastal Path

Cecilia found her inspiration from a series of walks she did with her sister-in-law on the Fife Coast Path.

“In the story I wanted to weave together the walk itself, the uncovering of a secret, and the main character developing as a result of her experiences,” she explains. “At first the walk was the most important thing, but in the end I feel the character development came to be the core of it.”

From Cecilia’s Amazon page

Cecilia Peartree is the pen name of a writer who lives in Edinburgh and has worked as a computer programmer and a database manager. 

She has been a compulsive writer since she first learned to write, and by the age of sixteen she had a whole cupboard full of unfinished stories. 

Cecilia writes the Pitkirtly series of quirky mystery novels set in an imaginary town on the coast of Fife, and the Quest mystery/adventure novels set in the early 1950s. Recently, almost without meaning to, she has also written a short series of Regency novels.

As befits a mystery writer, she is often surrounded by cats while working on her novels.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cecilia-Peartree/e/B005826ULI?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1623160729&sr=8-1

Website. . www.ceciliapeartree.com

………………..

Lexie Conyngham.   Short story: Special Delivery

“I was intrigued by the idea of starting a book with someone walking into a situation he didn’t understand. It seemed a good place to start for a short story, too,” she says. “Apart from that the story was one of those ones that just seems to happen – though I can say that the room in the story that contains only a cistern handle and nothing else was something we found when viewing a house, once!”

From Lexie’s Amazon author page

Lexie Conyngham is a historian living in the shadow of the Highlands. Her Murray of Letho novels are born of a life amidst Scotland’s old cities, ancient universities and hidden-away aristocratic estates, but she has written since the day she found out that people were allowed to do such a thing. Beyond teaching and research, her days are spent with wool, wild allotments and a wee bit of whisky. 

The link to her page is https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lexie-Conyngham/e/B008XH0YQ2?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1623161090&sr=1-1

Read her blog at www.murrayofletho.blogspot.com for some nice veg and occasional insights into Scottish history and wildlife.

………………..

Bill Todd. Short story: Lucky Break

Bill Todd has written seven successful crime thrillers featuring wounded ex-soldier turned private investigator Danny Lancaster.  “For the UKCBC anthology I thought I’d have a shot at a Danny short story which presents different writing challenges.”

A challenge to which the author rose magnificently as his short story, Lucky Break, made me want to read more about Danny Lancaster and I’m now really looking forward to reading the first in the series, The Wreck of the Margarita.  The ebook is currently free on Amazon.   (link here)

Bill’s author bio

I’ve spent my working life as a journalist. You meet a lot of people, see things, learn stuff. For a crimewriter, it’s a plot factory.

I’ve also done a lot of travelwriting. It’s not all cocktails under the palm trees but it is a fantastic job that’s taken me to more than 40 countries, from the white wastes of Arctic Finland to the deserts of Namibia.

People often ask my favourite place. In a world of globalisation, many destinations look the same but Iceland and Namibia are like stepping onto another planet. Go if you can.

I’ve also enjoyed a long love affair with Western Crete, the mountains, coastline, food and people. And I was delighted and surprised to receive the Ed Lacy Gibraltar travel award in 2007.

Another interest is my family tree. I’ve traced the ancestors back to William of Byfield, a farmer in 1600s Northamptonshire, just down the road from Shakespeare.

I love maps. They might seem old fashioned in the age of GPS but they tell stories, make promises. I have a ragbag collection of more than 3,000.

I’m also a fan of interesting cheeses, good beer and wilderness. They’re like Marmite, you’re an empty places person or you’re not.

I have written six crime thrillers and a book of short stories featuring Danny Lancaster, a wounded Afghanistan veteran turned private investigator.

Bill’s Amazon author page. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bill-Todd/e/B008SA121U?ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vu00_tkin_p1_i0

Bill’s contact details

Bill Todd and Danny Lancaster aren’t hard to find. If you don’t bump into them out and about you can catch them here…

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5804102.Bill_Todd

Twitter: https://twitter.com/williamjtodd – @williamjtodd

Twitter: https://twitter.com/@DannyLancaster3 – @DannyLancaster3

Facebook: www.facebook.com/DannyLancasterInvestigates/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/billtodd_writer/ – @billtodd_writer

Website: www.billtodd.co.uk

………………..

