Ask the Author: B.M. Allsopp
Answered Questions (12)
B.M. Allsopp
I got the idea from a Fiji Times article, reporting that the TV hit reality show, Survivor, was returning to film another series in Fiji, while other international visitors were still banned under Covid-19 restrictions. That report sparked 'what if' questions that developed into my next murder mystery.
B.M. Allsopp
Yes, Karen, there will! Death by Tradition, my second Fiji Islands Mystery, will be released on 7th August on Amazon. Joe Horseman and Susie Singh spend much time in both Fiji's capital Suva and the mountainous hinterland as well as driving the long and rutted road between these contrasting places.
I'm so glad you enjoyed Death on Paradise Island, and hope you like Death by Tradition just as much. Happy reading to you!
I'm so glad you enjoyed Death on Paradise Island, and hope you like Death by Tradition just as much. Happy reading to you!
B.M. Allsopp
Thank you Thomas. I have now sent you an email, so please hit 'Reply' on that. All the best to you!
B.M. Allsopp
Yes, Karen! You asked at just the right time. 'Death by Tradition: Fiji Islands Mysteries 2' is with the proofreader now and will be available late July, or early August if there are any hiccups. I'm very excited as it took me twice as long to write as I had planned. I will announce the publication date on Goodreads when I can work out how to do that! I'm so glad you enjoyed Death on Paradise Island.
B.M. Allsopp
First, as I live in Australia, I'll rephrase this to my WINTER reading list. I'm currently reading fellow Australian Jane Harmer's The Dry - a fabulous debut detective novel, and have Hannah Kent's Good People lined up next.
I'll definitely be catching up with the latest best-selling crime novels from Peter Robinson, Ann Cleeves and Donna Leon, and at the lighter end of the spectrum, Alexander McCall-Smith. I've also just downloaded Wendy Cartmell's latest, Death Call, and am looking forward to another Crane and Anderson investigation.
Stella Rimington's latest espionage book is also on my list, together with more of Mark Dawson's John Milton spy thrillers.
However, I'm also writing the second Fiji Islands Mystery, so I will have to limit my reading!
I'll definitely be catching up with the latest best-selling crime novels from Peter Robinson, Ann Cleeves and Donna Leon, and at the lighter end of the spectrum, Alexander McCall-Smith. I've also just downloaded Wendy Cartmell's latest, Death Call, and am looking forward to another Crane and Anderson investigation.
Stella Rimington's latest espionage book is also on my list, together with more of Mark Dawson's John Milton spy thrillers.
However, I'm also writing the second Fiji Islands Mystery, so I will have to limit my reading!
B.M. Allsopp
Just start! Don’t be like me, don’t wait for years until you have time, while ideas and characters swirl around in your head, wanting to be born. Get them down on paper. Start with one sentence, and another will follow.
B.M. Allsopp
Snorkelling a superb coral reef right off the beach on a Fijian island, then looking in the resort shop to check they have all five or six or seven of my Inspector Horseman series. Of course they have, but they’re selling fast so the manager needs to order more!
B.M. Allsopp
The best thing is finally seeing your book printed and bound, and holding it in your hands. Absolutely. I did this last week when my proof copy of 'Death on Paradise Island' arrived. A wonderful feeling, only partly marred by discovering 17 typos and having them corrected and going through the process again!
B.M. Allsopp
The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, written and illustrated by May Gibbs and continuously in print since 1940. The book introduces children to the Australian bush through the exciting but scary adventures of two gumnut babies (eucalyptus tree fruit), who survive predatory birds, snakes, fire and flood. Even flora can be menacing: the old flower spikes of the banksia tree, their woody seed follicles protruding from grey shaggy coats like staring eyes and gaping mouths, are ‘big, bad, banksia men’, in league with wicked Mrs Snake to capture and kill Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. To this day, everyone in my family coming across mature banksia spikes, gleefully recites ‘the big, bad banksia men, hatching a wicked plot’, which is a caption from one of May Gibb’s wonderful illustrations.
When I was a few years older, Johanna Spyri’s Heidi books won my heart and immersed me in a totally different environment from my familiar Australian bush. How delightful were the high pasture in the Swiss Alps, the snow, the warm breath of the friendly cows, the innocent meadow flowers and toasted cheese! The scenes where Heidi learns to read, and in turn teaches her friend Peter, fascinated me.
Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five filled me with envy. Were all English children allowed to cycle off to camp on their own, live on pineapple chunks and chocolate, and bring adult wrongdoers to justice?
When I was a few years older, Johanna Spyri’s Heidi books won my heart and immersed me in a totally different environment from my familiar Australian bush. How delightful were the high pasture in the Swiss Alps, the snow, the warm breath of the friendly cows, the innocent meadow flowers and toasted cheese! The scenes where Heidi learns to read, and in turn teaches her friend Peter, fascinated me.
Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five filled me with envy. Were all English children allowed to cycle off to camp on their own, live on pineapple chunks and chocolate, and bring adult wrongdoers to justice?
B.M. Allsopp
I identify with so many! I suppose reader identification with character is an acid test of a writer’s success. My choices might be quite different tomorrow or even in an hour’s time, but these live for me, with qualities I aspire to, rather than share:
Heidi, when I was a child. “I want to go about like the light-footed goats.”
Paola Brunetti, wife of Commissario Brunetti, the detective in Donna Leon’s fabulous books set in Venice. While I fail to understand her routine of whipping home from university to prepare mouth-watering lunches for her family, her amusing stories about her colleagues and students ring so true. She is sometimes her husband’s fiercest critic but always his greatest friend.
Inspector Kate Miskin, loyal off-sider to Adam Dalgliesh, in many novels by P.D. James. Unlike most fictional detectives, she’s the ideal team player, without ego, yet independent, clever and courageous.
Heidi, when I was a child. “I want to go about like the light-footed goats.”
Paola Brunetti, wife of Commissario Brunetti, the detective in Donna Leon’s fabulous books set in Venice. While I fail to understand her routine of whipping home from university to prepare mouth-watering lunches for her family, her amusing stories about her colleagues and students ring so true. She is sometimes her husband’s fiercest critic but always his greatest friend.
Inspector Kate Miskin, loyal off-sider to Adam Dalgliesh, in many novels by P.D. James. Unlike most fictional detectives, she’s the ideal team player, without ego, yet independent, clever and courageous.
B.M. Allsopp
Am I on the desert island forever, or just for a long weekend? If the former, the book would need to be a very thick one, worthy of many readings and much pondering: The Complete Works of Shakespeare.
B.M. Allsopp
While living in Fiji for four years I thought detective stories set in those lovely islands could be fun. The characters and several plot lines evolved in my imagination as I enjoyed breaks on resort islands and observed worrying damage to the environment. But it was not until returning to Sydney that I could start developing the idea in earnest.
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