My Typical Writing Day by Michelle Davies - Blog Tour

I am delighted to welcome Michelle Davies to my blog today talking about her 'typical writing day', as part of her blog tour.  Michelle's book Gone Astray is published in paperback by Pan Macmillan today (20 October 2016).

My typical writing day

By Michelle Davies

The title of this blog post is a bit of an oxymoron because, in my world, there is no such thing as a typical writing day!

My day job is that of a journalist – I write features for women’s magazines such as Marie Claire and Stylist and I also do copywriting for some high street retailers. So my writing day usually depends on what freelance commissions I’ve got on the go and which looming deadline must be met first.

Being an author has to fit around my day job, so I am – for want of a better description – a ‘binge writer’ when it comes to novels. I usually spend two or three weeks working flat-out on my book, then stop and go back to the day job when the work demands it.

But when I’m in a novel phase, so to speak, my writing day is pretty consistent. First I drop my daughter off at school around 8.50am – luckily for me, her school is on our street so our commute is about a minute on a good day, two minutes if we’re dawdling! Then I’m at my desk at 9am, ready to start.

I’ll have a quick read of what I’ve worked on the previous day but I refrain from tinkering with it too much; I edited Gone Astray as I went along, which I now realise made the process much more drawn out than it needed to be. With my second novel, Wrong Place, out on 27 February, I bashed out the first draft in six months, then got stuck into editing it.

I tend to write until about noon when I break for lunch, which is usually a sandwich in front of the telly watching an episode of Friends – I find it gives my brain the break it needs! Then I write for another couple of hours before my daughter needs collecting from school at 3.30pm. If I’m in the mood, I’ll carry on while she’s in bed, but the reason I went freelance in the first place was to spend more time with her, so I make sure my writing fits around her, not the other way round.

Thank you for hosting me on my first ever blog tour and for supporting Gone Astray. I hope you enjoy the book!

About Michelle Davies

Michelle Davies is a freelance journalist, having worked in house on magazines including Elle, heat magazine, and Grazia. She now writes for lots of different magazines, including Marie Claire and Stylist, on lots of different subjects, in between writing novels.

Find out more about Michelle on her website and also on Twitter - @M_Davieswrites

Going Astray

By Michelle Davies

Published in paperback by Pan Macmillan (20 October 2016)

ISBN: 978-1447284185

Publisher's description

Lesley and her husband Mack are the sudden winners of a £15 million EuroMillions jackpot. They move with their 15-year-old daughter Rosie to an exclusive gated estate in Buckinghamshire, leaving behind their ordinary lives - and friends - as they are catapulted into wealth beyond their wildest dreams.

But it soon turns into their darkest nightmare when, one beautiful spring afternoon, Lesley returns to their house to find it empty: their daughter Rosie is gone.

DC Maggie Neville is assigned to be Family Liaison Officer to Lesley and Mack, supporting them while quietly trying to investigate the family. And she has a crisis threatening her own life - a secret from the past that could shatter everything she's worked so hard to build.

As Lesley and Maggie desperately try to find Rosie, their fates hurtle together on a collision course that threatens to end in tragedy . . .

Money can't buy you happiness.

The truth could hurt more than a lie.

One moment really can change your life forever.

Read my review here

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AUTHOR IN THE SPOTLIGHT - Anna Mazzola - The Unseeing Blog Tour

I am delighted that ANNA MAZZOLA is my Author in the Spotlight today for her Blog Tour. The Unseeing is being published by Tinder Press on 14 July 2016. 

What inspired you to write The Unseeing, a crime novel set in the 19th century?

I first heard about James Greenacre and the murder of Hannah Brown in the Suspicions of Mr Whicher. The crime is mentioned only briefly, but seized my attention as it took place in Camberwell, not far from where I live. However, when I read the Old Bailey transcript, I realized this was Sarah Gale’s story. She was accused of helping Greenacre to conceal the horrific murder of another woman and yet she said virtually nothing throughout the entire trial. Given she was facing the death sentence, I thought that was very strange. What was really going on?

How easy has it been to research Victorian London and make your book as authentic as possible?

