National Crime Reading month and Essex Book Festival!

As readers we often latch onto one type of crime novel – police procedural like Ian Rankins’ Rebus, cosy crime like Agatha Christie, or thriller/suspense like Gone Girl, The Talented Mr Ripley or Rebecca. National Crime Reading month is an annual event designed to encourage readers to find out more about the range of crime novels and broaden their reading within the genre. Events are happening all around the country and information can be found here.

To help introduce readers to other subgenres of crime, I’ve got together with three other authors to run an event called Behind the Covers of Crime. We’ll be visiting Essex libraries to explore our very different approaches in a series of events through June. If you live in Essex check out your local library for details – posters will be going up soon. Booking information will also be available on Eventbrite in the coming week.

12^th June 2023 at 4.30-6.30 entry £2 – Rayleigh            

16^th June 2023 at 3pm-5pm entry free  – Southend Forum

19^th June 2023 at 4.30-6.30 entry £2 – Braintree

26^th June 2023 at 4.30-6.30 entry £2– Great Parndon

28^th June 2023 at 4.30-6.30 entry £2 – Clacton

June’s a busy month as I’m also taking part in Essex Book Festival where I’m running a workshop to explain the process of getting your book traditionally published. I’ll cover topics like the roles of agents, editors and publishers, and the pros & cons of traditional publishing versus self-publishing. The workshop will be held at Chelmsford Library on Saturday 24^th 10.00-11.30am. Tickets are £6 and can be booked here: Essex Writers Day

Hope to see you at one of these events!

(Or in novels!)

Photo by David von Diemar on Unsplash

Do you ever find yourself shouting at the screen in frustration when watching a police programme on the TV? My own pet hate is those episodes where the police call out the suspects name when they are standing 20 yards away from them, then the suspect drops whatever their doing and runs, resulting in the predictable chase scene. Second to this is the detective who keeps whiskey in the bottom drawer of their desk. I suspect HR would have something to say about that.

Last week I attended the Crime Writers Association (CWA) conference in York and we had some fascinating speakers. Retired Detective Inspector Steven Keogh shared his experience of investigating murders and I learned several other things that happen on TV but not in real life.

Firstly, police don’t have those photo evidence display boards on the wall, much as programme makers love them. Keogh said that the investigators work on many cases at once and there wouldn’t be the space. These days there are far more detailed documents available on computer which link people to each other, to evidence and to places, amongst other things. However, this would not be so visually engaging in a TV programme.

Secondly, everybody who goes to a murder scene would wear a full white suit and protective footwear, along with two pairs of gloves in case the top pair gets ripped. So Vera would not be stomping around in just a pair of shoe covers.

Thirdly, and in some ways most shocking, was forensic evidence. Due to lack of resourcing the detectives have to prioritise what is sent off for analysis, selecting just 4 items to be ‘rushed’ through. They will usually get these results two days later. However, they have to wait up to six months for the rest to be processed.

While TV shows and films often ignore reality in order to maximise drama, novelists are held to higher standards. Most authors research thoroughly to ensure they get their facts right and would be held to account by their editor and readers for twisting the truth too much. If you want to find out more about what really happens in a murder investigation DI Steven Keogh has written a book: Murder Investigation Team: How Scotland Yard Really Catches Killers

P.S. If you are a writer and interested in finding out more about the psychology of character in novels, I will be running a workshop at the I Am Writing Festival in Bristol later this month. It’s not too late to buy tickets! Hopefully see you there.

Why do we interpret the same text differently?

My novel THE ACCIDENT was on a blog tour this month, which means it was reviewed online by a number of book bloggers. Knowing that my lead character Janice is a bit of a Marmite character, I was intrigued to see how the bloggers would react to her.

Bearing in mind everyone was reading the same book, it was interesting to see the range of reactions to Janice’s personality and behaviour.

Some saw her as a ‘bad’ person, deceiving others and manipulating emotions –

•  ‘She became absolutely relentless in her search for answers; not only that, she started to become downright deceitful and fabricated the most enormously twisted lies.’
• ‘It was a great read that kept me hooked but the obsession she had over the young woman creeped me out a little and some parts were a little uncomfortable.’
• ‘The main character Janice, and several of the other supporting cast are creepy and their behaviour most definitely strange.’
• ‘Janice’s behaviour goes to the extreme ends and she becomes obsessed.’

