Many thanks to Adrian Magson for inviting me to take part in this ‘blog hop’. Adrian is the author of 16 spy and crime thrillers, including the Riley Gavin and Harry Tate series, as well as the Lucas Rocco series, of which the first book Death on the Marais is a chillingly atmospheric and stunning read. You can find his post from last week here.

All the participants in this blog hop will do a Q&A (see below) and then pass the baton to others. I’ve asked Berni Stevens, Karen Aldous and Claire Gem to take part, and their blog posts will appear on 3rd June so please don’t forget to check them out! You’ll find their links and a short biography at the end of this post. Thank you for stopping by!

A type of mask worn by some highwaymen

Oh, and by the way, I’ve just had a new book out, “The Highwayman’s Daughter”, which is my first swashbuckling historical! You can read more about it here.

Q & A:-
1) What am I working on? – At the moment I’m working on my 3rd romantic suspense novel. This one, like my 2nd novel “The Elephant Girl”, is also set in London, and this time the action takes place in and around a casino in the less salubrious part of Soho. The story features a young trainee croupier, an enigmatic barman, and a casino owner running from his past. It’s a modern and (very loose) re-telling of the fairy tale “The Little Mermaid”, with plenty of secrets, lies and skeletons in the closet.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre? – I’m aware that this must sound rather self-aggrandising, but I think what sets my work apart from many other books in the same subgenre is that I focus my stories and plots around complex family issues and the kind of betrayals that ordinary people suffer in their everyday lives. However, it’s not all doom and gloom – because I write romantic fiction, I give my characters plenty of opportunity to redeem themselves and find that happy ending which is so often denied people in real life.

3) Why do I write what I do? – Absolutely no idea! The stories just come to me, but I’m very inspired by fairy tales and classics such as the brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, and I think that these classic story lines work their way into my writing through my subconscious mind.

4) How does your writing process work? – I’m very organised and write detailed outlines which I tend to follow quite closely. I have to because my stories all contain a number of red herrings and false clues, and it’s important that I know what’s going on, otherwise it’s easy for the plot to run away from me.

Next week’s bloggers:

Berni Stevens trained in graphic design, and has worked in most of the biggest London publishing houses, designing book covers and point-of-sale, for more than twenty years. Books and art remain her passion, and her love of the paranormal began when she read Bram Stoker’s Dracula. She is on both the committee and the book panel of the London-based Dracula Society; a society for fans of gothic literature and film.

Berni has had several short stories published, and her first full-length novel was published in the US in 2011. Dance Until Dawn is the first book in her paranormal romance trilogy, and was published by Choc Lit UK in April, 2014. You can find Berni here: http://bernistevens.blogspot.co.uk/ and here http://bernistevensdesign.com/

Karen Aldous, a recent graduate of the fabulous Romantic Novelist Association’s New Writers Scheme lives in a village on the edge of the beautiful north-downs in Kent. She set part of her new novel there as well as the beautiful Provence and, one of her favourite French Riviera towns, the glamorous and cosmopolitan Cannes. Busy with her grandchildren, her website business and her first launch, Karen has just published The Vineyard with CarinaUK (Harlequin/HarperCollinsUK) and is currently writing her next. Find Karen here: http://www.karenaldous.co.uk/blog/

Claire Gem writes contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She’s an avid fan of spunky heroines, and vivid settings that transport you to another place and time. She loves characters you get to know so well, you mourn them when you read The End.

Claire’s contemporary w/paranormal elements, Phantom Traces, is coming soon from Soul Mate Publishing. You can find her on Facebook at Claire Gem, on Twitter @gemwriter, and at http://www.clairegem.com.