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Middle of the night thoughts

/ Caron Allan / Leave a comment

Not always true, Saul, but I’ll let that go…

I’m not sure what it is, but so often it seems that the second I put out my light and turn over to go to sleep, my brain begins to race with ideas and new suppositions to the extent that I have to sit back up, put the light on, and grab a pen and some paper. If I don’t write down these ‘fabulous’ ideas right away… in the morning I will have forgotten it all.

Last week, when I looked at one note I’d made, all it said was ‘Michael’.

???

What, or who is Michael? WHY is Michael? None of the projects I’m working on has anyone called Michael in it.

(Note to self: why so antagonistic towards the name Michael?)

It’s not a perfect system, but at least I get a few things off my mind.
Sometimes I get a whole scene, or a nice partial scene flash into my sleep-deprived brain out of the ether. Then, I’m always very glad I wrote it down, even if it was 4.25am.

Here are a couple of things I had to get up to write recently:

Eileen Dover was never happy with the way her name made people laugh. Then she met Ben, and fell hopelessly in love. They soon got married, they were so besotted with one another, desperate to spend their whole lives together.
But when as the vicar congratulated them on being husband and wife, giggles could be heard breaking out all around the church.
‘Please congratulate Mr Ben Dout and his lovely new wife, Mrs Eileen Dout.’

Can you tell I’ve been reading P G Wodehouse?
Also:

How I wish
Inspiration
Would strike
A little more
Predictably.
And not out of
Nowhere at
4am.

Also these two notes, for a story as yet unwritten, but I can already begin to see how useful they could be:

Add in Sheena Sanderson, 43, a widow, sweet, nervous, shy. This is her first holiday overseas after losing her husband the year before. Pair her with Tommy.

Charles says to Bettina: ‘I hear you’ve been cast in a new production of Romeo and Juliet?’
There are nods all around and everyone looks impressed.
Bettina replies: ‘That’s right. Rehearsals begin in September.’
With a sarcastic laugh Charles continues: ‘From what I hear you’ve landed the part of Juliet’s old nurse.’
Malcolm sniggers, as does George Kirkwood. Bettina is offended, annoyed. While she’s still thinking up a suitable retort, Charles says,
‘Good thing they’re not putting on MacBeth. You’d have been cast as one of the old hags. I mean, witches!’
Bettina gets up, throws her wine in his face, and marches out, slamming the door.

It’s just a little scene, but will work nicely with what I have already started working on. So sometimes, even the crazy brain-chatter you get in the middle of the night works out can be perfect for what something you have in mind.

***

Debaleena Mukherjee and her work

/ Caron Allan / Leave a comment

Debaleena and I have been friends for many years now, having bonded on Facebook over a shared love of mystery books especially those of Agatha Christie and Patricia Wentworth. Debaleena has also been very supportive of my writing. For a long while now she has been writing and performing and publishing her own work in the genre of poetry although she also writes short stories.

I first had the pleasure of interviewing Debaleena on this blog back in 2021. You can read that interview here.

A number of years have passed and it seemed only fitting to have a catch-up with Debaleena; I was keen to find out a bit more about her creative process and to share some snippets with you.

Caron: Hi Debaleena, it’s so good to have a catch up – it’s been a while. You’ve shared manyof your peoms and information aobut your books on social media, but how do you go about creating your work?

Debaleena: My creative process is a very cobbled together process. A line or a word capture my attention or captivates my imagination and I pursue it till I have given it a shape or a form however shaky or wobbly it maybe. But it’s a structure. That settles that urge to create the entire poem/ story/ commentary that I had built around it. It is very often a small simple kernel like a fleeting scenery through the window, or a glance at the sky as I am cooking, or a flower that’s bloomed and is now going to wilt. I am very very curious hence I observe people specially strangers. And I weave a life story about them in my head. Sometimes I write rather type something then and there on my phone. I don’t wait for any right time . The time is always right to write.

Caron: I’m very fond of a notebook, and have dozens of them. Do you write in a notebook?

Debaleena: Very rarely. I use a notebook only if I want a very personal journal entry. I make it a point to use a notebook— notes for Shakespeare that I prepare for my students. I do online coaching classes. When I write every detail from every Act and scene, teaching his plays become easy.

Caron: So does that mean you put the words directly into a computer document?

Debaleena: Yes. I open a fresh “page” and label it and directly type the words. But I can’t do the “without looking typing” that many do. However I have become very comfortable with the writing options on documents directly. Maybe it’s because I don’t rely on autocorrect or predictive text. I write as I please without looking at those tools. So my spellings are not an endangered species.

Caron: Do you write a rough draft then work on it and revise it until you’re happy?

Debaleena: Yes. I am firm about the technicality of the writing process. I write without skipping words, correct spellings and grammar as I write. Then I do a thorough heck of spellings, syntax, punctuations. Especially with vocabulary. I do not settle for a word that’s suitable, I hunt for a word that is closest to the description and expression of the emotion, experience and even the object. For example I try not to use the word high for both. mountains and buildings. It’s the character of the subject that the adjective has to describe. Here synonyms with their nuances are needed. I constantly refer to the dictionary, thesaurus when I am dissatisfied with the word I have chosen. And I never take spellings and meanings for granted. Check check and check.

