Staying in my lane... by Cathy Ace

Craft: Okay, we write about crime, but if you had to dip a toe into another genre, which would you add to the mix, and why?

Tough question, because I’ve only ever wanted to write crime fiction. That said, I have written nine books that are not fiction…but I dare say that textbooks for managers about marketing, brand building, and promotional planning for e-business are not top of your list of books to read!

Some of the textbooks I have written

So, because I know I really don’t want to write anything but crime fiction, allow me to give you some reasons why I don’t think it’s necessary – for me – to write something other than crime fiction, but to still have the chance to write significantly different types of books…because that’s what authors I know who genre-hop tell me they’re doing – giving themselves the chance to write different types of books, as in “a change is as good as a rest”.

First of all, I write three very different types of books, which – and, again, I can only speak from my personal experience – allow me to work in different ways, with different outcomes, and appeal to different readers…or the same readers who enjoy reading different types of books.

The books I have written most of are the Cait Morgan Mysteries: these are traditional, puzzle-plot mysteries, written in the first person, always set in a different location – with Cait Morgan and Bud Anderson being the only two characters who are in each book. They follow the “Golden Age” shape of book, with a few twists: a murder upfront; a not-so-amateur sleuth with a retired cop who works for secret service agencies allowing access to “insider” information (on occasion, though not always); lots of clues and red herrings dotted about in the “fair play” manner; a crescendo to a final denouement where the perpetrator/s are unmasked and justice (sometimes legal, sometimes natural) is allowed to restore the balance of life. There’s no gratuitous blood/gore on the page, no sex on the page, no foul language.

Because these books feature a professor of criminal psychology, and characters who tread/have trod some pretty dark paths, the WHY is critical to the solutions…and I plot, plot, plot these books ensuring that every action (past and present) by every character is deeply rooted in their unique psychological profile, so I plot in the timeline of the book, from beginning to end, and only then do I start to write the book. These are very “ordered” books, in terms of writing them, and I have the fun of traveling again to places where I have lived or worked, as I write, AND I bring in a different filmic/literary influence for themes/motifs in each book too, which is fun to do, and readers always seem to find that aspect very satisfying if/when they notice it (I always try to let that aspect be the sprinkles on the topping, rather than being either a driving force or laying it on so thickly that it becomes a “thing”). So I find writing these books to be absorbing, satisfying, and giving my mind lots of opportunities to roam.

The WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries are much cozier – they are quintessentially British, stately home/village mysteries, with four female private investigators who run their business out of a converted barn on a large ducal estate in the rolling Welsh countryside. Writing these books allows me to write in a very different way: there is always more than one mystery in these books (different cases upon which the private investigators are working) so, while I plot the overall arc of the book to start with (usually the title of the book relates to the main case) I also plot the different cases as separate entities, then weave them all together, ensuring the overall time-frame works.

NEW BOOK COMING!!! amazon link

These are much more “procedural” books, too – yes, there are some puzzle plots thrown in, but private investigators work in a different way than a sleuth does, so I enjoy that difference, too. Of course, the challenge when writing books set in a recurring location, with many characters recurring, is to allow all those characters to develop somewhat with each book, but to also allow a couple of the characters to shine in their own way in each book…in the way that daily/weekly daytime/early evening dramas do on television. That’s a different discipline for a writer, but the treat is to return to people and places that are like old friends, with a constantly evolving backstory for players, as well as numerous plots driving the character development forward. It’s fun to do – and quite different to writing the Cait Morgan Mysteries. 

Then there’s the challenge of writing a standalone rather than a series – this is also fun, because the stakes for the main characters are higher: if it’s not a series, not everyone needs to survive, so there’s a chance to increase the danger level for even central characters. And writing a tale of psychological suspense is such a different process than writing mysteries and whodunnits…no need for as many clues or red herrings, though misdirection is the name of the game, and writing about an atmosphere rather than substantive occurrences is quite a challenge.

So, no, I don’t feel the need to write books that aren’t crime fiction, because I manage to meet all my needs as a writer by writing different types of crime fiction. Now, if I had more hours in the day, or months in the year, I might play with writing something else, but, as a full time author, I reckon I am using as much of my life writing as I can /is healthy, so I’ll settle with what I enjoy, thank you very much! If you'd like to catch up with any of my books, you can find out all about them at my website: http://www.cathyace.com/

 

An excellent pairing... by Cathy Ace

In this photo you can see me with my editor, Anna. It was taken back in 2014, it’s the only time we’ve ever met in person, but I’m just about to send her the manuscript of what will be the twelfth book she’ll have edited for me since then. I suspect this might be a bit of an “odd” relationship with an editor…but it is what it is, and it works for us, which I think is fine. 

