Frances di Plino's Blog, page 9

Fancy that! Fame at last!

I was fortunate enough to be interview on Talk Radio Europe for the Book Show. This is the largest radio station in Spain with over half a million listeners.

Goodreads Giveaway

Would you like a paperback copy of Someday Never Comes? To be in with a chance of winning one, simply click the link below. Good luck!

 

 
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    Goodreads Book Giveaway
 

   
       
   

   
     
          Someday Never Comes
     
     
          by Frances di Plino
     

     
         
            Giveaway ends October 31, 2013.
         

         
            See the giveaway details
            at Goodreads.
         

     
   
   

      Enter to win

Ten facts about … Lesley Cookman

When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer I don’t remember actually wanting to be a writer, I just always wrote! I won competitions as a child, but didn’t even think about writing as a career until it began by accident when I was asked to write a piece for Which Computer over thirty years ago.
How long does it take you to write a book?I am contracted to write two books a year at the moment, so roughly six months. Usually slightly less, as I tend to faff about a lot at the beginning and speed up towards the end!
What is your work schedule like when you're writing?I do emails and social networking in the mornings, then attend to any household chores then start writing. I work best in the afternoons.
How many crime novels have you written?So far there are twelve books in the Libby Sarjeant series, but there are other books as well.
Which is your favourite and why?I don’t think I have a favourite. I’ve only ever read one of them after it was published, and that was because I needed the facts in it for the one I was writing.
Where do you get your ideas?The ideas shop.
Who is your favourite character from your own work and why?I would have to say my eponymous series heroine, wouldn’t I? Apart from her, I love Harry, the chef-patronof The Pink Geranium in Steeple Martin.
Which character from the work of others do you wish you’d invented and why?I don’t wish I’d invented anybody, but I’m in awe of those who write historical crime for their incredible research, and envy them their ability.
If you could have been someone from history involved in crime (good or bad) who would that be and why?No idea! Not something I’ve ever thought about, and not something I’d ever write about, either. I do like lots of fictional historical characters, though.
What are you working on now?I’m currently writing the thirteenth Libby book – and no, I don’t think thirteen is unlucky, my mother and my eldest daughter were both born on the 13th of the month – and I have two other non-Libby related projects wafting about in the ether. Trouble is, I’m so lazy I don’t know when they will get done!
Published Titles: Running Away (as Rosina Lesley)A Will To Love (as Rosina Lesley)How to Write A PantomimeCinderella – a pantomimeRed Riding Hood – a pantomimeAli Baba – a pantomimeSleeping Beauty – a pantomimeLittle Boy Blue – a pantomimeThe Queen Of Hearts– a pantomimePuss In Boots – a pantomimeSummer Season – a musicalMurder In Steeple MartinMurder At The LaurelsMurder In MidwinterMurder By The SeaMurder In BloomMurder In The GreenMurder ImperfectMurder To MusicMurder At The ManorMurder By MagicMurder In The MonasteryMurder In The DarkBad Behaviour – a collection of short stories
Amazon.co.uk: Lesley Cookman
Bio – Lesley Cookman is a former air stewardess, model, actor, nightclub DJ, wife and mother. She morphed into a freelance journalist over thirty years ago and is now a merry widow with four grown up children and two cats.
WWW.lesleycookman.co.ukhttp://lesleycookman.blogspot.co.ukhttps://www.facebook.com/SteepleMartinMysterieshttps://twitter.com/LesleyCookman