Caron: As a lot of your work is in the form of poetry, do you worry about line length or the number of syllables?

Debaleena: Not if it has not been stipulated or fixed. What I worry about is repetition of the idea using an extensively misleading vocabulary. English has an immense scope of embellishment of the same idea in different ways in the same writing. Ornamentation can become a burden to the theme and the characters.

Caron: How do you feel when you look back at your early work. Do you feel satisfied and grateful, or do you find yourself revising it or tweaking odd bits, or do you find it difficult to read work from an earlier time?

Debaleena: I respond with emotion— I’ll use the word emotion–that of gratitude. Gratitude that I could write this and then discovered the tools with which I could build upon these works. They may read too immature, or pompous, pedantic or too much like a school homework essay, but I feel good that I had overcome the mind block and written it. Then instinctively I work at alterations and tweaking it.

Caron: I completely see what you mean there, that’s been my experience too. And what were your earliest influences?

Debaleena: Reading whatever I could lay my hands on. Enid Blyton to Nancy Drew. Then Little Women; Shirley, Jane Austen’s books. Adventure stories, although I veered towards mystery and detective fiction more: Agatha Christie. Romance of course— I don’t like the phrase diehard romantic. I prefer unapologetically romantic. So Mills & Boon. I discovered Mary Stewart at 14 and it’s my personal enchantment. Much later in life Ellis Peters, Elizabeth Peters, Georgette Heyer. Mystery, and delightful Regency repartee. And of course both our shared interest Patricia Wentworth. I think we could do an exclusive session about her. Thankfully I am never short of books. One series gets over, something new is there. Reading is that domino effect in reverse. Nothing collapses, the tower gets higher

Caron: Yes that’s very true. Reading is addictive! My actual shelves and my eBook shelves are groaning under the weight of them! Then finally, Debaleena,  what’s next for you and your amazing poems and short stories?

Debaleena: Thanks for the kind compliment. Right now I am very involved in anthologies that are published both here in India and abroad. I send my poems to whatever publication appeals to me. If accepted I am surprised each time and equally thrilled too. Never ceases to thrill me when my poem/poems or short stories are accepted. That mail from an editor is like a certificate of fulfilment to me. Maybe I will publish another slim volume (slim being the highlight) of poems, postcard fiction, Nano fiction and Drabbles.

Thanks so much, Caron, for sharing your platform with me. Like we had done when my first book had been published. You are my first “writer friend” and always so supportive. Hope we carry on our shared writing stories and our earnest discussions about Patricia Wentworth.

Caron: I’m so very grateful to have you here to find out more about you and your work. Thank you so much.

 

About Debaleena Mukherjee:

Debaleena is a homemaker, who has also been a teacher and college lecturer over the course of years. She grew up in Jamshedpur and did her schooling at Sacred Heart Convent School, Jamshedpur, and Rajendra Vidyalaya, Jamshedpur. She has a Masters degree and M.Phil in English Literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.She lives with her husband in Bangalore, and she  has a grown-up daughter. Reading is Debaleena’s way of life. That’s what she is always doing. She enjoys the moonlight-and-roses kind of music. She loves travelling to places from the pages of history books. Haunting bookstores is her pastime. She loves going on shopping expeditions for shoes, bags, and bling.  Observing people as they go about their lives, fascinates her. At the end of the day she needs her recliner, her books, and coffee. With some cake.

Debaleena’s social media:

Instagram: @mdebaleena

Facebook: debaleena.mukherjee

The books:

Ink Smudged Dreams – by the Reading Light

Qwerty and Quiet – by Candlelight

She Achieves (short story collection)

She Seeks (short story collection)

 

 

My Mystery Author Heroes: Patricia Wentworth

/ Caron Allan / Leave a comment

Over the years, I have made a number of forays into the world of Golden Age mystery writers, looking briefly at the work of several well-known exponents of the genre, and in greater depth at my mystery hero Agatha Christie, and her life and her work.

So now I thought I would tell you a little bit about my other favourite detective story writer, Patricia Wentworth, known mainly for her mysteries, but who also wrote romances.

Patricia Wentworth was her pen name. She was born as Dora Amy Elles in 1878 in India, and was educated at Blackheath School for Girls, now Blackheath High School, London.

She married quite young and had her first daughter. Her husband had two sons from a former relationship, one (or possibly both) of whom died in WWI. Her husband died in 1906, when she was still only in her late twenties. Wentworth moved to Camberley, Surrey, England, where she would live until her death in 1961. Wentworth met her second husband and married in 1920, and had another daughter. It was in Camberley Wentworth wrote most of her novels, with her second husband George writing down what she dictated.

Today she is mostly remembered for her 32 murder mysteries featuring private inquiry agent Miss Maud Silver, a former governess, keen observer of human nature and quoter of Tennyson and the Bible. But there are more than 40 other books which don’t feature detective Miss Silver, mostly mysteries, but there are some historical romances, and some poetry and stories for children.