So, to answer this week's question of  Do you work with a professional editor? Why/why not? What would you look for if you hired a professional editor? the first part of my answer is yes...read on for the rest...

I first met Anna when she was a staff editor employed by Severn House, the publisher of my WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries (Edwin Buckhalter, the owner of Severn House, is between us in the photo). By the time it came to the second book in the series, Anna had moved to become an independent editor, and was having her first child. I think, at that time, that most of the books she edited were still for Severn House, but – being contracted rather than employed – she had more flexibility to be able to balance her professional and family life.

When I decided to start to publish my own work, Anna was the editor I turned to: we already had a good working relationship, and I also knew she was always on-time with her feedback…which means a great deal when you’re planning and scheduling. And that’s why we still work together, I think: I just shot her an email last week to see if she could “fit in” a short-notice structural and full edit, and she told me exactly when she was and wasn’t available over the coming months. Now I have my deadlines, and can work to them, knowing exactly how many days my manuscript will be with her, and when it will get back to me.

Being honest (and I always try to be at least that when I talk to you here) this is one of the most wonderfully liberating aspects of being an Indie publisher of my own work: I get to plan and control the workflow, which allows me to do what I just did.

Of course, I still have to actually write the book…so, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll get back to that now. Yes, yes, I’ll tell you the title blah, blah, blah soon – but if you want to be the FIRST to know all about it, why not sign up for my newsletter? Details are on my website, where you can also find out about my existing work: http://www.cathyace.com/

Wish me luck! This is a rollercoaster of a life, and I’m hoping that this book – the one I’m trying to shoehorn into an already busy year – will be welcomed by readers as much as its predecessors have been (oh…is that a clue???) and will allow the folks who’ve been emailing me about certain characters to finally understand how certain things are going…LOL – that’s all for now, folks!

Here's looking at you, kid... by Cathy Ace

Craft: POV. Do you have tricks for writing multi protagonist stories? Multi POV stories? 

This is an interesting one! I write in different ways across the range of my books, so here goes…

My Cait Morgan Mysteries are all told in the first person, from Cait’s point of view (POV). Why? Well, a couple of reasons. The first novel I ever wrote was the first Cait Morgan Mystery (The Corpse with the Silver Tongue) and it felt completely natural to me to write the entire book from Cait’s POV, because Cait is quite similar to me in many ways, and I felt it was the most direct way to connect the reader to the character who is telling her story. The other reason is a bit more sneaky (contrived?); I wanted to subvert the tradition of all those hard-boiled private eye books being written from the PI’s POV, and use it in what is a series of traditional, golden-age-inspired mysteries. I did diverge from Cait’s POV for a short part of the 8th book in the series (The Corpse with the Ruby Lips), when Cait is (no spoilers) let’s say “indisposed” and therefore unable to tell her side of the story. At that point I used the third person, observational POV, allowing the story to progress for the reader, despite Cait not being capable of being the storyteller. Hopefully, using this first person POV really does make the reader feel as though they are not just beside Cait, but actually inside her head as they read…and letters I get from readers suggest that at least some do. Click here for more information about the Cait Morgan Mysteries

My WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries are written in the third person, but each chapter adopts a different character’s POV. I do my best to use the sort of vocabulary and syntax that character would use in their heads…which is always fun to do. This is a series featuring four professional private eyes, so – again – I wanted to subvert the traditional way that PI books are written by using various POVs. With this style of writing I find it’s important to tell the reader quickly, at the start of each chapter, whose POV they are reading, and – in these books – I did that within the text, rather than in the chapter heading. Click here for link to amazon

In The Wrong Boy I challenged myself to use a specific POV for each chapter. I signaled this by telling the reader in the chapter heading who it was they were “with” at that time, and allowed the story to progress across a range of characters…with only the reader knowing the full story. Why? Well, The Wrong Boy is a tale of psychological suspense, but I’d read a lot of that type of book as part of my preparation and had become rather annoyed by how many “unreliable narrators” were out there. Thus, I used a bit of a sneaky device for telling the story…everyone who tells their story is equally reliable/unreliable as they are all telling the reader their truth – but, as in real life – we all only ever know a part of what’s going on at any given time. I wanted the reader to be the one who pieces everything together right up to the end of the book, where they are the only person with a full knowledge of what’s happened, and why. Apparently, it worked well. Click here for more information about THE WRONG BOY

But back to Cait, and Bud, and their latest trip to the desert…the 12th Cait Morgan Mystery, The Corpse with the Turquoise Toes, was published last week, and it’s already doing very well (thank you to everyone who’s chosen to spend some more time with Cait and Bud!) and the first review is in! 

