Cosy Crime Pays For Indy Author
Lynn Florkiewicz’s dream of being a writer began when she was just six years old, but it had to sit on the back-burner until, at the age of 45, she took a creative writing course with The Writers Bureau, and started out on a whole new adventure…
Avid reading as a child laid the foundation for Lynn’s love of mystery and crime stories, and she always imagined that one day she’d write her own. When she grew up though, marriage and a promising career as a singer/songwriter on the British and American folk circuits gave her little time to pursue writing until, after a bout of particularly debilitating illness, she decided it was time to bring it to the fore.
Lynn enrolled on The Writers Bureau’s Creative Writing Course back in 2001. She worked steadily through its 20 tutormarked assignments, earning her course fees back from published work and getting placed/highly commended in several writing competitions along the way. Confidence thoroughly boosted, she then decided to try writing a children’s adventure story - The Quest for the Crystal Skulls, of which, BBC Springwatch’s Michaela Strachen said: ‘There are many ways to create awareness about what we're doing to planet Earth, I found this an incredibly powerful and compelling one. I read it in one go.' (The Quest for the Crystal Skulls is available from Amazon and Penpress Partnership Book Publishing).
Inspired by a long-time love of cosy crime (Agatha Christie, Carola Dunn etc), Lynn’s next move was to follow her
childhood dream and create her own murder-mystery series. And so it was that Lord James Harrington, country landowner, ex-racing driver and amateur sleuth, was born. When her first whodunit, The Winter Mystery, was launched on Kindle it received a plethora of five-star reviews from cosy crime fans, and that was all the encouragement Lynn needed to write more.
Five years on, and Lord James Harrington is a well-established character with his name on nine book covers. Lynn is already in the process of writing a tenth, with plans to release a new mystery every year. The books are all available from Amazon in Kindle, print and audio format, as well
as from Lord Harrington’s very own website: www.lordjamesharrington.com.
“I’ve created a world that I adore and I love to slip into that imaginary community and meet up with my characters,” says Lynn. “I am not a literary writer. I’m not here to change the world or make you think, I want to entertain people and, from the feedback I’ve received, I tick that box.”
Recently, Lord James Harrington was picked-up by Magna Publishing (part of Ulverscroft). They intend to release the whole series in audio and large print formats, and already, the American Audio File Magazine has awarded the first of these recordings with an Earphone Audio Award.
Lynn is just one of many Writers Bureau students who have found their way to publishing success. So if you harbour a dream to write, they can help. Their courses provide students with a professional writer as a personal tutor and cover all types of writing, as well as teaching the business side of being an author. To request free details, contact The Writers Bureau at: www.writersbureau.com or call – 0800 856 2008. Quote ATT19
You’ll be glad you did!