Debbie Young's Blog, page 35
July 5, 2017
Writing: Why It’s Sometimes Good to be an Irregular Writer
Many writing coaches counsel writing a set amount every day, preferably at the same time, and even in the same place, to programme oneself into good productivity habits. In this post, I’ll describe how when I flouted that advice I surprised myself with the new-found productivity of an all-or-nothing binge writing routine.
This post first appeared on the Alliance of Independent Authors’ Author Advice Centre blog here.
[image error]
Plenty of bestselling authors point to their own regular work pattern to account for their success, from Jeffrey Archer (four two-hour stints per day – phew!) to Graeme Greene (a low word count of just 500, but consistently adhered to). Simple arithmetic provides a compelling argument for such regularity.
365 days x 500 words = 182,500 words = 2 novels
500 words a day – that doesn’t sound so hard, does it?
From 0 to 60K in a Month
Before I started writing novels, I wrote short stories, most of them no longer than the articles and features I’d written previously as a journalist. Used to polishing short word counts, it was a huge change for me to fill a bigger canvas. I took the NaNoWriMo route, aiming at 2,000 words a day, till the first draft of the novel was done. This well-trodden path seemed a sensible choice.
But a short and minor hospital surgery that left me resting in bed for a couple of weeks unleashed a whole new writing me. I discovered that when the rest of life didn’t get in the way, I could just keep going. In fact, I not only could, but I longed to.
Before long I was writing most of my waking hours, and between the end of November and the middle of February, I wrote the first draft of not one but two novels, the second and third in my new Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries, Trick or Murder and Murder in the Manger.
Are Writing Rules Made to be Broken?
[image error] A holiday read – and a holiday write too, apparently (Image from Amazon)
I felt like a schoolgirl disobeying the rules, although I also took heart from the role model of Anita Brookner, a university professor who only wrote fiction during her summer vacation – but then churned out a whole novel, to a very high standard. Her Hotel Du Lac won the Booker Prize in 1984.
Ironically, by mid-February, my health had returned and I’d got over my op and the anaesthetic, but I was completely exhausted. The ten-week writing binge had sucked me dry.
However, I felt as if I’d discovered magical powers. I’d let the binge-writing genie out of the bottle.
Writing non-stop till I’d drained the creative well felt so much more natural and productive than the scientifically measured and monitored x words per day. I was then so exhausted mentally that I felt I had no choice but to take a complete break for about six weeks before I sat down to edit the first of those manuscripts, which I’m now just about finished two months later. So it’s been an all-or-nothing process, but it’s got me across the finishing line. It’s worked.
[image error]Am I a lone rebel against the tried-and-trusted regular writing method? I put the question to the ALLi hive and was gratified to have a flurry of positive responses from people who shared my approach. Their endorsement has given me the reassurance I needed to continue to follow my writing instincts, and as soon as I’ve finished editing these first drafts, I’ll be putting my head down to go round again for book four. Seconds out…
Visit the ALLi blog here to read thoughts from other ALLi author members who love binge writing.
[image error] The sequel, set around Halloween, will launch on 26 August
One of the products of my latest binge writing session will be published next month,
Trick or Murder?
, the second Sophie Sayers Village Mystery novel, and it’s already available to pre-order as an ebook here.
The first in the series,
Best Murder in Show
, is already available in paperback and as an ebook.
Order Best Murder in Show on Amazon UK here
Order Best Murder in Show on Amazon US here
Or order from your local bookshop by quoting ISBN 978-1911223139
Filed under: Writing Tagged: #ww, binge writing, words per day, Writers Wednesday, Writing, writing advice, writing tips
July 3, 2017
Golden Age of Detective Fiction or a Health and Safety Nightmare?
The first in my new “Monday Musings” series, in which I’ll write about whatever’s top of mind at the start of each week
This weekend while reading a classic mystery story from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, Georgette Heyer‘s Footsteps in the Dark, I was startled by the irresponsible behaviour of some of the key characters:
copious cigarette smoking (the ashtrays are always full, and the cover of the edition I read shows a man chivalrously lighting a lady’s gasper)
casual attitude to alcohol (the butler brings in a tray of whisky and soda at 10pm as a nightcap, to round off the day’s drinking )
reckless driving (or rather, wreckful – when Margaret takes a corner too fast and puts her car in a ditch, she acts like its par for the course)
dangerous attitude to firearms (just about all the characters have easy access to a handgun at will and are ready to use them if crossed)
A Product of Heyer’s Age
The last of these points especially surprised me. I had never before associated such general ownership of handguns with English society.