Crime Fiction Lover says: “In The Corpse with the Turquoise Toes, Ace has crafted another taut puzzle for Cait and Bud to solve. Alongside the murder mystery itself, the highly atmospheric story weaves together contemporary concerns, Native American mythology, international cuisine, thwarted romance and cult-based craziness, leaving the daring detective duo with plenty of avenues to follow in their quest for the truth.” WOOT! Full review here

Where (or WHEN) are they now? by Cathy Ace

Q: How do you handle the passage of time and the aging of characters in your series?

Oh, this is an interesting one... 

On my wall...

When I wrote THE CORPSE WITH THE SILVER TONGUE, the first Cait Morgan Mystery and my first novel, I set it to take place “now”.

To be precise, the “now” I set it in was 2012, which is when the book was published. That meant I calculated the birth years of my main and subsidiary characters to be the ages I wanted them to be in the book. I always do this, even if a character’s specific age isn’t mentioned, because – as part of my planning process – I like to/need to work out what that character’s childhood would have been like, based upon their place of origin and birth year. As an aside, this also helps me choose the right types of names for my characters, based upon popularity/fashion where and when they were born.

My second book was published a year later, and was set about a year later – so far, so good. No problems. But time began to slip by book 5, and by book 12 (due out in April 2022) well, let’s just say that Cait Morgan and Bud Anderson are now way out of whack with reality (ultimately, they’ve aged about three years over the past ten years)…but I still write the books set “now”.

Why? Well, I had to make a decision: whilst I hoped I’d still be writing about Cait and Bud ten years later, I sort of didn’t really believe I would be, so the question of ageing did occur to me, but I reckoned I could cross that bridge when I came to it. And having come to it, and having had to cross it...I find I don’t really mind that this slippage has occurred, because I know my readers have enough intelligence to cope, and I don’t believe (oh my, I really hope not!!!) that the early books have become anachronistic…so far.

However, mindful of the fact I know people are reading books written a hundred years ago for the first time (welcome to the fold, those discovering Agatha Christie in the 2020’s), and seeing the sales of that first novel of mine are increasing year on year, I know folks can cope really well with ages, ageing, and the shifting sands of time – and all they have to do is check the copyright date to see when each book was written if they question something in “that timeline”. I’ve never wanted to write books set in the past – I have always wanted to, and always shall, write books that are contemporary for their publication date, and I truly believe readers can cope with how that impacts the "age" of the recurring characters.

Has this caused any problems for readers? The only one I’ve spotted is that some readers have referred to how Cait and Bud still act as though they’re on honeymoon “after all these years”. Now, I’m aiming to portray a solid, loving partnership, where each person values and really does adore the other (whilst recognizing each has flaws)…so I do my best to “remind” readers in each book how long they’ve been married. For example: even by book 12 they’ve only been married for a little over two years, which – for Cait, who was in her late-forties when she became a bride for the only time in her life – IS, in fact, still the honeymoon period. (FYI: I married for the only time when I was 44, and our honeymoon period is…well, we’re still in it, as far as I’m concerned, and always will be – lots of lost years to make up for!) 

We met in January 1972, 50 years ago! This is us in 1975.
He proposed in 1976. We married in 2004.
It's a LONG story!!!
 (NB: arms in the air because we're performing on stage in this photo)

If/when I write another WISE Enquiries Agency Mystery I shall jump in right after the ending of the fourth book, however many years have passed in real time by then, and the next psychological suspense book I have planned featuring retired Detective Inspector Evan Glover and his wife Betty will pick up a few months after THE WRONG BOY, even though – again – years will have passed in real time.

I’ve learned to not refer to global occurrences in the "present" of the book, only in backstories (no pandemic being mentioned, anywhere, ever, for example) to allow readers to feel less pulled out of the story and into time-sensitive issues as they are reading, and I hope that helps as the years pass. Fingers crossed, folks will be discovering Cait and Bud in another ten years’ time, when the first book will be twenty years old…and hopefully those new readers won’t mind, as current readers don’t appear to, that the passage of time is treated as a flimsy construct, with which they don’t have to overly concern themselves. I just hope they’re happy to curl up with a puzzling closed-circle whodunnit, trying to sort the clues from the red herrings alongside my protagonists!

If you think now's the time to catch up with Cait and Bud - knowing there's a new book coming very shortly - you can find out all about them at my website: http://www.cathyace.com/ 

COVER REVEAL COMING FEBRUARY 7TH AT DRU ANN'S BOOK MUSINGS https://drusbookmusing.com/

AND VIA MY NEWSLETTER! 