Ten facts about ... Jimmy Bain

When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?I always enjoyed English literature at school. After university I worked in a pub for short time and decided to write a rant about some of the customers. Then when I finished a postgraduate course in the mid-1990s and found myself job searching with plenty of time on my hands, I started to formulate the characters for The Bumble’s End. I’ve been writing off and on ever since.
How long does it take you to write a book? Usually several years. Polish and re-polish. And procrastinate! I’m hopeful that the next one won’t take as long though.
What is your work schedule like when you're writing?It can be difficult getting the motivation sometimes – work, life etc. When I do sit down it can be intensive. So far it’s been a series of long writing sessions with long gaps between. But all that’s going to change for the next one as I hope to be more disciplined in my approach. 
How many crime novels have you written? Two so far: The Bumble’s End and this new one, The Long Drop Goodbye, both of which feature the same characters – The Bumble, the unnamed Narrator, Charlie and Priscilla.
Which is your favourite and why?  Both – how can I possibly choose? Of course, the next one, now in the pipeline, may turn out to be my favourite.
Where do you get your ideas? From life. Sitting on a bus listening to conversations. Experiences at work and in temporary jobs. My family background and the people of the Clyde. Many of my characters and situations are (loosely) based on real life – but with the names changed to protect the guilty!  Who is your favourite character from your own work and why?The Bumble. He’s gross, badly dressed and totally non-pc but quite convinced of his own worth and charm. Nothing bothers him.

Which character from the work of others do you wish you’d invented and why?   Philip Marlowe – the great character created by Raymond Chandler. It’s the combination of wisecracks and style that make him so compelling. Marlowe drifts between the good and the bad with consummate ease. 
If you could have been someone from history involved in crime (good or bad) who would that be and why?  Wyatt Earp – he too drifted between the good and the bad with ease.  He also dressed stylishly and had a moustache.
What are you working on now?The next Bumble book – The Bumble on Beale Street. It’s partly set in Memphis, Tennessee and is about Elvis impersonators.
Bio:  Jimmy Bain hails from Greenock, Scotland but lived mainly in Edinburgh. Jimmy is a long-time fan of Raymond Chandler and Elvis Presley. He got married at the gates of Graceland and now lives in Newcastle with his wife, writer Barbara Scott Emmett and his tortoiseshell cat, Gizzie.
Published work:  The Bumble's End - Crime - A tale of greed, death and toffees.http://authl.it/B004RK0T9G/?d The Long Drop Goodbye  - Crime - Tans, Tossers and Trannies!  http://authl.it/B00F433IES/?d Both available at Amazon and other online storesAlso at Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/TheBumble and Pentalpha Publishing Edinburgh: http://pentalphapublishing.weebly.com/book-info.html Blog: http://bumblebooks.blogspot.co.uk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/61478909280/ Twitter @TheBumble

Crooked Cat Publishing Book Sale

The entire range of Crooked Cat Publishing’s books, from crime to chicklit, is on sale this week on Amazon worldwide. All titles are on offer for only 77p/99c and that includes my own two crime thrillers, Bad Moon Rising and Someday Never Comes .
Here’s the page showing the full catalogue on Amazon .

Ten facts about … Sheila Bugler

When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?I’ve never wanted to be anything else although, like a lot of writers, it’s taken a long time to work that out.
How long does it take you to write a book?Usually a year from start to finish. However, often the idea for a novel will bubble away inside my head for years before I ever get to writing it down. If I didn’t work, I’d probably get more done. Some day...
What is your work schedule like when you're writing?Like most writers, I have to fit the writing around my other responsibilities. I have a job and two children so finding the time to write is difficult. I try to get up early and write before the day begins but that can be exhausting. Otherwise, I beg weekend hours from my husband, write on the train, or any free time I get. It’s not easy.
How many crime novels have you written? Hunting Shadows is my first published novel but not the first one I’ve written. The first crime novel I wrote is still sitting in a drawer waiting to be dusted down some day. A lot of authors say their first novel will never see the light of day. I don’t feel that way. The book is called Ready to Fall and I really like it. I’d like to see it published one day.
Which is your favourite and why?Possibly my first novel. One of the reasons I like the first book so much is because I learned to write with that book. It got me an agent and it also got me a place on the Apprenticeships in Fiction programme.
I’m currently writing a sequel to Hunting Shadows and I think that might end up being another favourite. Ooh dear. That makes it sound as if I don’t like Hunting Shadows. I do!  I just feel m
y work with that book is done so, in that sense, it’s less demanding of my emotions. Sort of like a child you’ve sent out into the big bad world.