And then the penny dropped. The guns are mostly old service revolvers, and when the book was published, in 1932, many adults would have firsthand experience of using them during the First World War, as did many of the characters in this novel.
To anyone spending any time in the trenches of the First World War, carrying a pistol in your pocket would seem relatively low-risk.
[image error]This one’s on my to-read list
The conflict’s influence was long sustained. Heyer’s contemporary Agatha Christie’s knowledge of poisons as a means to murder was learned while she worked as a pharmacy assistant during the First World War. Dorothy L Sayers’ detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, who appointed his military batman as his butler, suffers from shell-shock well into the series.
The Modern Obsession with Health and Safety
This realisation makes my fretting about health and safety issues in my Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series seem over-cautious:
In Best Murder in Show , the murder victim is wired to the safety barrier that surrounds the carnival float on which she’s travelling to stop her falling off, and Sophie worries about the profusion of dangerous implements at the Village Show
In Trick or Murder? , the Headmistress give out health and safety instructions to the children playing with sparklers on Guy Fawkes Night, while Bob, the village policeman, patrols around the bonfire on the look-out for hazards to the public
In both books, I’ve been slightly concerned that too much alcohol is flowing, (the village bookshop serves its teas with illicit hooch for those who want it), and I’ve been thinking of making Sophie go on the wagon in a future book
My health and safety allusions are largely tongue in cheek, but the fact that I’m even thinking about them makes me realise how much more nervous we as a society have become.
Misplaced Nostalgia?
[image error]One of my favourite Lord Peter Wimsey stories
It’s ironic then that one of the reasons that classic crime novels are still so popular is that they offer us the chance to be nostalgic for a bygone age. Yet behind Heyer’s facade of witty banter and genteel behaviour lies significant scars still healing.
We may still call hers a Golden Age of Detective Fiction, compared to ours, but I know which one I’d rather live in, even if a late-night Scotch and soda does have a certain appeal.
How different would the novels of Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L Sayers be if they were writing today? And will modern crime novels age as gracefully? I wonder…
[image error] The sequel, set around Halloween, will launch on 26 August
Best Murder in Show is now available as an ebook and in paperback.
Trick or Murder? will be launched on 26th August at the Hawkesbury Village Show, which I hope will be free of murders.
Read more about the Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries here.
My review of Footsteps in the Dark is here.
Filed under: Reading, Writing Tagged: Agatha Christie, crime writing, detective fiction, Dorothy L Sayers, First World War, Georgette Heyer, Golden Age, health and safety, Sophie Sayers
June 30, 2017
Recommended Weekend Reading: A Brace of Historical Detectives
This is the first in a new weekly series of posts on my blog, sharing my favourite recent reads every Friday and recommending them as weekend reads. This feature will supersede the book blog that I’ve been writing for the last couple of years, as I was finding it too much of a strain to keep two websites running in parallel. In time I’ll move the reviews from the other site back to the archive here, and you’ll always be able to find a complete list of the reviews held on this site on the index page here. Given that I read at least one book at week, and often more, I should have no shortage of material, but I’ll only ever share here the books that I wholeheartedly recommend.
Today I’d like to recommend two historical detective series that I’ve been reading in parallel over the last few years, following their development from the day the first in each series was launched. I’ve even introduced the authors to each other (online, as they live on opposite sides of the country), as they seem to have so much in common. I just wish I could get their two heroes in the same room together too!
Meet Dan Foster and Sam Plank
[image error]Fourth in a gently addictive series
[image error]A gripping novella with as much action and excitement as a full novel
Dan Foster is the creation of Lucienne Boyce, and Sam Plank is from the pen of Susan Grossey. Both are Bow Street runners, from the early era of British policing when constables sought out criminals for local magistrates to bring them to justice.
Dan Foster & Sam Plank: Compare and Contrast
Both are sensitively drawn, complex characters, who have risen above deprived and difficult backgrounds – Dan was a child pickpocket turned bareknuckle boxer, and Sam was a street urchin.
Each has acquired an interesting wife, providing thoughtful subplots and plenty of character development opportunities. Sam’s is a loving and loveable helper, but Dan’s is introduced as a drunken, self-pitying wretch. Both, by coincidence, are childless.
