New year, old me...

Well 2025 has started with a roar and I'm working as hard as I ever do. But more news on that later. 

 Here's the first new book for this year. I hope you enjoy it. You can find it on Amazon here. 

When your home life takes over...

We are now just over the 24 hour mark with no working boiler.

Yesterday was a living nightmare with water pouring out of the boiler, three shivering children and an aged dog on the brink of collapse. The corgi engineer actually said he couldn’t believe it when he saw it; that the flooding was the worst he’d ever seen.

Added to that, I have a terrible cold. The estimate is that it will be around 2 weeks before we can have a new boiler fitted.

The timing of this is strange and has almost transported me back through the decades. There’s a lot going on at the moment in my personal life (little of it good) but this intensity of cold has served to remind me of when I lived with my mum and dad up in Glasgow.

So I know we’ll survive. We’ll get through this. It isn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, or that ever will happen.

Back then I knew things would get better.

And they will again, this time.

Tamworth Literary Festival

I'm really looking forward to attending Tamworth Literary Festival on Saturday, 3rd March, and also on Tuesday, 6th March. Please check the site for further details.

I hope to see you there!

Apologies

Dear readers, I apologise for being absent from the blog for some weeks. I was working towards divulging some exciting news to you, when my personal life became more of a focus for me, due to circumstances. 

This will be the case for some weeks to come, unfortunately. 

I am still working, still editing and writing the stories you love so much, and planning to get them out asap, but my attention is slightly divided at the moment. 

Please bear with me through this difficult time, and just re-read one of my other books for now - I promise I'll be back soon. 


Lots of  love, Carmen. 

A Spanish Holiday

It's taken me a couple of weeks to catch up with life enough to be able to sit down and write a blog about my recent trip to Spain, so here it is...

You may have read about the fiasco of my previous trip to Benidorm on this blog - suffice it to say that my life is often farcical at best, so I wasn't really expecting things to go to plan on this trip. And I guess that I wasn't far wrong. Except that this time, everything was so much better than I'd imagined it could be. Indeed from the beginning to the end of the holiday, some fantastic things happened. So let me share a couple of them with you.

The first unexpectedly good thing to happen, was when we boarded the plane. Although I hadn't pre-booked our seats, we were given priority ones [lots of leg room for my growing teenagers] as well as  an invitation into the cockpit for a chat with the pilots, once the plane had arrived at it's destination.

Now I don't know about you, but I've never been in a cockpit before, and so I was totally agog at the array of levers, buttons and switches presented in front of me. I'm a little ashamed to say my fingers twitched to push and pull some of them, just to see what would happen.

Unaware of my clearly psychotic tendencies, the pilot and co-pilot were exceptionally friendly, and even invited us to sit in the 'flying seat', offering us their hats to wear!

Here is a picture of my daughter Sophia in the pilot's seat.

This theme was continued when we reached the hotel, to find that a complimentary bottle of champagne had been sent to our room to help us celebrate a special occasion. Believe me, it went down exceptionally well and set the tone for the rest of our stay.

None of us could wait to get into the clear, cool water of the sea. But there was a surprise in store for us there too... little biting fish! Like the fish that were so popular a while back for removing dead skin on feet, these little fish were using us as live food!

Not painful, once you got used to them, the bites were merely a strange sensation to encounter, but the end result was truly amazing. By day two I had the softest, smoothest feet in Benidorm!

But the strangest thing of all was our return trip from a day out in Alicante.

We had travelled there by public transport, which I love to do whilst abroad. The bus out from Benidorm took around forty minutes and was a pleasant journey. As was the entire day itself.

By the time we were ready to return to the hotel we were weary and hungry. But as we boarded the bus we had no idea that this service took the scenic route, a veritable tour of what seemed like the entire southern coastline of Spain.

Inland and out we travelled, stopping at every town, village and deserted stop, on a journey that took just over two and a half hours to get from A to B! But it was in the middle of this epic journey that things got a little unusual, when a pregnant woman boarded the bus.

Now strange as this may seem, given the fact that I have three children of my own, but pregnant women make me nervous. I almost always expect them to go into spontaneous labour, upon which I will of course be drawn into helping them deliver their child. As ridicuoous a fear as it is, I find it hard to shake it.

