Author: Jacqueline Grima

Goodbye to the old, hello to the new…

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It isn’t often I do a ‘looking back at the past year’ type post, but this has been such a bonkers year (both personally and professionally) I thought, why not?

At end of 2021, I was seriously considering giving up writing. I had spent almost the entire year writing a literary fiction book that I knew wasn’t right and that highly likely wouldn’t attract any interest from agents and publishers. As a last-ditch attempt to get my writing mojo back, I decided to write something different, quite unlike anything I’d written before. Something that I would enjoy writing, that I could have fun with. The type of thing I enjoyed reading myself. Hence, my first attempt at writing a psychological thriller.

A little over six months later, that book, now entitled THE WEEKEND ALONE, gained me a publishing contract with HQ Stories, an imprint of Harper Collins, and is the first of two thrillers I’ll be releasing this year. If someone had told me that would happen in 2021, I’m not sure I’d have believed it.

How life can change in just the space of twelve months.

A few weeks ago, I got to hold a paperback copy of THE WEEKEND ALONE in my hands for the first time. It really is difficult to describe how it feels when a project you’ve put your heart and soul into, especially when you’ve been writing as long as I have, finally comes to fruition.

To those of you who have already pre-ordered, thank you so much for your support. It is truly appreciated. To those who would like to order, THE WEEKEND ALONE is available to pre-order now at all the usual retailers, including Amazon, Waterstones, WHSmith and Blackwell’s.

The e-book and audiobook will be released on 11th January 2023 and the paperback will be released on 19th January 2023.

Not long to go now!

Happy New Year everyone. I wish you all the best for 2023!! xx

Author Interview: Rachel Dove

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Your new romance Someone Like You has just been released by HQ Stories and has great reviews already. Can you tell us a bit about it?

Someone Like You is a book I have wanted to write for a while. In the 2020 lockdown, hearing the news about isolation and the rates of women and men living in domestic violence situations exploding, the urge to write it grew.

It got me thinking about how many Hannahs there were out there, the ones running, the ones who didn’t manage to leave. It grew from there. Once Hannah introduced herself, I thought about the hero. I didn’t want her to be ‘saved’ – she did it herself. Brody is one of my favourite characters. He pretty much told his story himself.

You also write for Mills and Boon. Can you tell us a bit about your Medical Romance?

Yes, I write for the medical line and I love it! It involves a lot of research, and everyone thinks those books are just churned out. It couldn’t be further from the truth. The medicals are ultra-modern, dreamy and perfect escapism. I just finished my 5th medical and have two more coming out from next year! The one I just finished is set in Kent and involves a rather hot obstetrician. I adore him. I fall in love with every man I write ha ha!

Tell us about your path to being published. Would you do anything differently with all the experience you have now?

I would be more patient. The publishing industry is very slow, and sometimes pitched projects are good, but not the right book at that time. Follow your gut, find your people. I am onto writing books for 2024 now, but it takes time. Be yourself on social media, cheer others on. I love the friends I have met and really enjoy their successes. Patience is something I wish I had known earlier. The panic of waiting allows the imposter syndrome in. I say, don’t let it.

Tell us about your writing routine. Is it difficult to work your writing around family commitments? What advice would you give to other writers in the same position?

Yes, extremely difficult! I have written at the side of various sports pitches, by the pool while my kids learned to swim. I write in the car waiting for school to finish. Try to write every day, I would tell other writers. It doesn’t have to be words on a page, but research is everywhere. Deadlines have suffered massively since 2020, with our routines all going out of the window. I use an app to track word counts needed to hit deadlines on time. It works, until life gets in the way! It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Carve that time out. I won’t spout ‘we all have the same hours in the day’. Frankly, that’s a crock. I homeschool, have pets, family etc. Other writers have ill health, or employment to prioritise outside of the book world. Side hustles, life. Make your writing time work for you. Be realistic. Headphones are perfect. All you need to write is a brain and somewhere to record the words. The rest is reading, practice, passion.

What are you reading at the minute?

