‘I had trouble putting it down!’ Kelly’s Thoughts & Ramblings reviews INVISIBLE via @KsrgmcK

‘What an exciting book!’

I’m so proud of the fact that, over three years after publication, INVISIBLE is still being discovered by new readers. The latest wonderful review is from a lovely blog called Kelly’s Thoughts & Ramblings.

‘What an exciting book!’ Kelly writes, adding that ‘it certainly made me think about consequences I might never before have considered.’

In fact, she enjoyed INVISIBLE so much that she is planning the read THE DARKEST LIES (she already whizzed through FLOWERS FOR THE DEAD and loved it!).

To read Kelly’s brilliant review in full, please click here.

Invisible is currently Number 5 in Noir in the USA, as well as being a genre bestseller in Canada and the UK. Not bad for three-year-old novel, eh?!

 

PhotoFiction: Fiona Ford shares #writing inspirations @Fionajourno @orionbooks #authorinterview

Authors reveal the images that inspired 100,000 words

THIS WEEK: Fiona Ford reveals how a photograph of the queen helped launch her life as an author…

 

Fiona Ford is a former ghost writer with a thirst for books and history. As a child she adored listening to her grandfather talk about his time in the navy during World War Two. Although Fiona went on to develop a successful career as a national journalist, she never forgot her passion for the past. Now, Fiona has combined her love of writing with her love of days gone by in The Spark Girl, the first in a series of wartime sagas published by Orion. Find out more at Fiona’s website: www.Fionaford.co.uk or follow her on Twitter @Fionajourno.

FIONA SAYS: I’ve got a confession to make. I probably owe my writing career to the Queen. Yes, her majesty herself inspired my debut novel, because it’s this photo of her leaning against an Army vehicle that propelled me to write the historical saga, The Spark Girl.

It tells the story of Kitty who loses the love of her life at the start of World War Two and joins the Auxiliary Territorial Services (ATS), the women’s branch of the British Army… TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE

BLOOD TYPE: Ben McPherson @TheBenMcPherson @HarperCollinsUK #writingtips #writerslife

CRIME AUTHORS SPILL THEIR GUTS ABOUT WRITING. Every Thursday top-notch authors of psychological thrillers and crime fiction share their writing secrets – and the secrets to their success – with you and me.

“Handling rejection is a large part of the job [of being a writer]. ”

This week: Ben McPherson

Tell us about yourself…

I’m Scottish and live in Norway, where I write psychological thrillers about good people doing very bad things.

My wife is Norwegian and wanted to give birth close to her family and friends, so we came for six months and never quite left. I was working at the BBC as a television producer, and for a while I lived in London and we saw each other at weekends, but four years ago I moved here properly. Now I have two Norwegian sons and three naturalised cats. Television feels like someone else’s life.

Norway is a strange and lovely place. There’s a kindness and a generosity of spirit amongst the people. People here will tell you it’s the happiest country on Earth, and in many ways it is, especially in summer, but once you look below that seductive placid surface, there are undercurrents, of course. The suicide rate is high; many people take antidepressants.

​These contradictions make Norway a compelling place for a writer. My first book, A Line of Blood, is set in London, but my second is set here. There’s something about the country and the landscape that seeps into your soul. You’re so affected by the endlessness of the winter and the short, very intense summers.

 

How do you pick character names? Do any have special meaning to you?

I pick names of people I like. And then I throw them away and pick better names as I write, and start to know my own characters and how I expect them to think and behave. Sometimes there are small clues in a name that I don’t expect anyone else to get…TO READ IN FULL, CLICK HERE

‘A cracking thriller’ #BookReview TRUST ME, Angela Clarke @TheAngelaClarke @AvonBooksUK

‘Fast plot, snappy dialogue, breathless pacing; Angela Clarke does it again’

THEY SAY

YOU SAW IT HAPPEN. DIDN’T YOU?

What do you do if you witness a crime…but no-one believes you?

When Kate sees a horrific attack streamed live on her laptop, she calls the police in a state of shock. But when they arrive, the video has disappeared – and she can’t prove anything. Desperate to be believed, Kate tries to find out who the girl in the video could be – and who attacked her.

Freddie and Nas are working on a missing persons case, but the trail has gone cold. When Kate contacts them, they are the only ones to listen and they start to wonder – are the two cases connected?