In my next blog I’ll be featuring the other six authors who gave me quotes for my column – and my grateful thanks go to them all.

And, just in case you haven’t done so yet, please check out Criminal Shorts at

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Criminal-Shorts-Crime-Book-Anthology-ebook/dp/B08LH879H4/ref=sr_1_1?

It’s available in paperback or ebook – and as I’ve said before, it’s a cracking read and a great charity.

A meander down Memory Lane and a short ghost story, The Blue Lady (edited)

~ Paula Williams ~ 8 Comments

I hope you’ll forgive me for indulging in a bit of nostalgia this week. (Correction: a lot of nostalgia) But in my column, Ideas Store, in the current issue of Writers’ Forum, I am writing about the house I grew up in and how it inspired my sister and I to make up stories (usually involving ghosts).   There wasn’t room on my page for the story itself so I’m setting it out below and including some more detail about the story behind the story and the farm where I spent most of my childhood.

The house was an old Manor House, parts of which dated back to the 16th century (picture below) and before you run away with the idea that I am one of the landed gentry, let me explain some of the house’s more recent history.  

It was on a 350 acre farm in South Somerset, set in a stunning location which I’m afraid I didn’t appreciate at the time, mostly because it was in the middle of nowhere and at the top of a very steep hill.  I had to push my bike up with an overflowing school satchel cutting in to my shoulders after a long school day which started with a 2 mile bike ride, a 10 mile bus ride and a 15 minute walk – and ended the other way around in the evening.  (At least in the mornings the bike ride was downhill)  But the bus journey gave me chance to catch up on my homework – and check out the boys from the Grammar School.  (I went to an all girls school)

The farm and manor house was bought by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) back in the 1950s.  The farm had the most up to date machinery money could buy (my dad was the farm mechanic and looked after it all) and the idea was to run a model farm to show the farmers how brilliant ICI fertiliser was and how they could improve their  own farms by using it.  It would probably have been cheaper to have taken out a few adverts in the Farmer and Stockbreeder, I would have thought – but what  do I know?

So, the house, which I now see is a grade 2 listed building, was split up into four parts, one being the farm offices and the other three into dwellings for the farm workers.  It was a beautiful house, with high ceilings, tall mullioned windows  and acres of space.  I am one of six children and we had moved from a very cramped cottage.  I can still remember the joy of moving into that house and have vivid memories of my younger brothers riding a sit-on wooden train that Dad had made for them that first Christmas round and round the huge kitchen/living room.  

I loved Henley (in spite of it being in the middle of nowhere) and was desperately sad when my parents finally moved out, even though by then I’d long since left home.  My parents were still living there when I got married and we had our wedding reception in the farm’s Conference Room.  And, as you can see below, one of our wedding pictures was photo-bombed by  the ICI roundel!

There were six other families on the farm, many with young children so although we were several miles from the nearest town  there was always someone to play with.  I was a very bossy little girl and soon had all the other children on the farm press ganged into appearing in my various plays and pageants.  One of these, a pageant written for St George’s Day involved a lot of galloping around singing “For all the saints who from their labours rest” and precious little story.  This event turned into a complete fiasco when one of my younger brothers refused to be an angel any more and quit his post on top of an oil drum in the middle of the performance. It was the inspiration behind one of the first short stories I ever sold.  It was to Woman’s Weekly and called Angels on Oil Drums.

But the short story I want to feature this week is The Blue Lady, which, like many of my stories had its origin at this time of my life.  My sister and I would make up ghost stories, based on the house and its long history, and frighten each other to death. The Blue Lady was our favourite and the only one we can still remember.  What is interesting about that story is that it has now found its way into the local folklore.  

So when many years later I wanted to write a ghost story I remembered our Blue Lady and incorporated her into the story which ended with what I thought was quite a neat twist.  

edited 28th March, 2023

When I originally published this post back in March 2021 I included the story, The Blue Lady, below.