Lots of GCSE workbooks for home learning! It’s been a while since I sat mine. Pretty sure my son thinks I used to scribe on slates!

I recently loved the Bodyguard series by Anna Brooks. Racy, but emotional and enjoyable. I read a lot, but I did have a lull during 2020. I am glad to have my mojo back.

Are there any authors who have particularly influenced your own writing?

I loved Jill Mansell in my early 20s, but too many others to name! I learn from every source; writing is everywhere. We all interpret it differently, and that fascinates me. I try to focus on keeping my own voice clear.

What can readers expect next from Rachel Dove?

Racier reads! I am still loving writing all things romance, but I also love friendships and family dynamics too. I have my first romance out in 2023 from Boldwood Books, and more in the pipeline. More medical too. My plan for the next two years is to write all the ideas I have, help my son through his GCSEs and meet more readers!

I am at a few signings already, but after recent months, getting out there, meeting people and sparking ideas is definitely on my list. I am into the 20s books wise, and to be honest, I can’t keep up with myself! I would love to set myself another challenge. I said 18 books published by the time my son was 18 was it, but I won that four years early!

Perhaps I will attempt 50 by 50, which I turn in nine years. Hopefully I can invent enough hot heroes!

To find out more about Rachel Dove’s books, including Someone Like You and her Mills and Boon Medical Romance, click here.

Book Review: Death in Heels by Kitty Murphy

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When I was offered the opportunity to read Kitty Murphy’s cosy mystery Death in Heels, I have to say I jumped at the chance. The novel is due to be published early in 2023 and readers are in for a treat with this fabulous ‘whodunnit’.

Death in Heels is the first in the Dublin Drag Mysteries series. Set in Ireland’s drag queen community, it follows characters Mae B, Miss Merkin, Del, Thora and their friend Fi, who are all shocked by the apparent brutal murder of one of their own. When Fi stumbles across the body of not-so-well-liked queen Eve after leaving the TRASH nightclub, she is convinced Eve’s death is no accident. Is someone threatening her drag queen friends? If so, who might be next on the hit list? Fearing for Mae B, aka her best friend Robyn, and frustrated when her suspicions are dismissed by the guards, Fi has no choice but to channel her inner ‘Hagatha Christie’ to find out who is behind the murderous plot!

Murphy’s debut creates the perfect balance between serious plotline and glamorous, sequin-filled fun. All of the characters in Death in Heels are immensely likeable and readers won’t be able to resist being drawn into the adventures, and misadventures, of Dublin’s quirky drag ‘family’. This is commercial mystery writing at its very best.

Death in Heels will be published in January 2023 by Thomas and Mercer but is available to pre-order now. Many thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the copy I received in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Things You Didn’t See by Ruth Dugdall

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the things you didn't see

Ex-probation officer Ruth Dugdall won the CWA Debut Dagger award for her novel The Woman Before Me and also won the Luke Bitmead Bursary in 2013, her experience within the prison system heavily informing her highly successful crime novels. In her new standalone suspense novel The Things You Didn’t See, Dugdall’s skill at creating mystery and intrigue continues.

In the farmhouse where she grew up, Cassandra Hawke wakes one morning to find her mother has been shot, the apparent victim of a tragic suicide attempt. Called to the farmhouse as part of the emergency response team, paramedic Holly realises that she knows Cassandra from the past. The two women becoming allies, they set about trying to unravel the mystery of what really happened to Cassandra’s mother, Holly using her rare condition, synaesthesia, to gauge who is telling the truth and who isn’t. Did Maya really want to kill herself? Or, with the authorities and her family fighting over her inherited farmland, is there more to the tragic event than at first appears?

Unlike in Dugdall’s crime novels, the plot in this one simmers rather than explodes, the reader taken down a number of twisted paths, not unlike the narrow lane that leads to the book’s rural farm setting.  This book is very character driven, the questions that Dugdall sets up for the reader possibly not so much about who is behind the tragic events of the 31st October but what their motives are, how the tragedy links to events of the past and who exactly knows what. Bringing in unusual subject matters like synaesthesia and sleepwalking also add a unique edge to the book that makes what perhaps could have been quite a traditional murder-mystery into something much more original. Dugdall’s use of setting in this novel is excellent and highly authentic, with the atmospheric Innocence Farm and its surrounding rural village perhaps akin to the small-town claustrophobia of a Stephen King novel.

