Andrew Barrett's Blog, page 3

Story Execution

Story Execution – (contains spoilers) 

This is my answer to a recent question posed on the Advance Readers Team on Facebook. Click here to go to the page. Here is that question: Can you tell us how you develop a novel plot?

I find neither the ideas nor the execution easy.

Ideas don’t come to me easily. I usually get a small part of a scene only – I think my muse just likes to see me sweat. From it I have to grow an entire book. It usually happens on the fly too because I’m not good with planning things out. Far too often I’ll put a character into a situation only for something completely different to happen.

Do you remember the scene in Ledston Luck where Eddie stays behind after a briefing to give Cooper a piece of his mind? All of a sudden, out of Eddie’s mouth (not mine) came the words, “You look like shit.” I stopped in my tracks. I hadn’t considered this idea before, but I considered it now. Why would Cooper look bad? Sleep-deprived? Guilt-ridden? Those four words provided a major turning point in that book. Cooper was keeping a secret and it turned out that secret was the foundation of the book.

All I had to do was write it.

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When they finally come, ideas are great. But execution is key. I think writing a story is necessarily all about filming a conflict. Even if it’s just a game of tiddly-winks, it’s conflict. Who’s going to win – that’s your basic conflict. How does the winner feel? Smug, guilty? Does he lord it over the loser? How does the loser feel? Betrayed, worthless, defeated and beaten, or does he feel angry? And what happens later when they’re standing side by side ready to cross that busy road? How easy would it be for the loser to give the smug winner a quick shove as the van approaches? Voila, you have your story.

In my Eddie Collins books, I try to layer conflict throughout the entire book. In his work setting, Eddie is in conflict with those he works with; sometimes it’s a minor conflict, sometimes major. In his home life, Eddie is always in conflict with his father, Charles. The moment they start getting along and seeing things the same way, that’s the moment their partnership becomes stale to read about. Eddie also ‘suffers’ from internal conflict too – as we all do; it’s called making decisions. And that’s just conflict from Eddie’s perspective; there has to be conflict for the bad guy too.

[image error]Keeping an eye on each of these conflicts is the key to good (I think) execution. As a writer, I must balance all these layers of conflict, with their various degrees of intensity or comedy happening at the same time throughout the entire book. And each conflict must be a complete arc too otherwise the reader will notice something isn’t right. They might not be able to put their finger on what the problem is, but it’ll catch their subconscious. And I can ‘see’ these arcs, and I notice if there are unnatural steps or misalignments in them – just a mood change in the character that shouldn’t be there for this layer of conflict to sound unreal.

Once you’ve written out each layer of conflict, you’ve inadvertently written a whole book!

[image error]Of course there must also be plot points. Born of conflict, the bad guy wants something. How’s he going to get it? He must go through a series of events to reach his goal, and each event must not be coincidental or contrived, but should be natural – even artificially so (coincidence exists in real life, but not in fiction (usually)), and this is where being a pantster comes in to its own. A pantster is a writer who writes his stories by the seat of his pants with little or no planning beforehand. I am a pantster, and my stories grow from an idea and follow plot lines that I believe would happen naturally. Being a pantster allows the story to sprout tangents that might not be foreseeable if I were a plotter – see the “You look like shit” line above. I could never have envisaged that, and the story would have plodded along its predetermined (sort of predetermined – not planned) course – to its detriment, I believe.

[image error]My current story is being a pain right now. I know roughly where I want the story to end, but I’m a long way from it. I need to set plot points to get from here to there, I need to envisage scenes, but they have to seem natural. If they’re not, I need to go back and engineer circumstances or situations in order to make sure those later plot points are natural, that this is the only way things could have turned out.

I think character development is a by-product of story-telling. If a writer gets his story and character arcs right, then a character’s development is automatic. I give no additional thought to how my characters have changed throughout a story – just how they feel scene by scene. I concentrate on how Eddie is feeling at the beginning of the scene in The Note where he arrives home. If you can feel his genuine fear of what happens after he opens the door to his house, and write it, sculpting each emotion as required, then you have inadvertently again written your character arc and you’ve developed him too.

