Kristina Stanley

Mystery Mondays: Michael Phillips On Writing Goals

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 17 Comments

Between_Good_And_EvilMystery Mondays welcomes Michael Phillips, Author of: Between Good And Evil, first book in the Auburn Notch Mysteries Published by Sunbury Press.

It’s amazing to me that each week an author generously shares wisdom about writing and the writing industry and this week is no exception.

If you’ve been needing a plan to get your work published, read on…

Writing Goals by Michael Phillips

Any time I do a book-signing event one of the first questions I get is, “What is the toughest part about being a writer?” Some would say finding an agent or a publisher. Others might say dealing with all the rejections that go along with finding an agent or a publisher. But my usual response is—formulating a plan and sticking to it no matter what. Doing this can make those other two things much easier and achievable.

So what do I mean about a plan? Well, I mean setting achievable goals and attacking them one at a time. One completed goal should lead to the next, and the next, and so on until you have a complete manuscript in hand and a stop-them-in-the-aisle query to go along with it.

Before I break these goals down for you, let me mention a few things to help this process along. First, you should treat your writing like a job. Our lives are crazy, but if you are serious about writing you should carve out a time to write and try to stick to it. Some folks write an hour or so early in the morning before the day really starts, others write at night after the family has gone to bed. I write 8-10 hours one day a week. Whether it’s one paragraph, three chapters, or just reference, I stay at it for 8-10 hours. One day a week doesn’t sound like much, but I get a lot done in that one day. For example, my Ernie Bisquets Mysteries are English cozies, so they are quirky and enjoyable to write and I can complete an 80k word manuscript in 6-8 months. The Auburn Notch Mysteries are a little darker and have much more research involved, so an 84k+ manuscript may take up to a year. Whatever your preference, stake your claim and stick to it.

Second, you really need to know your characters. Character mapping is incredibly important and something you should invest time in before you get too far along in the process. Think of this as filling out an on-line dating questionnaire, adding in as much detail as you can. This is also a living document, so you can adjust as needed as your story progresses. I take this one step further and map each character’s relationship with all the other characters. There are a number of character mapping apps out there. I use one more suited to screenwriting because I like the character-to-character relationship aspect.

Third, try working from an outline. Even if it is just a few sentences for each chapter describing what’s going on, I find doing this helps me plan out the whole book and keep track of what’s next.

Now, onto those goals.

First Goal: Write your story. I don’t mean labor over every word, or second guess the affect of your foreshadowing, or wondering if your protagonist still has the same color hair in chapter seven as she does in chapter one, etc. What I mean is right your story. It’s a first draft. It’s going to be short and it’s going to be terrible, but that’s ok. Just get the whole idea out of your head and onto your laptop. Someone told me a long time ago that 90% of writers never get their work published for one reason alone—they give up. They get so bogged down in the details while they’re writing the first draft, or worrying if their work is good enough, that they just give up. Some would see this as a daunting statistic, figuring if 90% give up what chance do I have? If you’re like me, I figured I just eliminated 90% of my competition. I was quite sure my writing skills were as good as or better than ½ of the remaining 10%, so I just got to work and finished writing my story. Check off Goal #1.

Second Goal: Walk away. Put the completed first draft aside for a month. This is important. You need to look at the story with fresh eyes before you start the editing process, and the best way to do that is to walk away from it. Spend this time researching potential agents/publishers for your book. Get a complete list together, so when you’ve finished the book completely you’re ready to start the query process. And do not start the query process until the book is polished. Check off Goal #2.

Third Goal: The editing process. With a hot cup of whatever, you sit down and start back at the beginning and read what you’ve written. Read through the whole story a few times making notes along the way. This is the time when you take that rough first draft and turn it into a compelling story. Define the characters, establish the conflict, and embellish the details. Add weight to your writing. My favorite part of this goal comes at the end of the second draft and I go back to the beginning and start the “was” edit. This is the time to sift out the passiveness from the story and increase the word count. Do a word search for “was” and start the edit. For example:

My original sentence: It was just after 4:30 when Promise returned to the office and found Hank waiting for her.

The edited version: The long shadows of the cool, late afternoon stretched across the busy Main Street leading Promise into her office, the very tip of the shadow resting beneath the tapping foot of her deputy, Hank.