If you like a traditional suspense novel with a unique twist, The Things You Didn’t See is definitely for you.

 

 

Book Review: The Old You by Louise Voss

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the old you

When I began reading The Old You by Louise Voss, I presumed that what I had ahead of me was a few pleasant days immersed in a memoir-ish fictional account of a family dealing with the aftermath of a diagnosis of dementia.

In the opening chapter, Lynn Naismith and her husband Ed deal with the devastating news that Ed has Pick’s Disease, a form of dementia that he has inherited from his father. As his condition seems to quickly worsen, Ed soon muddling words, forgetting essential passwords and losing all sense of inhibition, Lynn commits herself to juggling her new job with Ed’s care, the man she previously adored disappearing before her eyes.

When Ed is offered the chance to take part in a clinical trial, Lynn is hopeful that the results will at least put a halt to her husband’s rapid deterioration.

But is all as it seems?

A few chapters into the book, Voss suddenly pulls her reader down a completely unexpected path, the gentle suburban reading trip I thought I was taking suddenly becoming a dark and sinister mystery tour akin to the plot of a Hitchcock film. Gone now is the domestic tale of coping with illness. In its place is a twisting psychological thriller in which no-one can be trusted. To say any more would be to spoil what is a highly original plot. Suffice to say that The Old You is a one-of-a-kind novel that will have you turning the pages to find out what is really going on.

The Old You is published by Orenda Books and is out now.

Book Review: Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land

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good me bad me.jpg

Good Me Bad Me is a disturbing thriller that tells the story of 15-year-old Annie. Until recently, Annie lived with her mother Ruth, in whose care she suffered devastating psychological and physical abuse alongside witnessing her mother commit crimes against other children that will be forever ingrained on her memory. Now living with a foster family and renamed ‘Milly’, Annie is attempting to come to terms with being the one who reported her mother to the police.

The premise of this novel is strong: Annie’s mother is a manipulative serial killer whose influence on her daughter didn’t simply come to an end when she was arrested. Constantly battling with the sound of her mother’s voice in her head, Annie tries to fit in at her new home and her new school whilst also preparing herself for having to testify against Ruth in court. Although, I occasionally wondered what the system was thinking placing Annie with another obviously dysfunctional family (her foster sister hates her and her foster mother is rarely seen without an alcoholic drink in her hand), the protagonist is a strong and likeable character for whom the reader feels much sympathy. Although the sometimes chatty style of her narrative is not always easy to read it is certainly authentic and her attempts to make friends, hampered by frequent panic attacks, make often heart-breaking reading.

As the book progresses, it becomes more and more obvious that Annie’s attempts to fit in are possibly beyond her and that her battle to convince herself that she is not her mother’s daughter will quite possibly be one that she cannot win. Will it be ‘good’ Annie or ‘bad’ Annie that prevails?

Good Me Bad Me is a chilling page-turner that I’m sure will be adapted for cinema screens before long.

Things I wish I’d known…

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While scrolling through Twitter recently (ever the procrastinator!), I have noticed a number of tweets that have referred to the difficulties that a debut author might experience after he or she has signed a publishing contract or been offered representation by an agent. Of course, achieving what you have worked towards, perhaps for many years, is exciting and something to be celebrated, but the path to having your novel or short story collection published can also be paved with huge amounts of anxiety. Indeed, Jade City and Zeroboxer author Fonda Lee recently summed up her own experience in a series of tweets:

Perhaps, for a new author, being prepared for the sometimes-stressful journey to becoming published is the answer, so I recently asked a few authors what they wish they had known before they were published that might have made their experience a little easier.

