Walking the dog

While I was writing my new novel, The Perfect Date, I gave it the working title The Dog Walker. Caz, the central character, is a professional dog walker, and it opens with her rescue dog discovering a body early one morning up on Brighton Racecourse.

She realises with horror that it's the man she met through a dating app, the Perfect Date she was due to see again that very evening. But worse – far worse – is that this is the second time this has happened to someone she was seeing. Is it a horrible coincidence? Or is there something else going on?

A love letter to Brighton

Here I am for the Royal Literary Fund, talking about setting and the sea, and particularly Brighton and how living here has inspired my writing and most particularly my first novel Cuckoo. I’m at 12 minutes in, but do give Amanda Mitchison’s wonderful piece on Coleridge a listen first. I’m a bit sweary, but hey, it’s about Brighton. What do you expect?

One Year, Two Books

The New Mother by Julia Crouch
The Daughters by Julia Crouch

How long does it take to write a novel?

My first book Cuckoo took me my entire life up to that point. The next three: Every Vow You Break, Tarnished and The Long Fall took me a year each. The fifth, her Husband’s Lover, thanks to a false start, took two years. Then the sixth took four years to write. Indeed, it needs another draft, which I will attend to soon, but I don’t want to talk about that now.… read more

The New Mother

How to turn your obsession into justifiable research…

Over the past year I have been looking at a lot more social media than usual. But it’s OK. It’s research!

Like many people, I have a low-level addiction Instagram, twitter and Facebook. I love the way they help me keep in touch with far-flung friends, and, as a writer with a background in illustration, I particularly relish the visual storytelling opportunities they offer.

But, as with all good things (see also cake and alcohol), too much social media can, of course, be damaging both for the user and the creator.… read more

Life Intervenes…

I used to keep this blog pretty regularly, but have not updated it for a long time. It’s not that I’ve run out of things to say – as if – more that there has been a lot of life stuff going on – and quite enough writing going on elsewhere.

However, if you have a look, there are some good bits here. And who knows, perhaps the life stuff will calm down, and there will be more time, space and spirit for more blog-writing.… read more

Teaching News, and Ten Mistakes all Crime Writers should Avoid

On  Friday 19 May, I will be guest novelist tutor on the Professional Writing Academy Secrets of Writing Successful Crime Fiction workshop, which is being held in Bristol as part of Crimefest.

Led by Tom Bromley, a fellow tutor at the Faber Academy Online, this practical workshop is for aspiring crime writers seeking to unlock the secrets of successful crime fiction and start developing original ideas. Through close readings of key texts and writers, practical writing exercises and guided discussion with the tutor guest author, this course will give you a grounding in some of the core elements that make crime fiction work.… read more

Her Husband’s Lover – only 99p

99pkindle

Her Husband’s Lover is now only 99p in the Kindle Spring Sale.

It’s been getting fantastic reviews by bloggersother writers, and in the press. And, among the many five-star Amazon reviews, the headlines have been: ‘Brilliant!’ ‘Amazing’ ‘Unputdownable’ ‘Domestic drama with a social conscience’. The one one-star review headline is ‘Hard work’. Still, you can’t win them all.

Buy it and find out why, or sign up to my newsletter and download a free sampler of the first chapters.… read more

A Sense of Place

Reuben Powell Claydon House Heygate Estate

Claydon House, Heygate Estate, by Reuben Powell. For more of his work, go to Hotel Elephant http://hotelelephantgallery.blogspot.co.uk/

When I’m thinking of a new story, I usually start with a ‘what if’ question – what if you couldn’t remember parts of your childhood? (Tarnished) ‘What if, sixteen years down the line, you bumped into the man you nearly left your husband for (indeed, your own personal ‘what if’) and you still had that deep chemistry thing going on?’… read more

The Write Songs on Radio Reverb

Here is the full programme I recorded with Gilly Smith a few weeks ago. For more information on the songs I chose, please see yesterday’s post. For the playlist without the chat, go to Monday’s post.

For more Write Songs episodes, with fantastic writers such as Mick Jackson, Sharon Duggal, Mark Chase, Jed Novick, William Shaw, Rebecca Whitney, Sally O’Reilly and Mark Radcliffe, please visit Gilly Smith on Soundcloud.