[image error]You don’t notice subtle changes in your reflection each day in the bathroom mirror. But pull out a photograph of when you were six years old and compare it to how you look today, and you’ll see a massive difference (unless you’re still six years old!). We see a massive difference in Eddie at the beginning of The Note compared with how he is at the end, while still retaining his core features. And it happened naturally, without my consciously thinking about it.

When Time Flies

I cannot believe that this is my first blog post of 2018! Where has all the time gone?

Such a lot has happened over the last few months that I hardly know where to begin.

[image error]The End of Lies, over three months since its release, continues to do well. On Goodreads it has 455 ratings and 154 reviews with an average of 4.2, and in the US the latest of its 144 reviews says, “This is one of the best psychological thrillers I’ve ever read”. UK and US readers have given The End of Lies a 4.6 and 4.7 average.

March is survey month for the thousands of readers on my newsletter – and one of the questions on there was ‘Would you like to see more stand-alone thrillers?’ 80% said they would, and I think a lot of that enthusiasm comes from The End of Lies.

So guess what I’ll be writing sometime this year? I have an idea in mind for a cracking standalone thriller, so I can’t wait to begin that.

Of course I’m still engrossed with CSI Eddie Collins new book, The Death of Jessica Ripley. It’s coming along well, but a little too slowly for my liking – and too slowly for many Eddie supporters too! There are two reasons for this:

I’m trialling Scrivener again. This is the third and most serious attempt to get to grips with this new (to me) writing software so far. I first tried it out five years ago and threw it in the bin. I then tried it out while writing Ledston Luck and couldn’t get to grips with it. Learning it was such a slog that it was beginning to interfere in a big way with my writing – so it hit the bin again.[image error]

Now though… well, I began Jessica Ripley almost a year ago but took time away from it to write The End of Lies and to work on some other projects*. When I’m away from a book it takes me a while to get back into it again, and feel its rhythm once more. And so I thought I’d re-learn the book as I got to grips with Scrivener. So far so good. The important thing is that I’m getting back on the horse and getting comfy in the saddle. Me and the new book are still getting acquainted again, but were walking, and I think pretty soon we’ll be galloping.

*And the second reason The Death of Jessica Ripley has taken a back seat recently is that Bloodhound Books have signed all four of CSI Eddie Collins’s books! That is massive news, and I’m very grateful to Betsy Reavley from BHB who has been really supportive of the transition so far. Part of that transition involved trimming The Third Rule a little more just to make sure it was as lean and mean as I could get it. The books are winging their way to an editor right now.

Pretty soon they will all have new covers and some of them will even have new titles.

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The Third Rule will continue with that title.
Black by Rose will be retitled No Time to Die
Sword of Damocles will be retitled The Hammer Falls
Ledston Luck will be retitled The Long Revenge
The Note and The Lift will continue with those titles.

I hope Bloodhound enjoys The Death of Jessica Ripley, and I hope you do too!

So this year will continue to be mega busy for me: re-editing all of Eddie’s old books; finishing a new one; hopefully writing a new standalone; and I also want to continue my new tradition of writing a short story each year to go with Eddie’s new novel.

There is also the chance of a fourth SOCO Roger Conniston book on the horizon. One of my closest friends on my Facebook Advance Reader Team (take a bow, Rudi) has suggested the story is not quite over. He thinks Chamberlain didn’t get what he deserved, that he walked from his immoral actions without punishment. What do you think? Should Chamberlain be made to answer for his actions?

Speaking of SOCO Roger Conniston books. I’ve enrolled them in Kindle Unlimited for a while. So if you’re a member [image error]of KU you can get Stealing Elgar and No More Tears for free as part of your monthly subscription. Of course, you’ll already have A Long Time Dead for free anyway – if not, click here. As an aside, The End of Lies is also in Kindle Unlimited.

Stealing Elgar and No more Tears are now only available at Amazon.