Since that time I have compiled an anthology of some of my favourite short stories, entitled “Selling My Grandmother – Confessions of a Story Teller” which I shall be publishing through Amazon shortly. (Just as soon as I can muster the necessary courage to hit the send button!) The anthology includes this story and, according to Amazon’s rules I am not able to publish a story that has previously been published elsewhere on the internet. So, sadly, I have had to take it down.

But it is available in the anthology which is a collection of 15 heartwarming stories, along with the ‘stories behind the stories’. Over the course of my writing career, I have used my family, friends and neighbours shamelessly and this collection is, indeed, the confessions of a story teller.

Where does crime writer David Robinson get his ideas ?

~ Paula Williams ~ Leave a comment

I’m delighted to welcome one of my favourite crime authors to my blog today.  I featured David in the March issue of Writers’ Forum but  the 800 words I am allowed for my column are just not enough to do justice to this prolific and highly successful author.

Me

Welcome to my blog, David.  Let’s kick off by talking about about your books in general.  What genre do you write and do you write a series or are your books standalone?

David

I write crime. Mostly blue collar cosy with a deliberate vein of humour. But I also turn out much darker works, Feyer & Drake, for example, or the Cain Hypno-Thrillers published under my pen name, Robert Devine.

I try to produce series. It’s a commercial decision as much as anything. Series sell much better than standalones, and readers soon become familiar with the core characters. As you progress, however, it becomes more difficult to say anything new about those key characters, which is why I put Joe Murray through the mill over the last few Sanford titles.

Me.

The Sanford titles would be your Sanford Third Age Club mysteries, which I really enjoy. ‘Blue collar cosy’ has a nice ring to it and sums up the series perfectly.  How about giving us the blurbs from, say, your first book and then your most recent one?

David

I have nothing in the immediate pipeline so here’s the blurb from the very first, Sanford 3rd Age Club Mystery, The Filey Connection, published nine years ago by Crooked Cat, and now under CC’s darkstroke banner. It’s followed by the blurb for The Frame, the second Feyer & Drake title.

The Filey Connection

It’s summertime, and the Sanford 3rd Age Club are living it up in the seaside town of Filey. But the hot months don’t pass without problems for amateur sleuth, Joe Murray.

Was Nicola Leach’s death an accident or deliberate? Did Eddie Dobson fall into the sea or did he jump? What’s going on behind the innocent façade – and closed doors – of the Beachside Hotel? And who raided Joe’s room?

Joe and his sidekicks must find the answers to solve the mystery of The Filey Connection.

The Frame:

Sam Feyer, relishing her role as head of Landshaven CID, and Wes Drake, a broken man after the murder of his partner, are charged with reopening the inquiry into Barbara Shawforth’s brutal murder.

For Sam, it’s a path littered with obstacles from the autocratic hierarchy of Landshaven and the police, to handling the ill-tempered Drake, a man who greets every attempt to thwart him as a personal challenge there to be crushed.

Amid frequent disagreements, an air of thin tolerance between them, they must forge a fresh alliance to battle through a smokescreen of corruption, suspicion and lies if they are to learn what really happened four years ago.

Then the body count begins to rise

Me.

Thank you, David.  I’ve only recently discovered the Feyer and Drake series and really enjoy them.  And I understand there’s a new one coming out this year which is something to look forward to.

So, what inspires you most when you sit down to write? Is it characters?  Settings? Or maybe even books you have read?

David

My work is mainly character driven. I’m an ardent people-watcher and the apparently random, sometimes mindless activity of others is a source of endless fascination to me. Many of the humorous incidents in the Sanford Mysteries are events I’ve observed in real life. The snooty receptionist in Summer Wedding Murder is such an example, although the hotel in question was in Majorca, and the receptionist was neither female, nor aiming his criticism at me. I simply observed it.

Location comes second. My wife and I are seasoned travellers, and most of the towns, hotels, holiday parks I write about are based on places we’ve visited. Of particular note is the architecturally quirky hotel in Peril in Palmanova. That hotel exists and it’s as described, right down to the entertainment staff identified with the word “Animacion” on their uniforms. 

