Thirst - Kerry Hudson - Blog Tour

Today I am very pleased to share a guest post by author Kerry Hudson, whose second novel Thirst is published by Chatto & Windus on 17th July 2014.

I reviewed Kerry's debut novel here - Tony Hogan Bought me an Ice-Cream Float before he Stole my Ma.

Writing rituals by Kerry Hudson

It’s no secret that I travel a lot. Even when theoretically based in London, my recent years have been punctuated by short trips here or there, sometimes for writing work – as happened recently when I was writer in residence in Seoul for a month – or sometimes just because my wanderlust became irrepressible.

Photo by Nick Tucker Photography

So how do I keep writing? With different routines, environments and demands on my time? Well I have my little ‘writing rituals’ built up, without even realising it, as I wrote my books. In the last few years I’ve come call quite a few writers friends (I knew none when my first book came out) and what strikes me is, though we usually have strikingly different lifestyles and often write very different timescales for book delivery, there are commonalties in those writing rituals.  

Here are the most popular writing rituals:

Get some Freedom…yes the time kind but hopefully that’s been carved out already by making writing a priority, by explaining to family, friends and partners why it’s an important part of your life. But in this instance, I mean Freedom that’s the app that turns of the internet. No sneaking to Twitter of Facebook to look at Gifs of kittens when you get bored, no giving up your story halfway through to check your Amazon sales rank. Nothing. Just you and the page and the beautiful silence of returning to circa 1993.

Accept that sometimes you’re writing when you’re not…some people go over their impending scenes in the shower, some on long drives at night time. I favour long city walks, plugged into some good music, a hot cup of coffee. Whatever city I’m in, I walk until hunger or achey limbs force me back to the land of the living. Inevitably something comes ‘unstuck’ on those walks though. I learned to accept that not all writing time is spent at your desk but I take care to conscious about this and stay with the story whatever else I’m doing.

Shake your ass…or whatever part of your body you’d like to, but do exercise. I try to never go a day without. Yoga is popular amongst writers because we are all terrified of end up as hunchbacks without it (my whole body clicks like a percussive instrument when I stretch and that’s *with* regular yoga). I also run, swim laps or just go for that long walk above every day. This is without a doubt – except, you know, WORDS – the most common writer’s practice…do it for your posture, to stop you from going mental or because you believe defined abs sells more books but it’s a good, healthy practice to get into.

Booze and coffee…I got very fond of hot-toddies made with lime while I was in Vietnam finishing my second book Thirst. Some writers like to write in the pub, some have a bottle of wine chilling in the fridge as incentive (dangerous game, that one). A glass – note, singular – at your elbow seems to act as a ‘loosener’ and a treat all at once. And it goes without saying coffee is the lifeblood. I don’t have kids and keep my own schedule (which involves more sleep than the average tranquilised kitten needs) but coffee spikes my adrenalin beautifully, keeps me going when I feel ‘on it’ and boost me when I’m feeling ‘very much not on it’.

Revisit the well…writers read, I think this goes without saying. But most of the writers I know make time for other culture. They are excited by good music, telly, theatre, art and photography. Me? I’m a film junkie and music obsessive. When I need to refresh myself I go to the cinema, see a photography exhibition or go to a gig. Art informs art and I’ve lost count of the amount of time I’ve come home after seeing something beautiful determined to try to honour my ideas and make something as good as it can be.

Words….yes, those too. I find setting a number of words a day the best technique and the most prolific writers I know also do this. Some set themselves a certain time target  – one uses the ‘Pomodoro Techinique’. Others write longhand or dictate and then type up. Many, myself included, use Scrivener for redrafting while lots stick with post-its. There are lots of different techniques for getting the words on the page and then making those words into something you might want other to see, but ultimately this is the most important ritual of all. After all, writers write.  

About the novel

The beginning of a relationship is usually all about getting to know one another, sharing stories far into the night, comparing experiences, triumphs and heartaches, until we know each other inside out.