No “was” any more, and you’ve done a little show don’t tell in the process. We’ve also gone from 17 words to 34 words. It’s amazing what you can do with a single word when you try.

I’ve written a couple books requiring only 2 drafts, but three other books took a third and forth until I was happy. Everyone is different; so take as long as you need to get it right.

Forth Goal: Hire an editor. Most new writers don’t want to hear this one, but it is incredibly important. Look at it as an investment in yourself and your work. Do a little research, find a reputable editor, and turn over the manuscript once you get to your final draft. For the few hundred dollars it will cost you, the return on investment will be worth it. Together you will polish the manuscript and get it ready for submission.

Fifth Goal: The Query. To some extent this is more important than the entire book. On one 8.5”x11” piece of paper you are going to dazzle an agent with your hook, and then draw them into your story with a brief paragraph or two describing your characters and the conflict they’re struggling with to reach the resolution. Writing the query is a post in itself, so I’ll just leave you with the knowledge of how important it is and leave the how-to for another post.

Thank you so much for inviting me to share my writing experience with your readers. It’s been a delight being here.

Cheers,

Mike

 

RMPhillips_Profile_12ACCLAIMED MYSTERY NOVELIST R. MICHAEL PHILLIPS RELEASES FIRST BOOK IN NEW SERIES

CARLISLE, PA. – Sunbury Press has released Between Good and Evil by R. Michael Phillips, the first in the Auburn Notch Mystery series.

About the Book:

Promise Flynn was an overly impulsive Metro Detective whose disregard for procedure finally resulted in her being shot and left for dead during an investigation.

To repair her bruised ego and splintered confidence she abandons the dark alleys of Chicago to patrol the quiet, birch-lined streets of Auburn Notch.

For two years everything was idyllic, until the body of a young girl found in the abandoned asylum outside of town awakens the insecurities she thought her new life would insulate her from.

As the new Sheriff she begins her investigation, oblivious to being unexpectedly recognized and penciled in at the top of a clever murderer’sTo- Do list.

Her internal struggle intensifies when a discredited crime reporter from the past arrives in town to resurrect his

reputation, along with an FBI agent chasing down a lead in a cold case.

Both men quickly become entangled in Flynn’s investigation and her attempts to finally put her past to rest.

Praise for Between Good and Evil:

“It’s such a treat to start a new Phillips mystery…He gracefully brings new people into our lives, giving us time to get to know who is who. The dark yet very real worlds of his characters are so clearly defined that you are sucked inside and grabbed along in a slow-building rise of anxiety and danger…”

—The Editing Pen

“R. Michael Phillips has an incredible hand at descriptive detail: clothing, rooms, scenery. It leaves a flavor for you to sample and settings you can envision stepping into…”

— June Lorraine Roberts, Murder In Common About the Author:

Michael is a classically trained artist turned mystery writer. He has written three books in his first series, The Ernie Bisquets Mysteries, and has released the first book in his Auburn Notch Mystery series, Between Good and Evil.

When he’s not painting or writing Michael is an avid antique collector, filling his home—an 1894 Queen Ann Victorian he, his wife, and son are restoring—with antiques from around the world. Michael also enjoys cooking, working in the garden, and playing in the yard with their two rescues, Beau and Pup.

 

THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO SELLING BOOKS TO NON-BOOKSTORES

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 7 Comments

What do Jodie Renner, Dan Alatorre and Elinor Florence have in common, besides being awesome writers of course?  Each has a generous spirit. All three have read an advanced reader copy of THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO SELLING BOOKS TO NON-BOOKSTORES.

I am honored to share their words with you today.

efficient ways to get around the city

 

You can check out the work of the fabulous three by clicking on their names above.

Writers are truly generous people. I thank Jodie, Dan and Elinor with all my heart.

The Author’s Guide To Selling Books To Non-Bookstores will be released this spring by Imajin Books.

Thanks for reading…

Early Praise for The Author’s Guide To Selling Books To Non-Bookstores

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 9 Comments

Publishing my first non-fiction book is just as stressful as publishing a novel. The great part is now I’ve been through the process a few times, and I know what Imajin Books expects from me.

As promised on my home page, I’m sharing what I learn during the publishing process. It’s still hard to ask for endorsements, but I did, and they are making their way into my inbox, and I just have to share the first one. My strategy is to find endorsements from traditionally published authors, Indie published authors and editors with the idea that a well rounded list will help promote the book.