[image error]I’m enjoying some great interaction with readers over on the ART page (click here to go there and sign up); it’s quite busy and it’s lots of fun, and very friendly. Pop along and see for yourself. And people are contacting me on the website too:

If you have a question you’d like answers to, please click questions@andrewbarrett.co.uk

If you have an image for inclusion on the site, click photos@andrewbarrett.co.uk

If you have a sub-1000-word story for the site, click stories@andrewbarrett.co.uk

As always, you can reach me at andrew@andrewbarrett.co.uk

The Journey to Bloodhound Books.

From 1985, when I first started writing, right up until 2002 (or thereabouts) I dreamed about getting an agent and getting a publisher. Back then it was really the only way to go if you wanted to be a serious writer. And I did. In 2001 I hit the jackpot and landed a well-respected London-based agent.

It was hell.

He read and loved A Long Time Dead, and set me up with an editor. We all three got along quite well. I’m not sure what the traditional publishing industry is like today, but back then my slice of it was horrible. I would wait weeks for replies to emails (I remember spending a whole day sitting in front of the computer, hitting ‘refresh’ every minute or two – despondent when no new emails came through – horrible times); he’d always be away from the office whenever I rang. Yes, I know what you’re thinking – Barrett’s an arsehole, and he just didn’t want to deal with me. I thought that too, believe me. But it turned out that he was the arsehole and left his agency not long afterwards leaving me high and dry.

Heartbroken? Yup. But I had one thing that he couldn’t damage: a real passion for writing, whether it was going to be published or not. Oh, and I also had the three books I’d already written. I didn’t want an agent or a publisher any more. I was happy just to write for me; I loved writing and couldn’t care less if it was ever published. A decade later and Amazon came along.

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Fast forward a few years, and in early 2017 I wrote The Note – an Eddie Collins short story. Those readers I sent it to loved it, and I felt buoyed enough to ask an established author to offer an endorsement. Enter one Betsy Freeman Reavley. She read The Note and like it too, and duly emailed a splendid endorsement to me.

At the foot of her email was something like, “We should talk.”

So we did (via email, I don’t like phones, sorry). Between us, we agreed that I should come up with an original story just for Bloodhound. They wanted two chapters and a synopsis of the story.

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Great. I had neither. But I did have a computer and an imagination – and my passion, don’t forget. The first two chapters of Dancing at the Devil’s Door fell out of my keyboard without a hitch. All I had to do was come up with the rest of the story. And for someone like me who writes by the seat of their pants, that was going to be a tall order. But I’d already said I could it, so do it I must. I set about making a roadmap of what should happen in the story. From that I was able to determine a list of events. And from that I was able to plot a list of scenes.

I sent those chapters and the synopsis to Bloodhound. I didn’t chew my nails, and I wasn’t worried; I knew that the story was good, and I knew that if Bloodhound didn’t want it, I’d go ahead and write it anyway. I wasn’t aching to get a publisher any more, content to remain a proud indie author. But if I was to get a publisher, it had to be Bloodhound – I’d seen their work, their standards, and the way were expanding within the market. I liked what I saw.

Thankfully Betsy liked the story, and I had the go ahead to get a move on. In July, with the Theakston’s Crime Fest as a backdrop, and with just a handful of first draft chapters under my belt, I met Betsy and the lovely Sumaira, and didn’t hesitate to sign the contract they’d brought along.

Publishing has changed massively since the dark days of 2002. This isn’t traditional publishing – I’m never going there again, thank you; this is modern publishing. So far I’m delighted to be at Bloodhound; I haven’t met anyone who wasn’t entirely thrilled to be there, I haven’t met anyone who’s in the slightest rude (my biggest criticism of my first experience). To cap it all, my publisher (always wanted to say that!) has a great reputation, and that’s backed up by the quality of the writers already on their books.

We’re half way through December as I finish this piece. Dancing at the Devil’s Door became The End of Lies, and in what seemed like a rush, we hurled the manuscript through a wonderful editor, hitched up a fantastic cover, and prepared for launch day (7th December), with Sarah Hardy formulating a blog tour.