Not so for Dave and Alena. He’s from London, she’s from Siberia. They meet in a sleek Bond Street department store in the frayed heat of high summer where she’s up to no good and it’s his job to catch her. So begins an unlikely relationship between two people with pasts, with secrets, they’ve no idea how to live with — or leave behind. But despite everything they don’t have in common, all the details they won’t and can’t reveal, they still find themselves fighting with all they’ve got for a future together.

Thirst is the heart-wrenching, life-affirming second novel from Kerry Hudson, whose debut Tony Hogan Brought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma was one of the most talked about UK debuts of 2012 and was shortlisted for an array of prizes, including the Guardian First Novel Award and the Sky Arts Awards.

The Dead Ground - Claire McGowan - Author Guest Post - Blog Tour

Today I'm delighted to share a guest post with you from author Claire McGowan. Claire's third novel is The Dead Ground, and is published by Headline on April 10th 2014. 

It's the second in a series featuring Paula Maguire. You can read my review of the first in the series, The Lost, here, and my review of Claire's first book, The Fall, here.

My writing process by Claire McGowan

There are a couple of questions that always come up when I’m being interviewed, and which I really should have worked out better answers to. One is: are you disciplined with your writing? And the other is: how much research do you do?

At the moment I write at least one book a year, and I always have other work to do as well, like most writers nowadays. So I don’t sit down at my desk all day every day and write – for one thing, it’s hard to crank out words eight hours a day. For another, life’s little jobs always get in the way, whether it’s proof-reading a different book, or promoting the one you have out, or going to the dentist or dry-cleaners. Part of this is procrastination, of course. When you don’t want to write a particular scene or you don’t know what happens next in your book, it’s amazing how much time you can fill up cleaning the taps, emailing, and watching YouTube videos of cats running into walls.

My process of writing a book spans around a year. This is probably because I have a year. If I had more or less time, I’m sure the work would expand or contract. First I’ll get the idea. I get ideas all the time, but not all of these will be workable as novels. It helps that I’m writing a series, so I know roughly what has to happen to the cast of characters in that one. Then I start scribbling down bits of the book, gathering ideas as I go. At this stage I don’t know much about the plot but rather than panic I just try to enjoy the adventure of finding out what’s going on. I use a notebook for this part, which is a sort of fetish – I can kid myself it’s like sketching, just playing about, and it also stops me being distracted by the aforementioned cat videos. Then, I will usually get to thirty thousand words and stop, stumped as to what happens next. I might stop for quite a while, procrastinating and telling myself I’m thinking it over. At some point I drag myself between thirty and sixty thousand words – the hardest part. Then I will stop again to think about what is really going on? What’s the book about? You might think I would know at this point, but….

Then, the research question. I wish I had a good answer for this, like ‘I embedded myself with the police for a year’ or ‘I got myself arrested so I could experience prison’, but it’s nowhere near as exciting as that. I will usually read around the subject I want to write on when I’m in the early musing stages, then try to get the story down, and then check the facts after. I’ll do this either by reading, going online, or talking to people about specific questions. Again, I’m a firm believer that too much research can weigh a book down, and that story is much more important than being totally accurate at all times. I want to write stories, not be an expert in the police force or forensic pathology or something. It’s surprising how often you get things right anyway. The mind is very powerful.

Hopefully this rather haphazard approach will show any aspiring writers that you don’t have to have all the answers when you start a book. However, you absolutely do have to keep going. I’m a big believer in doing 1,000 words a day in the writing stage– this very quickly adds up to a book and is why I wrote my first in three months. If you do this, and keep going without reading back over it, even when you’re convinced it’s no good, at least you have something to work with and fix. The only perfect books are the ones that stay in your head, unwritten. Give it a try!

About the novel...

BOOK TWO IN THE NEW CRIME SERIES FEATURING FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST PAULA MAGUIRE WORKING IN THE MISSING PERSONS UNIT IN NORTHERN IRELAND, IN A NAIL BITING STORY THAT WILL KEEP YOU UP ALL NIGHT

A stolen baby. A murdered woman. A decades-old atrocity. Something connects them all...

