Clare Chase's Blog, page 11

Online resources for mystery writers – updated

My novels always involve a murder mystery, and a couple of years ago I decided that maybe limiting my research to watching Lewis might be a bit slack. I started to trawl the web to get the answers I needed for the book I was writing then, and also for inspiration for future novels. Since […]

To cut a long story short…

Now is traditionally the time to leave behind the Christmas excess and forge ahead with new plans… I’m quite keen on the forging ahead bit, but will miss the excess. I find I’ve got used to it. Why are there only crumbs left at the bottom of the mince pie tin? Last year (as you […]

The perils of the partially familiar location – London calling

Anna, the heroine of my debut mystery, You Think You Know Me, is in a smart London gallery when she meets the man who calls himself Max. She feels an instant connection with him, but then she finds he’s given her a false name… Anna’s London is a world of bright lights, wintery glitter and […]

Publishing Promo – Six (semi) techie things I’ve learned

And these are just my known unknowns…! Facebook You can have more than one name on your profile page. If you’ve got a pen name, you can have that in brackets under your real one, or vice versa. I have a Clare Chase author page, but my personal account was still solely under my legal […]

OneNote for many – plotting my new novel

I don’t know if my brain’s flagging, but sorting out the plot of my next mystery has felt like wrestling an octopus. I normally enter a series of pivotal events into Excel, but this time that didn’t do the trick. I started casting around for software that might help, and realised I ought to explore […]

You Think You Know Me is up on Amazon

I know that, when you sign a contract for a book with a publisher, the logical end result is that, in the fullness of time, that book will become available to buy. That’s all fine in theory. But, now You Think You Know Me is available for pre-order, I find I still can’t quite believe […]

The sociable side of writing

My ambition to write professionally dates back to when I was a child. I taught myself to touch type as a teenager, so that I could record my stories more easily, and holed up in my room, conjuring up adventures for imaginary people. Put like that it sounds a bit mad. I did have friends, […]

You think you know me…

So, Anna in the Works has a new title – You Think You Know Me! (The exclamation mark is not part of it – that’s just me being excited.) Choc Lit sent me a list of six suggestions, of which I really liked three, and this one best of all. I’m pleased that it hints […]

Preparing for publication – edits and titles

Now that October’s here again, I’ve found myself looking back over the last twelve months. This time in 2013, I was on the point of submitting my novel, Anna in the Works, to Choc Lit. Around five months after that, they emailed to say their reading panel had liked it. I was at work at […]

Grantchester Meadows

As ever, I’m finding it hard to let go of summer. In the last week, the warmth’s returned to Cambridge, but it’s been overlaid with the signs of autumn. The spiders are everywhere in the garden and I need bike lights if I’m out after 7.30pm. 7.30! What happened? I’m also missing the freewheeling that […]