Close To Home .... Paula Martin

As a book reviewer I have made contact with authors from all across the globe and feel immensely privileged to be able to share some amazing work. However, there is always something rather special when a book comes to my attention which has been written by an author in my part of the North of England. So with this in mind I have great pleasure in featuring some of those authors who are literally close to my home. Over the next few Saturdays, and hopefully beyond, I will be sharing the work of a very talented bunch of Northern authors and discovering just what being a Northerner means to them both in terms of inspiration and also in their writing.

Today I welcome North West Author

Paula Martin

Tell us a little about yourself and what got you started as an author?


I’ve written stories for as long as I can remember, starting with school stories inspired by Enid Blyton’s ‘Malory Towers’ books, and progressing to cheesy romance stories to entertain my friends in our teens. In my twenties, I started submitting short stories to magazines, and had my first novel accepted by Mills and Boon, with a contract for two more. A fourth novel was published by Robert Hale. Then ‘real life’ got in the way, with a young family, and a career as a High School history teacher. Once I retired, I eventually returned to writing fiction and have had eight novels published since 2011.


As a writer based in the North West, does this present any problems in terms of marketing and promoting your books and if so, how do you overcome them?


Most promotion and marketing these days is done online, so geographical location is less important than it used to be. Although I’m a full member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, I’ve not really been involved in their meetings, apart from attending a weekend conference in Penrith a few years ago. The local (Manchester) chapter of the RNA seems to be defunct, and most other RNA meetings are in London. As I have mobility problems, getting to and around London is not easy for me!


Whilst your novels are not set in the North West however, I wonder do the people and its landscape shape your stories in any way?


wo of my novels are, in fact, set in the North West, one in the heart of the Lake District, and another on the outskirts. I know the Lake District well, having had a caravan there for over twenty years, so hopefully I’ve been able to give my readers a glimpse of the beautiful lakes and mountains of that area. Anyone who knows the Lakes will probably recognise the village in ‘Fragrance of Violets’ even though I have given it a different name (and moved some of the buildings around!), and there are no prizes for guessing that the town of Kenton in ‘Changing the Future’ is my name for Kendal!

If you were pitching the North West as an ideal place to live, work and write – how would you sell it and what makes it so special?

I’ve lived in the North West all my life, and love it. There’s something for everyone – large cities for shopping, seaside resorts for fun, the Lake District for all kinds of outdoor pursuits, the gentler but no less attractive landscape of the Trough of Bowland, and the attractive country villages dotted around the farmlands of central Lancashire.

As an historian by profession, I’ve always been interested in the history of this area, which played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution in England in the 18th and 19th centuries. There are many excellent museums, some in buildings which were originally spinning or weaving mills, as well as several beautiful stately homes dating from Medieval and Tudor times, and, of course, Pendle Witch country around the brooding Pendle Hill. One day I may get around to writing an historical novel, set in one of the east Lancashire towns where some of my ancestors lived and worked in the cotton mills in the 19th century.

Writing is a solitary business - how do you interact with other authors?

For me, it’s mainly online interaction, and I have developed many online friendships with other writers. I’ve also met with several other North West authors during the past few years, including frequent meetings with two other writers, one from West Lancashire (near Ormskirk) and the other from (ssh!) the other side of the Pennines! We usually meet up at Costa at the Trafford Centre, and talk non-stop for several hours!

I’m also a member of a writers’ blog, to which four of us (3 Americans and me!) contribute a blog each week about some aspect of writing or marketing.

(http://heroineswithhearts.blogspot.co.uk/)

How supportive are local communities to your writing, and are there ever any opportunities for book shops, local reading groups, or libraries to be involved in promoting your work?

I haven’t had any success in obtaining book-signing opportunities apart from one occasion. Sadly, neither my local ‘indie’ book shop or local library are interested in local authors, even though I have offered to give a talk or run a writing workshop. I’m very envious of writers who receive support from their bookshops and/or libraries. However, I have given numerous ‘talks’ to local groups – Townswomen’s Guild, University of the Third Age, Rotary Club, a reading group, and various women’s groups – and I’m always on the lookout for more opportunities to do this.

And finally, if someone is new to your work, which book do you think they should start with?