Where do you get your ideas?Everywhere and nowhere. Sorry, that sounds really pretentious but it is true! Sometimes I’ll dream the outline of an entire novel. Other times a novel comes from a single image. Recently, I sat in the bar of the Four Seasons hotel in Dublin and a scene in there gave me an idea for a novel.
Who is your favourite character from your own work and why?A character called Erika Sharpe in the novel I’m currently writing. I can’t give too much away about Erika or it will ruin the story but let’s just say she’s not quite who she seems.
Which character from the work of others do you wish you’d invented and why?Any female character from any Megan Abbott novel. Why? Nobody writes dark, complicated, twisted women like Megan Abbott (although Gillian Flynn writes mighty fine females as well).
If you could have been someone from history involved in crime (good or bad) who would that be and why?Edward Fitzgerald, QC. The man’s a legend. As well as being a top defence barrister who has defended people charged with truly terrible crimes, he has represented Gary McKinnon, the Gurkhas, Hillsborough victims’ family and the family of Derek Bentley.
What are you working on now?A sequel to Hunting Shadows , called Watch Over You. It’s a dark, twisted tale about dark, twisted women. I think it’s going to be good!
BioSheila grew up in a small town in the west of Ireland. After studying Psychology at university, she left Ireland and worked in Italy, Spain, Germany, Holland and Argentina before finally settling in Eastbourne, where she now lives with her husband, Sean, and their two children.
Her first novel, Hunting Shadows, published by Brandon Books, is now available in Ireland and will be on sale in the UK from 12 September. The sequel to Hunting Shadows will be published in 2014.
www.sheilabugler.co.uk
Twitter: @sheilab10
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/sheila.bugler.1

Award Winning Novel? Could be …

The People’s Book PrizeFounded by Dame Beryl Bainbridge DBE, the People’s Book Prize is decided entirely on readers’ votes. I’m delighted to say that Bad Moon Rising has been nominated in the fiction category, but it’s up against some stiff competition, not least being the great Frederick Forsyth’s latest offering!
You can vote for Bad Moon Rising if you’ve read and enjoyed the novel. If you haven’t read it, now’s a good time to point out you can do so for the paltry sum of 77p/99c on Amazon Kindle.
I hate begging for favours, but I think the only way Bad Moon Rising is going to make the final is if lots of you vote – so, here goes: please, please, please vote for my book by following the link below.
http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/section.php?id=6
To give you a flavour of the novel, it has garnered 22 five-star, 6 four-star and 1 one-star reviews so far.
Here’s the latest:“As an enthusiastic detective fan, I was not disappointed by this book. The reader is kept guessing all the way through as to the identity of the killer even though his motives are left in no doubt. What I found troubling was that I was taken into the mind of the serial killer and understood it, not a pleasant trip. The twist in the end was satisfying even if I did want to slap Paolo at times and ask him to wake up in his personal life. Characters were believable and not too overdrawn. I can't wait to read the next in this series.”

Ten facts about … Dean Crawford

When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer? When I was 21 years old. I’d wanted to be a pilot in the Royal Air Force, but a slight flaw in my eyesight ended that dream. I decided to search for another dream career, and was inspired by my uncle, Christopher Jarvis, who is an artist in oils, watercolours and so on. I realised that he was doing hisjob because he loved it, rather than just because he had to pay bills. I searched for something similar, and was reading a Wilbur Smith novel when I suddenly asked myself: “Could I write something this for a living?” I’d always enjoyed creative writing at school, and the thought of doing it for a job filled me with excitement. I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t thought of it before. Now, nineteen years later, writing is my full-time profession.