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The book has been out six whole days and I have to say that I never expected the success it’s already had. There are nearly 100 reviews on Amazon UK and US, more than 100 on Goodreads. Before the book hit the virtual shelves it was in the top 10 in its category, and was already on the Hot New Release chart (no idea how!). Since release, it’s been at number one on both sides of the Atlantic, it’s hit number one on the Hot New Release chart, and it’s been awarded an orange Best Seller ribbon.

Delighted? Just a bit

The Best Feeling…

Also known as Operation Shitmepants.

Over this last week or two, so many people have asked, “What’s it like?” They’re wondering what publishing a book is like, not whatever it was you were thinking. Go wash your mind out with soap and water.

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The day of publication will be a massive rush. I’ll sit here watching the reviews trickle in (hopefully) and  read each one carefully, trying to catch a trend. It honestly is a rush. In the past, I’ve felt my usually sleepy heart running around inside my chest tapping a stick on my ribs. My hands actually tremble as I read the comments on the website, and the messages coming in via Facebook or Twitter.

The first few hours are a good indicator of how things will pan out over the coming days and weeks. Honestly, it’s a feeling you never lose respect for, it’s a feeling you never want to forget. All that of course is assuming people like the book! I’ve been quite lucky in that negative reviews are few and far between, but they hurt, let me tell you. They hurt a lot. What can I say, I’m sensitive! I use Nivea, so I’m really sensitive.

But that rush I was talking about is the culmination of many hundreds of hours of work. That finished book you see on Amazon or Apple is but the tip of an iceberg.

Planning the book is fun but hell at the same time. I don’t do too much planning because I don’t want to spoil the surprises to come. And they do come! A character says something you couldn’t see coming, or your subconscious mind steers their conversation away from the expected conclusion and opens up an entirely new – and previously unexplored – pathway. That’s the amazing thing about writing: you’re not in charge, buddy. I suppose you could stick rigidly to the expected conclusion, but you’d be missing out on something wonderful if you did. [image error]

After the ‘planning’ comes the writing. Writing is the very best bit; it’s where you get to find out how your mind really ticks. You can peer behind that red velvet curtain it hides behind and you can see, experience, what really goes on in there. Everything it presents to you in your normal daily life is a complete lie. I don’t mean just that part that puts on a façade for the world to see, but I mean that part that puts on a façade for you!

There’s more too. It’s working on a thousand levels all at the same time. It’s measuring tone, it’s dictating pace, it’s listening to the words and it’s seeing them, imagining what kinds of patterns and shapes they create as you say them and see them; it’s imagining rhythm. It’s looking out for your characters, assessing their feelings and calculating their goals. It’s managing micro and macro worlds.

And on top of that it’s taking the reader to one side and whispering to them. It’s telling them something’s about to happen and they’re not going to like it. But never explicitly. It’s intimating trouble ahead. It’s also asking the reader a very personal question: what would you do if this were happening to you? The reader begins to feel the things that your characters feel.

Ever screamed at the screen as the woman goes down into the cellar at midnight holding nothing but a candle and her breath?

This is why I adore writing.

Editing though… not so much. I know the story now; there are no shocks in store. But I still have to make sure I didn’t give the game away too much. It’s like exploring a trail you’ve been down a thousand times before as though it was still strange and new.

When you get responses from those few people you trusted with your new baby is when Operation Shitmepants creeps up a level. You have to hope that they didn’t laugh at your efforts; they didn’t use it as toilet paper; they understood it – sometimes you need to be a little more explicit.

But mostly you’re hoping they enjoyed the damned thing. If they did, then anything they find wrong with it can be fixed. And this time around, for me, I’ve had the added tension of having a professional editor go over the manuscript too as well as a proof-reader. My arse was twitching like a rabbit’s nose. But all was good. And relax…

Also this time around, Bloodhound Books sent me two covers to choose from. Normally I produce my own covers (yeah, okay, I admit I’m not exactly a professional designer) but I never get the same rush when creating them as I do while writing the book in the first place. That tells me something.

The covers I got were great. One of them shouted CLICHÉ though, and so even though it was good, I wouldn’t have chosen it in a million years. Every bloody thriller on the market has a variation of that cover. Nope, not mine.

I went for this beauty… I love it!