Bird's Eye ViewThe first in is from Elinor Florence, author of BIRD’S EYE VIEW (Dundurn Press).

Bird’s Eye View is a historical novel, the unforgettable story of an idealistic young Canadian woman who joins the air force in the Second World War and becomes an aerial photographic interpreter.

Working with hundreds of other intelligence officers at a converted mansion in England, Rose Jolliffe spies on the enemy from the sky.

What she sees through her magnifying glass will change the course of history — and her own life — in ways she never imagined.

“Thinking outside the box (i.e. bookstores) is a great way for authors to increase their sales. Like Kristina Stanley, I’ve had success selling my Second World War novel Bird’s Eye View in non-bookstores, but I still learned a lot from reading her step-by-step comprehensive guidebook. I especially appreciated her advice regarding checklists and spreadsheets – something every author should embrace!” – Elinor Florence.

 

Non-Fiction Announcement 2

The success in selling and distributing DESCENT and BLAZE came from implementing what I learned by trial-and-error, by talking with other authors and store owners about the process, and from guidance from my publisher. I’ve taken everything I’ve learned and put it into a book.

In THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO SELLING BOOKS TO NON-BOOKSTORES I explain how an author should plan, prepare and execute getting books into stores and actually making money from it. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an Indie author or traditionally published, all that matters is you have a printed edition of your fiction or nonfiction book and you want to get that book out into the world.

Thanks for reading…

Write Better Fiction: When A POV Doesn’t Reach A Goal

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 8 Comments

Today on Write Better Fiction we’ll cover What happens if the POV doesn’t achieve her scene goal. Write Better Fiction is a process to help you critique your own manuscript and give yourself feedback. This will help you improve your novel, so you’re ready to submit it to an editor. 

If you’ve been reading this series, you know I’m describing a spreadsheet I created to evaluate each scene of a novel. I use this spreadsheet after a solid draft to evaluate each scene and revise it as needed.

This week I’ll over POV goal failure.

To shorten the heading in the spreadsheet, I’ve called the column “Outcome if POV Fails.” I know this means what happens if POV doesn’t achieve his goal.

This question is sometimes hard to answer. If the question is hard to answer, the goal may not relate to the overall plot. If nothing happens because the character fails to achieve the goal, then what’s the point of the goal.

The answer doesn’t have to be earth shattering.

In DESCENT, Kalin’s internal goal is to be good at her job. If she fails, she might get fired, be reprimanded or lose her confidence at work.

In the opening scene, her external goal is to go skiing. This has a more subtle relationship to the plot. The goal is there to show Kalin is adventurous and athletic. When Ben tells he she can’t go skiing because the conditions are too dangerous, her trait of not listening to others is revealed. This goal is about character development.

For an obvious example, say a character’s scene goal is to reveal to the police she’s discovered fraud at work. She fails to reach the police in time, and she becomes a suspect in the fraud. You can easily tell what happens when she fails to reach her goal.

The answer strength should vary throughout the novel. The will help with pacing and keep the reader engaged.

If every scene has an obvious goal and and obvious failure, the reader will get bored with the repetition.

Sometime the character will achieve their goal. This is okay too. The idea is to create tension in the scene with the possibility the character might fail. They don’t have to fail, for the tension to be effective.

Your challenge this week is to use the columns for internal and external character goal that you set in POV GOAL AND PLOT and ask yourself what happens if the character doesn’t achieve that goal.

I critiqued DESCENT and BLAZE using the techniques I’m sharing in Write Better Fiction, and I believe this helped me sign with a publisher.

Please me know in the comments below if you found this exercise challenging. Did it help you write a tenser scene?

Thanks for reading…

Descent & Blaze

AVALANCHE: First Early Praise

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 12 Comments

I can hardly believe I’ve received the first early praise for AVALANCHE, A Stone Mountain Mystery #3. AVALANCHE will be released by Imajin Books this spring.

It set my nerves on fire to send out the ARC (Advance Reader Copy) to well established authors asking for an endorsement if they like the book. The ARC has not been through the full editing process or proofreading, so it’s hard to let the work out into the world.

Imajin Books taught me with the DESCENT and BLAZE that this was part of the publishing process, so I should take a deep breath and hit the send button.