If they like the Lake District, then I hope they would enjoy ‘Fragrance of Violets’. However, my best selling books have been those set in Ireland, which have attracted many American readers, as well as British readers. The first of these, ‘Irish Inheritance’ was written as a stand-alone novel, as I had no intention of writing a series, until my publisher suggested I should write a spin-off story. So ‘Irish Intrigue’ and ‘Irish Secrets’ followed as the ‘Mist Na Mara’ series, set in Connemara in the west of Ireland. I’m currently writing my 4th Irish book – but I’m sure I’ll eventually return to the North West as the setting for a novel

You can find details of all Paula's books on her website: Click here 

Follow on Twitter @PaulaRomances

Huge thanks to Paula for her guest post today 



and for sharing with us just what living and writing in the North West means to her.



Coming next week : Northern Writer, Martin Edwards




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Blog Tour ~ The Bone Field by Simon Kernick

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host today's stop on The Bone Field Blog Tour

The Bone Field is a riveting new thriller which presents a terrifying world of corruption and deadly secrets, where murder is commonplace and nobody is safe.

When the bones of a young woman, Kitty Sinn, who went missing without trace in Thailand in 1990, are discovered in the grounds of a school just outside London, an enduring mystery takes on a whole new twist. Kitty's boyfriend at the time, and the man who reported her missing, comes forward to reveal to DI Ray Mason, of the Met's Homicide Command, that he knows what happened to Kitty and who killed her. But soon he too has been shot dead.

Now the only link to Kitty lies 500 miles away in the Bordeaux countryside where a middle-aged teacher, Charlotte Curtis, lives alone. But Charlotte is in terrible danger, she possesses a single piece of information that will blow Kitty's case wide open. What follows is a desperate hunt for that truth, and with the help of private investigator Tina Boyd, Ray is immersed in a twisted underworld of trafficking, exploitation and pure evil, unlike anything either of them have experienced before.  

Century
12 January 2017

I  am really thrilled to be able to share this character profile for one of the lead characters in The Bone Field ~ Private Investigator Tina Boyd plays a pivotal role in the book.

CHARACTER BIOGRAPHIES. TINA BOYD.

TINA BOYD CV.

Full name: Tina Katherine Boyd 

Born: Southampton, Hampshire. February 1976. One sibling. Brother.

Education: Amery Hill School Alton Hampshire 1987-1992. 

Alton College, Alton Hampshire. 1992-1994.

Swansea University Geography BA hons 2.1 1994-1997

1997-1999 Gap years travelling and working in South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and USA. 

Marital Status: Never married.

Children: None.

CAREER

1999-2013 Metropolitan Police Service.

1999-2001 Uniform Islington Police Station

2001-2006 Islington CID

2006-2007 Resigned and outside the Met

2007-2008 Serious and Organized Crime Agency

2008-2009 Islington CID

2009-2011 DI in Camden Murder Investigation Team

2011-12 Fired from her position and outside the Met. 

2012-13 Reinstated. DC Westminster CID

2013 to present. Licensed private detective based out of Paddington, London.

Nicknamed The Black Widow, because of the way her colleagues in the police force had a way of dying around her, Tina Boyd has had a chequered career in the Metropolitan Police. On the one hand, she’s been directly involved in solving a number of high-profile cases, including the Emma Devern kidnapping (2008) and the Night Creeper serial killings (2010). And of the 39 major investigations she was a part of, or led, between 2001 and 2011, the clear-up rate was 100 percent, making her one of the most successful detectives the Met has ever seen. She’s also been wounded twice in the line of duty – once when she was held hostage by a wanted gangster, Trevor Murk, in 2004, and the second time when she was kidnapped and shot by a former IRA terrorist, Michael Killen (aka Hook). At the same time, Tina’s been the recipient of three separate bravery awards, so she’s not a woman to be trifled with. 

However, controversy’s followed her round her whole career. She’s killed a total of four suspects (although the police only know about three of them). To add fuel to the fire one of those killings was carried out when she was a civilian. Because of the extenuating circumstances surrounding the killings, she’s always avoided prosecution, but is still the only officer in the history of the Met to have been fired and reinstated, not just once but twice. In 2013, she finally burned her bridges for the last time and left the Force to become a private detective. 

For the last two years things have been comparatively quiet for Tina but, as The Bone Field starts, that’s all about to change. 