For many years, I found it very difficult to obtain Wentworth’s books. But with the recent rise of small print runs and small presses, and the resurgence in interest in Golden Age and traditional mysteries, her work is enjoying a new popularity and reaching new audiences. Hodder have reissued the majority of the Miss Silver books over the last ten years or so, with Open Road Media and Dean Street Press publishing virtually all of the other books between them. Readers are often frustrated to find that the books have different titles in the UK and the USA, so please check carefully that you’re not buying the same book twice under different titles. If you want to check, there is an excellent bibliography on the Patricia Wentworth page on Wikipedia, along with publication dates.

Her work has often dismissed as being ‘old-fashioned’, ‘middle-class’, ‘tame’ and dated, but nevertheless I would say these books should not be so easily set aside, as there is a real mystery there for all mystery fans to get to grips with.

To begin with, some of these books first appeared more than a hundred years ago, and are still popular. For example, the romance,  A Marriage Under The Terror won the Andrew Melrose prize in 1910, which earned her the handsome reward of two hundred and fifty guineas, quite a sum in those days. There was much speculation about her use of a pseudonym, claiming that it was impossible to keep her real identity a secret.

We do need to see them within their own era. I would agree with critics that a few of the novels are not as strong, or as innovative, as others, and also that several plot devices reoccur (notably the indoor, uncovered well), and that from time to time, ‘the butler did it’. But that was a new idea then, it’s only now, a hundred years later, that seems a bit tired to us.

The books are strongly romantic, which for me is a good thing, but it means they don’t fit comfortably into traditional generic categories, but again that is something that current trends are more flexible about. I know some readers find them too sweet, too polite, and complain there is not enough guts and gore—but hey, they’re cosies, get used to it.

these are the same book – but Spotlight is the British edition and Wicked Uncle is the American one. Either way, it’s another of my absolute favourites.

You might come across the odd ‘Damn’ or Good God!’ but that’s as offensive as the language will get, and no bodices are ripped, though there is sometimes a passionate kiss. Miss Silver, quoting from Tennyson or the Bible, knits and looks on fondly as the main characters fall in love and are unable to hide it, then it is her job to rescue them from a dreadful crime. In many of the books, we see her exchanging letters or receiving photos of the children born to a couple from an earlier mystery, and I love that too! There are also some funny moments when spinster Miss Silver says things like ‘In their own way, men can be quite useful.’ That one made me spit coffee all over myself.

The strengths of the books lies in the portrayal of the era, and in the way many of the characters are forced to find their way through unfamiliar and difficult circumstances, especially during the Second World War. The characters are not all wealthy, they are not all high-born, artistic, celebrities or otherwise fortunate. Often they are typists or orphans or military personnel. The mysteries are pleasing, often very clever, and the reader can detect along with the protagonist. The writing is intelligent, clear, and lacking in long flowery descriptions, which I personally detest.

I also recommend them for students of creative writing who want to improve their dialogue and character writing skills, their plotting skills or anyone who wants to write novels set in the recent past. And of course, I recommend them to readers who love a traditional mystery without body parts being lopped off, or strong language, or who prefer romance without sex scenes, or who likes something with a strong sense of morality and a satisfying mystery.

About ten years ago, I was in a secondhand bookshop trying to find some of the Wentworths that were missing from my collection. When I asked the lady who ran the store if they had any Patricia Wentworth books, she said no, sorry, then added, ‘She hasn’t done much lately, has she?’ To which I replied, ‘Well, she died in 1961, so that probably explains it.’ She just nodded and said, ‘Yes, I suppose so.’

If you want to give them a go, below are a couple of my favourite titles:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/caronallan/patricia-wentworth-books/

The Chinese Shawl – 1st published in 1943. It’s definitely my favourite Miss Silver!

Silence in Court – my current reread, it was 1st published in 1945. This is the Dean Street Press edition.

Poison in the Pen – I love a poison pen mystery – and have even written one myself. This one was 1st published in 1957.

***

 

 

 

 

 

Night and Day: ten years old this week!

/ Caron Allan

This week saw the 10th anniversary of the publication of my book Night and Day: Dottie Manderson mysteries book 1.

Aww! My baby will be off to senior school soon! Because when you write a book, it’s a tiny bit like having a baby: maybe a little less poo and vomit, but not much less!

Night and Day was my 6th book – and the first to feature my 1930s setting with a young female amateur detective. It still remains one of my top sellers, I’m pleased to say. In the 10 years it’s been available, it has sold paperbacks, including large print paperbacks and regular ones. And a few hardbacks. And a large number of ebooks. The book is also available in German, as are a number of my other books.

I’m very grateful to all those people who have invested their money and their time in reading something that I thought of sitting on the front step of our house in Australia in the late 1990s. To readers everywhere, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Dottie is nineteen years old in book one. She lives with her parents in London, somewhere not too far from the area of Covent Garden. She has a married sister, Flora, who is two-and-a-half years older than she is. On her way home from the theatre one evening, Dottie takes a taxi to the wrong address. Her sister has only just moved into the house and Dottie forgets the number. She decides to walk the short distance.

Dottie finds a man lying on the pavement. It’s late at night, and it’s late November, and she wonders if he’s simply drunk, but it quickly becomes clear he is injured, attacked by someone with a knife. She daren’t leave him alone, knowing any moment could be his last. As she waits for help to arrive, she tries to find out what happened, but all he can do is sing a few words of a song to her.