A month before Christmas, and Ballyterrin on the Irish border lies under a thick pall of snow. When a newborn baby goes missing from hospital, it's all too close to home for forensic psychologist Paula Maguire, who's wrestling with the hardest decision of her life.

Then a woman is found in a stone circle with her stomach cut open and it's clear a brutal killer is on the loose.

As another child is taken and a pregnant woman goes missing, Paula is caught up in the hunt for a killer no one can trace, who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

The Dead Ground will leave you gasping for breath as Paula discovers every decision she makes really is a matter of life and death...

About the author... 

Claire McGowan grew up in a small village in Northern Ireland. After a degree in English and French from Oxford University, and time spent living in China and France, she moved to London and works in the charity sector and also teaches creative writing. THE DEAD GROUND is her third novel and the second in the Paula Maguire series.

Author links: twitter @inkstainsclaire | website

Historic House Short Story Writing Competition

Today I'm sharing details of a short story writing competition...

Historic House Short Story competition Max 2,500 word story inspired by or set in a historic house (real or imagined). Run by Corazon Books in partnership with the Historic Houses Association (HHA). Free entry. First prize: £150, private tour and afternoon tea with owners of Levens Hall, Cumbria. Double Friends Membership to the HHA. Two runners-up prizes of Double Friends Membership to the HHA. Deadline: September 26th 2014. Full details and entry at: www.catherinegaskin.com

Full details:

Historic House Short Story Competition

Publisher Corazon Books has partnered with the Historic Houses Association to launch a special short story competition with fantastic prizes. Writers are invited to submit a short story which is either inspired by or set in a historic house.

Ian Skillicorn, publisher of Corazon Books, says: "We are looking for a compelling tale with lots of atmosphere. It can take place in the past or present, in either a real or fictional setting, so writers can let their imaginations take them, and us, whenever and wherever they wish!"

The competition is being run to celebrate the publication of The Property of a Gentleman by Catherine Gaskin. This modern classic by the bestselling "Queen of Storytellers" has recently been reissued by Corazon Books in ebook format, in time to celebrate its 40th anniversary. It is the first of Gaskin's novels to be published digitally. The Property of a Gentleman is a tale of intrigue, mystery and romance, set in a fictional earl's ancestral home, in the dramatic landscape of England's Lake District.

The competition's unique prizes are in keeping with its theme. The winning writer and a guest will be treated to a private tour and afternoon tea with the owners of Levens Hall in Cumbria. The winner will also receive a cash prize of £150, and a double Friends membership for the Historic Houses Association. Two runners up will each receive a double Friends membership to the Historic Houses Association. Corazon Books also plans to publish an ebook anthology of the best entries, with each writer receiving royalties for their published story.

Richard Compton, President of the HHA, says: "A HHA Member property will offer great inspiration for budding writers and will make a fantastic setting for a short story. We look forward to partnering with Corazon Books and reading the entries in this unique competition."

Catherine Gaskin

Susie Bagot of Levens Hall says: “The Bagot family is very pleased to be associated with the Historic House Short Story Competition and looks forward to welcoming the winner to Levens Hall and telling them the story of this fascinating ancient house and garden.”

The competition will run from March 10th to September 26th 2014, and the winner will be announced during National Short Story Week (17th to 23rd November 2014). There is no fee to enter the competition.

Enter the competition at: www.catherinegaskin.com

The Manhattan Puzzle - Laurence O'Bryan - Author Guest Post

I'm delighted to feature a guest post from author Laurence O'Bryan on the blog today. Laurence is the author of The Istanbul Puzzle, The Jerusalem Puzzle, and his new novel is The Manhattan Puzzle.

Manhattan – A City from a Dream

by Laurence O’Bryan

I wanted to go to Manhattan long before I arrived on a Greyhound bus coming through the rolling forests of New York State from Toronto.  I still remember my first glimpse of sparkling grey skyscrapers as we came over a low ridge.