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So we’re three weeks away from publication. And that’s when Operation Shitmepants goes into full throttle. After the ARCs go out there’s nothing else to do until someone over at Bloodhound pushes that big green PUBLISH button.

Those wonderful bloggers grind into action, and if they read and enjoyed your book, we’ll be looking at some excellent coverage, some great reviews written by experienced people who love reading books as much as I do writing them. The End of Lies will be dissected and talked about; it’ll be criticised, it’ll be held aloft for ridicule, it’ll be used as door stop, but it’ll be loved by some. We just have to hope those who loved it outnumber those who didn’t, hope that they’re louder too.

So, publishing a book is the most nerve-racking, heart-pounding, wonderfully enjoyable thing you can do. And I love it so much that I know it’ll be a job for life. Whether any more of my books are published (by me or by Bloodhound) or not, doesn’t matter. It’s the thrill of finding out where my mind can take me that’s the drug; it’s the constant ability to surprise myself that I have fallen in love with.

Look out for The End of Lies, due out Thursday 7th December 2017.

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Behind the scenes…

This could be the last blog I post from this website.

A lot has happened over the last month or so, and a lot is still happening behind the scenes. I suspect it looks like I’ve just been absent without leave but this last month has been one of the busiest I’ve had this year.

I finished the new book, The End of Lies, and my editor (hello, Clare!) is working on it right now. I wonder if any author has ever had a manuscript returned from an editor with a note attached saying, ‘It’s perfect! Publish as it is.’ Anyway, I’ll let you know what she says, and I’ll try to share with you how much work it’ll take in order to reach that publication standard – without giving away too much of the plot.

I also trialled some software for keeping the accounts in order. I battled with it for nearly a week. In the end I gathered all the hair I’d pulled out, and threw it and the software in the bin. I’ll stick with my trusty old method of pen and paper. It would have produced some really fancy graphs, but when the tail starts to wag the dog it’s time to rethink things.

And then there’s the website.

The site you’re reading this on now is okay. It serves its purpose: it gives me a presence on the web, and it gives people something to read that they won’t find anywhere else. But that’s about it. It isn’t exactly pretty either. Well, I’ve invested a great deal of time and a fair wedge of cash into creating a new site with a new domain name.

The old (and still current for another few weeks) domain was andrew-barrett.co.uk but the new one is much sleeker, much more me! Drum roll, please; here we go, it’s andrewbarrett.co.uk

Impressed, eh? Good. I’ve coupled that new domain name (in case you haven’t spotted the difference, there’s no dash any more) with a new email account (andrew@andrewbarrett.co.uk). I also wanted the .com version too, but it’s not available. I guess there are a lot of Andrew Barrett’s out there – we’re very common, y’know.

The new site is completely different from the old one. This time around I wanted something less cluttered, less menacing, more homely, and even colourful. Yes, I know the front page is still a bit cluttered, but I wanted to show off the books, their blurb, and offer buying options that you just can’t do with the thumbnail images I have displayed right now.

I’ve tried to use a lot of white space, tried to make it a more relaxing place to visit. I’ve updated the page that’s concerned with how I wrote each book, that The Story of… page, and there’s the Other Writing page too – also updated, and with a freebie or two that you can’t get anywhere else.

One page on there that wasn’t on the old site (there are two or three, actually) is a fan page. I’m in the process of asking people to send in photographs of themselves holding a paperback of mine, or holding their Kindle with one of my books on the scree. It’s just a bit of fun, but it’ll great to see your picture on a website. If you’d like to contribute with a photograph of your own, please send it to photos@andrewbarrett.co.uk

So what’s left to do on the site before I can let it go live? Well, I have yet to configure the blog page and all the blog posts – there are lots of them so it’s no quick task. And on top of that lot, I’m partnering with a new email service provider and struggling to embed forms in the site as well as mastering integration.

Yes, I’ve been very busy, it’s been a very steep learning curve for me (I’m a technophobe), but parts of it have been great fun. That said, I wouldn’t like to do any of it on a regular basis. Once this site is finished, it’s staying like that for the foreseeable future!