And so begins Dottie’s journey as an amateur detective. She feels she just has to know what happened. This leads her, of course, into the path of a young police officer, William Hardy.

And the rest… Well…

You’ll just have to read the books to find out!

To read a bit more about the series and Night and Days specifically, click here.

To find it on Amazon, please click here.

On Ingram Spark, here

And on D2D, here.

***

 

Through Dancing Poppies: the blog tour starts 4th May!

/ Caron Allan
The book is out–so what’s next?
Promotion! Spreading the word!
I often talk about my books on Twitter/X, or occasionally on FB or Instagram, and often on Pinterest, but sometimes you need a bit more, so I’ve signed up with the lovely Lynsey at Instagram’s  ReadingBetweenTheLines and she has organised (thank you Lynsey!) a blog tour for Through Dancing Poppies!
What is a blog tour? I hear you cry mumble.
It’s where a bunch of people who are avid readers are bullied persuaded to read a book and review it.  No honestly, I didn’t have to bribe any of them, they brought it on themselves…
It starts on Monday 4th of May and runs all week. You will be able to find the reviews/book mentions on Instagram or on the individual blogs:
or if you want it the easy way:

Reading Between The Lines:

About the book:

Through Dancing Poppies: Miss Gascoigne mysteries book 3: an intriguing cosy mystery set in the swinging 1960s

Poppy Bell is a teenage singing sensation about to ‘hit the big time’ and newly engaged to a man old enough to be her father. Everyone says she’s a gold digger. But then…

Dee Gascoigne, now private investigator working for the law firm of Montague Montague, meets Poppy a couple of times and can’t help but notice she is a very talented musician who is young, naive and on the brink of something incredible. But she is also surrounded by people who know exactly what they are doing, they’ve done this kind of thing before, are used to the spotlight and the glare of media sensationalism, and know how to present the perfect image to grow a very public career. Then there’s a near miss in a car park, and suddenly Dee has an intense feeling of danger lurking in the shadows. But who is the target? Poppy or her new fiancé, wealthy entrepreneur Teddy Reynolds?

Reviewers of A Wreath Of Lilies: Miss Gascoigne mysteries book 2 said:
‘Every character becomes someone you know, someone you grow to like or dislike as Allan draws you in, not as a spectator, but as a participator…who becomes so enthralled…that you actually cannot help but try and solve this plot before anyone else does. Mystery, intrigue, suspense, romance, and nostalgia. This book has it all!’
‘another great cosy mystery which we’re so used to with this author… the description of the town and characters was so vivid it was like I was part of the community’
‘Set in the 60s, the novel is rich in period detail with fabulous descriptions of the homes and the clothing, and a great ‘ear’ for the dialogue of the time…A cracking book, peopled with memorable characters’
So remember the dates: 4th-10th May – I’ll see you there!
***

A little more about Through Dancing Poppies: release date: 24th April.

/ Caron Allan

Only two weeks until Through Dancing Poppies launches: it’s book 3 in my 1960s-era murder mystery series the Miss Gascoigne mysteries. In case you’ve missed me banging on about it for yonks, here’s a quick recap:

Through Dancing Poppies: Miss Gascoigne mysteries book 3: an intriguing cosy mystery set in the swinging 1960s

Poppy Bell is a teenage singing sensation about to ‘hit the big time’ and newly engaged to a man old enough to be her father. Everyone says she’s a gold digger. But then…

Dee Gascoigne, now a fully-fledged—or nearly fully-fledged—private investigator working for the law firm of Montague Montague, meets Poppy a couple of times and can’t help but notice she is a very talented musician who is young, naive and on the brink of something incredible. But she is also surrounded by people who know exactly what they are doing, they’ve done this kind of thing before, are used to the spotlight and the glare of media sensationalism, and know how to present the perfect image to grow a very public career. Then there’s a near miss in a car park, and suddenly Dee has an intense feeling of danger lurking in the shadows. But who is the target? Poppy or her new fiancé, wealthy entrepreneur Teddy Reynolds?

Research for this book mainly consists of remembering my early childhood, and trawling through old photos, or watching Juke Box Jury on YouTube!

Who is Dee Gascoigne? Well, she is the baby born in book 4 of my 1930s Dottie Manderson mystery series. She used to be a modern languages teacher at a posh girls’ school, but was sacked because the school board objected to her leaving her husband with a view to divorcing him. Yes, honestly, that kind of thing really happened. A divorced or separated woman was genuinely treated badly by many people who saw her as immoral or dangerous or subversive in some way.

Almost by accident, Dee falls into an investigating role when she lets her curiosity get the better of her in a village where she is convalescing. She solves the case, and at the end of book one, she is taken on by a family friend’s law firm as a fully fledged professional private investigator. A job she is very well suited to, in spite of her former mentor’s attempt to woo her back to the school.

It’s been great fun writing this book, and I’m already getting ideas together for book 4 of the series, called All That Glitters. As you no doubt guessed, that’s going to be set at Christmastime.