It was 1988 and Times Square was still an area where you might lose more than your wallet. I watched a preacher there fuming about racial equality and I felt a real unease on the streets. This was caused, I later found out, by the deprivation in that area, which had existed since the seventies and further back still. All that has changed now. You can bring your family to Times Square without having to worry about meeting a gunman asking you for your wallet.

Manhattan had a mythical status in my mind at that time. It still does. It was a character on its own right in many old Hollywood movies featuring Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra and Audrey Hepburn, and too many gangsters and policemen to count.

Coming from ultra low-rise Dublin, Manhattan was a city from another world. A world of glamour and money and adventure all wrapped up in a city that never slept. I’ve been back three times since. Each time she has shown me something different.

I’ve been enthralled in the New York Public library looking through the archive of old newspapers, been captivated by the majestic star studded main hall in Grand Central Terminal and stood in the wind at the top of the Empire State Building. That midtown part of Manhattan where all those sights are should be classified as a museum, our perhaps even one of the seven Man Made Wonders of the World.        

I wanted to set a novel in Manhattan not just because of its beauty. Manhattan is also one of the centres of power in the world. Vast sums of money slosh around between its banks, and vast egos walk it streets. And everyone is on the hustle.

The Manhattan Puzzle emerged over a one year period. I wanted to change things from what had happened in The Istanbul and Jerusalem Puzzles and one way I did this was to tell much of the story through Isabel’s eyes. So far no one has said I did anything wrong in telling a story from a female perspective, but I am open to criticism, if you spot anything.

My writing process involves two to three hours a day of creating 1500 words, then the next day editing it before starting the next 1500 words. The novel then goes to my editor at Harper Collins. When I get it back I work on suggestions for a few months and then we do it all again. After that it’s one final proof read and then it goes to the shops and is made available online.

The novel is doing well, thankfully, so the chance of the next novel in the series being published is high. I can’ t tell you the title, but I can tell you I am visiting Nuremberg shortly. The remaining characters will face a resurrected fascist threat and some new deadly puzzles and then it will be on to another city.    

The Manhattan Puzzle sees Sean and Isabel (my characters from The Istanbul Puzzle and The Jerusalem Puzzle) finally reunited in Manhattan at the headquarters of one of the world’s largest banks, BXH, a fictional invention. There’s been some grisly murders. Then the plot takes a new twist. The contents of the book they found in The Istanbul Puzzle are revealed.

Another personal reason for writing this story was my disgust at the financial crisis that has brought many so low in the past few years. The final toll of the austerity programs caused by the financial crash, fuelled by Wall Street, is still not told. I became interested in the myths and the beliefs of those who value money above everything and I read a lot about the endless greed that thrives in large banks.

The Manhattan Puzzle is about other things too though. For instance, what would you do if your partner didn’t come home one night? And what would you think if the police turned up at your door the next day looking for him?

Relationships are under stress everywhere, in some cases because of the demands placed on us by our jobs, but few of us will face what Isabel has to face that morning when Sean goes missing.

Be warned though, there is violence from the start in The Manhattan Puzzle. The opening has a woman inflicting it on a man. I’m tired of reading about men inflicting sexual violence on women. I think it’s time for the handcuffs to swop wrists. And they certainly do in The Manhattan Puzzle. You can download the first chapter here as a pdf. 

And don’t get me wrong. I love Manhattan. It’s a city in a snow globe. A city from a dream.

To order The Manhattan Puzzle click here.

Or to visit my website click here: www.lpobryan.com

Sophie King - Second Time Lucky - Guest post & Writing competition

Today I am pleased to share an author guest blog post by writer Sophie King, plus news of a romantic fiction short story writing competition!

Guest blog post by Sophie King

AM I THE ONLY ONE to have secrets from my children? I do hope not.....

The other day, my newish husband (who knew me as a friend for thirty years before we married), let slip that I had smoked during my university days.

The effect on my three children was electrifying.

'But you've always told us not to,' spluttered my youngest.

'You said you'd be furious if we tried it,' said the middle one, her eyes narrowing with suspicion at me.