The research was the easy (and fun) part. The difficult bit was knowing when to stop. I spent over a year researching Sarah Gale, the Edgware Road murder, London in the 19th century, the status of women, criminal justice, prisons, Victorian foods, education in the Regency era. Really, I should have just written the darned book and then filled in the gaps, which is what I’m doing with my second: broad research, first draft, more detailed research. It helps, of course, that I have a deadline.

The Unseeing is based on the case of Sarah Gale, who was sentenced to hang for her role in the murder of another young woman. How close to ‘real life’ are the details in The Unseeing and how much ‘creative licence’ have you used?

As I say in the historical note to the book, I’ve used lots of real details from the case and all of the newspaper clippings that appear within The Unseeing are genuine. However, I ended up having to diverge from the case in some key respects in order to produce a narrative that anyone other than a legal historian would actually want to read. I found that hard. I’m used to working with real cases where facts are all-important, so it was difficult for me to accept that I had to let go of factual accuracy in order to achieve a different kind of narrative truth.  It’s part of the reason that one of the key themes of The Unseeing is truth and deception.

How has your background as criminal justice solicitor influenced your fiction writing?

I suppose it was because of my interest in justice and, in particular, justice for women, that I became fascinated by this particular story, and why it plays out as it does. I’m interested in how the criminal justice system treats vulnerable people and victims of crime, and how a criminal charge affects people’s lives, whether they’re acquitted or convicted, so those aspects feature in The Unseeing. However, I can’t say that my legal knowledge was directly relevant to the book. Whatever we think of the British justice system, we’ve come a long way from the early Victorian era!

Your next book, which you’re working on at present, is also set in the 19th century. What can you tell me about this book? And would you consider writing a book set in the modern day?

Yes, I’m currently writing my second historical crime novel, which is set on the Isle of Skye in 1857. It’s about a young woman who goes to work for a collector of folklore and discovers that a young girl has gone missing, supposedly taken by spirits, although of course that’s not what she believes. Again, the idea was sparked by a real case, but I haven’t tried to base it on the case in the same way that I did with The Unseeing.

I’d really like to write something set in the 1930s or 40s next. And yes, I would certainly consider writing a book set in the modern era (indeed, I had an idea for a one a while ago) but I’m sticking with historical fiction for a while yet. Quite keen to escape modern Britain at the moment.

Describe your writing style in 10 words or less?

Unsettling, unflowery, unpretentious, uncompromising, under required word count.

Looking back to your teenage years, what advice would you give your younger self?

Go to lectures instead of the bar. Worry about money later and go travelling. I wish I’d seen more of the world before I started my career.

If you were writing a book about your own life, what would the title be?

At the moment? ‘101 Blog Pieces’. Or perhaps ‘In Search of Lost Time’. 

What advice do you have for aspiring authors?

Don’t wait for the right conditions or the right time. There will never be the right time and there will always be things to do that seem more pressing than writing. Write now, whenever you can, even if it’s only for twenty minutes a day on your commute or during your lunch hour. It will be more than a lot of people manage and it’s the only way you’ll get anywhere.

And lastly, why should people read The Unseeing?

Because you told everyone it was great. And other people seem to like it too. That’s far better than me plugging my own book as I’m obviously extremely biased.

Thanks so much for having me on the blog!

About Anna Mazzola

Anna Mazzola is a writer of historical crime fiction. Her debut novel, The Unseeing, will be published on 14 July 2016 (February 2017 in the US).

The Unseeing is based on the life of a real woman called Sarah Gale who was convicted of aiding a murder in London in 1837. The novel has already won several competitions and Anna came runner up in the 2014 Grazia First Chapter competition judged by Sarah Waters.

Anna has also written and published several short stories. She is currently working on a second historical crime novel about a collector of folklore and fairy tales on the Isle of Skye in 1857.

Anna studied English at Pembroke College, Oxford, before becoming a criminal justice solicitor. She began writing after taking a creative writing course with Literary Kitchen and later attended the Novel Studio at City University.

She lives in Camberwell, South London, with two small children, two cats, one husband and a lot of books.