Anyway, I digress. The woman got on with a bag and a small suitcase, which the driver stowed in the luggage hold as she boarded. Many stops later, we pulled up outside a maternity hospital. It didn't appear to be a scheduled stop.

The woman got out with her bag and walked around the corner of the hospital and out of sight. But the bus didn't drive off. Instead the driver looked at his watch, got off  the bus and paced up and down for about ten minutes.

"Perhaps we are waiting for her to have the baby and get back on the bus with it," I joked. But when the driver then also disappeared around the corner of the hospital, I began to regret my words. Ten more minutes passed and nothing happened. What was even stranger was that the local Spaniards on the bus didn't seem unduly concerned - they just waited patiently.

Maybe he had gone after her to remind her that she'd left her case, but then why had he not just taken it into the hospital with him? It didn't make sense. I didn't know what the pregnant woman was doing, but desperate to resume the journey, I was having kittens!

Eventually the driver and the woman returned and she was still pregnant - I was almost surprised at this. Perhaps she was the driver's wife, hence the unscheduled stop and the wait for her return. Both the driver and the woman boarded the bus once more.

Half an hour later the bus pulled up at a small village and both bus driver and the pregnant woman disembarked and he fetched her case. But when he came back to his seat, she followed him back on board, made rude hand gestures to him and proceeded to hop on and off the bus, each time yelling and shouting in a rage which abated before rapidly returning. The passengers of the bus sat in an awed silence, myself included.

Finally having gotten all of her wrath out, she stormed off, suitcase pulled in her wake. I'll never know what it was she said, or what it was about, but I can tell you that the bus erupted with laughter and excited chatter when the doors closed and the abashed driver resumed his route. Whatever passed between him and his passengers that day will not be quickly forgotten, I bet.

So if your looking for a little local flavour on your Spanish holiday, make sure you take the local bus - just don't expect to get anywhere fast!

Oh and if ever you need to find somewhere to insult you as you are having your meal, this is clearly the place to choose.


Happy reading.

Back to work I go...

Today I have started back to work and am so relieved. As I told you before, I have to edit a couple of books already written prior to their publication, but I also want to write a book I started some time ago. The story is about a woman whose husband dies of cancer. But just before he does, he reveals something which tears her whole world apart...

Here is a little snippet:-

The Letter

Chapter 1

The house sucked at her energy. It drained her like a thirsty hiker on a hot summer’s day. She could feel it pulling at the blood in her veins, causing tidal waves of that vibrant red life-force to course through her to a never-achieved destination, moving ever onwards, ceaselessly searching out its well-worn pathway.

But of course it was not the house which drained her so. It was the situation within in.

Jim waited for her in another room. Weak and tired, waiting was what he did best now. Waiting was actually all that was left to him. Fran wondered what was left to her. What would be left when Jim was finally gone? A thin smell of sickness which seemed to have pervaded the entire house? The ripe smell of a cancer unchecked, which had permeated the paint and wallpaper of their bedroom? Was that all there would be?

Or would there be memories too? Memories which would linger to haunt her as if the images and sounds were captured within the porous brickwork and plaster, ready to be replayed whenever the whim took them?

It didn’t bear thinking about.  But she didn’t really need to ponder on it. The situation played itself out and she was just a bit player in every scene, the one who was necessary to breathe a little life into each act, to make it real and believable. The only one who would be left standing after the credits rolled and the curtains closed for that final time.

Funny how even after all these months it still didn’t seem real. She flicked the switch on the kettle and waited for it to boil. The kitchen seemed darker than usual and she glanced at the wall clock by the side of the back door. It was in the shape of a cow, mottled black and white paint depicting its legs and head, its torso taken up by the clockface which showed the hour to be six. But six am or pm? She genuinely did not know. The months and weeks since Jim’s diagnosis had blurred into one and in these last few days even the days and nights seemed interchangeable.

So if you enjoyed that little bit, take a look at the books I have already published - you won't regret it.

 

Happy Reading!

Snippet of current book...

Morning readers, and isn't it a lovely one?

Below, you will find a snippet of the book I am currently editing.