[Quotes from: herreadingroom, @bookblogHannah, staceywh_17, stratospherekawaiigirl]

Others had empathy for her. Acknowledging her background and some of her past experiences, they saw her as ‘sad’ –

•  ‘Our main character is troubled, that has made me feel for her even more.’
•  ‘Janice is a character that I felt a deep empathy for, she’s a kind woman who’s always felt inferior to her mother’s high maintenance …Her life was put on hold when her father passed away…’
• ‘I felt sorry for Janice as you learn her story, she is lonely, but she doesn’t like big crowds, she is quite a caring person in her own way.’
• ‘I pitied her, while not actually managing to like her.’
• ‘I felt tremendous empathy for Janice. What she does may seem inexplicable to an outsider, but thanks to the intimate insights we gain from her internal dialogue, we relate to her very strongly and wish for a happy ending.’

[Quotes from: @Littlemiss book6, handwrittengirl.com, @jackiesreading, @AngiPlant, rachelReadIt]

And some thought she was completely ‘mad’:

•  ‘I was incredulous about her audacity and the lengths that she was going to to get to the truth but the woman was so bat-sh*t crazy that it made for pretty compelling reading.’
•  ‘…obsessed to the point of compulsion, you can’t help but be hooked by her madness.’
• ‘The Accident is definitely a page turner which is no mean feat when the main character is slowly becoming more unhinged’

[Quotes from: herreadingroom, @MiriamLSmith3, @TheBroadbean]

One reviewer, libcreads, summed it up: ‘I spent most of the book trying to figure out Janice – clearly obsessed, was she evil, bonkers or simply sad and lonely and desperate for a family of her own? Or a bit of all of the above? I was kept guessing and it was this that kept me turning the pages, keen to see what happened next.’

So why do we all interpret what we read so differently? There is a branch of social science called hermeneutics which studies the ways we interpret information. In a nutshell, it comes back to our own character, values and experiences – our inherent biases shaped by our upbringing and our culture. The Janice that I wrote will be interpreted completely differently by each reader. Just as she would if she were a real person, your neighbour or acquaintance – some would like her for her kind heart, some feel sorry for her in her loneliness, and others avoid her obsessive personality. As an author I have to accept that not everyone will see her, or her story, the way I envisioned them. They’re on their own now out in the wider world…

My thanks to all the bloggers and to @Tr4cyF3nt0n and Orion Books for organising the blog tour.

Loss of control and our perception of time

If you’ve ever been to Disney you’ll have experienced their queue management process. Signs warn you of the likely wait time from any given point: ‘60 minutes’, or alarmingly ‘300 minutes’. They give you the information so you know whether you want to wait or not: you are in control of the decision and know what you’re letting yourself in for. Secondly, the times they post are the worst case scenario. They deliberately overestimate, so when you get to the ride in 50 minutes you think ‘that wasn’t so bad, quicker than we expected’. Finally, they keep you entertained while you wait with video screens showing trailers of the ride or event along the way. They understand how to manage the waiting in a positive way.

This highlights two elements that lead to our frustration while waiting: our lack of control and our perception of time. So, how can we use this to help manage our mood when we are waiting for something?

Distraction techniques: If you know you will have a long wait, plan for it. Line up other things you can do while waiting so you focus on those rather than the time it is taking. How can I constructively use this hour/two weeks/month? Do your emails while on hold to the call centre, listen to a podcast while waiting for the bus. Start another project while you wait for a response from the builder. Or in the case of an author, start writing the next novel while waiting weeks for the edits on the previous book!

Diarise: If you are waiting for a response from a person or organisation, you can feel out of control of the situation. It may also be nagging at the back of your mind as you can’t close the loop and move on, but dwelling and fretting doesn’t help. In these circumstances we typically overestimate how long we’ve waited. To regain a feeling of control, keep a note of the dates: when was the issue first raised? Don’t automatically assume you are being ignored, there may be other factors, so consider how long could (rather than should) a response take? When is appropriate to chase it up and how best should you raise your needs or concerns? Diarise what you plan to do and when, then set it on one side and focus on something else.

I ponder this now as a writer’s life is full of waiting. Currently I’m waiting to hear back on no less that six different writing-related things, (including the sales figures which I only receive twice a year and then three months in arrears). It’s taken me a while, but I’ve now learnt to manage my expectations, plan for the worst case timescales, diarise so I know when to follow up – and meanwhile crack on with the next book ideas!

Easy for those who know how!

I am not a natural when it comes to technology. The idea of having to replace my laptop or mobile fills me with dread and I burble nonsense when I have to speak to professionals in the field, unable to understand the implications of Dolby Vision HDR, 512GB of data or 5G. Consequently, I’ve been slow to embrace the social medial trend for video clips and ‘reels’, fearful it will all go wrong and I’ll inadvertently hit a button and post my failed efforts to a wider audience. But this month I decided it was time to give it a go and when a friend sent me a link to a ‘simple’ video editing tool – clipchamp –  I was amazed to find it was relatively intuitive. Here’s the final version (click to watch).