The first endorsement I’ve received is from thriller writer Jeff Buick.

Layer upon layer, like snow building for an avalanche, Stanley weaves a story that keeps you guessing. You can’t turn the pages fast enough.

AVALANCHE: On a cold winter morning, deep in the Purcell Mountains, the safe at Stone Mountain Resort is robbed hours before Kalin Thompson’s brother, Roy, disappears in an avalanche.

Under normal circumstances, as the director of security, Kalin would lead the investigation into the theft, but Roy is the prime suspect. The police and the president of the resort turn their sights on Kalin. She’s told to stay clear of the investigation and risks her job to covertly attempt to clear Roy’s name.

Threats against Kalin escalate as she gets closer to the truth. Is her faith in her brother justified? Was the avalanche an accident or did something more sinister happen? And is the truth worth destroying her life for?

Jeff Buick, a Canadian fiction writer, is a top selling author of thriller novels including:

Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 6.29.53 AMBloodline

The world thinks Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was killed in 1993. The world is wrong. Escobar went deep into hiding, taking with him the access code to a Swiss bank account containing hundreds of millions of dollars. His enemies want that code, and they ll do anything to get it…. Escobar s enemies know that even in hiding he is still a very dangerous man, and that simply looking for him would cost them their lives. Instead they turn to Escobar s cousin, an innocent pawn who has no idea where to begin the search. But his wife and daughter are being held as security, and the clock is ticking. He has two weeks to find Pablo Escobar and get that access code or they die.                       

Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 6.32.23 AMLethal Dos

When Gordon Buchanan’s brother, Billy, dies from an injury in a logging accident because his blood failed to coagulate properly, Gordon seeks an outside cause for Billy’s blood disorder, given no family history of hemophilia. Gordon learns that his brother was taking Triaxcion, a new drug manufactured by Veritas Pharmaceuticals, whose ruthless CEO will stop at nothing to maintain his company’s profits. As Gordon begins to dig into the inner workings of the drug company, he’s joined by Jennifer Pearce, a recent Veritas hire who has her own reasons for investigating her employer. Together they uncover a twisted path of corporate conspiracy, greed and murder that reaches into the very heart of American fears. Buick (Bloodline) offers two appealing protagonists plus plenty of fast-paced action and narrow escapes, with a minimum of tech-speak. While several convenient coincidences and overly helpful strangers speed along Gordon and Jennifer’s quest, the final product is a quick, enjoyable biotech thriller.                       

Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 6.35.29 AMAfrican Ice

A diamond formation worth untold millions, hidden deep in the jungles of Africa. Many have tried to find it. All have failed. Can Samantha Carlson do the impossible? The president of Gem-Star thinks so when he hires the geologist to lead a team into the Democratic Republic of Congo and return with the diamonds’ location. Gem-Star has sent other teams in to find the formation. None made it out alive.

Samantha was aware the odds were against her when she accepted the mission. She’s taken hazardous jobs before, and she knows what she’s doing. Plus, Gem-Star has provided an escort team to protect her. But Samantha’s expedition is about to turn into an all-out battle for survival. There’s another team on a mission in the jungle. Their goal: kill Samantha.

Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 6.37.35 AMShell Game 

When NewPro Stock collapses, Taylor and her husband Alan lose millions, forcing them to sell their home and business. But they re not going down without a fight. They re determined to track down the elusive Edward Brand, the mastermind behind the enormous fraud…

Taylor and Alan are about to learn two hard facts: A man who doesn t want to be found can be extremely dangerous – and in the world of high-level scams absolutely nothing is what it seems. If they re going to pin Brand down and recover their money, they re going to need an ingenious – and very risky – plan of their own.

Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 6.39.04 AM Delicate Chaos

Leona Hewitt, a successful Washington banker, finds her life on the line when she takes on a new client. A poweful company is set to lose millions if she doesn’t approve a transaction . . . and they’ve hired a killer to make sure she doesn’t present a problem.

Mystery Mondays: Carol Balawyder on Subplots

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 25 Comments

Welcome once again to Mystery Mondays.

I first connected with Carol Balawyder when she graciously agreed to have me guest blog on her series HOW I GOT PUBLISHED.  DESCENT had been published less than a month previously, and I was nervous about guest blogging. Carol’s generous nature made it easy for me, and now I feel very lucky to have her guest blogging on my series.