Should I stay...or should I go? by Cathy Ace

Q: When reading a book (or watching a movie or TV series), how long do you give it to grab you before giving up? Is your tolerance level different in the different mediums? Has it changed from where it was ten or even twenty years ago? How much of this tendency has to do with your reader/viewer self and how much is due to the writer self?  Do you wish you were different in this regard, and if so, how?

A: First of all, this is my chance to wish everyone good health and great happiness for 2022…so I send my best wishes to you and yours!

As for the question, it’s an interesting and complex one, and I’ve given it a good, long think…

As many of you who are regular readers will know, I use this blog as something of a confessional, so here’s today’s admission: I make up my mind about most things quite quickly. To be fair to myself, I’ll add that I’ve learned to TRY to be more patient than my instincts might otherwise dictate, so now give things like books, movies, and TV a little more time than I would naturally choose to do before I abandon them.

In all honesty it’s impossible to say how long I give a “thing” before I bail on it…it varies tremendously: I try to give a book long enough that I can come to terms with the rhythm of the author’s writing, and the nature of their voice – if I like those, I’ll keep going, even if the plot/characterization disappoints along the way, or at the end; a movie will keep me watching until I can tell that the plot/look/characterization is letting me down – I have, however, continued to watch an entire movie in which neither the plot nor the characterizations appeal to me simply because I enjoy the way it looks; for TV, if it’s a series I’ll give it maybe one and a half episodes, if it’s a mini-series maybe one episode, if it’s a one-off maybe a third of its running time.

Yes, this has changed since I started writing, because I get cross more quickly when the plot has gaping holes, or if the characters just aren’t up to snuff. My first book came out just a little less than ten years ago, so I can’t say if my increased impatience is to do with the passing of time or an insider’s view of constructing a story, but it’s probably a mixture of the two. I find that, for books, I use the Look Inside opportunity offered by Amazon, because I can usually tell by reading a sample if I want to spend a) my money and b) my time on the book in question…so that’s helpful. As for movies and TV, I don’t find trailers as useful, because sometimes they are so well edited that I think it’s going to make for good viewing, but it turns out that ALL the best bits were in the trailer, or that there’s a tension suggested there that isn’t conveyed by the actual movie/series, so I give it some time, then bail, or stick with it.

Look Inside THE CORPSE WITH THE GRANITE HEART

Do I wish I were different in this regard? Well, not really – I have so many other faults that I would attend to them first! But I do acknowledge that the mood I’m in when I “sample” something, or begin to read/watch impacts my level of like/dislike, so I’ve found that I return to books/movies/TV at different times and feel differently about them, which might also be a reflection of my age…I’ve always believed in second chances, and am living proof they can work out well, so – because I have benefitted so much from a second chance being given – I endeavor to do the same.

Have you tried one of my books from one of my series and it didn't appeal? Sorry about that - but let's just admit that not everything is everyone's cup of tea; it's true that you cannot please all of the people all of the time. But...if you'd like to give my work a second chance, you can find out all about it at my website: http://www.cathyace.com/

Existential angst? by Cathy Ace

Q: Publishers and agents usually ask you to compare your book to somebody else’s and want to know that you are up to date on what is popular at the moment. How much importance do you place in writing for the market?

Okay – three questions here, really – who am I “like”, and what’s popular – two very different questions, with a third, overarching query…

What other author’s works are my books “similar to”? I admit it, I’m HOPELESS at this game! Yes, yes, I know every author believes their work is utterly unique (and it is) but I also understand (because I’m a reader as well as a writer) that it’s helpful to be able to tell someone “if you enjoy ‘that’ then you’ll probably enjoy ‘this’ too”, so I try my best to be helpful (that’s the kind of gal I am!) when called upon to be so.

But…and it’s a big but…I also know as a reader that what appeals to me isn’t necessarily what a book's about, or where it’s set, or even what type of sub-genre it is (procedural, sleuth, spies, thriller etc.) but the VOICE that appeals to me. If I listed my favorite authors here – authors whose works I will read whatever sub-genre they’re writing in (and several of my most favorite authors write across different sub-genres) – you might be perplexed, because they seemingly have nothing in common with each other, except that I enjoy those voices. Indeed, I’m one of those for whom the “helpful” amazon “People who bought this also bought…” section is worse than useless: 100% of those books listed have never ended up in my little cart. Ever.