Not bad for a luddite! But while I’m quite pleased with my initial experiments, I still haven’t mastered how to edit and post in Instragram… That will have to wait for another day when I’ve rediscovered my enthusiasm.

This coming month I’m working on my next novel and taking part in a couple of talks:

Writing Well – A two hour workshop which focuses on writing for wellbeing on 19^th February 2023 from 2pm to 4pm at Randall Gallery, 13 Sydney Street, Colchester, Essex CO7 0BG. More information here.

Meet the Authors – where I’ll be in conversation with 3 other local authors about our books and all aspects of writing on 25^th February 2023, 5pm start, at YMCA High Street, Colchester, Essex CO7 0AQ.  More information here.

If you live locally, do get your free tickets from brightwords.essex@gmail.com and join me if you’re interested. It would be great to see you.

Or is it more important that they’re interesting?

Janice, the lead character of my second novel, The Accident, is a bit of a marmite character. An early reviewer commented, ‘Wow, the lead character!’ Another described her as ‘compellingly awful’. A third described the book as ‘A brilliantly-written display of the inner workings of a well-intentioned but self-deluding mind.’

It’s true that Janice is deluded, confident in her belief that she is helping others as she blunders into their lives with her lies. Like Tom Ripley and others before her, we follow these characters through the story aghast at what they might do next, waiting to see when (if?) they will get caught out. So, while lead characters don’t always have to be someone we like, they should be interesting enough for us to want to know more.

This month I was thrilled that The Accident was selected by the Crime Readers Association as their Recommended Read. Here’s the link: ‘The Accident’ by Julia Stone – The Crime Readers’ Association (thecra.co.uk)

And apologies to anyone who tried to buy a paperback copy in the past month and had their orders cancelled. There was an issue with printing which has now thankfully been resolved by my publisher. Click here if you’d like to buy a copy.

And finally, every best wish for the New Year.

The dreaded algorithm!

How often do you review a book you’ve read? It never used to cross my mind to write a review, even if I’d loved a novel and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Before my debut was published last year, I hadn’t realised how important reviews are to authors.

To be honest, we writers thrive on them. When Her Little Secret was published last year I was constantly looking at the reviews on Amazon, hoping each day there would be another one added. This was for two reasons: one personal and the other commercial.

In the modern online world, engagement drives algorithms which drive what we see online. My editor informed me that when I received thirty 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon my book would be eligible for their online promotion. As I recall, sixty reviews was another target. In short, reviews are essential to book sales, particularly with ebooks. Without them, the book will disappear from the virtual shop front.

From a personal perspective, authors want to know how readers are reacting to their books. A writer works on their novel for a year or more, with many rewrites, edits and refinements. We get feedback from trusted friends and family, critical comment from our agent and editor, but until the book is out there in the world we don’t know for sure how others will react to it. We can learn so much from reviews; whether they are praising or constructively critical, they are all useful. So, if you read a novel and it engages you in some way, I’m sure the author would be grateful if you’d take a few minutes to post a review and tell them why!

Interviews with crime/suspense writers Kate Evans and Phillipa East

It’s been a busy four weeks creatively!

Firstly, my second psychological suspense novel THE ACCIDENT has been published by Orion and is available as an ebook and paperback HERE!

Back in 2018 a first draft of this story was the winner of the Blue Pencil award and it’s already received some lovely prepublications reviews on NetGalley, including this 5 star comment: ‘I loved everything about this book. The main character…wow! I went through every emotion with her. A sad figure with an awful overbearing mother, a compulsive liar, a caring person wanting to help and also someone who wanted a normal life. I also found myself laughing out loud. A fabulously written drama…thoroughly enjoyed every page.’

Last week I was interviewed by the crime writer Kate Evans. She asked me a number of thought-provoking questions relating to psychology and writing. One was about the cross-over between therapy and writing/story telling. Here’s my response.

When someone comes for therapy they share their experiences as a story. We tend to think and explain in a causal, sequential way: x caused y which led to z. We include dialogue to bring things to life. We talk about our wants and needs, our hopes and fears. There are highs and lows in emotion. All these are features of story writing.

We all have a personal narrative, a story we tell our selves about our life and who we are, to help us make sense of our experiences. And this informs how we react to events in the here-and-now. One therapeutic technique is to consider whether this version of the story is useful to us in its current form; is there another interpretation of events? Or different language? Maybe it was something we were told by someone else, or it was a reaction to specific experiences and hasn’t been revised as we have grown. Helping people to reframe the way they think of the story, to see the events through a different lense, or to assume another role (survivor rather than victim), can lead to a significant shift in mental wellbeing.

The link to the rest of the interview can be found HERE !