If you want to see more excepts of my writing style, just type the word 'snippets' into the search box on the right of here and you will be presented with a whole host of posts with little tasters of all of my books, [some not yet published].

You will find the link to my books on Amazon etc, also on the right.

PLEASE NOTE : THE FOLLOWING EXTRACT IS UNSUITABLE FOR ANYONE UNDER THE AGE OF 18.

For a while pessimism is my constant, albeit unwelcome, friend. I spend a long time wondering what it is that Matt actually sees in me. I am uncool, unbrave, uneverything. Perhaps Phat would be a better match for him after all… I try to shake the feeling off but it’s persistent. Dwelling on my problems isn’t helping them be solved, instead it’s feeding my insecurities.

I spend some time helping Charlie with his maths. We make some progress and I think that he’s finally starting to grasp some of the techniques that have been evading him until now. I only wish the rest of life was so simple to sort.

Dinner for me is a makeshift affair – a bacon and egg sandwich. Mum doesn’t even raise an eyebrow when I tell her I won’t be eating with the rest of the family - just carries on peeling potatoes and chopping carrots like she’s robot who has been programmed to do only this task and make no response to anything else.

I wonder if she’s noticed that I am wearing one of her tops and whether she’s noticed the other one I put in the wash after wearing. If she has, she doesn’t comment on it. Neither does Dad. But then perhaps he no longer knows what’s hers or mine anymore, now that his attention seems to be permanently focused elsewhere.

“Where are you off to?” he asks, not bothering to look up from his newspaper at me, when I go to the lounge to say goodbye to Charlie.

“Just out to catch up with Millie,” I lie, and because I can, without either him or Charlie who is watching TV again, noticing, I stick two fingers up as I answer. ‘That’s for actually not giving a shit in truth,’ I think at him.

He nods as if the universe is colluding with me. “Have fun!”

Fun? Really? I want to slap him. How the fuck does he think I can just dismiss everything that’s happened, that’s still happening? Can he? Has he?

“I have a project to do in history, I thought maybe you could help me with it later tonight?” I don’t, but perhaps it will make him wake up, make him take notice of what’s going on around him.

Which author[s] am I like?

I took a little bit of The Owners Volume I : Alone and input it into this analysing tool and according to this I write like H.P. Lovecraft.

This was the section I used :

The harsh sunlight, which pierced the window in its strong and direct glare, was now mellowed and softened in the burnished reflections of the polished wooden walls. The knots and imperfections of the wood resembling tiny worlds of intricacies, too complex to be fully understood.

In passing, he glanced through the window to find the view as breathtakingly beautiful as ever. An amazing variety of trees stood like proud sentinels around a spectacular natural lake. Trees stretched on into infinity in every direction – luscious light-green foliage appearing to vie with emerald and jade for the eye’s attention. Yet the trees also seemed to be collaborating with one another, joining forces in an attempt to outdo the drama of the brilliant blue sky reflected in the shimmering perfection of the silvery lake.

This scene, with its myriad colours and composition was so intense and so contrastingly stunning, it almost made San’s eyes hurt. Each tree was unique, either in size or shape or shade to its neighbour, just as the houses lodged within the heart of the tree, sitting snug amongst its highest branches were different. There were large tree houses and small ones, round ones and rectangular ones and even some which didn’t fit any one particular shape but instead were a weird blend of curves and angles.

Similarly the colours of the houses were all different. No, actually he thought, that’s not true. The colour was all the same – green – it was the sheer variety of shades of green which made them seem so dramatically different. Yet what struck San at that precise moment, was how each tree house conformed to and in fact complimented, the size and shape of the tree it was lodged in. It was almost as if each house had merged and blended with the branches to become a living part of its tree.  


Here it is http://iwl.me/s/147eabd8


Then I took this except from The Owners Volume III : Dark Side of The Sun and performed the same analysis :

Jack stepped into the darkness. Even in the seconds that his eyes took to adjust to the lack of light, he was aware that he stood next to Seth once more. There was a musty smell in the room. Dank and with the sharp acrid stench of urine, it was all he could do not to heave. Whoever was in the building had clearly given up all pretence of civilisation.

And they were aware of his and Seth’s presence. There was a vague sound of susurration, as if the person was making soft whisperings to themselves or another but it was too indistinct for him to make out its source or what was said.