"As" Agatha Christie

Thus, I’ve relied upon others to help me in this task when I need to undertake it myself. Professional reviewers, as well as non-professional reviewers, and readers, have proposed the following: my Cait Morgan Mysteries will appeal to those who enjoy books by Agatha Christie (Poirot fans), Lyn Hamilton, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ngaio Marsh, Sue Grafton, and any number of “Golden Age” British traditional mystery authors; my WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries will appeal to those who enjoy books by M.C. Beaton, Alexander McCall Smith, Jeanne M. Dams, and Agatha Christie (Marple fans); my book The Wrong Boy will appeal to those who enjoy TV suspense like Broadchurch, Hinterland, and Shetland (based on the books by Ann Cleeves), or books by Gillian Flynn. I’m not going to argue – but will add that – despite the fact I write traditional puzzle-plot mysteries (Cait Morgan), cozier, character-driven tales (WISE women) and psychological suspense (DI Evan Glover) I am thrilled to say many readers enjoy them all when they try them – venturing beyond their initial “reason-for-buying” to discover a new-to-them sub-genre…YAY!

Now, onto the second part of the question – do I know what’s “popular” at the moment? Well, yes, I do, thanks, but that doesn’t mean it’s what I want to/am able to write. Besides, what’s “popular” today (ie. topping the sales charts) might not be what folks want to read by the time my book is published, so I think chasing the ghost of popularity is a fool’s errand…

All of which, I suspect, allows you to work out for yourself that my answer to the final part of this week’s overarching question – do I write for the market? – is, in all honesty, no. I write books I like to read, and hope my “voice” reaches people who enjoy it, across the board. All I can do is keep doing what I’m doing, and hope enough of the market likes what I write that I can afford to keep doing it!  

By the way...you can help with that last bit *wink, wink* - all my books are listed on my website: CATHY ACE CRIME WRITER

A plague on their heads? by Cathy Ace

Endgame – After considering killing off his hero, Lee Child is handing over the writing of the Jack Reacher Novels to his brother, Andrew. Would you consider killing your protagonists, and how do you envisage ending their careers?

My immediate, and brief, response to this is “No, I wouldn’t (currently) consider killing off any of my protagonists, and I haven’t yet given any thought to how I might end their ‘careers’.” (I’m hoping this is good news for anyone reading this…fingers crossed!)

However, I understand that an author might reach the point where they just don’t want to write about certain characters any longer, and that they then have to choose how to allow that character to “end their life” or continue it, somehow, without the original author’s input. I dare say this implies that I believe I might reach this point at some time in the future, but I don’t want it to imply that point is on the horizon!

To be honest, I’m amazed that some authors are able to write 20-30 books featuring the same small cast of characters; I hope I’m able to find and employ their enduring enthusiasm and ability as the years march on. 

With “only” nine Cait Morgan Mysteries penned to date (I’m working on number ten right now) I have so many adventures I still want to enjoy with Cait and Bud that I believe they’ll be around for some time to come. The fact that the books have been optioned for TV means I need to keep my focus on the Cait books at the moment, because – though the industry is at a standstill at the moment – things are moving on this front (no, I cannot say more at the moment!) and they’ll hopefully need as many Cait books to work with as I can write! Thus, with two protagonists who are in what they believe to be “their prime” I believe they have many sleuthing years ahead of them, and they’re ageing more slowly than the rest of us, so I hope they’ll have a good, long run. If I ever do consider “killing them off” I think they’d have to go out, together, in a blaze of glory, doing something courageous and deadly in the name of justice…which is what motivates them both, in different ways.

From the Free@LastTV website

This raises the question of “what will happen to my other characters”, of course. Well, there are two novellas and four novels featuring the women of the WISE Enquiries Agency; I have left the publisher of those, but they sold the rights to the Kindle books to Joffe Books (another UK publisher) who have dropped the price and are republishing them; the three republished to date have all reached either #1 or Top Five, or at least Top Ten, in Kindle cozies in the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia, so you can imagine how thrilled I am about that…YAY! However, with only the fourth novel to republish (soon, I promise!) readers will then have run out of WISE books to read…YIKES! At the end of the fourth book there’s a pregnancy, a nascent romantic relationship, a gunshot wound to be recovered from (yes, in a cozy!) and a few other cliff hangers – I didn’t know I was going to leave the publisher, you see. I have already outlined two more books for this series…but I only have so many hours in the year to write, and Cait needs my attention right now. If I were ever to kill off the WISE women there’d need to be some awful disaster to be able to kill off four lead protagonists, plus all the recurring characters at Chellingworth Hall and in the village of Anwen-by-Wye…which doesn’t smack of cozy wonders at all!

New covers for the Kindle WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries

Also, I’ve been asked if Detective Inspector Evan Glover (retired) and his wife Betty might feature in any more psychological suspense novels in the future. With their “success” in The Wrong Boy (and their track record in previous novellas contained in Murder Keeps No Calendar and Murder Knows No Season) AND the fact they’ll be on television (speaking in both English and Welsh, no less!) then, yes, they will be back. I’ve already outlined their next outing, but plan to wait until the mini-series is well in hand before I turn my attention to them again. Once again, I’m not sure how I’d ever kill them off…though if I needed to, well, okay, I have a few ideas. 😉

Is DI Glover (retired) the right boy for more books?