Find out more about Anna on her website and follow Anna on Twitter - @Anna_Mazz

The Unseeing
By Anna Mazzola
Published by Tinder Press (14 July 2016)
ISBN: 978-1472234735

Publisher's description

Set in London in 1837, Anna Mazzola's THE UNSEEING is the story of Sarah Gale, a seamstress and mother, sentenced to hang for her role in the murder of Hannah Brown on the eve of her wedding. Perfect for any reader of Sarah Waters or Antonia Hodgson.

After Sarah petitions for mercy, Edmund Fleetwood is appointed to investigate and consider whether justice has been done. Idealistic, but struggling with his own demons, Edmund is determined to seek out the truth. Yet Sarah refuses to help him, neither lying nor adding anything to the evidence gathered in court. Edmund knows she's hiding something, but needs to discover just why she's maintaining her silence. For how can it be that someone would willingly go to their own death?

Read my review here

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Journey to Publication by Wendy Walker, author of All Is Not Forgotten

I'm delighted to welcome Wendy Walker to my blog today to talk about her journey to publication. All Is Not Forgotten is being published by HQ Stories next week. 

Journey to Publication

By Wendy Walker

After I had my first son eighteen years ago, I decided to stay home to raise my children until they were all in school. I felt lucky to be able to do that and so I took the job very seriously! But after about a year, I started to feel unfulfilled so I started to write whenever I had free time (which was not very often!). I had two more children in five years and all the while I kept writing. I even wrote in the back of my minivan while waiting for them at pre-school! I felt like a time scavenger, especially after I found an agent who thought she could sell my work. Of course, life is never that straight forward! It was a long road and 17 years getting to the writing and publication of All Is Not Forgotten. During that time, I published other novels, edited, and eventually went back to work as a lawyer (after 14 years away from the field). The work I found was in the area of family law and it was a wonderful fit for my life experience. I practiced for five years, eventually opening up my own practice, which focuses on consulting.

My first two published novels were called Four Wives (2008) and Social Lives (2009). These books involved stories of women in wealthy suburbs struggling with their identities, marriages, children, and former lives. I have lived in suburban Connecticut most of my life, both as a child and a grown woman, and I find it fascinating! Here, many women quit their highly skilled jobs to take care of homes and families while their husbands work long hours and travel for jobs in finance. This always made me think about Betty Friedan and her seminal work, The Feminine Mystique. I built my plots around these themes of economic dependency and the division of labor within families where both partners are highly skilled and educated.

After I started practicing law again, I never gave up the dream of making a career as a writer. I used to tell my boys that it was important to always have a dream, but to also be responsible. I did not stop working as a lawyer. But I also managed to keep writing! I signed with a new agent and she loved the concept of a psychological thriller based on memory science, an idea I came up with nearly five years earlier but never got around to writing. I was a bit nervous about writing in a new genre, but I had always enjoyed reading suspense and thrillers and I was very interested in this story concept. So I dusted it off and wrote All Is Not Forgotten.  It was great advice and I am so glad that my children may get to see my dream come true (fingers crossed) so that they will believe what I told them about having dreams and never giving up – even if you have to keep your day job!

I am currently writing almost full time- but my doors are open and I still have a few clients. I just finished a draft of a new psychological thriller and am working on revisions.

About Wendy Walker

Wendy Walker has worked as an attorney specializing in family law. She lives in Connecticut where she is at work on her next novel.

Visit Wendy's website to learn more or follow her on Twitter.

Follow @HQStories and #NotForgotten on Twitter.

All Is Not Forgotten
By Wendy Walker
Published by HQ Stories  (E-book - 12 July 2016; Hardback - 14 July 2016)
ISBN: 978-1785770524

Publisher's description

You can erase the memory. But you cannot erase the crime.

Jenny’s wounds have healed.

An experimental treatment has removed the memory of a horrific and degrading attack.

She is moving on with her life.

That was the plan. Except it’s not working out.

Something has gone. The light in the eyes. And something was left behind. A scar. On her lower back. Which she can’t stop touching.

And she’s getting worse.

Not to mention the fact that her father is obsessed with finding her attacker and her mother is in toxic denial.

It may be that the only way to uncover what’s wrong is to help Jenny recover her memory. But even if it can be done, pulling at the threads of her suppressed experience will unravel much more than the truth about her attack.

And that could destroy as much as it heals.

Click here to read my review.

Follow the Blog Tour, starting on 14 July 2016