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The New Pup at Bloodhound

A lot has happened since May, and what follows is a resume of those two months.

The latest CSI Eddie Collins novel, provisionally entitled The Death of Jessica Ripley continues to gather dust on the shelf here in the Writing Pad. I began it in March and blitzed through the first 25k words feeling excited and looking forward to seeing how Eddie handles his latest crisis. I can’t wait to get back on with it because it has the potential to be the best Eddie book I’ve written to date.

So why have I stopped writing it?

On the 19th May, I wrote this:

Bex stood on the back step looking at the door. It was open.

She never left it open. Billy never left it open either. The only time this door was unlocked was when they were going through it.

I wrote that and the subsequent fifty thousand words (to date) because I had begun negotiations with a publishing company called Bloodhound Books. They’d seen and liked the Eddie Collins books and wondered if I could create something entirely new, a standalone, just for them. Because I love a challenge, Dancing at the Devil’s Door (provisional title) was born.

It is far removed from my usual work. I had lost my lead man and his cast of supporting characters – I felt alone for the first time since Eddie came into my life around 2004. Thirteen years is a long time, and Eddie and I have grown to know each other pretty well, so being without him now is like setting off on an adventure without your best friend accompanying you.

Instead I’m travelling with a woman, Becky Rose (note the name change). I thought writing her would feel forced, but I needn’t have worried because writing a female a lead, this female lead, feels comfortable. Becky took some getting used to though, like meeting and working with a new person does in real life – for me anyway.

 

As I mentioned, there’s no sign of Eddie Collins anywhere in Devil’s Door (he’s furious!), in fact there’s no CSI involvement at all in this book; they don’t even warrant a mention. The police are featured in the book, of course – it’s a crime thriller, but not in any great depth, more on a personal level than a professional one. No, this book focuses entirely on its protagonist, Becky. And despite the early sample above, it’s now in first person.

For those of you who’ve read the Eddie Collins short stories, you’ll know I like to play with first person writing, but had always been afraid I couldn’t sustain it for an entire novel. Think about it; the writer cannot stray from inside that person’s head. He can only describe what she sees, hears, feels, and experiences; there’s no hopping over to a secondary story line to see what’s going on there either. It’s intense, it’s almost claustrophobic, and it’s extremely personal.

Bloodhound offered a contract based on the first two chapters (still in first draft!) and a hastily prepared synopsis of the rest of the book. Even the synopsis has a story: I didn’t have one – a synopsis, I mean. I usually write my books on the fly with no idea where they’re heading. I’ll stop half way through and try to make sense of what’s happening and where the story should logically go, but I didn’t have that luxury with Devil’s Door. So I had to think a long way ahead and consider how it might pan out. And having a scene list to follow has been a good thing for me; it’s allowed me to crack on with the writing rather than pause and consider too much.

I’m still buzzing about the chance of working with the people at Bloodhound – they have a splendid reputation. I don’t know what the future holds, but I’ll keep you posted (hopefully a little more promptly next time). Whatever happens, I’ll be back on Jessica Ripley very soon.

 

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The Note – Latest News

I have some good news to share.

In celebration of The Note being in the Hot New Release chart – right now it’s #5 in the United States, and here in the UK, it’s sandwiched between Ragnar Jonasson and Val McDermid – I’m dropping the price to 99cents/99pence until the end of May.

In the twenty-one days since its release, The Note has done phenomenally well, and readers like you have loved the story enough to give some quite spectacular reviews*. People have taken this little book to their hearts, and I’d like to see the momentum continue by offering it for as little as possible to those who’ve yet to experience it.

The Note is exclusive to Amazon.

To grab your copy in the US, click here.

To grab your copy in the UK, click here.

To grab your copy everywhere else, click here.

If you’ve already read and enjoyed The Note, please do me a huge favour and leave your review. The number of reviews and the overall rating really makes a huge difference; if it comes to Amazon’s attention, they’ll help with advertising and marketing, and of course it’ll help other potential readers take a closer look too.

If you’ve left your review in your home country, thank you, but would you be kind enough to copy it across to Amazon’s UK site?

Please click here to leave your review.