Both solve crimes particular to the age, against meticulously researched historical backgrounds. While their stories are set against a detailed and vivid backdrop, in neither case does the reader feel on the receiving end of a history lesson.
Dan’s adventures are darker and grittier than Sam’s, but despite being more violent (only when necessary to the plot, I hasten to add), they are also sensitively drawn, with poignant moments cleverly woven in amongst the adventures, as they are in Sam’s too.
I’ve read and enjoyed all of the adventures of both so far, and have been lucky enough to have a sneak preview of Dan’s second and third stories prior to publication. But for this weekend, I’m recommending Dan’s second, The Fatal Coin, and Sam’s fourth, Portraits of Pretence – and when you’ve read them, I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that there are more adventures of both ready and waiting for you.
What I’ll Be Reading This Weekend
my first ever Georgette Heyer novel, Footsteps in the Dark (I know, how did I get to be this old without reading Georgette Heyer before?)
Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingstone Seagull (same applies) – our BBC Radio Gloucestershire Book of the Month for July
the manuscript of Trick or Murder? – just back from my editor, second in the Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries series and due for publication at the end of August – exciting times!
Happy weekend reading, folks!
[image error]Fist in a series of seven Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries
P.S. Fancy reading one of my books this weekend? Best Murder in Show, a lighthearted modern mystery story, is the perfect summer read, set at the time of a traditional village show. Now available as an ebook for Kindle or in paperback – order from Amazon here or at your local neighbourhood bookshop quoting ISBN 978-1911223139.
Filed under: Reading, Writing Tagged: book club, book reviews, Dan Foster, Georgette Heyer, Lucienne Boyce, Reading, Sam Plank, Sophie Sayers, Susan Grossey
June 28, 2017
In Praise of Bookmuse (and Not Only Because It Loved “Best Murder in Show”!)
[image error] This month I was thrilled to earn a glowing review on the well-known book blog, Bookmuse – and their approval for Best Murder in Show earned me the right to display this impressive badge on my own website.
“We only publish reviews of books we genuinely love,” says Liza Perrat of Bookmuse, “so I hope this is an award you can be truly proud of.”
I certainly am, Liza! Here’s an extract from the Bookmuse review:
With a cast of eccentric characters such as the quirky local shopkeeper, the amiable drunk, the lecherous amateur dramatist, the bookseller with a secret and the writing group which fines members 10p per cliché, this gentle crime caper is lively, funny and the perfect antidote to watching the news.
Her following remark made me very happy indeed:
What’s more, it would make the ideal Radio Four serial or BBC Sunday evening programme.
I just hope someone from the BBC reads it and takes the hint!
To read the review in full, visit Bookmuse here.
And while you’re there, take a browse to see what else they’re recommending. With over 400 books reviewed on the blog, sorted by genre, there’s bound to be something on there to appeal to your particular reading tastes.
What is a book blog anyway?
In case you’re not familiar with the concept of a book blog, it’s essentially a blog exclusively dedicated to reviewing and recommending books. While there are a few book blogs that delight in pulling books to shreds (their blog, their rules!), most are very positive and supportive, run to share the blogger’s love of books and reading, and to broadcast with evangelistic zeal their enthusiasm for their latest reads.
A book doesn’t have to be newly published to feature on a book blog, and that’s a prime difference from newspaper book reviews, which often review books even before they’ve been published. After all, books don’t come with sell-by dates, or else Jane Austen et al would have been pulped long ago.
What’s special about the Bookmuse book blog?
The best bookblogs go the extra mile to add to their reading experience, including features such as author interviews, suggested book club questions or other bonus material besides the actual review. Bookmuse’s special added extra is the way it rounds off each review with a list of similar reads, reasons to avoid the book, and recommended accompaniments. In the case of Best Murder in Show, reviewer Jill Marsh suggests:
You’ll enjoy this if you like: The Janice Gentle books by Mavis Cheek, Agatha Raisin mysteries, Lilian Jackson’s cat mysteries.
Avoid if you dislike: very English settings, cosy crime.
Ideal accompaniments: Scones and honey, ‘special’ tea and summer birdsong through an open window.
All rather fun, don’t you think?