But, overall, I’d rather focus on writing more featuring the characters I already have (because, for me, the mix of traditional (Cait), cozy (WISE) and psychological suspense (the Glovers) is a good, and satisfying one) than planning to stop writing about them, hand them over, kill them off, or create more new worlds. I hope you enjoy reading about them!

If you'd like to catch up with any of the characters I haven't killed off yet, please check out my website by CLICKING HERE

Keep your hand on your ha'penny! by Cathy Ace

 Q: How do you handle sex in your books? Or, if you don’t, why not?

A. The title of this piece might suggest I do write about sex in my books, and that, when I do, my advice to those concerned would be to abstain. But...I don't write about the act of sex at all. 

Across three short works and nine novels, Cait Morgan and Bud Anderson have met, dated, got engaged, married, honeymooned, and now have a happy - if somewhat peripatetic - marriage. I'm certain they also enjoy whatever they consider to be a happy sex life, but they don't discuss it with me because it's their business, not mine, so it doesn't end up being mentioned in the books I write about them. 

Thanks to Free@LastTV for this wonderful photo!

The women who work at the WISE Enquiries Agency? Carol Hill and her husband must have had sex, because she's just had a baby; Mavis MacDonald and her late husband produced children, but she's very much a singleton-widow, so I think not; Annie Parker wouldn't be averse to a sex life, but probably doesn't think there's much chance of one now she's left her beloved London and got stuck in a Welsh village in the back of beyond...though there's always Tudor Evans, who runs the Lamb and Flag pub next to the church, of course; then there's Christine Wilson-Smythe, who...by the looks of her "bad-boy-beau" Alexander Bright...is very definitely sexually active - but, again, that's her business, not mine, so I don't write about it. 

In the village of Rhosddraig, Wales, where I set The Wrong Boy, there have been sexual liaisons of all sorts taking place over decades...which is why so many people there have secrets, I suppose. Certainly what has gone on behind closed curtains there isn't something I about which I choose to share the details. But that doesn't stop the local tongues from wagging, of course, nor the poison of gossip fulfilling its destructive potential. 

Why no sex? So far I haven't chosen it to be a motivating force in any of my plots, though in The Wrong Boy passion and desire certainly play key roles...but there's no need for the detail of sex acts to be used in that book for the implications of the passions and desires involved to come into play.

Thus, I haven't written a single sex scene yet, and don't foresee me doing it any time soon. So yes, thank you, I'll be keeping my hand on my metaphorical ha'penny for some time, in terms of writing, thank you. 

The Kindle version of my first two WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries are currently available for just $0.99/99p...CLICK HERE to get to more info and purchasing links. 

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED THEIR RERELEASE BECOME SUCH A HUGE SUCCESS...THIS PAST WEEKEND I HIT DIZZY HEIGHTS I COULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED! 

If you'd like to find out more about how I don't write about sex, please consider visiting my website to find out more about all my characters: CLICK HERE

Short story, long story by Cathy Ace

Q: Tell us about the first story/stories you ever wrote. First book, published or no.

Okey dokey, here comes a long story about a short story...

After all the usual school essays, and poems for our Eisteddfods etc., the first short story with a criminal bent I ever wrote was called “Dear George”. It was written in a car park in 1987, in about an hour and a half.

Why?

Well, I’d been waiting to collect my sister at the airport, and her flight was delayed. I bought a magazine to read to fill the time (I’d forgotten to carry a book – what an admission!) and the one I chose was a magazine called “Company”. The reason I chose that one was because there was a bold encouragement to do so on the cover: “Murder, and be published!” it shouted at me, so I read the article about a short story competition, and thought, I might enter that.

Fast forward a few months: I rediscovered the magazine, only to realize that the deadline for the competition was a few days away. I’d been cogitating about what I would write (you know, when I got around to writing it!) and was a bit annoyed I hadn’t pulled my finger out…so, the next day, in the middle of my work day as a sales person for a label-printing company, I left the HQ office of my client – Marks & Spencer on Baker Street (yes, that Baker Street) in London – and sat in my car in the multi-storey car park adjacent to Baker Street and wrote the story (by hand, of course) on a notepad. A friend of mine at the office typed it up for me that afternoon, I read it through once and made a few copy changes by hand, and delivered the “manuscript” to the office of the magazine the next day when I was back in central London again.

