1. My first question is regarding your African series, and your main protagonist, Amy. How has Amy’s life developed? Did you leave her in Africa or has she moved to another country?
In total I’ve written 5 books in the series, and I’m not sure that I’ll write another as Africa is a melting pot right now. Amie remained in Togodo, my mythical African country and I guess she’ll stay there. She did say she was totally fed up with me and was quite happy if I left her alone. I’ll see how vicious I feel on an off day!
I have moved to a different genre – psychological thrillers. I’m well into my third book and the “A Year in the Life” series. By the time you publish this it should be with the editor and the beta readers. The first 2 books are set in UK and for the third, I’ve taken my main character Leah to the south of France – I thought she needed some sunshine, although she has complained it’s colder there in winter than she was expecting. I’m sad to say I’ve not been any kinder to her than I was to Amie, but that’s the chances you take when your author creates you, isn’t it?
It is and isn’t a change – in my writing career I wrote on subjects as diverse as ‘how they make potato crisps’, ‘climbing a ladder safely’, ‘hydroelectric dams’, ‘an interview with Julius Caesar’, and ‘how to split the atom’ – a range of subjects far too long to include here. Why did I do it? Psychological thrillers are popular at the moment and I was hoping to expand my reader base. They are modern day thrillers, not a zombie or werewolf in sight!
Joan, you are the expert here and I don’t know enough about the Spanish psyche to do them justice. Sam, one of the Amie back stories, has a disastrous holiday near Benidorm, but that is as far as I’ve got. I read a lot about Spain when we first moved here and Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett, and that was amazing. I also enjoy your books too.
I have contributed stories to I think 7 books to raise funds for charities, Macmillan Cancer, a cat sanctuary, clothing for business interviews and a few others I can’t remember now – I contributed stories written alone so I can’t say I have exactly co-authored.
The working title is “A Year in the Life of Deidre ???” and we meet up with Leah Brand again, together with Deidre we met in book 1 and her nightmare of a stepdaughter Belinda. This teenager has become a minor celebrity so I had to give her a bigger part – though it’s hard to write about a teen without all the swear words. The family past has not let go and once again their lives are threatened – an old link up to gangland London.
As they say, thank you for having me Joan – I’ve always thought that is a silly phrase, but I do mean it.
I guess I would like to add that writing a full length book is a much bigger task than writing an hour long television script. If you had told me in 2013 when I published my first autobiography “Walking over Eggshells,” that 7 years later I would be scribbling book 15 I would never have believed you.
I get very cumbersome updating the info every time I bring a new one out. It’s the marketing that defeats me. I know how, but I simply hate it.
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