Meanwhile, here’s a short extract for Through Dancing Poppies:

She was about to tell her brother Rob how glad she was that he was with her, but immediately she was distracted by a couple a short way ahead of them, standing under a streetlight. An older man with, she presumed, his daughter. The man appeared angry about something, and the girl, arms folded across her chest, was glancing about her anxiously.

Dee was on the point of asking in her best schoolmarm voice, if there was something the matter, but the girl turned back to glance in their direction. Only then did Dee realise it was none other than the school’s former pupil and new media sweetheart, Poppy Bell.

‘Poppy?’ Dee said, and the girl fixed a look on Dee and Rob, wide-eyed, fearful. ‘Whatever is the matter, dear?’ Dee asked, falling into her role of responsible teacher.

Dee was aware of Rob looking in surprise first at Dee then at the young woman Dee addressed, but Dee fixed her attention on Poppy and the man with her.

‘Didn’t I meet you recently?’ Poppy asked, a frown creasing her brow as she tried to recall.

‘That’s right. I was coming out of the Holly Tree restaurant in London with Miss Evans two weeks ago, just as you were going in. Is everything all right?’

‘I don’t know…’ Poppy glanced at her companion, who turned to look at Dee and Rob. Dee realised he was angry. He said,

‘Some bloody fool just tried to run me down as I got out of my car. Luckily, I leapt back smartly enough, or I’d have been done for. The bastard—excuse my language—the devil wasn’t even looking where he was going. Probably drunk. Had to have been doing fifty, and in a car park too! Anyway, it shook me up a bit, that’s all. No harm done.’ He brushed his suit jacket down as if he’d been rolled in the dirt.

Dee’s hand went to her mouth in horror. Instinctively she glanced around her, as did her brother, but it was too dark to see if anyone was lurking, and they certainly didn’t spot any cars on the move.

‘Rotter’s already gone. Scared of getting into trouble, I don’t doubt. Anyway… Excuse me, where are my manners. I’m Teddy Reynolds. Poppy and I are—well, we’ve just got engaged to be married as a matter of fact.’

Dee, confirmed in her judgement of his appearance on the television, calculated that he was old enough—easily old enough—to be the girl’s father, nevertheless remembered to smile, and said,

‘Oh my! Congratulations! How exciting.’

He put a proprietary arm about the girl’s waist, pulling her close to his side. Poppy smiled up at him, leaning into the crook of his arm, but casting an anxious glance about her from time to time. Further away, another couple had just got out of their car, whilst more cars were pulling in at the gate.

‘Is this your old teacher, lovely?’ Teddy Reynolds asked Poppy.

Dee didn’t care for the old part, especially from him. She said,

‘That’s right. I used to teach here, though I never had Poppy in any of my classes. I taught modern languages: German and French, basically. Now I’m just a visitor like everyone else.’

‘Poppy said she’d met you recently. And this gentleman is your husband, I assume?’ Reynolds said, turning to hold out a hand to Rob. Rob shook the hand, but added,

‘No, no, I’m just her brother. Just come along for the fun of it.’

‘Well, it’s very nice to meet you both. I do hope you’ll join us at our party tomorrow evening. It’s at my sister’s place. She’s married to Poppy’s manager, my good friend Ivor Norton. You may have heard of my sister. Valerie Blackshaw? Anyway, we’d be delighted if you could both join us. It starts at eight o’clock, it’s not anything formal, no need to ‘dress’, haha. I’ll just jot the address down for you.’ He reached into his pocket for his wallet and drew out a small white card. ‘Do say you can make it; everyone from dinner this evening is invited.’

‘Of course, we’d be thrilled,’ Rob told him.

‘Valerie Blackshaw? My goodness, she is my absolute favourite actress! She was just incredible in A Fatal Redemption, and in The Younger Sister,’ Dee couldn’t help bursting out, though she knew it was probably silly of her. But Teddy smiled indulgently and she could see he was pleased. Putting away what appeared to be a gold-plated fountain pen, he handed her the card.

‘Well, you’ll be able to tell her that yourself tomorrow. She’ll be delighted to meet you. Miss Evans from the school will be there too, and others you’ll know. But thank you both for your kind concern this evening. Not everyone would bother. And now, look here, Poppy my lovely, we need to get a move on, or you’ll be late.’

‘Right,’ said the girl, calm enough now to slip back into the usual bored tones of a teenager. ‘See you,’ she added to Dee and Rob, then turned on her heel and walked away.

***

 

 

Torn between three loves

/ Caron Allan

As you might be aware, I’m putting the final touches to my book Through Dancing Poppies. It’s the third book in the Miss Gascoigne mystery series, set in the 1960s in the UK, and the release date for this book is 24th April. Not long now!!!

As one book nears its end–production-wise, anyway–other books call their siren song. It’s so tempting. Because when you’ve worked on the same book for one year, two years, more, you can start to feel a bit like someone waiting for the last guest to leave at a party. Just, go, already! I mean, you love them to bits, and will definitely invite them again, but right at this moment, you just need them to leave. That’s what it’s like as you near the end of a book you’ve worked on, in this case, for a little over eighteen months.

So the idea of another book to work on is very tempting.