And finally on a related note, at the end of last month I took part in a panel discussion on ‘psychology and writing’ with the writer Phillipa East and two other psychological suspense authors. The session was recorded and can be found as Panel 1 on Phillipa’s YouTube channel, HERE !

And how we can use these research findings in life and writing

American scientists Drs Julie & John Gottman have researched successful relationships for decades. What’s the foundation of a successful, happy relationship?

At its foundation, it comes down to communication – verbal and non-verbal.

The Gottman’s observed the way couples react to small bids for emotional connection in their day-to-day life. For example, this might be when one partner commenting on something on TV, or reading out part of an article, or offering a touch on passing in the kitchen.

There are broadly three ways to react:

‘Turn towards’ – engage, react with interest, listen, attend, respond

‘Turn away’ – ignore, not react

‘Turn against’ – reject, contradict, argue

The more partners ‘turned towards’ these bids for connection the stronger the foundations of the relationship. These small but positive day-to-day moments helped them to weather the ups and downs of life.

The Gottman’s research allowed them to predict with 90% accuracy whether couples would stay together happily, or suffer an unhappy relationship, or break up. One of the main predictors was how couples handle conflict: what happens when couples disagree with each other.

They found that those who stay in unhappy relationships or break up tend to handle conflict by: 1) blaming their partner and their personality; 2) escalating to contempt and insults; 3) getting defensive if asked to change; 4) stonewalling by withdrawing eg walking out or going silent. They are in flight or fight mode, treating it as a battle.

Those who stay together happily have a different approach to conflict – they are not as defensive; they take individual responsibility; they are gentler in way they bring things up, showing a sense of humour; and they stay in the interaction to keep working at resolution together.

It’s possible to learn a different way to speak and react when faced with a conflict.

• Start by being calm and pleasant, with the positive intent to resolve rather than win;
• Describe your feelings;
• Outline the specific issue (not everything you don’t like about them!);
• Be clear on your own needs.

In summary: this is what I feel about this specific situation and this is what I need from you. For example, ‘I’m feeling a bit frustrated because the house is a mess and I’d like it if you would clear up your things sometime this afternoon.’

So, what can we take from this as writers? If you want to portray couples in love or heading for divorce you might pick up some tips for the structure of their dialogue from the Gottman’s research!

In other news: At the end of September I took part with three other psychologists/therapists in a panel discussion, hosted by the author Philippa East. The talk was called The Psychological Secrets of Writing and the discussion ranged over a wide variety of topics in response to questions from the audience. The video of the session is available on Philippa’s YouTube channel: click here if you’d like to see it.

Announcing my new novel – THE ACCIDENT – publication date October 2022

I’m so excited as I’ve just seen the cover design of my new psychological suspense novel and I love it! As soon as all permissions are cleared I will mail it out to you all. Meanwhile, here’s a little bit about the story.

The background to THE ACCIDENT

Back in 2018 I frequently drove to Southend to visit my great aunt. One day on the return trip, I saw a couple kissing on the pedestrian bridge that spanned the A-road. It struck me as an odd place to stop for a kiss – engulfed by the noise and fumes from the traffic it was hardly romantic. Why were they meeting there?

That started the chain of thought that ultimately led to the novel, The Accident.

What is the story about?

When an unidentified woman falls to her death from a bridge, landing on Janice’s car, the police rule it as misadventure. It’s not an act of suicide or murder, it’s just an accident. But for Janice, it feels that fate has thrown them together.

As a genealogist, Janice is used to tracking down clues – is even a little obsessive, one might say… The police know so little about the dead woman that Janice decides to start her own investigation into the victim and the people she knew. Surely someone must be to blame?

Sometimes the only way to uncover the truth is to lie… and for Janice, living a lie comes all too easily – she’s done it since childhood. Pretending to be the dead girl’s relative, she charms her way into the girl’s former life. As she builds relationships with the woman’s friends and family, she believes she’s found the loving family she’s been seeking all her life. However, all is not as it at seems.

What is the lead character like?

I love my lead character, Janice. I imagine that she looks like the actress Joanna Scanlon: a woman who day-to-day may look a bit tired and dowdy, but put her in the right clothes with the right people and she comes to life with her ready smile. Janice is a middle-aged woman who lives a quiet, single life, keeping herself busy with her genealogy work. In truth she’s still pining for her lost first love, and while she waits for somewhere to pour out all that  love she nurtures wild animals. She’s generous and kind-hearted, but while she tries to see the best in others she has her own set of values and makes wry observations about the world around her when things don’t live up to her expectations. And when the dead girl’s family fail her, her bitterness spills out…

The Accident publishes in October 2022 – I  hope you enjoy it!