“Step back slowly. Do not turn around,” Seth told him without moving.

“Why?” He knew he should probably just do as Seth suggested but having come this far, he wanted to know what they had found.

The susurration seemed to increase in response to his words, as if the person or persons were becoming agitated at the thought of them leaving. “This is why,” Seth slowly pulled a torch from his pocket and flicking it on, levelled it at the darkest corner of the room.

Hair tangled and knotted, what was left of the scalp hung down in front of the skeleton’s face. Whilst not strictly a skeleton, it was how Jack had to think of the body which was even now being hungrily devoured by the biggest pack of coyotes Jack had ever seen.  Bigger than the average dog, their normally lean bodies seemed fuller and longer than normal.


And this was the analysis  http://iwl.me/s/147eabd8



So far, so consistent. Now the biggie. What happened when I put in a section from Split Decision?

Here is the excerpt I used :

The atmosphere in the car was suddenly thick with sexual tension. I could feel all of them straining to hear my answer, listening with their groins rather than their brains.

A primitive fear coursed through me riding a tidal wave of doom. There was no right answer here, only a series of wrong answers. My heart pounded at the steel cage it was entrapped within, banged itself into the padded walls around it and no-one heard it scream. No-one but me. Whatever I answered, I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t! It was a circular route to Hell.

And the result? This time I wrote like James Joyce apparently!  http://iwl.me/s/d760c1b4



Then this excerpt from my current work in progress, The Plan :


Suzie regarded her companion with wide eyes. None of her friends spoke like this, it was not the type of conversation she was used to having but she liked the honesty of it, the cut and dried truthfulness.

And you will never guess who came out this time! Leo Tolstoy!

And the proof is here  http://iwl.me/s/698342ba

Does that mean I am split personality???

[I wonder what would have happened if I had cut and pasted all the different excerpts into one analysis...perhaps I would have blown the software to smithereens!]

I gave up running the analysis on the other books I have written. They are all diverse - just like me.

So who do I write like? Well I write like me, of course!

Happy Reading. 

So Christmas is looming - which means of course that we have been in this house for almost a year. One whole year and I'm still referring to it as the new house. It's not that I haven't settled in, because I have, or that it doesn't feel like home, because it does. So what is it then?

I actually think it's a state of mind. This past year has gone in such a flurry of activity, and I've been such a hive of industry, I almost haven't allowed myself to believe that a year has passed. I've written two whole books and made inroads into a third, decorated, weeded and done all the normal household stuff and yet I'm still wondering if I could have done more, been more industrious...

So on that note, I am making a plan. You know how I love a plan. Next year I will write Volume VIII of the Owners before I write any other books. This is a pivotal volume, for it starts to bring the story back to San and Loni and all the other characters we left in Volume I, because they still have so much to say, so much to do.

In Volume VIII therefore, we will see how Sophia became the leader of her people - what particular things happened in her life to bring her to the exact point at which she meets Little and Loni. We will find out about the tragedies that drive her forward and the challenges she has had to face.

Similarly, we will find out more about Rian, about his unhappy early life and how all that happens then, puts him on the very path that will one day ensure that he meets San.

This will be an emotional book; powerful and strong, full of resolve and purpose, just like its main characters, and I can't wait to start it. Both Rian and Sophia have been patient with me. They have waited in the back of my head for their time to emerge fully into the light. Next year will be their time.

And writing their tales will be no easy task. It will be draining and emotional, but I hope that it will be cathartic both for me, and for its readers. If nothing else, it will give Rian and Sophia the freedom they deserve.

So until then, and just in case I get caught up in Christmas and New Year and don't have a minute to blog again, let me say,

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR, READERS!

I hope 2016 has been great for you and that 2017 will be wonderful!

And if you get one of my books as a stocking filler, I hope you enjoy it. X

A snippet

Exciting news coming soon... [sorry, I know you all hate it when I do this :) but hey I'm a suspense author, what do you expect???]

In the meantime would you like a little sneak peek at the book I am currently writing?

Here it is:-

I have never seen him without his clothes before. Naked, his body is lean and muscular with a pure beauty that takes my breath away once more. My eyes roam over him and I know beyond any shadow of doubt that he can be the only man for me. The only love I will ever have in my life.