But which one? Something totally new, like my roughly planned out Ain’t Misbehavin’ a kind of caper set in 1931, featuring a couple of clever con-artists, a mother and daughter who scam people out of a ton of money and are always a step ahead of the law.

Or the next Dottie book – book 9 of the series which is due out in December and still needs final revisions and proofreading? This book is called The Rough Rude Sea, and its appeal is very strong–a ship-based setting travelling between the Canary Islands and the Channel Islands in the summer of 1935. Here’s a teeny extract from the beginning. To set the scene, Dottie and William are about to return home from their honeymoon (spoiler! Now you’ve got to read the first 8 books! 😀 ) but they turn up at the docks to board the ship and…

‘This is not what I was expecting.’ Dottie Hardy gazed mournfully up at the small steamship moored a little ahead of them. The nameplate attached to the bow claimed this ship to be the SS Icarus. Dottie felt this did not bode well.
William paid the taxi driver and turned. He frowned as he looked at the ship. ‘Must be some kind of mistake.’
There was an official of some sort standing at the dockside, by the roped gangplank that led onto the ship. He held a clipboard and had a red pencil in his hand. William went over. The young man looked up, gave William an uninterested look and said, boredom oozing from every pore, ‘Name?’
‘Hardy,’ said William without even thinking. Then he said, ‘Hang on, what happened to the SS Tigris?’
The man yawned, and scratched his chin. William was aware of an urge to shake him. William shoved his hands in his pocket just in case.
‘The company’s gone bust. Three days ago, in fact. This vessel has been courteously provided to bring the first class passengers back to British shores, with no expense to yourself, I might add, all costs have been generously covered by SeaSteamers. Was that William Hardy? And er…’ He paused and looked Dottie up and down in a wolfish manner that had William shoving his free hand even deeper into his pockets, ‘I suppose that is the delightful Mrs Hardy?’
‘You suppose correctly,’ William growled, and thrust his tickets and the passports at the man.
The man perused them with minimum attention and handed them back. ‘Seems fine. Cabin 27, middle deck. Dinner’s at eight, in the main saloon bar and dining-room, top deck. No need to dress.’ He yawned again and turned away, all interest in the passengers lost.
William turned to find Dottie was coming up behind him, the taxi driver bringing their luggage from the back of his car.
‘What’s going on? Has our ship been delayed? Or is it moored up somewhere else?’
William, hardly believing it himself, explained.
She looked at the little ship in disbelief. ‘This is it?’
‘Yup.’
‘Really? It looks so small. You’ll never get five hundred people and crew on that.’
‘Nope. He says it’s just for the first-class passengers. I’m guessing there aren’t many of those.’
She stared at the vessel for a full minute. ‘And are we happy to go on board this little thing?’

OR… I could have a stab at the more contemporary book Dirty Work, which is book 1 of the new Families Can Be Murder trilogy, a spin-off from Friendship Can Be Murder, my books Criss Cross, Cross Check and Check Mate, which feature posh Cressida and her determination to get rid of annoying or nasty people. She confides all to her diary, so it’s not exactly a murder ‘mystery’. In the new trilogy, it’s her husband Matt who is keeping the diary and confessing everything on paper:

In the front of my wife’s old diaries, there’s always some romantic, sweet dedication, full of love and promises of devotion. I did one for her, years ago, but her first husband Thomas, did loads of them, and they were all flowery and romantic, the kind of thing posh blokes always do, and in really expensive diaries, too, you know the sort of thing, designer stationery. She still keeps them in a drawer of her bedside table and she gets them out now and again and sits there all emotional and lost in the past, and… It makes me wonder if she loved Thomas (she never ever called him Tom) more than me. I get a bit jealous when I think of him. Which isn’t fair, I know, but I can’t help it, I just do…
Oh yes. So now I’ve got my own diary, and all it says in the front is ‘99p from Last Chance Book Bargains: your last chance to buy ’em cheap!’ Really cheap too, there’s a calendar in the front, and there’s two 27th Februaries. Is that for some kind of late Groundhog Day, or in case I need a do-over?
But instead of sitting in comfort in the sunroom at home like she does, here I am, stuck in the cab of my van, writing a quick sneaky note as I wait to find out what my dad is getting up to.
‘Matt,’ he said to me one day last week, ‘Could you give us a lift to the New Mills Business Park? I’ve arranged to see someone about something next Friday afternoon, ’bout twoish.’
Well, I don’t mind doing things for my dad—we get on really well, he’s not as young as he was, and he’s always been there for me, even when I was in prison—but he was acting dead cagey, so naturally I was onto him.
‘What’s it about?’ I asked him.
He just tapped the side of his nose. ‘No need for you to get involved, mate. I just need a lift, and don’t for the life of you go mentioning it to your mother.’
Nothing sets off alarm bells like my dad telling me he’s up to something I can’t tell my mum. What’s the old bugger getting up to now? At first I thought it might be some kind of birthday surprise he’s got planned for her. But to be honest, I doubt he even remembers when her birthday is, after only forty-nine years of wedded bliss. It’s like the pin-code on her phone. He needed to use her phone, and it was locked. So he asked her for the code, and she (very cleverly as it turns out) said, ‘Just tap in the code. It’s our wedding date.’
So obviously he was completely stumped. Not big on remembering anniversaries or birthdays, or… just anything really.