Winner of the CWA Debut Dagger and Luke Bitmead awards Ruth Dugdall stressed how important a social media presence can be for a new author. She said, “I wish I’d known just how important social media is. The relationships an author has with book reviewers and bloggers can make all the difference to the success of a novel, and I didn’t realize this initially, so I didn’t devote as much time to Twitter and Facebook as I should have done.”

Ruth also stressed that a debut author can make connections in other ways, for example in their local community: “I also wish that someone had told me just how important it is to contact local groups and try and build a local following. WI (Women’s Institute) groups are my all time favourites, and, once they get to know you, more invites will come. Every opportunity to meet a potential reader should be cherished.”

Much as a debut author might relish the idea of signing copies of their beloved book, Ruth stresses that bookshop events can often have a downside: “Book signings suck! Standing next to a whopping pile of books in Waterstones is the most demoralizing experience, and some of the stores won’t even offer you a cup of tea!”

Ruth’s seventh novel, The Things You Didn’t See, is out on 24th April.

Daniel Culver, whose debut novel White Midnight has recently been released by Manatee Books, agrees with Ruth about the importance of becoming involved with social media and of making connections with readers: “I never realised the value of having your book reviewed and rated. I don’t know if this would have changed anything, knowing how important things like Amazon and Goodreads (and Twitter, of course) are beforehand. I never did social media before, so only signed up to Twitter because of the book.”

Daniel also stressed how debut authors need to factor in how promoting an already published book might impact on writing the next. He said, “I always thought once the book is done and out there, that would be it, but the work to promote it is endless.”

Author of Between You and Me and Tell Me No Lies Lisa Hall agrees that signing a publishing or agent’s contract is just the beginning: ” The real work only starts after you have signed a book deal, what with editing, polishing, tweeting, promoting, writing articles…”

Lisa also stresses that debut authors shouldn’t be put off by negative reviews, “One-star reviews are not the be all and end all” and that authors should always remember that their agent or editor is on their side: “Your editor is your best friend. Ditto, your agent, if you have one.”

Lisa’s new novel, The Party, will be released on 26th July.

Finally, Manatee Books author James Stansfield, who has recently released his debut novel Anaconda Vice, and Orenda Books author Louise Beech nicely sum up a writer’s experience after signing a contract from different perspectives:

James said, “One thing that has surprised me is how much having a novel published has messed with my sleep patterns. I’ve not had this little rest since my daughter was a newborn.”

Whilst Louise states, “I only wish I’d known that it would happen for sure, then I could have been as excited as hell…”

Book Review: Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

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then she was gone

It’s been a while since I’ve read a book that I couldn’t put down and I admit I’m quite late to the party when it comes to Lisa Jewell novels. I downloaded Then She Was Gone to my Kindle on a Wednesday evening and, by the weekend, had finished it. No mean feat considering that, in between reading sessions, I had a birthday, mother’s day, a trip away with my boys and some shifts at my day job.

Then She Was Gone tells the story of 55-year-old Laurel Mack whose daughter Ellie disappeared when she was fifteen. Laurel has spent the ten years since the tragedy trying to rebuild her life. She has separated from her husband Paul and has an uneasy relationship with her remaining children Hanna and Jack. While the rest of her family seem to have moved on with their lives, Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter, struggling to maintain relationships and live in the present. When Laurel meets handsome American Floyd in a café, she finally begins to see a way forward, the joy of being in a new relationship lifting her spirits. However, when she meets Floyd’s unusual and older-than-her-age daughter Poppy, Laurel once again finds herself in the grip of past hurts. Who is this strange child and where did she come from? Can she and her father somehow lead Laurel to find out what happened to Ellie all those years ago?

Marketed as a psychological suspense novel, Then She Was Gone is more a disturbing character study that focusses on the impact of trauma and the domino effect one person’s actions can have on all involved. Flitting between the past and the present, as well as various points of view, Jewell begins to tell us the story in flashback, each revelation then taking us forward to Laurel in the present and successfully moving the story on. Admittedly, as a few other reviewers have pointed out, some of the plot of this novel requires a slight suspension of disbelief and, for me, the ending of the book kind of fizzles out a little, the showdown that I might have expected from a psychological suspense never quite arriving.