Carol writes the The Getting To Mr. Right series.

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THE PURPOSE OF SUBPLOTS by Carol Balawyder

Thank you so much Kristina for inviting me as a guest on your Mystery Monday series. It’s a true honor for me to be in the midst of so many flourishing writers.

In my writing, whether it is women’s contemporary fiction or crime genre they both have in common a subplot which deals with the complexity of domestic relationships – specifically, relationships between an adult and his/her parent and the dysfunctional behaviors they can get tied up in.

For example, Getting To Mr. Right looks at how a daughter’s relationship as an adult is influenced by an emotionally or physically absent father. While researching this subplot I found a number of clinical studies to be of a valuable resource on the consequences of an absent daddy which I have used as foundation for the subplot.

Adding a subplot to the main plot gives depth to the character; the reader gets to know him/her more intimately.

This, I found to be especially true for a series. How many of us have wanted to read book 2, 3 or 8 of a series not only for the thrill of the story or mystery but also for wanting to know more about the protagonist’s personal life? Through the intricacies of the subplot readers become hooked on a series.

Subplots can enrich a novel and add tension. They give insight into a character’s personality and value system. They propose ground upon which a reader begins to build trust and sympathy for the character because s/he has a deeper understanding of him/her.

Subplots create a link from one series to the next and, as readers learn more about the characters’ personal life they begin to care more about them. To treat them as literary friends and sometimes even become their fans.

In some cases subplots help speed up the pace while in other cases they might serve to provide a breather to the action of the main plot.

Perhaps most importantly, subplots add to the suspension of disbelief.

I’ll give you an example drawn from my crime novel in progress. The protagonist, a nineteen year old girl, develops an intense and obsessive relationship with a man she meets on a train; she is ready to do anything to keep him even if it means leaving her distressed mother, turning her back on a career opportunity and murder.

Not such a nice girl, you might think, and rightfully so. But the subplot of addiction and its effects on the entourage supplies a different outlook.

Our nineteen year old protagonist, since very young, has been forced into the role of being caretaker to her heroin addicted mother. Research has shown that children who are flung into this kind of role grow up with a warped sense of self, lack of confidence and mounting frustration. Thus, the subplot adds credibility to the protagonist’s actions and irrational behavior. Although we might not condone some of her behavior we can understand. We believe that the protagonist is capable of doing what she does because of the world she lives in. We willingly suspend our disbelief.

Finally, as writers we need to make our characters come alive on the pages of our novels. Subplots are perfect opportunities to do just that.

My Getting To Mr. Right Series:

Carol Books

Carol’s BIO
CarolCarol Balawyder has taught criminology in both Police Technology and Corrections Programs for 18 years. Her area of expertise is in drug addiction and she worked in a methadone clinic with heroin addicts. She is very much interested in the link between drugs and crime and the devastating effects addiction has on the addict’s entourage. She has published short stories in The Anthology of Canadian Authors Association, Room Magazine, Entre Les Lignes, Mindful.org. and Carte Blanche. She regularly writes book reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

LINKS:

Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Carol-Balawyder/e/B00HVETKWM

Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7704883.Carol_Balawyder

Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/cbala

Website – http://carolbalawyder.com/

Blog- http://carolbalawyder.com/blog/

 

 

 

Farley’s Friday: I’ve Got a Girlfriend

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 11 Comments

Farley here,

Let me introduce Piper. She’s my girl. She’s a border terrier, was born one week after me, and has been visiting us this week.

Here we are the day we came home to our humans.

Farley and Piper Day 1

And here we are on the couch seven years later.

Farley Piper

I may look aloof, but I’ve got a huge crush on her, and I’m trying to look cool.

Woof Woof

EASTER EGG HUNT for 3 Free Novellas

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 1 Comment

Would you like three free novellas for the price of one book?

Imajin Books has a gift for you.

If you read DESCENT and receive your free novellas, let me know. I’d be thrilled to find out which ones you win. Imajin Books loves a mystery, and even I don’t know which novellas are hidden in DESCENT.

easter brunch party

Enjoy.

