Flaming Nora: Candy rock, podcasts and Elvis

Friday, July 30, 2021

Candy rock, podcasts and Elvis - my writing week

This week I finally sent off the completed manuscript to my publisher, Headline, for the second in the series of my cosy crime novels. It's called Curtain Call at the Seaview Hotel and is out in May 2022. There's still a long way to go before I can consider this novel finished, however. There's editing to be done once it returns from Headline, plus proof-reading and copy editing. But still, I breathed an enormous sigh of relief at having finished the manuscript at last. It's been a joy writing this book and I've loved bringing the characters from Murder at the Seaview Hotel back to life.

I'm absolutely over the moon to have been interviewed on the Visit Scarborough podcast about my cosy crime novel set in the seaside resort. My book is the first of a series of three to be set in Scarborough and published by Headline. It's out in ebook, hardback and audiobook in August and in paperback in September. It's called Murder at the Seaview Hotel and you can hear me on the podcast on the Visit Scarborough website. I begin speaking at 9 mins and 50 seconds.

You can enter to win a lot of Scarborough goodies to help celebrate the release on August 5 of Murder at the Seaview Hotel. The winner will receive a signed hardback book, a box of Scarborough fudge, a stick of Scarborough rock, postcards and bookmarks PLUS a solar-powered dancing Elvis! Why Elvis? Because my book stars 12 Elvis impersonators called Twelvis. One is found dead with hisblue suede shoes missing and hotel landlady Helen Dexter is on the case to solve the crime. Five runners-up in the competition will each win a stick of Scarborough rock, postcards and bookmarks. Competition closes on Saturday 7 August at 12 noon. Enter at the pinned post here. Good luck!

Also this week I was very honoured to be included in the weekly newsletter from Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre - who are looking forward to the release of my cosy crime next week.

This week I was very happy to have not just one, but two, novels included in The Bookseller's Buyer's guide to Fiction (August 2021 to Jan 2022). The books featured were my cosy crime Murder at the Seaview Hotel which is out in ebook, hardback and audiobook in August 2021...

...and my saga The Miner's Lass which is out in paperback in October 2021.

Also in the special Northern weekly edition of The Bookseller, The Miner's Lass gets another mention too.

A missing dog and a disappearing husband – can Val solve these mysteries on her first day as a Private Detective? My short story about Val the village detective, called “On The Case” was published this week in The People's Friend Special No. 212. It's a lovely story.

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.