How long does it take you to write a book?Usually about six months. This includes planning and plotting, writing the first draft, leaving the manuscript alone for a month and then doing two or three redrafts to polish it until it’s as good as I can manage.
What is your work schedule like when you're writing?I’m very disciplined. I work Monday to Friday, from 8am until about 4pm, much like an ordinary working day. Once you’re a published writer, deadlines become important and I don’t like to miss them. I also work some evenings and weekends if I’m particularly busy. When I think about it, even when I’m not “working” there’s hardly a moment in the day when I’m not considering a particular book, scene or plotline of some kind. Writing does that sometimes, consumes an author entirely.
How many crime novels have you written?I’m just performing the copy-edit on my fifth Ethan Warner novel at the time of writing, which is to be published in December 2013 by Simon & Schuster, but I’ve written seven novels in all: post-apocalyptic thriller “Eden” and Young Adult thriller “Soul Seekers” being the other titles.
Which is your favourite and why? My favourite novel right now is “Eden”, which is actually a self-published title. It’s a book that I’d wanted to write for a couple of years, but writing two Ethan Warner novels per year for Simon & Schuster / Touchstone USA pretty much took up all of my time. I loved writing Eden because it’s a story that could happen tomorrow and contains characters like you and me: ordinary people thrust into a terrifying survival situation. There are no bad-guys or good-guys per se – it’s about who we become when our lives are endangered by events far beyond our control, and how those events shape otherwise ordinary  people into heroes and villains.
Where do you get your ideas?From everywhere, including purely from my imagination, but most often it’s through reading about an event, person or fact. Sometimes I get a tingle down my spine when I read something and realise that I can build a story around it, much in the same way that I see a book in a shop and get excited because it’s right up my street and I absolutely must buy and read it. Once that happens my imagination runs wild and I produce copious notes for days on end before slowing down and beginning the process of building a coherent plot.
Who is your favourite character from your own work and why?Cody Ryan, the protagonist in Eden. He’s an ordinary guy who has to become something he’s not in order to survive, and he struggles as we all would with the stress of confronting situations far outside his comfort zone. He’s a character that any reader can project themselves onto and ask: “Would I have done that?” or “Could I do that, if I had to?”
Which character from the work of others do you wish you’d invented and why?Han Solo, the original anti-hero in Star Wars. There is something about uncompromising heroes with a heart of gold that continues to fascinate people, regardless of the genre in which they appear.
If you could have been someone from history involved in crime (good or bad) who would that be and why?I’d really like to have the chance to see what went on behind the scenes in the US Government during the 9/11 attacks. I don’t subscribe to all the conspiracy rubbish about an inside job etc, but there does seem to be something slightly “off” about the whole event, too many coincidences and mismatched reports from the Bush administration. I’d love to have been in Colin Powell’s shoes, finding out what really happened, because it was the US government that empowered al-Queda in the first place through arms sales in the Russian-Afghan war of the late 80’s.
What are you working on now?Multiple projects! A crime novel entitled “Stone Cold”, to be submitted to publishers via my agent, Luigi Bonomi, in the autumn; a thriller called “Holo-Sapiens” likewise for traditional publishers, and sequels to both “Soul Seekers” and “Eden” for publication next year.
BioDean Crawford began writing after his dream of becoming a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force was curtailed when he failed their stringent sight tests. His Ethan Warner series of high-concept novels have regularly featured on the Sunday Times paperback bestseller list and have sold all over the world. A full-time author, he lives with his partner and daughter in Surrey.
www.deancrawfordbooks.comwww.deancrawfordbooks.blogspot.comDean Crawford on AmazonFacebookDean Crawford on Twitter
The Ethan Warner seriesCovenant ImmortalApocalypseThe Chimera Secret
The Eden TrilogyEden
The Soul Seekers seriesSoul Seekers

Good News, More Good News and ...