[image error]Available in paperback and ebook
Click here to read what other readers are saying about Best Murder in Show
Click here go straight to Amazon to order your copy now
(this link takes you to the UK site, but you can buy it on any Amazon store in the world, or you can order it from your local bookshop by citing ISBN 978-1911223139)
If you’re an author and would like to submit your book to Bookmuse for consideration, email submissions@quinnpublications.co.uk.
Filed under: Reading, Writing Tagged: book blogs, book reviewers, book reviews, Bookmuse
June 26, 2017
The Naming of Rooms
My column for the June edition of the Hawkesbury Parish News
[image error]The suburban semi where I grew up still holds a special place in my heart
Having grown up in a suburban semi, identical to every odd-numbered house in the street (the even numbers were its mirror image), I’d always wanted to live in a house where you couldn’t guess the layout of the rooms from outside. Moving to my Hawkesbury cottage allowed me to achieve that goal.
Here, visitors regularly get lost trying to find their way out.
Our new extension has added a further surprise. Now that it’s nearing completion, we really must start calling it something other than “the extension”. For some unknown reason it’s labelled “the breakfast room” in the plans, although we don’t expect to eat breakfast there. I need to change the name before it becomes ingrained.
I missed that trick with our utility room. Now every time I refer to it, I picture Batman’s utility belt, instead of a laundry.
So I’m going to wait to see how we use our new room before deciding what to call it. I feel like one of those parents who refers to their new baby as “Baby” for a week after it’s born, while trying to decide which name would suit its looks.
I did the opposite with my daughter, naming her Laura some weeks before she was born. What a good thing she turned out to be a girl.
And in case you’re wondering why I named her Laura, and with such certainty, before we’d even met, this post from my archives will tell you:
[image error]My Cotswold cottage is definitely a one-off, and moving to this community inspired me to write my Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries
Filed under: Family, Personal life Tagged: bome, Hawkesbury Parish News, Hawkesbury Upton, house, Laura, Sidcup
June 18, 2017
Maybe, Maybe Not – My June Column for the Tetbury Advertiser
[image error]Little did I know when I ended last month’s column with a throwaway remark about being more tolerant of May (the PM) because I love May (the month) that the next day the former would call my bluff by announcing a snap general election in June.
Always reluctant to engage in politics and still suffering from over-exposure during the local elections, I was tempted to go into immediate estivation – a word I have the chance to use about as infrequently as general elections come around.
Plus Ça Change…
Shortly afterwards, our household was due to receive a French exchange student for a week. Her stay coincided with the day of the French general election. By chance, my daughter’s return visit will include our own polling day.
Our student went home yesterday, and after a very happy and enriching week for us all, I’m now convinced that we’d all gain a much better understanding and tolerance of other nations and religions if we just ignored the politicians and instead embarked on a massive exchange programme. Walking a mile in other nationalities’ shoes would do us all good. Oh, sorry, I mean a kilometre.
We’d never had an exchange student before, but the school prepared us gently and well with reassuring and down-to-earth tips, along the lines of “Don’t worry if they get homesick, it’s not fatal”. Once we’d got the house clean and tidy ready for her arrival, the week turned out to be far less stressful than I had expected.
Our young guest was a gentle, polite and appreciative girl who tried so hard to speak English that her language skills noticeably improved within the week.
Vive la différence!
We spoke openly about the differences that mattered. For example, we like cats, she prefers horses. We have milk in our tea, she doesn’t. The appropriate treatment of chips, we found it harder to agree on: on our day-trip to Weston-super-Mare for a quintessentially English experience, she insisted on mayonnaise rather than vinegar. But I forgave her when she willingly accepted a stick of seaside rock as a souvenir.
Even our cat Dorothy, normally haughty with visitors, made an effort to bond with our French student, spending most of the week asleep on the guest bed.
Sans Souci
Only once did politics disrupt our week, when she asked to see the results of the French election as they were announced on television. The look of joyous relief that spread across her face when Macron was declared winner said all we needed to know.
(If you want to read those fateful words I wrote In Praise of May (No, Not That One), you’ll find it here.)
Filed under: Events, Writing Tagged: Emmanuel Macron, estivation, France, French exchange, General Election, politics, suffrage, Tetbury Advertiser, Theresa May, voting
May 31, 2017
Literature Begins at Home
Unless you’ve ever edited or written for a magazine, you may be unaware of the pressure of deadlines that mean a publication must be “put to bed” long before it appears on the streets.