Write Better Fiction: Point of View Goal and Plot

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Today on Write Better Fiction we’ll cover How the Point of View Scene Goal Relates to Overall Plot. Write Better Fiction is a process to help you critique your own manuscript and give yourself feedback. This will help you improve your novel, so you’re ready to submit it to an editor. Check the bottom of this post for links to previous Write Better Fiction articles.

The column in the spreadsheet has long title, and if you can think of a better one let me know.

This is column where I analyze both the internal and external goal of the point of view character.

Each scene has a point of view character. This character must have a goal for the scene. If there is no goal, then what is the character doing?

Let’s deal with the external goal first. This is the goal the reader is aware of.

Finding a murderer is Kalin’s main goal throughout DESCENT. She also has goals within each scene where she holds the point of view. In the opening scene her external goal is to go skiing. Her internal goal is to be good at her job.

The reader is shown Kalin wants to go skiing. She doesn’t achieve this goal because a skier falls and is terribly hurt. She has to put her own wants aside and deal with the situation. This is the start of Kalin’s journey of searching for a murderer. At the time she doesn’t know she is witness to a crime, she’s only thinking of taking care of the skier. The external goal of skiing places her on the hill at the time the skier falls.

Kalin’s internal goal is to be good at her job. In the opening scene, she doesn’t know yet this will involve chasing a murderer.

For each scene, think about how the POV character’s goal is related to the plot of the novel. If you don’t know the answer, perhaps the scene isn’t relevant to the story, or perhaps another character should have the POV for that scene.

Your scene may just need some updating. Can you strengthen the character’s goal? Is there a way to add a goal to the scene so it relates to the novel’s plot?

You can also use this column to check for consistency. Let’s say your character is a tea drinker, and you put the character’s scene goal as finding a cup of coffee. That should trigger you’ve made a mistake.

When you’ve finished the spreadsheet for each scene, you should be able to scan this column and find any entries that are weak.

Your challenge this week is to check the previous column for internal and external character goal and determine if that goal relates to the overall plot.

I critiqued DESCENT and BLAZE using the techniques I’m sharing in Write Better Fiction, and I believe this helped me sign with a publisher.

Descent & Blaze

Please me know in the comments below if you found this exercise challenging. Did it help you write a tighter scene?

Thanks for reading…

 

Mystery Mondays: Jessica Norrie on Friends in your Novel

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 3 Comments

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Mystery Mondays has been a fascinating experience for me. This week, our guest is Jessica Norrie, author of THE INFINITY POOL. I met Jessica through other author’s I’ve met on line, and now I have another book to read that I might not have heard about.

THE INFINITY POOL is Jessica’s debut novel. So let’s give Jessica a warm welcome.

Here is what she has to share with us.

 

“Your friends should know they’re fair game if you’re a writer.” By Jessica Norrie

So says a more established writer friend, with plays on the West End stage and on exam syllabuses, who runs workshops and appears on BBC culture programmes. I haven’t yet heard her comments on “The Infinity Pool”, which means she may not have recognised the at best quirky and at worst nasty detail that I shamelessly plucked from my first encounter with her. I hope that what seemed funny at the time, and has been commented on by many readers, will not spoil a friendship.

No such problem with the yoga teacher in my novel, “The Infinity Pool”. He’s everything a yoga teacher should be, wise, relaxed, humorous, fit and athletic, sympathetic, adaptable to different levels, sensible, stable, demanding to the point of stimulus but not stress, in command but without notions of hierarchy. Michael Stewart, who appears as Satnam in the book, I salute you! And anyone looking for a yoga teacher (although he gets around, last heard of in Mexico) should Google him. I thought I couldn’t have given a better testimonial – but then someone said he was “creepy”.

But what of the hero/antihero/semi hero? At the start of the story he’s attacked and left for dead; the mystery concerns how his disappearance affects others, why it happened, whodunnit, and whether that’s the end of him. He WAS based, to some extent, on someone I knew. Someone I didn’t think I liked, because I disapproved of him. I thought he manipulated people, dangerously, leading them to disclose inner thoughts and feelings too quickly for safe processing. Where a therapist might allocate months or even years, this guy had people unburdening themselves in two weeks, often getting very upset along the way. I changed his age, his appearance and manner, but it was essentially him and when  I thought I’d kill him, it may have come from my anger.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Strangely, as I progressed, I began to like him. I took his part, tried to present his actions more sympathetically – in fact I fell for him. I chose his shirts more carefully and paid attention to his footwear. I even came to agree with some of his ideas, though I still took my debunking responsibility seriously. He began to stand a chance of survival.