Dark, gripping, and flawlessly paced, Trust Me is the brilliant third novel in the hugely popular social media murderer series.

I SAY

Fast plot, snappy dialogue, breathless pacing; Angela Clarke does it again.

The fabulous thing about her Social Media novels is that you know exactly what you’re going to get – and once more she delivers. In Freddie and Nas, the author has created two characters readers can genuinely engage with. I love their… TO READ IN FULL, CLICK HERE

PhotoFiction: Jo Lambert shares #writing inspirations @Jolambertwriter #authorinterview

Authors reveal the images that inspired 100,000 words

THIS WEEK: Jo Lambert reveals how landscape shapes her writing…

Born and raised in rural Wiltshire, Jo Lambert grew up with a love of books and a vivid imagination. As a child she enjoyed creating her own adventure stories similar to Enid Blyton’s Famous Five. Writing always stayed with her, but college, work and eventually marriage found it was kept very much in the background. However in 2009 she finally had her first novel – When Tomorrow Comes – published. Three other connected books – Love Lies and Promises, The Ghost of You and Me and Between Today and Yesterday followed. They became collectively known as the Little Court Series. In 2013 she decided to give up full time work to concentrate fully on her writing. Since then she has added a final book The Other Side of Morning, to her Little Court Series. This was followed by two linked novels set in South Devon – Summer Moved On and Watercolours in the Rain – published in 2015 and 2016. Her new work in progress is set in North Cornwall and will be published at the end of 2017.

She describes her writing as drama driven romance.

Jo is married and lives in a village on the eastern edge of Bath with her husband, one small grey feline called Mollie and a green MGB GT. She loves travel, red wine, rock music and has a passion for dark chocolate…

JO SAYS: The one key element in every book I have written has been landscape. When I began writing, I followed the well-worn mantra ‘Write what you know about’. Growing up in a village and having now returned after a few years in the city, I was fairly fluent in all aspects of village life – the kind of people who live there, the culture and backdrop. And I consider backdrop is probably the most important of the three…TO CONTINUE READING, CLICK HERE

‘Great writing’ #bookreview HUNTING THE HANGMAN by @HowardLinskey @noexitpress via @bcopperthwait

‘It screams its authenticity at the reader from the outset’

THEY SAY:

TWO MEN. . . ONE MISSION. . . TO KILL THE MAN WITH THE IRON HEART

Bestselling author Howard Linskey’s fifteen year fascination with the assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich, the architect of the holocaust, has produced a meticulously researched, historically accurate thriller with a plot that echoes The Day of the Jackal and The Eagle has Landed. 

2017 marks the 75th anniversary of the attack on a man so evil even fellow SS officers referred to him as the ‘Blond Beast’. In Prague he was known as the Hangman. Hitler, who called him ‘The Man with the Iron Heart’, considered Heydrich to be his heir, and entrusted him with the implementation of the ‘Final Solution’ to the Jewish question: the systematic murder of eleven million people.

In 1942 two men were trained by the British SOE to parachute back into their native Czech territory to kill the man ruling their homeland. Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik risked everything for their country. Their attempt on Reinhard Heydrich’s life was one of the single most dramatic events of the Second World War, with horrific consequences for thousands of innocent people.

Hunting the Hangman is a tale of courage, resilience and betrayal with a devastating finale. Based on true events, the story reads like a classic World War Two thriller and is the subject of two big-budget Hollywood films that coincide with the anniversary of Operation Anthropoid.

I SAY:

I love thrillers, and I love historical non-fiction, but I admit I am often uncomfortable when the two blur, and someone writes a fictional version of actual events featuring the people really involved. Their inaccuracies and inconsistencies worry at me, and I find myself fretting that readers will believe the fiction as they would a factual book.

However, in the case of Hunting The Hangman, I must applaud the incredible amount of research that has clearly gone into this book. Historically accurate, it screams its authenticity at the reader from the outset.

There is no glorifying or trivializing events. Instead, there is simply great writing and research, weaving together to tell this incredible, fictionalized account of a true story.

