My novels and other things: November 2017

Tuesday 21 November 2017

Books in a series

My first attempt at writing a psychological thriller was The Witness.
This book was completely different to my previous book The Belgae Torc, which is an action adventure novel with loads of history weaved into a modern day tale. (The Belgae Torc is the first book in The Torc Trilogy).

Josie MacDonald, the main character in The Witness, experiences a terrible ordeal at the hands of a mad man called Mr Mac.

Both of these characters and places are mentioned in my latest novel The Cellist which is not a sequel, but book two in a series that overlap.
It is my intention to write five books in this series, linking them together giving the reader a little more information about the characters each time they appear.

Mia Ashton, from The Cellist, is a professional musician setting out on her career when she and her colleagues are haunted by a homicidal murderer.

The next book in the series is at the planning stage. It will be called The Photographer and will include both Josie MacDonald and Mia Ashton.

The Witness synopsis:-

Josie MacDonald, a landscape artist is visiting her aunt Molly who lives in the peaceful village of Garmouth in Morayshire. On a painting trip early one morning she is witness to a horrific murder.

Forced to flee the psychopathic killer she has to bear the brunt of psychological torment and anguish as one by one her friends are drawn into the nightmare.

She must return to the scene of crime in order to discover the truth. With time running out and a killer on the loose, she has to prevent her abducted friends from becoming victims whilst surviving long enough to bring their terrible ordeal to an end.

The Cellist synopsis:-

Mia Ashton, a hard working young cellist has always dreamt of playing to large audiences. With a series of classical concerts designed to help boost her career and the support of an agent, her desire to become a top class musician is finally within her reach, but then tragedy strikes.

One of her colleagues is found dead soon after performing with Mia and this sets off a chain reaction that threatens to destroy everything that she has worked for. Living in the shadow of a serial killer stirs memories from her past, pushing her ever closer to breaking point.

Will Mia find the strength to carry on or will the killer put an end to her dreams?

Perhaps the price of fame is too great.

My books are available from Amazon as a paperback and on Kindle

Friday 10 November 2017

How it all began

I am often asked about my books, the first question being; “You write books, what are they about?” Next, I’m asked about where I get my inspiration from and how I got into writing, so here are some brief details.

I began writing my first novel, The Belgae Torc towards the end of 2010. At the time, I was heavily into painting, exhibiting my work with a local art society. I enjoyed painting and was working hard on developing a reasonable style. I liked to paint portraits, experimenting by making up faces based on photographs, but what I really wanted to do was to write. I already had a basic plot for an action adventure novel and was keen to put words down on paper. I like to read historical novels and knew that history would play a big role in my work, but I didn’t appreciate just how much research I would have to do.

The Belgae Torc is the first book in what has become known as The Torc Trilogy.
I did not set out to write a trilogy, but soon after The Belgae Torc was published in 2012, I began advertising in a magazine and for some reason the editor thought it was the first of three books.

I discussed this with my publisher who agreed that the characters were strong enough to be developed further. Orlagh Gairne, Jerry Knowles and Jack Harrington would have another adventure, so I began planning the next book which was going to be called The Gordian Knot. There was just one small problem, I had already started work on The Witness and was well into it by this stage.

The Witness is a very different story to The Belgae Torc, so much so that I considered publishing under a different name. I was now writing in two very different genres and although a refreshing challenge and a test of my writing ability, it could prove to be confusing where my readers are concerned. I decided to publish under my own name as I could foresee problems with marketing and promoting.

Original artwork for the book cover. 500mm X 500mm box canvas painted in acrylic.
This is how I saw Josie MacDonald, the main character in The Witness.

The Witness was published in 2013 just over a year after The Belgae Torc and now I set out in earnest to write the sequel that my readers were waiting for.

It would be another year before The Gordian Knot was finished and as I worked, I began to put in hooks and leave story lines unfinished in preparation for the final book. The tale begins about twelve months after the conclusion of The Belgae Torc and with a fast moving plot things soon began to develop. Some new characters emerged with others fading into the background and I had fun with the narrative. The Gordian Knot was published in the summer of 2014.

It would be two years before the final book in The Torc Trilogy was finished. Cutting the Gordian Knot (The Final Solution) begins directly after the conclusion of The Gordian Knot with my characters still exhausted from their previous adventure. I wanted to keep this story closer to home. Orlagh and Jerry had travelled extensively in the previous books so this time I decided to leave them in Ireland with Orlagh going about her daily work as an archaeologist at the National Museum of Ireland. Jack Harrington on the other hand would bear the brunt of the action, but no more will be said about character or plot.

Again, I managed to use my own artwork for the cover design. This time a pen and ink drawing of standing stones. I did this drawing some years previously when exploring another style using different materials.

Original artwork for Cutting the Gordian Knot.
A3 cartridge paper with pen and ink and colouring pencil.

My latest book The Cellist was published on 1^st November 2017 and is the second book in a series that began with The Witness. It is not a sequel, but does contain characters and places from The Witness. The Cellist is a thriller and in many ways not as horrific as The Witness, but just as intense. I managed to include a range of issues in order to spice up the plot and had great fun working with the characters. Some writers rely on their characters to dictate the plot and this true with some of mine, but I did insist on keeping control of the story line although I’m sure that if my characters were real some of them would question that.

There will of course be more books in this series, I am planning five in total the next one being The Photographer. Characters from both The Witness and The Cellist will appear in this book, but first I must write another adventure story featuring Orlagh, Jerry, Dr Pam Rose and of course Jack Harrington and his gang.

The Torc Trilogy