Landshaven, the location for The Frame, Feyer & Drake #2, is a barely concealed clone of on Scarborough, one of our favourite British seaside towns.

I never base any of my work on books I may have read, although I do read a fair number and often think to myself, “I could have done that better”.

Me.

So, how did your writing journey start?  Have you always written? And what was your first published piece?

David

I’ve been writing since my teens, but I didn’t publish my first piece until the mid-1980s. It was a short article published by our local newspaper, and it concerned the colloquial language differences between my home city of Leeds, Yorkshire, and Northeast Manchester where I now live. Only 35 miles separate us, but the linguistics differences are striking. The article paid me the princely sum of £8.

Me.

Ha!  My first piece earned me the princely sum of £6 from BBC Radio Bristol.  They obviously pay better ‘up North’!  

I really enjoy your dry sense of humour, David, and love your YouTube channel.   How did that come about?

David

A combination of arthritis which makes typing tedious and often difficult, and my frustration at never having the bottle to try my luck as a stand-up comedian. I’m naturally gregarious, possessed of what I call a ‘one-megaton sense of humour’, and I’m more than a little eccentric. Sitting, talking to the webcam is faster and less painful than typing out or even dictating blog posts. 

Me.

And what of your future plans?

David

More of the same. A third F&D novel, working title The Crypto Killings is well-advanced, and the 22nd Sanford Mystery, Death on the Shore is in progress.

Me.

Hooray!  I’m really looking forward to that.  So finally, tell us three things we might not know about you.

David.

1: I had my tonsils and adenoids removed when I was eight years old. My recovery at home coincided with the 1958 FA Cup Final between Bolton Wanderers and a Manchester United team rebuilt after the Munich air crash. During that game (which United lost 2-0) I became a devout Man U supporter. This is despite being born a Yorkshireman and attending most of Leeds United’s home games.

2: After a minor operation went wrong in 1989, my liver couldn’t drain and in 1991 I was told that I without a transplant I had two years to live. It was a misdiagnosis (although I did need five hours of surgery to correct the problem) but it took away any fear of death I may have had. I’m in no hurry to shuffle off this mortal coil, but I have no fear of dying. 

3: Over the last 30 years, I have attended no less than six funerals of relatives who should have outlived me. Three stillborn grandchildren, a nephew killed in a car crash at the age of 20, my younger brother, aged only 54 when he had a massive heart attack, and most distressing, my daughter, barely 49 years of age when she died through complications of Motor Neurone Disease.

me.

That’s really sad, David and I am so sorry for your losses.  Thank you so much for answering my questions with such openness and patience.  And thank you, too, for the hours of reading pleasure you have given me and your many fans.

Social Media Links, blog, YouTube, website etc.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwrobinson3

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Dwrob96/videos

Website: www.dwrob.com 

Blog: https://mysteriesaplenty.blogspot.com/ 

GoodReads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4496576.David_W_Robinson

The all important buy link.

All titles are exclusive to Amazon

Sanford 3rd Age Club Mysteries

The Filey Connection: https://mybook.to/fileyconnection

The Summer Wedding Murder:https://mybook.to/sumwed

Peril in Palmanova: mybook.to/peripal

Tis the Season to be Murdered.mybook.to/Stacseason

Feyer & Drake #2

The Frame mybook.to/frame

Author Bio

David Robinson retired from the rat race after the other rats objected to his participation, and he now lives with his long-suffering wife in sight of the Pennine Moors outside Manchester.

A workaholic, gregarious and eccentric, and an animal lover, he has an absolute loathing of politicians, over-hyped celebrities, and television.

Best known as the creator of the light-hearted Sanford 3rd Age Club Mysteries, and the cynically humorous Midthorpe Murder Mysteries, he also produces the darker, more psychological, Feyer & Drake police procedural crime thrillers.

Writing as Robert Devine, he also produces stark psycho thrillers bordering on sci-fi and horror.