Fast forward another few months, and I was somewhat taken aback when I received a letter to say the story would, indeed, be published in an anthology called “Murder & Company” alongside stories by “real” authors. I was pleased, excited a little, but – to be honest – not overly so: I’d just remortgaged my flat to be able to set up my own business, and it was tough going, so it was a bit of a frisson rather than a “this could change my life” moment…I had to make my new business work well enough to pay my bills, and the salaries of my freshly-minted employees. The book launch in 1988 was quite an experience, held, as it was, in a fabulous then-new book shop on the Charing Cross Road called Murder One, owned by the legendary Maxim Jakubowski (with whom I am now Friends on FB – ain’t life wonderful!?).

The story was then (in 1990) included in another anthology called “Thrillers”, which was created to become a book for the England & Wales GCSE English Language syllabus (the exam taken at 16 years of age) which blew me away! The list of authors whose work was also included reads like a Who’s Who of crime writing…I’d heard of, and had read, everyone except me! (Side bar: when I first met the wonderful Peter Lovesey in 2017 he was kind enough to sign my copy of this anthology…to which he’d written the introduction, and in which he had two stories…and Felix Frances signed his father’s short story in it for me too!)

By the time I was approached by Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres in 2007 asking if they could produce the story for BBC Radio 4, I had sold my business, migrated to Canada, and had written nine marketing textbooks. The recording of the fabulous Alex Kingston (she of ER and Doctor Who fame) reading “Dear George” isn’t currently available to listen to online but I know that sitting in Canada listening to the broadcast, as Mum and Dad, and my sister Sue, did the same in Wales, was one of my proudest moments. My story, on the BBC! WOW! It was July 9^th 2007.

My father died soon after that broadcast, and I decided that, if I was going to write fiction, I’d better get on with it. So I wrote eleven more short/long stories to accompany “Dear George” and self-published “MURDER: Month by Month”. “Dear George” appeared as the story for January, and it filled that same role in my 2017 publication “Murder Keeps No Calendar”.

For one short story it’s worked hard...and it DID change my life, after all! It features DI Evan Glover, who also appeared in another short story in those aforementioned collections, as well as a novella in “Murder Knows No Season” and in my standalone novel “The Wrong Boy”. He was my very first police character…and he gained not only the #1 amazon bestseller spot with “The Wrong Boy” but that book’s also now been optioned to become a TV mini-series, to be produced and broadcast in Welsh and English by the same UK indie production company that makes the wonderful Agatha Raisin series, Free@LastTV.

Little did I know that all these murders would result from me picking up a magazine to "kill a few hours" at an airport…!

I sent the print copies of those two, original, collections of short stories and novellas to a publisher on Vancouver Island, and they asked me to write what turned out to be the first Cait Morgan Mystery. There are now nine books in that series, which has also been optioned for a series of TV movies by Free@Last TV. 

You can read about all my books – including the collection which includes “Dear George” - at my website, here: http://www.cathyace.com/

If you’d like to read “Dear George” (FREE!!!!) you can do that by using the “Look Inside” feature at amazon, here: Link to MURDER KEEPS NO CALENDAR

Being Frank and... by Cathy Ace

What change in the publishing landscape over the past decade and a half has impacted you the most?

First of all, if you didn’t read Frank’s piece yesterday…do that, because he said what I would have said, but better than I would have said it. He talked about self-publishing and the access to e-books…then mentioned the perennial problem of getting readers to find out about and choose to read your books, but – as Frank wisely observed – that’s a blog for another day.

So, moving forward – and bearing in mind that in the “current situation” (my chosen euphemism for being quarantined due to the global pandemic) my answer might change within the next two hours – I think a huge change has been the shift in accessibility to Print On Demand,both for traditional and indie/self-publishers. E-books are e-books, and print is print, and the way the two options get themselves into the hands of readers is very different (NB: Yes, I know that these are extraordinary times and that the new normal isn’t anything close to normal at all, so bear with me?).

Well, here’s the thing: my Canadian traditional publisher and my British traditional publisher both shifted my books onto a Print On Demand (POD) footing long before I stopped signing contracts with them. They took the business decision that they didn’t want their money tied up in boxes and boxes of books sitting in warehouses. Fair enough. But that meant that certain booksellers wouldn’t stock those titles because – no matter if it’s a traditional publisher using POD or an independent/self publisher using POD – bookstores won’t pay upfront for books to put on their shelves without knowing they can return them to the distributor if they remain unsold, and both my publishers had a “non returnable” clause with their POD provider. When I signed with those publishers, this wasn’t the case. But the contracts I had signed with them allowed them to do this. So, there I was, being published by two traditional publishing houses, neither of which could get my books onto bookshelves in bricks and mortar bookstores any better than I could by setting up my own publishing company and taking up the same contracts for my new books with POD providers that those publishers had.

So that’s what I did. I’m no worse off than I was. 