I feel my cheeks redden at my forwardness but I do not shy away from the picture he presents. He strides towards me and I am simultaneously eager and afraid of his embrace.

If he feels the coldness of the water, he gives no indication. But he stops short before he reaches me. I want to speak, want him to speak and yet I don’t want the beauty of the moment shattered. Don’t want either of us to say or do something that will mar the perfection of this time and place.

And then suddenly I am soaked as he brings his hands up and throws a cascading fountain of water at me. Streams of water run down my hair and over my face as I throw back my head and laugh. Far from ruining the moment, he has taken the edge from it and kept it safe, kept me safe.

Despite the part you have read this isn't that sort of book, but the characters  are in love. I hope you enjoyed it.

Happy reading, x

Poor, poor Fran...

I really feel for the main character in my latest book. Her name is Fran and her husband has just died under the most horrible of circumstances. But as if that is not enough, misery upon misery is being heaped on the poor woman's shoulders.

Here is the paragraph I have just written:

 The house seemed wrong in every way possible. It felt too big, too empty and too full of memories - sad and happy ones – and it seemed that no distinction between the two could ever make her smile again.

There was a letter lying on the mat. Addressed to Jim, it would of course no longer be opened by the person for whom it had been intended. Fran bent and picked it up, running her finger over the little plasticised window which allowed the name and address of the recipient to show through, as if some lingering trace of Jim could be found in those printed words.

The white envelope was not bulky, containing perhaps only one printed sheet. She carried it with her into the kitchen.


Oh dear God, I know what she is about to read in that letter...

The Owners Volume VII: Hunter's Moon

I spoke to a lovely lady who sat next to me on the train into Birmingham the other day. The journey takes about half an hour from where I live but she had got on before me and was nicely ensconced in her seat before I came to sit by her.

I don't normally strike up conversations with strangers - perhaps she doesn't either - but on this occasion for some reason we began to talk. She told me she was visiting a female friend who lived in Stirchley and whom she had known for forty years and then she told me about how her husband had died and the male friend who had helped her through those difficult times.

The conversation was particularly apt for me not only professionally as I soak all these things up for later use in my characters but also in my personal life. But one of the things she said that struck a chord with me was that this friend had been a lecturer in literature and had written a paper about Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Not specifically about Tess either, but about the boots she wore!

It hit me then that people pay attention to what we as writers say, think and believe - even if it is contrary to a reader's own set of beliefs and opinions.  That gives writers a responsibility to portray things in a correct light. And it is for that reason that I am writing this post.

Split Decisions will be out very soon. Unlike The Owners series I have written, Split Decision is not suitable reading material for the under fifteens as it contains graphic material. I am being very specific here, not only because I have children of my own but because yes, I did write Split Decision to make a specific point. It contains some violence and some swearing because it is true to life but I think and I hope that it will make people think about the state of our society.

But not every page I write has a deeper significance and some things are just a tiny little detail which means nothing either way. I wonder if the esteemed Mr Hardy ever intended that a paper be written about his character's boots...or were they just the things she put on her feet? Whatever the case, writing, like any art becomes the possessor's property to display and to discuss at the point of sale. What the creator of the project meant [if anything] is sometimes lost in the wind.

So here for your delectation is a little snippet from the book I am currently working on, Volume VII of The Owners: Hunter's Moon.

Breathing furiously, lungs labouring like bellows, Taylor and Breaker were forced to pause for breath. With hammering hearts they turned back towards the forest and the flames which rose there. The woods had become a conflagration, an inferno from which they could already feel the heat sear them with its intensity. Still they didn’t dare speak or even look at one another lest their emotions betrayed their resolve.

Preparing to gather Matilda up once more, Taylor was surprised when the woman seemed to pull herself together, managing to plant her feet firmly on the forest floor and bear her own weight.

She looked at him with eyes that seemed too large for the rest of her features and too old for her face. “I did the wrong thing!” she said, as huge tears dropped from those liquid orbs.

Taylor felt his heart constrict in sorrow. “Now’s not the time Tilly. What’s done is done,” he reminded her.