Less so than in the era of hot metal, now that digital processes have telescoped production times down, doing away with the need for the editor to take a bold and sometimes inaccurate punt on what seems a certain story, or to reserve a “Stop Press!” column for the addition of late breaking news.
Having to write my column for May’s Hawkesbury Parish News halfway through April, it would be tempting fate to write about the success of the third Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival, when it is still a week away. Even though it will be a week in the past by the time the magazine is out, I’ll keep quiet on that score till the June issue, with fingers firmly crossed.
But writing these words when we’re about to celebrate all things literary in the village, it seems the perfect time to thank Colin Dixon for stepping into the editor’s role, so ably filled for so long by Fiona Rowe, and the whole team that continues to work, month in, month out, giving readers a value way beyond the magazine’s modest cover price. #
In an era when so many local papers are being supplanted by online news and information services, long may our beloved Hawkesbury Parish News continue to be a valuable glue cementing our community together, whatever changes future technology may bring.
RELATED POSTS
In Praise of Community Magazines
Filed under: Events, Writing Tagged: deadlines, Hawkesbury Parish News, parish magazines, press deadlines, Writing
May 30, 2017
In Praise of May (No, Not That One)
I wrote this column for the May issue of the Tetbury Advertiser before Theresa May announced the snap General Election. If only I’d known, I’d probably have ditched this topic and written about something completely different!
Me, centre, being a May Maiden, with Days Lane infant school in the background
May has always been my favourite month, promising blossom, sunshine and the real beginning of spring.
I trace my fondness for this month back to a special event in my childhood: the May Day ceremony held each year at the infants’ school I attended in suburban London. When I was seven, I was one of a number of May Maidens, decked out in white dresses with floral wreaths in our hair, to process the length of the school field behind the May Queen, to the tune that I will ever associate with that special day, the Elizabethan Serenade.
Our old sheet music for piano, bought at around that time
Looking Forward
This lyrical piece of music was composed by a former English cinema organist in 1951 to herald the new Elizabethan age, a time of forward-looking optimism – just right for May, then. The same composer was responsible for another easy-listening piece, Sailing By, still used to introduce the Late Night Shipping Forecast on BBC Radio 4 – a comforting combination for insomniacs as well as sailors.
By the time I first encountered the Elizabethan Serenade at school, the Queen’s reign was well into double figures, so for me the piece became forever the emblem of a more literal kind of spring.
May the Force
May’s special status was compounded by the words of one of my favourite hymns in our daily school assemblies at that time of year: “May time, Playtime, God has given us May time, Thank him for his gifts of love, Sing a song of spring.” I’m not sure who I thought had given us the other eleven months, but God obviously endorsed my preference.
You hum it, I’ll play it…
Decades later, I very nearly named my daughter May, till I realised that combined with the surname of Young, it would make her sound like an item on a Chinese takeaway menu. I imagined her being nicknamed Eggy in the playground, short for Egg May Young.
More recently, I subconsciously shoehorned an optimistic May into my lighthearted new novel, Best Murder in Show. Elderly travel writer May Sayers, who dies before the book begins, creates a fresh start for the heroine, her great-niece Sophie Sayers, by bequeathing her a Cotswold cottage. In my world, even a posthumous May can usher in new beginnings and the promise of something better to come.
May or May Not
My irrational attachment to all things Mayish even make me more tolerant of the current Prime Minister than if, say, her name was Theresa Might.
But deep down of course I know that names don’t matter. If I’d been raised in Australia, May would have all the promise of an English November, i.e. none at all.
After all, the composer of the magical Elizabethan Serenade and Sailing By rejoiced under the prosaic name of Ronald Binge. Deeds, not words, as the suffragettes used to say. Come what may…
(And in the June issue, I’ll be taking it all back…)
Filed under: Events, Personal life, Writing
On Joining Authors Electric
A quick newsflash about a new regular event that I’ve added to my busy schedule: I’ve joined the collective of authors who blog together as Authors Electric.
Yes, I know, the last thing I need is something else on my to-do list. After all, I’ve somehow managed not to write a single post for my own blog so far this month, and the month is running out fast.
Switched On
I’ve been watching the Authors Electric blog for a while, and found it an interesting concept with lots of good posts worth reading. 30 authors belong, each committing to posting on a specific date each month, and the 31st is kept for occasional guests. I have known, liked and respected a few of the authors for a while.
Plugged In
I’d always thought that if a vacancy arose, I’d be glad of the opportunity to join their throng, I am very grateful to Electric Author Ali Bacon for nominating me and to the group for accepting me as a member.