The Note has 96 reviews in the UK (average 4.8). Let’s see if we can break the 100 barrier. How about the 120 barrier? We can do this with your help.

In the last email, I said I would give away a paperback copy to two people who’d been kind enough to leave a comment on any Amazon site. I’m extending it until the beginning of June to give people more chance. And I’ll be giving away three copies, not two – chosen at random.

*Here’s a selection of some of the latest reviews.

Despite being only a short story, this is one of the most enjoyable crime thrillers I have read. Lots of suspense and humour from Eddie’s point of view, and nice twists at the end.
A very clever play with words combined with complex but believable characters kept me enraptured from start to finish.
Loved it, it’s use of a mixed ensemble of characters even down to grammar correction, had me spellbound but laughing simultaneously. Thoroughly enjoyable and recommend to all
I am not usually a fan of short stories, just as you are getting into them, they are over. This one is different, the compelling storyline immediately drags you in and hits you with twist after twist, and with the dark humour of Eddie Collins thrown in, you will not be able to put it down! This is easily the best short story I have read and would recommend it to anyone, The climax is quite brilliant!
Loved this short story!! It was full of twist and turns and heart pounding action. I love any story that makes your adrenaline start racing and The Note did this to me. Andrew Barrett is an amazing writer and anyone who likes a book you can’t put down this one is for you.

There are dozens and dozens more. Please hop over to your local Amazon store here and take a look.

That’s all from me for now. I’ll be back again in a week or two, and I’ll share with you news of how The Note has progressed. I sincerely hope it will be good news, and I know with your help it can be.

I wish you a wonderful weekend filled with sunshine, happiness, and reading.

Andrew

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Price Drops and News

We got drenched at Whitby yesterday, but it didn’t stop us building sandcastles on the deserted beach. Today is beautiful though so I envisage a squelch through the mud in our local woodland.

I have a few items of news for you today that might make for a great weekend if you’re struggling for something to read.

For the first and possibly the last time, I’m promoting CSI Eddie Collins’s first two books simultaneously. So you can get hold of The Third Rule and Black by Rose for 99cents/99pence each at Amazon, Kobo, B&N, and iBooks. That’s a 600-page epic and a detailed 5-star read for less than the price of a coffee. I should point out that this offer won’t be available for long, and it’s unlikely I’ll run it again.

You can get your copies here…

The Third Rule at Amazon US

The Third Rule at Amazon UK

The Third Rule at Amazon worldwide

The Third Rule at all other retailers

Black by Rose at Amazon US

Black by Rose at Amazon UK

Black by Rose at Amazon worldwide

Black by Rose at all other retailers

I also want to thank you for your support in launching Eddie’s new short story, The Note. In just over two weeks, it has 108 reviews in the US, and 91 in the UK, both with a staggering 4.8 average.

It blazed a trail right into the top of the Hot New Release chart in the UK and the US on the day it was launched, 5th May. And it’s still in that chart today. It has some wonderful reviews too and has really struck a chord with readers worldwide.

I wasn’t going to give notice of its price increase, but I think it only fair, especially since we have an influx of new members to the Reader’s Group recently.

Without doubt this has been one of the best book launches I’ve ever had, and the book wouldn’t have been so very popular without your help, thank you!

The Note is exclusive to Amazon and is available in Kindle Unlimited.

If you don’t already have The Note in ebook, now is your chance to add this to your weekend reading list while it’s still less than a dollar/pound, and see why a top 50 reviewer is calling The Note one of the most enjoyable crime thrillers he has read.

The Note at Amazon US

The Note at Amazon UK

The Note at Amazon worldwide

Have you heard of The Kindle Storyteller? It’s a competition run in the UK by Amazon and is open to newly published stories until 19th May. I’ve entered The Note but it could do with your help to get it recognised by the judges.

Reviews play a very important part and so I’d ask that if you’ve read The Note could you please leave a review here and just scroll to ‘Write a customer review’. It doesn’t have to be a long review, just a line or two, and will make all the difference.

