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Guest author - Carol Westron
Apr. 8th, 2014 08:03 amLovely to welcome a fellow Deadly Dame back here. Carol's a grand gal. When we last spoke, it was about watching your first book fledge. What does it feel like with the second and the third?
My second book, About the Children, was published a month ago. Like The Terminal Velocity of Cats it's a Police Procedural, but this one has a more serious tone, as the title indicates. Regarding what it feels like: the whole thing's not as scary as the first time round, but there's always the creeping anxiety that this one won't do as well as the first. I feel very proud of this book, it's hard to tackle such a sensitive subject and get the right balance, but I hope I've succeeded in that. I think the feeling of achievement will be ratified if I get reviews that are as positive as I got for my first book and, of course, if it sells well. Even then I guess I won't be satisfied; the feeling of 'could do better' and the desire to push myself further all the time is part of my make-up, but perhaps that's true of all writers.
About the Children is not in the same series as The Terminal Velocity of Cats, but it has some points of contact, both being set in the South of England and having some minor characters that appear in both. I'd like to carry on with that mix-and-match approach in the next two books in the series: Karma and the Singing Frogs and The Tyranny of the Weak.
The third crime book that I plan to publish is a very different matter. It is called Strangers and Angels and is a Victorian Murder Mystery set in Gosport, Hampshire, a naval town on the south coast of England. Its point of inspiration was the story of the two ships full of young Turkish sailors, who arrived in Gosport in December 1850, sent over from the failing Ottoman Empire to learn various seamen's arts. Over a third of these young men died from accidents and disease and are buried in Gosport, in the only Royal Naval Turkish Cemetery in Britain. The setting is a beautiful crescent of upper-class houses with a prestigious private garden. No self-respecting crime writer could resist the temptation to put a dead body in the grounds, murdered under suspicious circumstances. Strangers and Angels will be published in the autumn of 2014, in time for the Christmas market, and I hope will win a lot of local interest.
Apart from that, recently a lot of my time and interest has been diverted into publishing a child's picture book that I wrote for my autistic grandson and will be published in April 2014. Adi and the Dream Train has been illustrated by Adam in his own colourful and unique style. It tells the story of Zoom, the Dream Train that visits children who are afraid at night and gives them happy dreams, and Adi, the little boy who is different from other children and can see the secrets behind the darkness. All the profits from this book will go towards the fund to buy Adam a service dog to improve his quality of life.
( Read more... )
My second book, About the Children, was published a month ago. Like The Terminal Velocity of Cats it's a Police Procedural, but this one has a more serious tone, as the title indicates. Regarding what it feels like: the whole thing's not as scary as the first time round, but there's always the creeping anxiety that this one won't do as well as the first. I feel very proud of this book, it's hard to tackle such a sensitive subject and get the right balance, but I hope I've succeeded in that. I think the feeling of achievement will be ratified if I get reviews that are as positive as I got for my first book and, of course, if it sells well. Even then I guess I won't be satisfied; the feeling of 'could do better' and the desire to push myself further all the time is part of my make-up, but perhaps that's true of all writers.
About the Children is not in the same series as The Terminal Velocity of Cats, but it has some points of contact, both being set in the South of England and having some minor characters that appear in both. I'd like to carry on with that mix-and-match approach in the next two books in the series: Karma and the Singing Frogs and The Tyranny of the Weak.
The third crime book that I plan to publish is a very different matter. It is called Strangers and Angels and is a Victorian Murder Mystery set in Gosport, Hampshire, a naval town on the south coast of England. Its point of inspiration was the story of the two ships full of young Turkish sailors, who arrived in Gosport in December 1850, sent over from the failing Ottoman Empire to learn various seamen's arts. Over a third of these young men died from accidents and disease and are buried in Gosport, in the only Royal Naval Turkish Cemetery in Britain. The setting is a beautiful crescent of upper-class houses with a prestigious private garden. No self-respecting crime writer could resist the temptation to put a dead body in the grounds, murdered under suspicious circumstances. Strangers and Angels will be published in the autumn of 2014, in time for the Christmas market, and I hope will win a lot of local interest.
Apart from that, recently a lot of my time and interest has been diverted into publishing a child's picture book that I wrote for my autistic grandson and will be published in April 2014. Adi and the Dream Train has been illustrated by Adam in his own colourful and unique style. It tells the story of Zoom, the Dream Train that visits children who are afraid at night and gives them happy dreams, and Adi, the little boy who is different from other children and can see the secrets behind the darkness. All the profits from this book will go towards the fund to buy Adam a service dog to improve his quality of life.
( Read more... )
