Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Although I published many academic papers over the years, I mostly write fiction now – psychological crime books: thrillers, suspense or mysteries – utilising my background as a research and clinical psychologist (and, yes, I was headhunted to a medical school in a top UK university like Sophie in ‘Half Truths and Whole Lies’). I have published four stand-alone crime/domestic thriller novels, a mystery series of four books featuring Madeleine Brooks Amateur Detective, plus two collections of short stories. Two new books will be published this year, ‘Marcia’s Dead’, a stand-along mystery and ‘Death at the Olde Woodley Grange’, the fifth in the Madeleine Brooks Mystery series.
Most of the time I live with my husband in New Zealand alternating between Auckland and an adobe house high above an isolated beach in Northland. Whenever we can, we also spend time each year off the grid on a remote lake in the Canadian wilderness in NW Ontario. All are wonderful places for writing.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
‘Marcia’s Dead’, due to be published shortly, is written about a place where we spend a lot of our time on an isolated bay on the east coast of Northland, some 3½ hours north of Auckland, and in Auckland itself. It is the only book I have written based in New Zealand, but I enjoyed it so much, I plan on another. Or maybe a series…
What inspired it? I was sitting on our beach in the sunshine, a beach in front of a tiny hamlet of only six houses and surrounded by a forest (we do share the beach with the occasional visitor, of course), leaning against a little rowboat. My over-active imagination had the boat out on the water, drifting, and a red blob – a life-jacket with the body of a woman tied to it – slowly making its way into shore. And that is my opening scene for ‘Marcia’s Dead’. The book is about her ex-husband and their daughter searching to understand how Marcia ended up drowned. It was great fun to write and I hope readers will fall in love with ‘the bay’, like I did for the real bay.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have heard other authors say they want their writing spaces in isolation away from distractions. I do like the quiet but I have positioned my desks (I’m talking about 3 of them – one in Auckland, one on ‘the bay’ and one in a cottage in Ontario, Canada) where by raising my eyes, I can see far distances. In Auckland, I can lift my eyes away from my screen to be greeted by a peaceful view of the leafy glen out from my back garden with only the occasional hint of other houses nearby, at the bay, an amazing view of the rocky Northland coastline, cut by beaches, stretching towards the sunny north, and in Ontario, out over the lake to a distant shore without another soul in sight. Isolation, you bet! But visual stimulation in plenty!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I loved Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Marjorie Allingham and the other classical ‘queens of crime’, all female crime writers, as a child and teenager (and still enjoy ’em!), then Ruth Rendall, Patricia Cornwell, Minette Walters, Tess Garritsen, Val McDiarmid, Sue Grafton – I could go on, but I’m sure my list is little different from many crime writers today. All female – did you notice? Actually I did that on purpose, but I do love the books of male writers, too such as Peter May, Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, David Baldacci and John Grisham among others.
What are you working on now?
‘Marcia’s Dead’ is out to some beta readers now and will need tweeking, most likely. The fifth book in my murder mystery series, ‘Death at the Olde Woodley Grange’ is nearly there. All the books in the Madeleine Brooks Mystery series (bar the prequel novella) are somewhere around 60,000-70,000 words and I have just hit the 60 mark with several scenes still to be written. Editing and re-writing usually adds to the word count as my first drafts are often sparse in the type of detail that brings a location, a person or dialogue to life. And that makes the re-writing great fun.
Like all the Maddie books, this one takes place in rural Oxfordshire (a bloody county, given how many books and television murder mysteries are located there – one of the Midsomer Murder episodes was being filmed in a nearby village when we lived there). The eponymous Grange is based on a real house owned by someone I knew, located in a valley like the one described in the book. I’m particularly enjoying writing about an ‘old’ hippy or two. Great fun, actually.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I guess I have to say the best used is Book Funnel where authors team up with other authors to host a promotion of a specific type of book – in my case, I have been promoting the first of the Madeleine Brooks Mysteries there, plus I have been successfully building my email list by giving away my series prequel novella in their newsletter promotions.
I have my book ‘Half Truths and Whole Lies’ in an upcoming Awesome Gang promotion which is exciting. Fingers crossed!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I think being an introvert is a natural advantage, but if you are on the other side of things, you will have to create a spot for writing that isolates you from others. Maybe a stand-alone (yes, that means away from the internet) location without your phone (important!) and with strict instructions for family and friends not to contact you between – well, you know when your best writing time is each day.
Then head down, plan then write. I used not to plan (a ‘pantser’ but planning does help immensely and does not – repeat: does NOT – hinder the flow of imagination, even if eventually, you have many diversions away from the original plan). A plan means you don’t get stuck. Simple.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Character first. Have your character’s beginning, middle and ending in mind before you get into the plot. Readers love characters. Plotting is something different, important, yes, but only after you have figured out where your main character (or secondary main one) will be going from beginning to end.
What are you reading now?
A Tess Garritsen book. She gets the medical stuff correct (she should, she’s a doctor) which I like. Also Lisa Cron’s book on writing plus a Peter May book. I usually have several on the go, often all on my Kindle. Actually, the Peter May book is an audiobook for listening when in the car.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m playing with a series of novellas, based on a small town marriage counselor. Another idea I’ve had is a series about a mature post-grad student who is a whizz at research (solving academic mysteries) and thus solving murder mysteries. She has an odd background…she says she lived in a nunnery for more than a decade, which contributes hugely to her knowledge of people and their behaviours. As you can see, I start with a character and see where it takes me. I am trying to be more disciplined at planning now, but we will see.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The biggest anthologies of crime novels I can find. Just so I can wallow in crime stories and the more the better! Oh, and how about the biggest non-fiction description of true crime as well – that will help the construction of my own stories in my imagination.
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