C.L. Taylor's Blog, page 4

Four different designs – which one is your favourite?

My author copies of The Guilty Couple have arrived!

For this book I asked my publisher Avon Books not to tell me what they’d embossed on the board beneath the jacket so it would be a surprise (spoiler: I loved it!)

The Guilty Couple is my ninth crime novel and my fourth hardback. With every hardback my publisher embosses something different on the board for the limited first edition.

Which one is your favourite?

Sleep: First line of the book – ‘If you are reading this then I a...

Cover reveal for The Guilty Couple!

Hot on the heels of my post last week where I shared images of the stunning advanced reader copies of The Guilty Couple I am very excited to be able to show you the actual cover!

This will be the jacket for the hardback, published on 23rd June in UK/Eire, and the US, Canada, Aus, NZ, SAF, rest of the world trade paperbacks and paperbacks (from 28th June)

Here’s a close up…

Isn’t it stunning? I loved it from the moment I opened the email from my editor. I love the combination of...

The Guilty Couple: advanced review copies have landed!

This week is half term for my ten year old son and I’ve spent the week taking him to the cinema (we saw Uncharted, very silly but entertaining), leaping around in an ungainly fashion on a dance machine in a vintage games arcade (thank God there’s no video footage of THAT!) and listening to him argue with his mates via Xbox.

Other than a radio interview on BBC Radio Bristol earlier in the week I’ve done NOTHING writing wise, and the promo for the paperback launch Her Last Holiday is pretty mu...

I forgot to mention I have a book out!

In all the excitement of the last ten days I completely forgot to update my blog to celebrate the fact that Her Last Holiday was published in paperback on 20th January (in my defence I shouted about it all over social media!)

So yes, Her Last Holiday is OUT NOW and you can get copies in Asda, Sainsbury, Morrisons, Tesco, WH Smith’s on the high street, WH Smith’s Travel, independent bookshops, Amazon and Waterstones who have a special edition that features a short story called ‘Deeper and ...

2021 – What a year!

It feels strange to think back to early 2020 and how I assumed that everything would be back to normal in 2021. Ha ha ha ha. Let’s just say that my expectations for 2022 aren’t quite so optimistic.

There have been highs and lows this year, as there are every year, only this year all the lows have all been Covid related!

To begin with my second young adult book, The Island, was published in January when the UK was in lockdown. Not a great start to the year.

In February I decide...

My first crime event in TWO YEARS!

CL Taylor taking part in the Quiz at Bloody Scotland in 2019 (L to r: Richard Osman, CL Taylor, Susi Holliday, Mark Billingham).

Two years since I last took part in a live, in person, crime event – I can’t quite believe it. I should have taken part in Harrogate Crime Festival this summer but Covid (me getting it!) put paid to that. And the pandemic put paid to all the events I had planned for last year.

So, I couldn’t be more excited to be taking part in Bloody Scotland this September. I ...

What is Covid infection like after you’ve had two vaccines?

That was the question I typed into Google a week ago after a close contact tested positive for Covid and I realised I’d have to isolate for ten days. I couldn’t actually find any detailed answers, apart from a couple of interviews with Andrew Marr, so I thought I’d write a blog post about my experience (spoiler: I caught Covid) to reassure anyone who has just had a positive lateral flow or PCR test, who has also received two vaccines.

For information I am a 47 year old woman, obese BMI but I ...

Reasons to be cheerful

I just realised that the last blog post I wrote was on the 6th May when Her Last Holiday had charted at #12 in the Sunday Times Original Fiction chart after a part week of sales.

In an effort to chart the highs and lows of my career I thought I should write another blog to detail three highs that have happened this year.

1. After a full week Her Last Holiday charted at #8 in the Sunday Times Original Fiction chart making it my seventh book to become a Sunday Times bestseller.

2....

Twelve books in and publication nerves (again)

Well what a whirlwind the last couple of weeks has been! I’d just made a start on Book 9 (June 2022) when I had to stop writing to concentrate on promoting Her Last Holiday.

I’ve deleted all the items on my electronic ‘to do’ list but I can tell you I spent a lot of evenings teaching myself how to use video editing and subtitling apps on my phone (to create videos for YouTube and social media), I planned games for my FB launch (which was a lot of fun, although I still haven’t send the prizes ...

How are hardback books printed? (aka I was so excited as I watched my book being printed that I lost the power of speech!)

Back in February 2020 I went to see the hardback of Strangers being printed. It was my tenth published book, my second hardback and the first time I’d ever visited a printer.

I’ve finally got round to editing the footage I took and it’s embarrassing how much absolute waffle I talk in the videos as my excitement at seeing one of my books being printed completely robs me of the power of speech.

Before I share the video here’s the correct terminology (rather than the waffle that comes out of...