She bit her lip and turned away from the blaze, the dead and the dying. “And can’t be undone,” she finished for him. “God help me. It can’t be undone.”

 

I wish I could lift the burden these characters have found themselves under. But it is their story, I am merely the teller of their tale...

Happy Reading.

COMING EVENTS

Hi all.

I have been asked on numerous occasions to add an events page to the blog. I haven't done this in the past, as many of my speaking events were closed to the public, such as the recent talk I gave for the clients/ associates of Suttons and Robertsons.

However, since this year I am also involved in many events which are open to the public, I have set up an events page which you will now find listed under the PAGES section to the right of this main part of the blog.

For your convenience, I have also this time listed it here :-

EVENTS

Here is a list of my coming events.

There are more than I have listed but these are 'closed events' where unless you are a member you cannot attend. For this reason I have not included these here.

Where possible I have included the details of the relevant person to contact should you wish to attend.

6th March  I will be attending a networking event where copies of my books are included in the raffle prize. Please contact Gem Media for tickets. UPDATE - NOW SOLD OUT.

19th March I will be at The Hive in Worcester, taking part in their Space Day, exhibiting my books and signing copies 5-8pm. For more details see http://www.thehiveworcester.org/family-events.html

20th March I will be at the Literary Festival in Bleakhouse Library, giving a short talk on my books and signing copies. Please contact Ian Grey on 0121 422 2798 for details.

21st March I will be found in Droitwich Library for the Space Day Extravaganza. This will be a brilliant event and an opportunity to learn about space and rockets and everything astronomical. I will be propping up a table laden with my books - come talk to me. This is an open event so you can just come along.

17th April I am presenting trophies to the winners of the Book Quiz at Bleakhouse Library. Please contact the library on 0121 422 2798 if you wish to attend.

TBA I will be conducting a talk and book signing at Lord Morton's Tea Rooms. Details will be posted when date is confirmed.

September I will be at the Salt Festival in Droitwich

24th & 25th October I will be giving a talk and signing books at the brand new Lickey Poetry Festival. Details to follow on how to gain admission.

Hello folks!


Just a quick post as I have an author's talk to conduct today. Here is the link to my recent interview.


http://t.co/4vtsMEm39L


Happy reading!

Hello!


I am now on Chapter 3 of my newest novel. Its working title is The Plan but that will no doubt change as the story progresses.


It is a little more introspective than I thought it would be but I 'get' the character now and I see where she is coming from. Some of you may identify with her...she is all of us and each and every woman that we pass in the street without really noticing. That woman who once was a person before life and circumstances sucked the joie de vivre from her existence...Let's just say she is about to get it back in a major way.


Anyway, for your delectation here is a little bit from Chapter 3. No doubt by the end it will be elaborated on and changed beyond recognition but here it is in the raw:-

She refilled the dogs’ water bowls and gave them both a treat but when her hands reached automatically for the biscuit barrel she pulled them back as if stung. She had seen him not so long ago. He hadn’t seen her though, he was too wrapped up in the woman by his side. And of course the new woman was everything she was not…slim, youthful, vibrant, childfree and without a care in the world. If Suzie could have placed a bet on it, she would have bet that her knickers were hot bubblegum pink and that her bikini line had follicles which had been beaten into submission.

She had frozen when she had seen them, arm in arm wandering around the shops as if the reality of them had turned her to stone. That thought had brought another, unkinder, one as companion. In Arabic countries they stone women like her, she had thought.

Am I normal at all?

Today I should be editing Split Decisions but instead I am writing a chapter from another book. I have workmen digging up my drive as I am having a new one laid and between making tea for them and stopping the dog barking, I can't concentrate enough to edit.


And yet I can write - it seems the noise does not hinder the writing process, only the editing. How weird is that? I guess that does go to prove that my writing comes from so far down inside of me it is not really a conscious thing, whereas the editing is.


One day I am going to investigate this further...but I guess it can wait until the drive is done! :)

Update as promised!


The Owners
The Owners Volume IV should be appearing on Amazon at any moment and I thank you for your patience. It has been a long haul and although the writing of this particular volume progressed very nicely, there has been one hitch after another in getting it to press.


The Decision.
As you may remember, this was a story I began long, long ago [probably about 6 or seven years ago] and had to abandon for various reasons.


