This mid-month mail out is for two reasons:
Firstly, to thank those of you who were able to join me to celebrate the (slightly belated) launch of The Expert Witness at The Strand last week. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Secondly, to highlight two events I’m involved in, both of which are happening this coming weekend.
Saturday 13th September, 2025 – There’s a meet the authors and book sale event at Kelvedon Labour Club from 10am to 3pm. The address is 74 High Street, CO5 9AE.
Sunday 14th September, 2025 – I’m running a ‘Writing for Wellbeing’ workshop at Sudbury Arts Centre from 1pm to 3pm. You can find more information and book a place here https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/sudburyartscentre/t-yarenxq
At the book launch last week, guests had the opportunity to complete a simple character profile. Working with personality profiles has been part of my day job as a psychologist – they are frequently used to help with selection, personal development and team building. And I’ve found them incredibly helpful for my novel writing too.
Once I have the outline idea for a story, I create a personality profile for my main characters before I start writing. Dr Amanda Dunstan in The Expert Witness has the ‘INTJ’ preference – she is an introvert who values knowledge and competence, sets high standards for herself and others, and can be highly sceptical. While far from a scientific sample at the book launch party, it was interesting to see that this personality profile was shared by only one person at the event. Research in the US suggests that the INTJ profile is found in about 2% of the population – and is even rarer in women.
If you find personality profiling interesting, the simple exercise I used was based on Myers Briggs Type Indicator and more information about the questionnaire and your four letter preference code can easily be found online or in this post here on my website.
Finally, for those of you who are new to my readers club, I usually send an email once a month with news on upcoming events, musings on writing/books and occasional psychological insights. So, I’ll be in touch again at the end of September. ‘Til then!