It’s surprising how far back one can go in selecting people on whom to model characters. Aged eighteen, I was in a class with two ravishing girls of Greek Cypriot origin, best friends who turned heads everywhere, but who, though attractively and sexily dressed, were always correct and traditional in their behaviour. I hardly knew these girls; they were pleasant but we moved in different circles and I was too in awe of their perfect looks to approach them much. One of them became Maria in the book, and yet I’m sure I hadn’t thought of her for thirty years until she turned up in my story.

Few people are all good or bad, in life or in good fiction. Ruby, Bernard, Megan and Chris are all composites of people I’ve known. I should apologise to “Ruby” for giving her an unattractive drink problem as well as generosity of spirit and an intriguing wardrobe; in the spirit of remorse I did try and redeem her. Bernard has origins in a man I once dated for a short while: grumpy, and superior but highly intelligent and actually quite warm and vulnerable under a pompous exterior. It’s quite fun to improve such characters as you go along, teaching them and yourself a lesson in the process.

I’m told I write a good location and the setting is of course itself a character. And this one IS a composite –loosely based on a place I holidayed in but with details changed and huge liberties taken. As soon as I arrived, I thought, what a great setting for a whodunit. But if it was really as poorly run, as ramshackle, as un health and safety conscious, as turbulent as I paint it, there would have been no story and they would not still be running highly praised “holistic breaks”. I’m keeping mum about the exact location, although anyone who’s been there will recognise it straight away. That’s just another small mystery for the other readers to solve.

The Infinity Pool:

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA
KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

“Adrian Hartman is the charismatic director of the Serendipity holiday community, set among pine trees on a sun-baked island. His job is to ensure the perfect mindful break, with personal growth and inner peace guaranteed. His guests return year after year to bare their souls. For some, Adrian IS Serendipity.

But this year Adrian isn’t there, and nobody knows the reason why. Things have changed: staff and guests are bewildered without their leader and the simmering hostility of the local villagers is beginning to boil over. Is the atmosphere of menace connected with Adrian’s absence? And will life on the island ever be the same again?

As romance turns sour and conflict threatens the stability of both communities, everyone has to find their own way to survive. This evocative novel explores the effect of well-intentioned tourism on a traditional community, and questions the real meaning of getting away from it all.”

Jessica’s Profile:

6x4 (3 of 8)Jessica Norrie was born in London and studied French Literature at the University of Sussex and Education at the University of Sheffield. She taught in Paris and Dijon, and in the UK has taught English, French and Spanish to age groups from 5 to 80 in almost every educational setting possible.

She took a break from teaching when her two children were small, to study for and work as a freelance translator. She has also published occasional journalism and collaborated on a Primary French textbook (“Célébrons les Fêtes”, with Jan Lewandowski, Scholastic 2009).

 

Jessica sings soprano with the Hackney Singers, and wherever else she gets the chance in the UK and abroad. Less publicly, she plays the piano – slow pieces suit her best as she needs lots of time to figure out the chords.

She is fascinated by languages and has worked hard to make language learning approachable and fun even for the most nervous students. But having always read voraciously, she would now prefer to concentrate on writing. “The Infinity Pool” is her first novel, drawing on many years of travel and encounters, and she already has several ideas for another.

Everything you need to know about Jessica you can find out below:

Amazon Canada (no Canadian reviews yet but for rather more go to Amazon.uk, Amazon.com, Audible.uk or for less favourable ones in the land where it sold best (?!) Amazon.au. I would LOVE some reviews in Canada or more in the US where it’s fair to say I haven’t yet made much impression on the market. However the Audible narrator, although Welsh, lives in Canada. In Australia II went to no 1 in Literary Fiction when on promo in September, but unfortunately Amazon classified it as Crime and I think readers were disappointed by the lack of psychopaths and general gore. It’s now been moved to Literary Fiction. If anyone would like to review it please contact me via my Facebook author page or witter Jessica Norrie – author:
https://www.facebook.com/Jessica-Norrie-1617940365158063/?ref=hl or by direct message on Twitter: @jessica_norrie.
Amazon Canada
Amazon Australia
Amazon India