And now the blatant self promotion…PLEASE consider trying my books while you’re holed up? My Cait Morgan Mysteries offer traditional puzzle mysteries for the armchair traveler, with each book being set in a different country; my WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries feature a quartet of softly-boiled female PIs who run their business out of a Welsh stately home; my amazon #1 bestseller The Wrong Boy is a tale of psychological suspense set in a clifftop village in Wales. You can find out more about my books by clicking here.

Another little piece of my heart....by Cathy Ace

Life: Does your writing ever interfere with your family life? Do the demands of your fiction ever create friction with those closest to you?

BEAR IN MIND AS YOU READ...I don't mean to moan. I'm just answering the question as honestly as I can. I know authors who (somehow!) manage to write three excellent books each year...they regularly win awards and top the bestseller lists and maintain that all-important media profile publishers want. I honestly don't know how they do it all; I am in awe of them! Strength to their arms...and fingers...and souls. I have rewritten this post several times. But now I have to step away. 

Simply put, the answer to both questions asked is “Yes”.

Also simply put, I know in my heart that the answer to both questions should be “No”.

Oh look, conflict! As a crime writer that should make me happy. It doesn’t.

Here’s the thing…my first novel, the first Cait Morgan Mystery entitled THE CORPSE WITH THE SILVER TONGUE, was published in March 2012. By the time it was in print I had already signed a contract to write the second Cait Morgan Mystery, THE CORPSE WITH THE GOLDEN NOSE. By the time that came out in March 2013 I had already finished the third in the series and was contracted to write the fourth…and so on, until I had contracts in place to write three novels per year across two series during 2015-2018. I was also Vice Chair of Crime Writers of Canada for 2014-2016, then Chair from 2016-2018. By the time I stepped down to become past-Chair of CWC in May 2018 I had given the organisation and its members the best effort I could muster, had twelve novels published...and was completely exhausted. But lucky to have been given all the opportunities I had been, so that I could do all that I had done.

I hadn’t had a single day when I hadn’t worked (in some way or another) for six years, and that work had become a source of friction when it involved seemingly endless emails, responses to queries or publisher needs etc. during so-called “vacations” or “family time”. And, even when the friction was only in my head, I felt guilty all the time...I constantly felt I wasn't doing enough for anyone. It turned out I was doing nothing at all for myself! I wasn't the healthiest version of myself during the latter part of 2018, so I had to address that. Something had to change...

Something had changed already – my husband had put off retirement for a couple of years so I would have the resources I needed to support my writing career (not just the writing, but all the other work that accompanies it in terms of volunteering my time to be involved with Crime Writers of Canada, attending several conventions each year, doing all the promotional work required etc.). I still think that's incredible. He'd kept going for years, so I could do the same. But he’d finally packed it in for good in March 2018. It was time. That meant he was no longer leaving the house at 5.30am, returning by about 8.30pm, and he and I both realized that my pace of work couldn’t continue as it had because I was the one keeping us apart by continuing to work long hours.

So...change was needed. Because life is about more than work.

BUT...I had a book that I desperately needed to write. It was burning a hole in my soul. It had to come out of me.

So, in early 2018, my husband and I agreed I would make the biggest push ever – I would get the book written (The Wrong Boy), and promote it the best that I could. We incorporated, since I’d decided (after some poor experiences with publishers/agents) that I would self-publish it, and we planned how and when it would be released and promoted. I was lucky – I had money from a personal pension plan I’d set up in the UK back in the 1980s to be able to invest in launching the book and supporting it in the marketplace.

I am happier now that I don’t let work steal me away from my husband as much as it once did. I have also now used the rest of that pension money to buy back all my rights to the Cait Morgan Mysteries (except English print rights) and to be able to support the digital relaunch of that series. Oh, and The Wrong Boy has achieved super sales (even reaching the top 10 on the amazon charts - paid-for sales - in four countries, and #1 in one), and has won a couple of awards...PHEW! 

I know I have another story wriggling around my head that I MUST tell, and I will be doing that, but I have promised us that I won’t aim to publish that book until late 2020, which means we’ll both have some time for us to get used to “being together” without my writing, (or all the other, necessary, work that goes hand-in-hand with that) treading too hard on the toes of our relationship and time with each other and the family. 

It’s taking some getting used to – we’re two workaholics both trying to support each other in recovery. I’ll let you know how it goes a year from now. (I should confess that I am doing my final edits to this piece while Husband takes a nap, as we cruise in the Caribbean...maybe I need help - or a piña colada?)

Meanwhile, if you haven’t considered reading my work, maybe I can beg you to do so? I’ve put a lot into it, and it continues to be my passion. CLICK HERE to get to my website where you can find out all about it.