Keeping the Current Flowing
I find writing monthly columns for the Tetbury Advertiser and the Hawkesbury Parish News a useful discipline, as well as a subtle way to publicise my books. As both of those are very local outlets, and have mid-month deadlines, I thought the much wider audience of Authors Electric and the end-of-month deadline would be a good fit. As I do with the TA and HPN columns, I’ll flag each new post up here too. The only difference is that those first two go out in printed magazines rather than blogs, so I reproduce the columns in full here as that doesn’t detract from their audience. As Authors Electric is online, I’ll just flag up the flavour of it here with a link to the post so you can hop over and read it there if you’d like to.
Initial Surge
So here we go with a link to the first post, which is about the joys of series of books, rather than one-off novels. Always Leave Them Wanting More celebrates series of books from a writer’s perspective, and recommends other series that I enjoy as a reader. (Honorable mentions there for Lucienne Boyce, Celia Boyd, Anita Davison, David Ebsworth, JJ Marsh, Rosalind Minett, Alison Morton, David Penny, and David Ebsworth – as well as Dorothy L Sayers, M C Beaton and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of course!) Comments, including sharing your own favourite series, are welcome!
And now, back to my to-do list…
Filed under: Reading, Writing Tagged: Authors Electric, Best Murder in Show, Reading, series of books, Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries, Writing
April 28, 2017
Why Writing a Book is a Bit Like Having a Baby
My column for the April edition of the Tetbury Advertiser , published under the shorter title of “Of Books and Babies” to save space!
This month, as I prepare to launch my first novel, Best Murder in Show, I’ve been spotting the many similarities between producing a book and giving birth to a baby.
For me, the gestation time for my daughter and my novel have been about the same. There have been so many pre-publication checks by advance readers, editors and proofreaders, that I feel as if BMiS should have its own “orange book” of antenatal records that the NHS thrusts upon expectant mothers.
When you announce to friends that you’re pregnant, their response varies according to whether or not they have borne children themselves. So too with a novel:
“Ah yes, I’ve always thought I might do that, once I’ve got my career/house/travel bucket list sorted” versus “Oh my goodness, it’s SUCH hard work, but worth it in the end. I think.”
Regarding the title, I knew what I’d call my novel all along. No working titles for me. The same happened with my daughter. “But what if she doesn’t look like a Laura when she’s born?” a family friend enquired. Fortunately, she did.
When you write a book, you have plans, hopes and dreams for it, just as you do for your child. But when delivery day dawns, all you really want is for your baby to arrive intact and trouble-free.
The first time I saw my new-born daughter’s face, it was so screwed up that in my heavily drugged state I thought she didn’t have any eyes. “Never mind, we’ll get round it,” I thought to myself, ever the optimist. Two days later, when she finally deigned to open them, her eyes proved to be beautiful and perfect. Even so, I will be surprised if I don’t have at least one nightmare between now and my book’s official launch in which the letter “I” is omitted from my beautiful new book: Best Murder n Show, coming soon to a bookshop near you.
For medical reasons, Laura was born by planned Caesarean section. This meant I knew for weeks beforehand when her 0th birthday would be. So too with my book: it will enter the world shortly after 10am on Saturday 22nd April at the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival. (Laura was born at 10.22am.)
But here’s the biggest difference between my baby and my book:
I am and will only ever be the mother of just one child, having embarked on motherhood too late for younger siblings to be naturally possible. Yet Best Murder in Show is the first in a planned series of seven Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries. In fact, I’m already expecting the second, Trick or Murder, due to appear later this year.
From now on, I plan to keep producing novels well into my old age.
I just hope no medical intervention will be required.
[image error] And now with a cover endorsement by the lovely Katie Fforde – I wonder whether I should ask her to be godmother?
Best Murder in Show is currently available from Amazon at the special launch price of £4.99 for the paperback, around the world, via Amazon – and from our village shop!
From 1st May 2017, it will revert to its usual RRP of £7.99, and will then also be available to buy from bookstores worldwide. Support your local bookshop, folks! Just give your friendly local bookseller ISBN 978-1911223139 and he or she will be able to order it via their usual trade supplier.
The ebook, currently available exclusively for Kindle, costs £2.99.
Filed under: Writing Tagged: babies, Best Murder in Show, Laura