Good NewsYesterday saw the very successful launch of Someday Never Comes, the second in the D.I. Paolo Storey series. The book entered the genre charts last night and is holding its place at around number 50. I’m thrilled.
More Good NewsTo celebrate the launch, the publishers have set the e-book at a special price of 77p/99c for this one week only. After Friday Someday Never Comes will be on sale at the full price.
Even Better NewsThe first in the D.I. Paolo Storey series, Bad Moon Rising, has also been reduced in price. This is also on offer for 77p/99c. This means you can pick up both books for less than the price of a cup of coffee!
Quiz Questions – Answers and WinnersCongratulations to the following people:Lindsay Healy – who wins an e-book copy of Someday Never ComesKarl Jones – who wins an e-book copy of Someday Never ComesFiona Mcvie – who can choose from an e-book copy of Someday Never Comes or Bad Moon RisingAilsa Abraham – who wins an e-book copy of Bad Moon Rising
And the person who answered the most questions correctly over all five quizzes is also Ailsa Abraham. Congratulations, Ailsa, you will also receive a paperback copy of Someday Never Comes!
Here are the questions complete with answers
Quiz 1Name the programme this couple appeared in: John Thaw and Dennis Waterman? The SweeneyWho was Arthur Conan Doyle writing about when he said: `He is the Napoleon of crime`? Professor MoriatyWhat addiction did Friedrich Glauser, the Swiss crime writer, have? Opium
Quiz 2Name the programme this couple appeared in: Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly? Cagney And LaceyWho directed the 1989 film Crimes and Misdemeanours? Woody AllenWhat is the connection between a Cardboard box, and Engineer's thumb and a Greek interpreter? They are all Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan DoyleWe all know about Ruth Ellis, but who was the second to last woman to be hanged in the UK? Styllou Pantopiou ChristofiWho was George Joseph Smith? The brides in the bath murderer
Quiz 3Name the programme this couple appeared in: Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd? MoonlightingIn the TV series of the same name, what does C. S. I. stand for? Crime Scene InvestigationWhich crime writer was given a 20 year sentence for armed robbery? Chester HimesWhere is the modern-day location of Tyburn? Marble ArchFor what was Fatty Arbuckle tried and later acquitted? Rape and murder
Quiz 4Name the programme this couple appeared in: Felicity Kendall and Pam Ferris? Rosemary and ThymeAt the beginning of the novel ‘Les Miserables’ Jean Valjean had just been released from prison. What was his crime? He’d stolen a loaf of breadWhich crime writer was struck down by Blackwater Fever in West Africa? Richard Austin FreemanWhat was special about Anne Boleyn’s execution? She was executed by sword in place of the usual axeWhat was William Joyce’s claim to infamy? He was the traitor Lord Haw-Haw who broadcast on behalf of the Nazis
Quiz 5Name the programme this couple appeared in: Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope? Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)What was the name given to the trials of 24 Nazi leaders for war crimes in 1945? The Nuremberg TrialsWhich crime writer was a theatre director in East Africa? Henning MankellWhat is the literal translation of Capo di tutti capi? Chief of all chiefsWhat was special about the trial and conviction of Robert Melias? He was the first person to be convicted on DNA evidence

It's a Crime: Music and Quizzes

If you’re coming to the online launch of Someday Never Comes tomorrow (all day on Friday 16th August) you might be interested in the plan for the festivities. If you’re not coming (why not?) the outline below might entice you to change your mind. Here’s the link, just in case you decide to drop in. You’re very welcome to do so, whether for a few minutes or a few hours: https://www.facebook.com/events/143137672553746/
There will be five quizzes, based around crime. The winner of each quiz will win an e-book version of Bad Moon Rising, or, if they already have Bad Moon Rising, an e-book version of Someday Never Comes.
Even if you don’t win one of the five quizzes, you could still be in for a prize because the person who answers the most questions correctly over the course of the five quizzes will win a paperback copy of either Bad Moon Rising or Someday Never Comes – their choice.
In between the crime quizzes there will be music questions, such as what line comes next and who first recorded songs that became hits for others. There won’t be any prizes for these questions, just the satisfaction of knowing you answered them before anyone else could!
Do try to come along, even if only for a short time. We’ll also be playing YouTube videos so there will be music for sing-along sessions.