My thoughts about The Bone Field...

The one thing always guaranteed with a Simon Kernick novel is that within the story there will never be a dull moment, and that most certainly applies to The Bone Field which starts in Thailand with the mysterious disappearance in 1990 of Kitty Sinn. The consequences of Kitty’s disappearance will infiltrate the rest of the story until what is uncovered is an underground web of lies and deceit which have deadly consequences,  not just for those who seek to cover their tracks, but also for those investigators who are hell bent on getting to grips with this complicated mystery.

The Bone Field is one of those intriguing novels that surreptitiously gets under your skin, so that you carry the story around with you, always trying to keep one step ahead of the action and at times unwilling to put the book down for fear of missing something. I enjoyed piecing all the clues together, and believe me there are many pieces of the puzzle to set into place. All is done with the author’s characteristic fine attention to detail and his clever ability to keep the action going at non-stop speed. 

The start of any new series is a process of getting to know the characters who will form the backdrop for much of the action, and in this case we need to focus our attention on the lead investigator Ray Mason an enigmatic protagonist who has had more than his fair share of tragedy, but whose resilience and maverick approach to investigating guarantees that he will never take the easy route. His relationship with private investigator Tina Boyd is rather more complicated which makes it all the more interesting to figure out just where the story will take them as both are multifaceted individuals with their own complex agendas.

The Bone Field starts a new venture for the author as this is his first series of crime novels but with protagonists DI Ray Mason and PI Tina Boyd on board for the duration, I am sure that there will never, as I said at first, be a dull moment for either of them, or us !

Best Read with...A Thai green curry and  an ice cold bottle of Singha Beer..

About the Author

Visit the author's publisher website by clicking here

Follow on Twitter @simonkernick

My thanks to the author for providing this character profile and also to Sam at Penguin Random House for the invitation to be part of this blog tour.

The Bone Field Blog Tour runs between 5th -12th January.

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Review ~ Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard

Corvus
2017

**Out now in paperback **

Did she leave or was she taken?

A bit of blurb...

The day Adam Dunne's girlfriend, Sarah, fails to return from a Barcelona business trip, his perfect life begins to fall apart. Days later, the arrival of her passport and a note that reads 'I'm sorry - S' sets off real alarm bells. He vows to do whatever it takes to find her. 

Adam is puzzled when he connects Sarah to a cruise ship called the Celebrate - and to a woman, Estelle, who disappeared from the same ship in eerily similar circumstances almost exactly a year before. 

To get the answers, Adam must confront some difficult truths about his relationship with Sarah. He must do things of which he never thought himself capable. And he must try to outwit a predator who seems to have found the perfect hunting ground.

My thoughts about the book...

Distress Signals grabs your attention from the very start of the story and before you know it you have read several pages without ever being distracted by outside life. The disappearance of Adam Dunne's girlfriend Sarah is handled with such realism that you can't help but be drawn emotionally into his search for the girl he loves, and even though you suspect that it isn't going to be an easy journey for Adam, you can't help but invest so strongly in the story that you want everything to work well out for him. Whether it does, or not, remains to be discovered amongst the clever pages of this psychological thriller which grabs you from the first and doesn't let up on the action until the book is completed.

There is much to be discovered in this multilayered story, not just that of Adam's anguished search for his missing girlfriend but also of the interaction between the other lead characters who add depth and meaning to the overall psychological effect. I particularly enjoyed the parallel story which runs alongside that of Adam's search for Sarah, and at first I wondered where this story would lead but I enjoyed the clever twist when all was revealed. 

If you like well thought out psychological thrillers then Distress Signals is most certainly one that ticks all the right boxes. I would say that it's perfect holiday reading but maybe not if you plan to cruise the Mediterranean any time soon. 

Best Read With...One of those fancy cruise ship cocktails and a bowl of salted almonds...

About the Author

Visit the author's website by clicking here

Follow on Twitter @cathryanhoward

Thanks to Corvus Books for my review copy of Distress Signals

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Blog Tour ~ The Alibi by Jaime Raven

 Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting


Day One of The Alibi Blog Tour 


with a guest post from the author

Jaime Raven

My worst New Year hangover

Guest post by Jaime Raven, author of The Alibi

‘You need a convincing alibi, Jaime,’ my friend Megan said to me. ‘Otherwise you’re going to be in the doghouse for months.’

