Ask the Author: Helen Sarah Fields
Answered Questions (16)
Helen Sarah Fields
Hi Vanessa, There should be some news about this in the next couple of months. Very best wishes, Helen
Helen Sarah Fields
Hi Emily,
Connie will be back in August 2025 in The Watcher, set in Edinburgh. It was a really interesting book to write. Hope you enjoy it and very best wishes, Helen
Connie will be back in August 2025 in The Watcher, set in Edinburgh. It was a really interesting book to write. Hope you enjoy it and very best wishes, Helen
Helen Sarah Fields
Hello, This is up to my publisher, but I'm thinking about it. Luc and Ava are still on my mind all the time.
Helen Sarah Fields
Hello and thank you for the question! Connie pops up briefly in my latest book, Profile K, that's also about profiilng. And Connie and Baarda will both be back in a new book in 2025 set in Edinburgh (no title as yet.)
Helen Sarah Fields
Yes this book was very much written so that it could be read as a standalone. We wanted new readers to feel able to access the story even if they hadn't read any of the previous books. Also, there have been an awful lot of "perfect ****" books out out in the last couple of years - couple, marriage, honeymoon, boyfriend etc - and we wanted to stand out more in the market place.
Helen Sarah Fields
Hi Emma, Thanks for your question. I'm so glad you've enjoyed the series. I'm afraid I don't have any definite news about another book yet. That's down to my publisher Avon at HarperCollins. I have a book coming out in September called The Last Girl To Die which will feature a couple of characters you'll recognise, but Luc and Ava's future is still unknown. Let's all keep our fingers crossed. Best wishes, Helen
Helen Sarah Fields
Actually from the research I did when I was writing The Shadow Man. Quite often an idea will come to me while I'm looking at something different, and I'll store it away for a later date. The Shadow Man had a psychological profiler at its heart, Dr Connie Woolwine, and I think I always knew she'd be back to do more.
Helen Sarah Fields
I'm about to read Reputation by Sarah Vaughan, Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson and The Nurse by Claire Allan.
Helen Sarah Fields
I once got absolutely furious for something pretty awful that was done to me by a group of three women that had serious repercussions for me. As therapy, and to get rid of my fury, I made tiny dolls of them, stayed awake a whole night, and put curses on them. Over the next couple of years, the same horrible thing happened to all three women separately. Now I don't believe in voodoo, but the odds of that happening...well. Let's just say I never made any tiny dolls again.
Helen Sarah Fields
I honestly don't have a firm answer to this yet. I know that the character have more stories to tell, but the books I write are the ones my publishers think will work best at any given time. I'm having to wait and see just like you! Sorry I can't be more helpful. The Last Girl To Die that comes out in September of this year features a couple of familiar characters though!
Helen Sarah Fields
I'd travel to 1960s Mississippi and help Skeeter write "The Help". I'd love to conspire with her, and watch her grow beyond her world and her environment to make change happen. (The Help by Kathryn Stockett - if you haven't read it, you should.)
Helen Sarah Fields
Write what you love. Write the stories that set you on fire. You don't have to write what you know, but you do have to write something that makes you emotionally invested in your own words. You should feel your book as you write it. If it doesn't affect you, there's no way it can affect anyone else. Write the story you would most like to read. Also, read a lot. That really helps. Everyone says it, but it's true.
Helen Sarah Fields
Writer's block happens when you haven't planned enough and you don't know what's supposed to happen next. It's not so much a mystical artist block as a functional block. The best thing to do is skip ahead to write another chapter that you have firmly in your mind, then come back and fill in the gaps.
Helen Sarah Fields
I feed fro a lot of different media - the news, graphic novels, true crime documentaries, music. I need tons of different inputs to really get me going. And cups of tea. I have to be happy and physically comfortable before I can write, and music is a must for me.
Helen Sarah Fields
It's the freedom. I can write in the morning and take the afternoon off or write in the evenings (my best time). I make my own schedule. I still have deadlines and I need some discipline, but my week is basically my own to organise as I please. That means I get to spend a lot of time with my kids, exercise and read. Not a lot of people have that sort of flexibility and I love it. Also, I make stuff up for a living. What's not to like?
Helen Sarah Fields
I'm currently working on my first UK hardback novel coming out in 2023. It features Dr Connie Woolwine who is a psychological profiler from The Shadow Man. She is undercover in a high security psychiatric unit trying to find out who has kidnapped a baby.
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