'Why didn't you tell us?' demanded the eldest.

All three nodded vigorously. 'Why didn't you tell us?', they chorused with crestfallen faces.

In vain, did I try to explain that I only smoked for six months and that I haven't had so much of a whiff since (apart from sniffing my eldest son's jacket when he's been out for the evening).

No. It was the fact that I had omitted to tell them that I had done something which I've spent years advising them not to.

Their faith in me had been dented and I felt gutted...

Then I got thinking. How much should we tell our children about our previous lives? Isn't it, after all, our own affair? Not long after the smoking bust-up, I read a problem page letter (don't you just love them?) in which the writer, a grandmother, was deeply distressed because her ten year old grandson had found some revealing pictures of her from her teenage years, hidden in an old shoebox at the back of her wardrobe.

'He'll never see me in the same light again,' she'd wailed. I could almost hear her pain through the page. 'What should I do?'

It was one of those problem pages where readers are invited to write in with their solutions for the next issue so I don't know what was suggested. But I nearly wrote in myself to point out that actually it wasn't the grandson's business. If his gran had had a bit of a wild life in the past, good on her. In fact, if she hadn't, maybe the grandson wouldn't be there now...

Personally, I think we're entitled to some secrets, no matter how old we are. I wouldn't dream of checking anyone's text messages in our family. That, in my book, is as bad as reading your daughter's diary - something that my own mother did when I was 17. As a result, she insisted that I broke up with my then boyfriend. I was made to feel shameful, even though I was, by today's standards, extremely conventional.

Still, it's all good material for my novels. In fact, secrets play a big part in SECOND TIME LUCKY. And no - I can't reveal what they are or they wouldn't be secrets!

What's the biggest secret you've hidden from your children and why? Write to me at sophie@sophieking.info and you could win a prize. Look forward to hearing from you!

Look out for more AM I THE ONLY ONE posts on my blog at http://blog.sophieking.info

About the novel

Second Time Lucky by Sophie King

Second Time Lucky: Another engaging tale of love and life from Sophie King, the bestselling author of The School Run. Meet the residents of Bridgewater House, once a grand stately home, but now converted into apartments which house a host of colourful characters, each with their own desires and secrets.

Louise thought she had everything, then suddenly finds herself as a single mum with an uncertain future. Can she build a new life for her and her children? And has real happiness been right under her nose all along?

Roddy was once the heir to Bridgewater House, but now he's a drunken lord who's fallen on hard times. Can he prove to his ex-wife that he has cleaned up his act, or is he about to risk everything in a desperate scheme to show how much he loves his kids?

Molly is a famous actress, coming to terms with retirement and the recent death of her actor husband Gideon. But dare she tell anyone that Gideon still comes to visit her? And how will she react to some unexpected messages from beyond the grave?

American Marcie always fantasised about marrying an English gentleman, just like one of her Jane Austen heroines. But will two resentful stepchildren, and failed attempts to have a baby of her own, get in the way of her dream happy ending? And what would her husband David make of her secret shame from the past?

As each of these neighbours faces their own challenges, their lives are about to become entwined in ways they never could have expected.

Second Time Lucky – doesn't everyone deserve a second chance? 

Romantic fiction short story competition! 

The Sophie King Prize

This romantic fiction short story competition aims to discover a great new romance short story. The winning story will be chosen by best-selling novelist and short story writer Sophie King.

The competition is free to enter, and is open to both published and unpublished writers worldwide. The winning story will be recorded by a professional actor, and broadcast from a dedicated online audio player. The winner will also receive a pair of Silver-Plated Life Long Champagne Chalices and £50 (approx $79) gift voucher courtesy of www.handpickedcollection.com. One runner up will receive a £25 (approx $39) gift Handpicked Collection voucher.

The Sophie King Prize is now open for entries. Entrants must submit a short story of between 1,500 to 2,500 words with a romantic theme. The submissions deadline is January 10th 2014 and the winner will be announced on February 14th 2014. To enter, go to: www.thesophiekingprize.com