It was New Year ’s Day a few years ago and I’d woken up on the floor of her bedroom. I had the mother of all hangovers, and my head was pounding like a drum. 

I knew I was going to be in trouble because I wasn’t where I should have been – which was at home in my own bed. Instead I was two miles away in my friend’s flat trying to remember why I’d ended up there. It took a while for the memories to filter through the fog in my brain. 

My partner and I were staging a New Year’s Eve party at our house in Southampton. My own daughters were going to be there along with some of our pals. Everyone knew I’d be late because I was travelling back from London.

And everything was going swimmingly until I met my old mate Megan on the train. She told me how miserable she was because she’d just got divorced and this was her first New Year’s Eve by herself.

I invited her to the party but she said she was too sad to mix with other people. But she wanted me to have a drink with her.

Well one drink led to another and then another. We ended up visiting three pubs and I got so smashed that I didn’t make it to the party.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I decided to lie through my teeth and tell my partner that I met Megan on the train and she was so distressed that I didn’t want to leave her alone. So I went to her flat and we shared a bottle of wine and lost track of time. Before I knew it we both fell asleep. 

But the hole I had already dug for myself got a lot deeper as soon as I called home and belted out my fake alibi. 

What I should have done was check the phone first because then I would have seen the photos I’d sent to my partner throughout the previous evening. There were a couple of ghastly selfies, Megan and I welcoming in the New Year with paper hats on our heads, and Megan being sick in the gutter. 

Not to mention the text messages I’d fired off in my drunken state: ‘I love you honey,’ ‘It’s too late to come home,’ ‘Tell everyone I’m sorry,’ ‘Please forgive me,’ ‘Promise I’ll make it up to you,’ ‘Happy nude year!’

Needless to say I had no recollection of sending any of them or of ignoring phone calls from my partner, my daughters and my friends.

Oops!

Thankfully my partner saw the funny side of it and we went on to get married two years later. But ever since then I’ve been on my best behaviour on New Year’s Eve and I always avoid drinking too much.

About the Book...

Crime reporter Beth Chambers is committed to uncovering the truth – and she’s not afraid of bending the rules to get there. When troubled soap star Megan Fuller is found stabbed to death in her South London home, all eyes are on her ex-husband – the notorious gangster, Danny Shapiro. 

Determined to expose Danny as a cold-blooded killer, Beth obsessively pursues him. But in her hunt for the truth, her family are set to pay the ultimate price… 

Secrets, lies and revenge brim to the top in this gritty thriller. 

Perfect for fans of Martina Cole and Kimberley Chambers.

Published December 2016 by Avon Books

Follow on Twitter #WhatsYourAlibi?

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Review ~ The Watcher by Ross Armstrong

Published by HQ
January 2017

She’s watching you, but who’s watching her?

A bit of blurb...

Lily Gullick lives with her husband Aiden in a new-build flat opposite an estate which has been marked for demolition. A keen birdwatcher, she can’t help spying on her neighbours.

Until one day Lily sees something suspicious through her binoculars and soon her elderly neighbour Jean is found dead. Lily, intrigued by the social divide in her local area as it becomes increasingly gentrified, knows that she has to act. But her interference is not going unnoticed, and as she starts to get close to the truth, her own life comes under threat.

My Thoughts...

Lily Gullick and her husband Aiden live in a fancy new build directly opposite a London estate which is being demolished and redeveloped. A keen bird watcher, Lily can't help but watch and record the minutiae of people's lives but as the watcher watches, so the watcher also becomes the watched.

As a debut novel, The Watcher is accomplished and cleverly written. It is obvious that a great deal of thought has gone into the narrative in order to make it stand out and be different. The dark and complicated nature of the mystery at the heart of the story takes a little getting used too, as does the snappy sentence construction and shortish chapters, but, after about a third of the way into the book, and once I got used to way the story was evolving, the whole thing became much more interesting.

Throughout the story a tangled web of intrigue is woven, and therein lies the overall strength of the novel. The Watcher aims to be different, and I think that the author has succeeded in ensuring that the book has a sinister edginess which is engendered by the air of unreliability that surrounds Lily in her role as narrator.

