Flaming Nora: Bestseller, cover reveal, libraries and Elvis

Friday, April 23, 2021

Bestseller, cover reveal, libraries and Elvis - my writing week

I still can't quite believe this, but there it is below, in black and white (and pink and yellow, courtesy of me!). This is the page taken from this week's edition of The Bookseller magazine, printing the official UK top 50 bestselling books this week. And there I am, with my novel The Paper Mill Girl in at number 49. It's the first time I've ever been in the bestselling chart and I'm over the moon.

The news was picked up by my local newspaper, The Sunderland Echo. You can read the whole story here.

The amazing news was also picked up and reported in the MyNews magazine in Hertforshire, which is the area where I did a lot of the research for the book at Frogmore Mill, the world's first mechanised paper mill. You can read the full story here.

This week included World Book Night and in honour of the occasion I'm running a competition for you to win two signed copies of The Paper Mill Girl - one for you and one for a friend. It's running on my Facebook page until Sunday 25 April at 12 noon. Enter here!

Also this week I received the book cover for my debut cosy crime, Murder at the Seaview Hotel. It's about 12 Elvis impersonators (Twelvis), one is murdered and has his blue suede shoes stolen. Hotel landlady Helen Dexter and her trusty rescue greyhound Suki are on the case to solve the murder. It's out in e-book, hardback, audio in Aug, paperback Nov. What do you think of the cover? I LOVE it!

I even made a (very!) short video to whet your appetite for the book and you can view it below.

While I was making my very short videos, I also created one to tease you for the release of my next saga, The Miner's Lass and you can watch it below:

I've been plotting and planning my second cosy crime novel, and am ready to start writing it next week. Gulp. That's my summer planned out, see you on the other side!

This week I ventured out to a community library called Back on the Map. It's in Hendon, Sunderland, and community libraries really are proving to be the lifeline to communities, now more than ever. I donated three of my novels in large print, one in audiobook and two in paperback.

On a bike ride this week I cycled past the National Glass Centre on the riverside in Sunderland and was over the moon to see my novels displayed in the window of the glass centre shop. The shop is currently open Fridays and Saturdays from 10am to 4pm.

I crafted another episode of my weekly soap opera Riverside for The People's Friend magazine. I've been writing Riverside weekly since 2016 and you can find out all about it here.