However, Jewell’s characters are believable and sympathetic and Then She Was Gone is a touching study of loss and hope. Definitely a page-turner.

Review: Ellipsis Zine: Two

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EZTwo

Read three over a cup of coffee. Read four on your daily commute. Read one that will make you think twice.

I was recently given the opportunity to read Issue Two of Ellipsis Zine in return for an honest review. Ellipsis Zine, launched by Steve Campbell in 2017, is an online and print literary magazine that publishes flash fiction and short creative non-fiction with each contribution within the 1000-word mark. As stated on the Ellipsis website: We love stories that make us forget where we are, stories that introduce us to people, places and things we’ve never seen before and stories that stick with us long after we leave them.

Ellipsis Zine: Two is a stunning collection of flash that explores themes such as loss, escape, infidelity and the impact of trauma.

In Jack Somers’ Billy, a wounded child feels the presence of his father’s past. As Dad tends to the boy’s injured foot, his son gains a mature insight into how past hurt can linger.

In the marvellously succinct opening of First Untruths, Tomas Marcantonio’s incredible use of description drags the reader back to the churches of childhood in a just a few well-chosen words: The thurible swung from its gibbet chains, releasing a heavy cloud of hallucinations to the rafters, and the purple tang of incense tickled in my nose and throat like a mouthful of fizzy petals… The story goes on to explore the familiar childhood fear of having nothing to say in the confessional.

In the brilliantly original The Oversharing Omniscient Narrator by Caleb Echterling, character Dave tries to control his own story: He flings an empty vodka bottle at the ceiling. “Dammit! Don’t tell them that…it’s extraneous to the plot.”

In Judy Darley’s fabulously insightful Flamingos and Ham, personalities and gender practically become non-existent as colours are outlawed: “Don’t let them make you believe that this is normal. You wore pink once…”

In Lucie McKnight Hardy’s highly moving Diptych, a hot and bickering family take a long journey to the funeral of loved-one, McKnight Hardy’s wonderful use of description again lingering in the reader’s mind long after the short is finished: Bewilderment filters through, intensified by silence; a diptych carved from grief.

And, in the not-too-distant future of Luke Richardson’s Two Minutes, Richardson’s protagonist marvels at past levels of concentration: before computers and machines completed complicated tasks, people had to concentrate for as long as an hour. You’d seen pictures of them driving cars and trains, operating machines, reading books.

A brilliant flash fiction showcase that is ideal for those random moments when you need nothing more than a quick literary fix, Ellipsis Zine publishes new work online every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and even offers writers a share of the royalties, as well as a complimentary copy of the print edition. All submitting authors also receive purchase discounts.

For information about submitting and to purchase Issues One and Two, visit the Ellipsis Zine website.

 

Why we should value our canine and feline writing companions

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molly

A few weeks before Christmas, I lost my faithful writing companion: the West Highland terrier I rescued almost eight years ago, my lovely Molly.

Molly (and her brother George, who we sadly lost just two years ago) was with me when I made my very first serious attempt at writing a novel, sitting on her bed at my feet as I wrote longhand in a pad at the kitchen table. She was also at my side when I wrote my latest novel, the one that has finally won me a publishing contract and that will be released with Manatee Books in the coming year.

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For much of my time, Molly drove me quite bonkers, fighting my laptop for space on my knee, barking at every figure that passed the window, and crying for her walk or her tea just as I might be finding myself in the ‘zone’ (you all know what I mean, that place in your novel that you pray you will reach every writing day, the one that, when it comes, you never want to leave). What we writers all know, however, is what a solitary, sedentary world we can create for ourselves when we are writing, and what Molly did for me was make me get out of the chair, make me shut down my laptop, if only for a short while, and make me go out of the house, something that I am struggling with a little on the days I’m not in my day job now that she is not here.

I won’t get another dog, not for a while anyway, but for many writers, our canine and feline companions can often be the only thing that connects us to the outside world, that enable us to have a responsibility to something other than the characters we are creating on the page.

So, here’s to Molly: with me in spirit for the next one.