Cover Reveal

Pleased to show off the cover for Charlotte Savage book 5: Two Evils

No prizes for guessing that this house is on Dartmoor, but an honourable mention if anyone can name the place.

Two Evils is out on 18th February 2016.

Chips at Jennycliff. Great #Plymouth tradition #Devon

Hot even in the shade. #Devon

Barrel jellyfish on the estuary. Something out of Doctor Who #Devon

1st day of Summer on the Yealm. Wild. #Devon

Visited @iOrchestraUK installation in #plymouth today. Amazing.

Today's scene features DSupt Hardin in Crownhill Police Station carpark. Exciting, huh?

Working on scene set on Drake's Trail cycle route. Well worth a visit if you are in west #Devon

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1ImpH4F

Progress (of sorts)

I started writing book five at the beginning of January. Considering I had a few distractions along the way I think I've done rather well. Right now I’m coming to the end of the first draft. Hurrah! Cue much celebration, a bottle of something other than cheap supermarket beer, perhaps even some kind of present to myself to mark the occasion. But hang on. I’ve got a pile of words. Tens of thousands of them. I need to check back and see what’s what. And that’s when I realise that all I have is a huge steaming mass of poop. I wonder what my editor thinks of poop? I have a nasty feeling her nose will wrinkle and she’ll say ‘Mark, this is a pile of cr*p.’

She’d be right.

I’m jealous of writers who can turn out word perfect first drafts, their storylines coherent, their characters fully developed, their endings knockout. Because that’s not me. I write by creating scenes and I create those scenes in a random order. One moment I might be working on the end scene and the next jump to one in the middle of the book. Sometimes scenes are disconnected and appear to have nothing to do with the story. When I’ve reached my word count I’ll try to juggle things around and see what happens. Often it’s a process similar to a jigsaw, only where the puzzle has pieces from another mixed in with it. I’ll try to force some scenes into the mix but they won’t fit. In other places they’ll be a missing piece. The whole thing is likely an editor’s nightmare. Which is why no one gets to see it at this stage.

So while you were hoping to find something out about the book by reading this post, I’m afraid I’m going to have to disappoint you. You see I don’t know much about it myself!

Here’s a little teaser though. This cove appears in the book. If you recognise it then full marks - you really know the South Devon coastline.

Phew!

Written at 8 PM on the publication day of Tell Tale.

So the latest book has finally been released into the wild:

...and everything is cool in my little world for a few hours. Until tomorrow. Book five! First draft deadline just three months away! It's enough to drive one to murder. And that's just what I'm going to do as soon as I wake in the morning. Maybe more than one, who knows? The real beauty is I can get away with it, again and again and again. Oh, the joys of being a crime writer.

Thanks to all who supported me today and in all the days prior to publication. Now for a tea and bed and a night of dreams so fiendishly criminal that I can transcribe them directly to the page tomorrow.

G'night.

One Month To Go

There's just a month to go until the publication of Tell Tale, the fourth book in the DI Charlotte Savage series (cover below).

Once again sterling work by the Avon/HarperCollins team in prepping the book. Also a big "thanks" to James Oswald for providing a great review/cover quote. I've long been a fan of James's unique brand of detective fiction so favourable comments from him are especially welcome.

Tell Tale can be read without reading the other CS books, but those who have read Cut Dead (book three) will have been waiting keenly to discover what happens after the final page cliff hanger (believe me after writing the final page I too wanted to know what happened!).

As mentioned in the previous post I have started writing book five. Without giving anything away a few of Charlotte's "issues" are wrapped up in Tale Tale meaning five returns to a good old-fashioned "hunt the killer" type book. There will be twists galore, plenty of surprise and I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying there will likely be a body or three.

Happy New Year

A belated happy New Year to everyone and apologies for the paucity of blog posts in 2014. It is something I intend to rectify in 2015 (if I can keep to my New Years resolutions!).

For me the start of the year is usually about two things. First, the publication of the next Charlotte Savage book. We’re up to number four already. Tell Tale will be out on 12th February in e-book and paperback, the latter available, as they say, from all good bookshops. Second, this week has seen me start book number five and, to be honest, I’m really looking forward to the task ahead. Tell Tale was a complete PITA to write, easily the most difficult so far. Those of you who have read the first three books will know why: Tell Tale sees the resolution of one particular story arc concerning Charlotte’s dead daughter, Clarissa. In addition the real world disrupted my writing schedule and for a couple of months I lost focus. Thank God for my editor! She steered me back onto the straight and narrow and Tell Tale is, I think, a coherent piece of work (I'll leave it to others to judge if it's any good or not).

I can’t tell you exactly what book five is going to be about because I don’t know myself. I do know that I’ll be returning to the serial killer motif, so good citizens of Devon beware! Next week I’m going to be out and about scouting some locations and one place is particularly creepy. I’ll be sure to post a couple of pictures. In the meantime, to coin a phrase, don’t have nightmares!