 |
| Michelle Kelly |
I'm very pleased to welcome author Michelle Kelly to my blog today. Michelle is talking about her latest book, a crime
novel entitled When I Wasn't Watching. Michelle also writes romance and
erotic fiction under the name of Kelly Lawrence.
I asked
Michelle how she first got into writing. Here's what she said:
“I've been writing stories since I was tiny really. I used to write
them for my friends at school when I should have been working! I've
only been writing professionally for just under two years however. I
was made redundant from my job as a literacy teacher and I thought
'now's the time to give this thing a go.' I was really lucky, or
perhaps it was Fate; I had an agent and my first book deal within six
weeks of making that decision.”
Her first book, Wicked Games was released in June 2013. It's
an erotic romance published by Black Lace. “I caught the market at
the right time, in the wake of the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon,”
added Michelle.
“After Wicked Games I got a contract to write a series of
novellas for Mills and Boon. As a reader however, crime is my first
love. Then I was reading an article about the recent re-release of a
notorious teenage child murderer, and the characters and main plot
for When I Wasn't Watching just came into my head. It was a
story I just had to write, and I was about a third of the way in when
I realised 'this is the stuff I really want to be writing.' I still
write romance though, my latest novella Borgia Heat is published in
November.
Michelle's crime novel is set in her home city of Coventry and I wondered if
that made things easier or more tricky for her when writing the book.
“It was easier in that I knew my setting, but difficult in some
ways,” said Michelle. “Knowing what to keep and what to change,
and there's always the worry of offending someone...”
Asked what she was working on at
the moment, Michelle said: “I've just finished the first round of edits
on my first cozy mystery Murder at the Yoga Cafe.
It's the first in a series and will be released in the US next year
by St Martins Press. I'm now in the planning stages for my second
crime novel, a loose sequel to When I Wasn't Watching.”
Wishing Michelle every success for
her future books, here's some info about When I Wasn't
Watching and a short extract.
Every parent’s worst nightmare…
About When I Wasn't Watching.
Eight
years ago, Lucy and Ethan Randall’s little boy, Jack, was abducted
and murdered by teenager Terry Prince. A moment’s distraction had
ripped a family apart – and with the loss of their son came the
collapse of the Randalls’ marriage. Tortured by memories, Lucy was
left to battle her grief while raising her remaining son alone.
Now,
Jack’s killer has walked free, giving him the second chance at life
that little Jack never had. Lucy’s wounds newly opened, her world
is turned upside down a second time when another child goes missing –
and she can’t shake the suspicion that Prince has struck again.
When
DI Matt Winston, the same officer who found Jack’s body, is
assigned to the case, the echoes of Lucy’s past grow ever more
insistent. Bound by their tragic shared experiences, Matt and Lucy
grow closer – and become fixated on bringing the culprit to
justice. But now history has repeated itself, answers seem even
further out of reach. And for Lucy, it’s time to face her ghosts,
and ask the most terrible question of all: can she ever really
forgive herself?
Extract:
When
the phone had rung Lucy had expected it to be Susan from work. They
had arranged a movie night on Saturday and she had been looking
forward to it; even treating herself to a new pair of jeans. So she
answered cheerfully enough, then frowned as a throat cleared on the
other end of the line before asking, after a slight hesitation, for
Mrs Randall. She paused before realising the voice was asking for
her.
‘It’s
Ms Wyatt now,’ she said firmly. There was after all a new Mrs
Randall. ‘I got divorced five years ago.’
‘I
do apologise.’ It was a male voice, quite official sounding and
also, Lucy thought, nervous. As soon as she thought it a sense of
dread twisted low in her belly.
‘But
you were Mrs Lucy Randall? Jack Randall’s mother?’
Lucy
felt as though her throat was full of sand as she spoke.
‘Yes,
who is this?’
She
hoped to God it wasn’t the press. They had hung around enough in
the days after Jack’s death and the weeks leading up to the trial,
and then again when Ethan had left her. They had been sympathetic but
still intrusive and she had always refused to comment, an instinctive
need for privacy taking precedence over the urge to talk, to share
and to rail against the injustices Fate had dealt her. But why on
earth would it all be dragged up now?
Lucy
realised she was gripping the phone so hard her knuckles were white,
and she couldn’t process the words coming through.
Until
she heard ‘Parole Board’ and her guts twisted further.
Ethan
and herself had been asked to attend a meeting with them a few months
before, but she had let Ethan deal with it. Afterwards, he had seemed
pretty certain that the general consensus was that Terry Prince
wasn’t getting out any time soon. But then Ethan always had the
knack of hearing exactly what he wanted to hear and no more.
‘I’m
sorry, can you repeat that please?’ Lucy said, her voice sounding
far away. Inside she was screaming no no no, because she didn’t
want to hear what she suddenly already knew.
If you'd like to read more or buy When I Wasn't Watching, here's the Amazon link:
Thank you Michelle.
