CIRCLES’ ROUNDUP
If your writing group would like to feature here, whether you need new members, have an event to publicise or to suggest tips for other groups, email Tina Jackson, tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk
with the detective, a crime scene and an interview between the detective and killer. Those 200 words refused again to go away. I ran with it. The seed sown, potential for it to grow.
‘This led to another Faber course, Write the first 15,000 words. I didn’t necessarily see the possibility for a full-blown crime novel, but I wanted to carry the idea forward, if only to see if I could write that 15k.
‘I wrote and posted a prologue to the forum, stunned to receive the positive feedback, which I continued to receive until I hit target. Reaching that goal left me wanting more. To get to the end of a first draft.
‘I joined Faber’s newly launched Work in Progress course. It couldn’t have come at a better time.
‘By now I had a clear idea of my story, believing it could be a novel and, going by feedback, a half-decent one. Determined to get there, the journey wasn’t without its struggles. Mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer, my relationship ended, and I moved to another town with my kids. A single mum building a new life.
‘If it wasn’t for my tutor, Tom Bromley, having my back, pushing me to finish what I’d started, I don’t know whether I would have.
‘I was ecstatic when I had a final draft. DI Eve Hunter and her team, based in my hometown of Aberdeen, were born.
‘That draft held the prologue I’d posted months earlier. The novel was dark, perhaps a result of my struggles, but life had brightened and the book’s ending reflected that.
‘I mustered courage to put the book out there, lucky to secure my fabulous agent, Oli Munson of AM Heath in the first round – a dream come true when Random House Germany pre-empted Hold Your Tongue, surreal when Transworld followed with a UK offer.
‘My debut released to fantastic reviews. I was amazed when it went on to be shortlisted for Bloody Scotland’s Best Scottish Crime Debut 2020 – and nothing short of shocked when it went on to win the award.
‘It’s been such a great experience since, a whirlwind of interviews and readers telling me how much they enjoyed reading something I wrote.
‘I’m so excited and grateful to be doing this as a job and I can’t thank WM enough for giving me the kickstart I needed.
‘So, to all those reading this, who have picked up that very same magazine, perhaps hoping to be published one day, I’d say don’t give up, as dreams really can come true.’
The second DI Eve Hunter novel, now in ebook, with a paperback on 10 December is out