So tempting, all these writing/rewriting options. And then there’s a new series idea I’ve been thinking about for several years, The Runaway Policeman. I’ll just leave that with you.

***

 

A Right Cozy Historical Crime, a deliciously diverse anthology of cozy mysteries that span centuries and continents: the blog tour!

/ Caron Allan
Welcome to the A Right Cozy Historical Crime anthology blog tour!
About A Right Cozy Historical Crime:

Step into the comforting fog of time with A Right Cozy Historical Crime, a deliciously diverse anthology of cozy mysteries that span centuries and continents. From ancient alleys to a Victorian medical school, American towns to Scottish glens, these tales take you on a gentle stroll through history – where murder hides behind lace curtains and secrets linger in candlelit corridors. Perfect for fans of clever sleuths, rich historical detail, and mysteries solved with brains and life-experience and observational skills.

The  anthology includes cozy mysteries written by these contributing authors:

Marti M. McNair                 Olga Wojtas

Sheena Macleod                  Loretta Mullholland

Lexie Conyngham                Barbara Stevenson

Meg Woodward                    Dianna Sinovic

Gareth Williams                    Lisa Harkrader

Sheila Dené Lawrence       Penny Hutson

Lisabeth Early

Wendy H Jones (author and compiler)

 My Review:

The is a collection of very varied work – some set ‘now’ and some set int he past, with a variety of settings. This kind of collection is a great way for authors to showcase their work, and many of the stories I read would make excellent ‘prequels’ to a full-blown series of novels.

There is a range of styles here, too, with more formal language suited to the 1920s or 1940s, to flowery descriptive language, and stories where the style is chatty, informal, immersive.

All the stories are good mystery stories with either amateur detectives or professional investigators, but I’d like to call out some special ones that I really enjoyed: Dianna Sinovic’s Curtain Call, Red Heart Summer by Sheila Dene Lawrence,  Lisabeth Early’s Second Sight and Loretta Mulholland’s story Cave Mouth Crime. You’ve got to read those! And of course, the story Cadavers and Conspiracies by the collection compiler Wendy H Jones.

I highly recommend this book!

About Wendy H Jones: 

International Award Winning Author Wendy H. Jones lives in Scotland, and her police procedural series featuring DI Shona McKenzie are set.Wendy has led a varied and adventurous life. Her love for adventure led to her joining the Royal Navy to undertake nurse training. After six years in the Navy she joined the Army where she served as an Officer for a further 17 years.

Killer’s Countdown was her first novel and the first book in the Shona McKenzie Mysteries. Killer’s Crew won the Books Go Social Book of the Year 2017. The eighth book in the series, Killer’s Curse, was released in 2023.

The Dagger’s Curse, the first book in The Fergus and Flora Mysteries, was a finalist in the Woman Alive Magazine Readers Choice Award Book of the Year.

Turning to humorous crime the Cass Claymore Investigates series was born.

Wendy is also a highly successful marketer and is currently in the process of rereleasing her completely updated marketing book Marketing Matters. This will be part of the Writing Matters Series following the release of Motivation Matters. She is also the author of the Bertie the Buffalo picture book and associated soft toy and colouring book.

Wendy is delighted to be one of the authors in two anthologies aimed at empowering women – The Power of Why, and Women Win Against All Odds. She is proud to be the President of the Scottish Association of Writers and is the host of The Writing and Marketing Show podcast, a writing and marketing coach. and CEO of Writing Matters online writing school, Authorpreneur Accelerator Academy.

LINKS TO BUY 

PAPERBACK

KINDLE  

Author links:

WENDY H JONES 

LEXIE CONYNHAM

OLGA WOJTAS 

SHEILA DENE LAWRENCE  

MARTI M MCNAIR 

LISABETH EARLEY 

GARETH WILLIAMS 

DIANNA SINOVIC

LISA HARKRADER 

SHEENA MACLEOD 

 See these other blogs below  for more info and reviews!

#ARIGHTCOZYHISTORICALCRIME

Staring into the candle’s flame

/ Caron Allan / 2 Comments

I’ve shared this before – about ten years ago – so I’m hoping you won’t remember!! I’ve been taking a break from writing, and only got back to it this week. But I’ve spent some time going over old notes, old files spilling over with ideas, and snippets and things that caught my attention and seemed worth noting down ‘just in case’. This was one of them. I’m inclined to overthink stuff, and to take a small thing and knit an entire story onto  it, which is how this came about.

I’m a very visual/image-driven person. I am inspired by music and the written or spoken word, yes, but nothing moves me to create more than an image. I create my book covers as inspiration for my stories, and often have covers created for books that won’t see the light of day for ten years. Sometimes if I’m stuck for ideas, I browse through Pixabay, or Shutterstock or Deposit Photos,  or through my own photo albums, virtual and paper. This is what I thought when I saw this image. (actually it was 12 years ago now, I’ve just discovered…Jan 2014)

I look into the flame and imagine…

Candles. Flames. Bobbing gently, like stars reflected in a pond. Shining points. Barely moving. Warm. Sun-bright. Thinning darkness and concentrating it, the surrounding darkness grows smaller, denser, turning on night instead of light. Two candles together, mirroring. Let there be light. Rasp of match. And there was light.