The Watcher may not be to everyone’s taste, but if you're looking for something darkly different then it's worth giving this book a try.

Best read with ....Eggs Florentine and a pot of Earl Grey tea..

About the Author

Ross Armstrong is an actor and writer based in North London.He has performed on stage with the RSC as well as numerous TV appearances. The Watcher is his debut novel.

Follow on Twitter @Rarmstrongbooks

My thanks to HQ for my copy of this book

Review ~ First of the Tudors by Joanna Hickson

Harper Collins
December 2016

The book blurb..

Jasper Tudor, son of Queen Catherine and her second husband, Owen Tudor, has grown up far from the intrigue of the royal court. But after he and his brother Edmund are summoned to London, their half-brother, King Henry VI, takes a keen interest in their future.

Bestowing Earldoms on them both, Henry also gives them the wardship of the young heiress Margaret Beaufort. Although she is still a child, Jasper becomes devoted to her and is devastated when Henry arranges her betrothal to Edmund.

He seeks solace in his estates and in the arms of Jane Hywel, a young Welsh woman who offers him something more meaningful than a dynastic marriage. But passion turns to jeopardy for them both as the Wars of the Roses wreak havoc on the realm. Loyal brother to a fragile king and his domineering queen, Marguerite of Anjou, Jasper must draw on all his guile and courage to preserve their throne − and the Tudor destiny.

My thoughts about the book..

Living in the shadow of the royal court was both fragile and unpredictable, and for Edmund and Jasper Tudor, the half-brothers to the king of England, their time in the spotlight was dangerous but also the opportunity for great advancement. However, the Tudor brothers find out to their cost that spending time at one of the most capricious court in Europe can be treacherous. The internal politics of the time is well explained as is the relationship between the king and his feisty wife, Queen Margaret of Anjou.

Jasper Tudor has always been something of an enigmatic figure, often overshadowed by the relationship of his older brother Edmund, whose ill-fated marriage to Margaret Beaufort resulted in the birth of Henry Tudor, and yet, Jasper was the one who was charged with the protection of Henry Tudor when things went so badly wrong for the Lancastrians.

I enjoyed the story very much. The author has a nice way of making history very readable and infuses her characters with such warmth that they become very real in the imagination. I liked the way that the major characters were given their own voice thus allowing the different strands of the story to evolve gradually. There is a good sense of history throughout, and time and place is captured perfectly. The inclusion of a romantic element into the story allowed Jasper Tudor to become more of a rounded character and gave an interesting insight into the important Welsh aspect of the Tudor story.

First of the Tudors is the start of a new series of novels by this author, which looks at the continuation of the Tudors, with Henry Tudor’s story to follow in due course.

Best Read With....Chunks of roasted boar and a goblet of fine French wine...

About the author

More about Joanna can be found by clicking here

Find on Facebook 

Follow on Twitter @joannahickson

Read an interview with the author by clicking here

My thanks to Harper Collins for my copy of First of the Tudors

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Sunday WW1 Remembered ..

The winter of 1917 was particularly cold for those soldiers stationed on the Western Front

Arriving at their destination

Photographer
John Warwick Brooke

Infantry marching in the snow

Photographer
John Warwick Brooke

A halt on their way to the Trenches

Photographer
John Warwick Brooke

Bringing in a log for their camp fire 

Photographer
John Warwick Brooke

John Warwick Brooke was an official British WW1 photographer from 1916 - 1918

Photograph source : Nation Library Scotland

***

Winter Warfare

By

 Edgell Rickwood

Colonel Cold strode up the Line

    (tabs of rime and spurs of ice);

stiffened all that met his glare:

    horses, men and lice.

Visited a forward post,

    left them burning, ear to foot;

fingers stuck to biting steel,

    toes to frozen boot.

Stalked on into No Man’s Land,

    turned the wire to fleecy wool,

iron stakes to sugar sticks

    snapping at a pull.

Those who watched with hoary eyes

    saw two figures gleaming there;

Hauptmann Kälte, colonel old,

    gaunt in the grey air.

Stiffly, tinkling spurs they moved,

    glassy-eyed, with glinting heel

stabbing those who lingered there

As this poem demonstrates there was nothing romantic about a snowy landscape in war 

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