If you’re kind enough to leave a comment on any of the Amazon sites after having read The Note, you will be entered into a draw to win one of two signed paperback copies. I’ll publish the winning comments (drawn by Ellie, my two-year-old daughter) in the next newsletter and will ask the winners to get in touch by email with their postal address within two weeks from the date of the newsletter. Good luck, and a sincere thanks for your support.

Last month was very special for me. I was awarded a Long Service medal by West Yorkshire Police for 20 years’ as a CSI (it’s actually 21 years now!). I never thought I’d make it this far, and if I’m honest it doesn’t seem 20 years since I joined up – that’s how much this career eats away at life. It’s been a tremendously rewarding time, and I feel very proud to work for UK law enforcement.

I’ve been trying to find a photograph of my first days in the service, but it looks like my computer ate them all!

 

 

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The Note

Coming soon, The Note.

“Sarcasm and black humour, action aplenty, this is a winner.”

I can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoyed writing CSI Eddie Collins’ new short story. Well, actually I can, and so I shall. I wrote The Lift in 2015 and got a kick out of my first real attempt at writing in first person. After the launch of Ledston Luck earlier this year, I thought it time I revisited a short I’d written at the back end of 2016. This became known as The Note.

“There is a lot of dark humour in this which had me laughing aloud.”

I enjoyed reading it, and was quite fired up by the whole story-line, and the characters who come out to play with Eddie.

I made some amendments – made the ending less abrupt, and generally tidied it up. It’s twice as long as The Lift, and for me it’s twice as enjoyable.

“Power-packed, explosive introduction to Eddie Collins.”

Back in 2015 I found the whole idea of writing a short story daunting. It’s very different from writing a novel, having to keep your eye on one character and keeping the arcs short, the focus tight, and the theme in mind, really concentrates your mind. Add to that the complexities of writing in first person and you get an instant buzz.

“The Note is jam packed with drama, hard hitting and often brutal scenes, twists and turns abound make this a highly charged story.”

And so, it seems, have many other people. I sent it to my readers last week, and the response has been nothing short of phenomenal. I’m really grateful to them; they have given me the confidence to think about next year’s short, and removed any doubt I had that people don’t like short stories.

“The story was gripping, the emotional turmoil facing Eddie was palpable throughout. You felt the tense nervousness gripping him over the few short hours the story covers. The dialogue is believable, clear, without affectations and not contrived.”

Friday 5th May 2017 – launch day.

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A new CSI Eddie Collins story – The Note

There’s a rumour going round that a new CSI Eddie Collins story is about to break free.

I can confirm that rumour is true! It’s called The Note.

It’s not a full length novel, it only weighs in at a shade under 13k words, which is about 65 pages or so. But, like The Lift, it’s written in first person, so it’ll seem an even quicker read just because of that.

And it is fast – I’ve written it with no fat or padding, it races from one scene to the next, and I think you’ll enjoy the final scenes especially.

I really enjoy writing Eddie, as you know, and I really enjoy writing short stories from his point of view – it’s very refreshing. I’ve said in previous interviews that I don’t think I could sustain first person writing for an entire novel, and I still believe that to be true – it’s just too exhilarating, and too claustrophobic. But a short is perfect.

Again, as in The Lift, he has no extra baggage, there’s no Charles to worry about, no one from the office to bother us, it’s just us, him, and the story.

I’ve written the blurb, and I’ve prepared a cover image, and now all I have to do is re-read the story once more, maybe tweak it here and there, and then I’ll send it out to my advance readers for their opinions.

If all goes well, I hope to have it on the virtual and physical bookshelves around the 5th May.

I’ll edit this post when I can show you the cover (it’s still under wraps), but for now, please read the blurb, and I’d love to know your reaction to it.

The Note

I’m Eddie Collins, a CSI.

Ever had that feeling of being watched but when you turn around no one’s there?

I did.

It was raining, and I was working a murder scene around midnight when that prickle ran up my spine. If I’d listened to that feeling, if I’d thought back to my past, maybe I could have prevented the terror that was to come.

Back at the office, I found a death threat on my desk.

I had no idea who sent it, or why they wanted to kill me.

But I was about to find out.

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