Worship the light, as your ancestors did, for when the light was gone, the herds moved away, the food was gone, the heat, the shelter. You lost everything because there was no light. Pleading with your hand-made gods for just one more spring, another dawn, for the sun to rise again and bring new hope.

Prometheus stole me to illuminate Bede, to shine upon Shakespeare’s moving quill. Does the flame recall their struggles with words, with pages? The artist slaving in his garret, with only a flame to light his way, his hands and pages covered in spent wax, the litter of the revelation.

The questor in the labyrinth. Lighting one step at a time, no more. You move ahead by faith alone. At any moment the light could be snatched from your grasp and where would you be? Alone, in the dark, where the minotaur prowls. You hear its step ever closer, its breath on your cheek in the gloom.

The flame bobbing and dancing shows the presence of evil in your room. We used to tell one another ghost stories by this small light. We decorated our cave walls with the shape of things our dreams told us. Superstition, hand in hand with creativity.

The light on a tomb or grave, don’t let them go into the dark and be forgotten. The candle of prayerfulness and sorrow, of all-night vigils at bedsides, of pain and fear. No relief found in this golden glow. This is too small a point of hope.

Does the candle see me? Is the flame aware of those who cluster moth-close around? I’ve seen it all before. You aren’t the first, you won’t be the last, to be awestruck by my intangible beauty. Flame is eternal, coming down the centuries, the generations, lighting the way for all.

***

Queen of Grime: book 1 of a new crime thriller series with secrets and dark humour

/ Caron Allan / 1 Comment

The Queen of Grime is about to pay. Big time.

Erin Flett is used to clearing up the sad debris of forgotten lives and tragic deaths. A crime and trauma scene cleaner from a deprived Edinburgh housing estate, she’s made a good life for herself and her daughter. But a secret from the past is about to catch up with her.

Ten years ago, Erin told a desperate lie with serious consequences. Now, someone else knows, and they’re determined to make Erin and her loved ones pay.

Following a terrifying late-night attack, the tension mounts until Erin doesn’t know who she can trust. As she struggles to keep her family safe, little does she realise just how close the danger is…

Queen of Grime is the first in a new series introducing Erin Flett, crime and trauma scene cleaner, and a rich cast of characters, set against the backdrop of the city of Edinburgh. With an occasional undertone of dark humour, it is a tale of family lies and family ties, friendships, secrets and loss.

My Review:

I need to confess something. I’d already read this book a while ago, before I got involved in this blog. There. I’ve said it. Phew. Now you know I was already a fan. I feel so much better now.

What did I love about this book?

I love Erin, the main character, she tough, she’s snarky, she doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and she is a smart lady. She’s got some great – and not-so-great friends and family, colourful characters you completely believe in.

BUT…

She’s got a secret. And someone – we don’t know who – but someone knows that she has this secret. And they are determined to get it out of her. A series of seemingly unrelated minor events and issues arise, and Erin is asking herself, is it all connected?

As readers, we KNOW that, of course, it’s connected. But how? And who is the person lurking in the dark?

Because this book is full of lurkers. There are people everywhere Erin goes, just watching, waiting, setting her on edge, attacking her, attacking people she loves. Who is it? Are they sinister? Or is there some other motive behind all this? You just can’t tell. Erin herself is observing them all, and trying to figure out what’s on their mind, unable to let herself relax with them for a moment.

I reread this book again last week after a break, and the thing that makes me smile about it is, I always say to myself, I’ll just read that next chapter, then I’ll put it down. But I get to the end of that chapter, and I can’t help myself, I just have to read the next one, and the next… It’s compulsive.

So yes, I absolutely recommend this book. I’m really looking forward to the next in the series. Hint, hint.

BUT I’d seriously advise you to read the prequel, Spoils of the Dead, it sets the scene perfectly, introduces some back story and the main character and her people, and the eBook is only 99p so why not? If you’re going to do a thing, you’ve got to do it properly, right?

LINKS TO BUY Queen of Grime:

Paperback 

Kindle 

About Helen:

Helen Forbes is an author of Scottish crime fiction. She lives in her home-town of Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands. Helen began by writing contemporary and historical fiction, with no intention of turning to crime. It was a chance remark at a writing group about one of her short stories that led to her debut police procedural novel, In the Shadow of the Hill, set in Inverness and South Harris, featuring Detective Sergeant Joe Galbraith. Madness Lies is book 2 in the DS Joe Galbraith series, set in Inverness and North Uist.

Helen has had two standalone crime thrillers published by Scolpaig Press. Unravelling, set in Inverness, was published in July 2021. Deception, set in Edinburgh, was published in January 2022.

Spoils of the Dead, a novella, was published in November 2022, and Queen of Grime, the first in a new series, was released in December 2022.

Helen would be delighted to hear from readers. Please contact her and join her mailing list on her website http://www.helenforbes.co.uk to get her author news and a free copy of the novella, Spoils of the Dead.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

Facebook 

Website

Amazon Author Page

#QUEENOFGRIME #Scottishauthors #crimewriters