I came back to it recently with the intention of finishing it off and giving myself a break from The Owners series.


It wasn't hard to get back into the characters or to visualise where they were going and how they felt about it but what was almost impossible to do, was recreate the way in which I told the story.


You see I have changed! Yes this has become a big revelation to me. The chapters I wrote all those years ago have had to be changed, moulded to fit my newly emerged style.


It wasn't that they were badly written to begin with - indeed far from it but my writing is now stronger, more gritty with a hardened edge and I can only credit this to the success of The Owners.


Where once before I looked in from outside at the characters in The Decision, now I am submerged in the very core of them. Consequently they have more depth, feeling and colour than ever before.


At first I thought that I was imagining this, however even my proof readers have remarked upon it, so I realise that it must be true. I wonder if this means I have finally grown up. I suspect not. I think it merely means that I have achieved a level of introspection that I could or would not attain before...


I hope The Decision will be out in the summer. Until then I will keep you informed of developments.

All Change.

You may already be aware that The Owners Volume IV : A New Epoch will soon be published and appearing on Amazon and all the usual places. Volumes V and VI are also written and currently being prepared for publication, however I am now taking a short break from the Owners series.


There are a few reasons for this. One is that writing a ten part series without a break is very draining, another is that there are a few other stories and characters who are clamouring for my attention  and the final reason is that demand for me to write other genres is very high.


So in order to acquiesce, I am now working on a number of other projects, one of which is now almost a quarter done. This particular story is a departure for me as it is more thriller than anything else and is aimed at 15+ because of both content and language.


As an author it's hard not to feel for your characters. You want them to have an easier time in life than the story allows and it is no different for the main character of this book. Natalie is just a young girl who makes one stupid mistake...


But as we all know, one mistake can be one mistake too many!


Anyway as this was only a quick blog catch up, I'll leave you with a snippet from today's writing.


Taken from The Decision.
 


        The kiss when it came was the sweetest thing I could ever have imagined. A light feathery touch of lips upon lips, it was a promise of strawberries and sunshine and a guy at my side to share it all with.

I continue to be surprised by the content and the characters in The Owners books. Even though it is I myself who writes them, there are elements of surprise in every twist and turn.

Do you remember me telling you about one of the characters who I had only just realised was a dangerously bad man? Well it turned out today that he met his match in a character who up until now was not a main player but rather a supporting one. Seems she was just biding her time, I guess.

And that's one of the things I love most about this series - every volume picks out the people it needs to tell that part of the story, so that in effect, we get to meet all of the characters at different stages in their lives.

I guess it is a bit like looking at our own lives, slicing out little periods discrete in time and examining who was important in our lives then and why. If like me, you have changed jobs several times, moved home, been married and divorced, you will see that your world was inhabited not with one set of friends or family but a multitude of different ones who all played their own parts.

If like many of my friends, you are fortunate enough to have been in a long-term stable relationship, perhaps you will be able to see how the dynamics of this has changed over time...

'Cos that's life - there is always change, even if you can't see it clearly at the time.

If you would like to have a chat with me about books, writing or indeed anything else, you can find me at the Science Fiction Family Fun Day at Avoncroft Museum on Sat. 16th November where I will be selling signed copies of the books and holding a creative writing workshop.

Toodle-pip!


http://www.avoncroft.org.uk/visiting-whats-on/events-programme/

First chapter of book 6!

The Owners, Volume VI : Blood Sky

Here is a little snippet of the brand new Chapter I

Perhaps he would never be the same again. Perhaps when he told his brother Noah and Dan and Aaron what he had seen and now knew to be true, none of them would ever be the same again.

He stumbled over the ground, eager to be back within the safe confines of his home, back in the bosom of his family. But he knew that even then this sickness in his soul would not be purged. Nor could he actually ever let it be. He had to hold fast to it, hold firm. He owed it to those poor, poor souls.

                        ****************

Ah ha...got you there, didn't I? You thought that just because I had started a new book, that I wouldn't also be moving on to Volume VI of the Owners.

Do you really think I have a choice? These characters bang around in my head, demanding a voice. There is only so long they can be ignored...

So don't worry I will keep you up to date on the saga.

Happy reading!