Publication week whirlwind! #TheDarkestLies

The emotional snow globe of life has been picked up, shaken around with me inside it, then set down again. I now sit, dazed and confused, trying to piece together the crazy week that has passed since The Darkest Lies was published a week ago yesterday. It seems a LOT longer than that!

Publication day started, for me, at 3am. Like an over-excited child at Christmas, I found it impossible to sleep. There was also the distinct possibility of tears due to overtiredness at some point later that day. My book had been delivered to my Kindle at midnight (yes, of course I’d ordered a copy!) but after looking at it to check all was okay with it, there wasn’t a lot else to do except feel sick with nerves. I can honestly say I have never worked so hard on a book in my entire life, and all I could hope was that it would be well-received.

From around 6.30am, the day was a whirl of congratulations. It was a surreal and wonderful experience. My blog tour kicked off, and for the rest of the week I’ve been riding high on a wave of positivity. I’ve also been obsessively checking my rankings on Amazon, and keeping everything crossed.

Things seem to be going well, with it hitting number 35 in the Top 100, and also riding high in psychological thrillers – including hitting the Number 1 spot in Hot New Releases!

A lovely bonus is that my other two novels, Invisible, and Flowers For The Dead, have both re-entered the Noir top 100 on Amazon in the UK and the US.

The reviews for The Darkest Lies have been wonderful! I must take this opportunity to give thanks to the incredible support I’ve received from the blogging community and fellow authors. The rather fabulous Robert Bryndza, author of The Girl in the Ice and Last Breath, messaged me saying: ‘It grips you by the throat and doesn’t let go. A tense, edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting ride.’ so that was a thumbs up, then! I’m so, so glad that the people reading The Darkest Lies are enjoying it. If they buy The Darkest Lies, read it, and think enough of it to recommend it to friends, then I am happy. As always, my fingers crossed!

 

The loneliness of a long-distance writer

Facebook has just reminded me that exactly 12 months ago I blogged this. Given that at the moment I’m celebrating the publication of my latest book (the very one I’m despairing about on this post), have now got a four-book deal with Bookouture, and am feeling very excited about the future, I thought it timely to share the post again.
Twelve months ago I was at the end of my tether, run down, and wondering what the heck I was doing. I felt like giving up. This is for anyone feeling like that right now. Don’t give up – you will get over that finish line.

Barbara Copperthwaite

This is the hard bit. The bit where the real authors are sorted out from the wannabes. The bit where those not determined enough, passionate enough, driven enough, give up and fall by the wayside.

This is the bit where you are reminded that writing a book is not a short sprint but a long, hard marathon of endurance. My own willpower is wavering a little lately, I admit. I’ve been ill at a constant low-level for two months or so now. Niggling things such as colds, stomach bugs, shingles, even mouth ulcers, all showing me how run down I am, and slowing down my writing. I’m tired all the time. All. The. Time. I even wake tired. What I want to do – perhaps what I need to do – is take a break, rest, regain my zing.

This is the part of being an author that people rarely…

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BLOOD TYPE: Jane Isaac @JaneIsaacAuthor @Legend_Press #writingtips #writerslife

CRIME AUTHORS SPILL THEIR GUTS ABOUT WRITING. Every Thursday top-notch authors of psychological thrillers and crime fiction share their writing secrets – and the secrets to their success – with you and me.

“I’m incredibly hard on myself because I feel that every book should be better than the last.”

This week: Jane Isaac

Tell us about yourself…

Hi Barbara! Thanks so much for inviting me to your lovely blog. My name is Jane Isaac and I write both the DCI Helen Lavery and the DI Will Jackman series. My books have been described as detective fiction with a psychological edge and my next novel, The Lies Within, was released on 2nd May 2017.

How do you pick character names? Do any have special meaning to you?

I find names incredibly difficult and spend a long time working through lists of possibles to come up with a name that I feel ‘fits’ a character. It’s also important to ensure that names in your book aren’t similar too, or all start with the same letter, so that they don’t confuse the reader. I use an alphabetical index system for each book (a great tip another writer gave me a few years ago) for names, descriptions and potted histories of each character, so that I don’t have too many people with similar names or features.

I have noticed that I have a penchant for character names ending with the letter ‘a’ though. Throughout my books I have an Eva, an Anna and a Carmela. Even my own daughter is called Ella! TO READ IN FULL, CLICK HERE