 It's how a writer's life goes - one book comes out, you send the next in. I am a fortnight away from my deadline on the eighth book in the series, so I'm spending lots (LOTS) of time at the computer. I love working from home but sometimes it can send one a lil stir-crazy -- so recently I moved from working in my office-room at the back of the house to the lounge room at the front. Now I get to look out and see the sky! And the trees! And as you can see in the picture, the cat and the dog are enjoying the change too.
Speaking of book 8 (yet to be titled), I'm auctioning off the name of a character as part of a fundraiser for some friends. This ends on Sunday 16th March. If you win, you get to choose the name, and you'll get a big thank you in the acknowledgements of the book, and wherever you are in the world I'll send you a signed personalised copy before the book comes out in the shops in Feb 2015. You can read more about it and place your bid on my Facebook page here or email me [email protected] I've had great response to Deserving Death - thanks so much to everyone who's been in touch to tell me how much they enjoyed it! Reviews have been excellent too. It's always very satisfying to know that something you worked on so hard actually works for readers. :) I have a literary lunch and a number of library events coming up in the next couple of months in Brisbane, and all the details are on my Events page. In the meantime though, it's back to work! cheers, Katherine.  My author's copies, piled in a lovely stack on my desk. February is here again, which means it's publication time! My brand new book, Deserving Death, is out in shops everywhere, and online too, in print, e book, and audio form. Reviews have started coming in and readers have been in touch telling me how much they enjoyed it going on the new adventure with Ella and paramedics Carly and Tessa.
One great review comes from Fiona Hardy on the Readings Bookshop website: "On a springtime morning in Sydney, two paramedics get a call: to attend to a collapsed woman in Sydenham. The paramedics recognise the address, and when they arrive their worst fears are confirmed: their co-worker and friend, Alicia Bayliss, is found bloody and beaten to death. Just weeks earlier, another paramedic suffered the same grisly fate. In Katherine Howell’s latest Detective Ella Marconi novel, there is as much emotional involvement as there is procedural detail. Marconi is unnerved, sensing unexpected tensions among the paramedics she interviews, while attempting to sustain her relationship with Dr Callum McLennan as the anniversary of his cousin’s death approaches. Marconi is the one who helped find the killer – the doctor’s own perverse father – and McLennan’s mother cannot forgive her for it. Meanwhile, paramedic Carly Martens is troubled, determined to find justice for her dead friend, while waiting to see if her girlfriend will be able to brave her family’s bigotry and disclose their relationship. The emergency services – both police and ambulance – require trust on the field, but in this case, suspicion spreads far and wide. Deserving Death was a revealing and tense read, and the cause of a Very Late Night Staying Up Just To Finish One cough Twelve More Chapters. This is a book full of smart and powerful women, and the men who feel inadequate when confronted by them. Exactly the right kind of crime novel to throw us screaming into 2014." Thanks Fiona! Readers often ask where book ideas come from, and usually I have no good answer because mine develop over time and in foggy circumstances and vague daydreams. Deserving Death was different however: it popped into my head when my partner and I were flying from Los Angeles to New York in 2012. It was the first Saturday after the 4th July, so lots of towns and cities were celebrating, which meant that as we flew through the darkness we looked down on countless fireworks displays, one after another, right across the country. I sat spellbound with my face pressed against the cold window while at the same time my mind wandered through blood and guts and bad bad deeds. Suddenly the idea was there. What if it was paramedics who were getting killed? I pulled out my notebook (never go anywhere without it) and started scribbling. Who died, who did it, and why? It always starts at that point, then expands outwards in all directions. I kept thinking as we got off the flight and caught a cab into the city (and that first view is something I'll never forget), and by the time we were standing on East 42nd Street to eat a 2 am hot dog in a shower of rain, I had the basis worked out. I've not been so fortunate with the eighth book, which I'm writing now--I've been back in the fog, stumbling about, having a sense of the story rather than a clean crisp idea. But I'm used to that :) and it's coming along really well. Is it wrong that I'm already looking forward to its release in February next year?? Meanwhile the year rolls on! I have a few workshops in the early stages of scheduling - one will be a day-long crime writing workshop at the NSW Writers Centre in Sydney, another will be on plotting at the Northern Rivers Writers Centre in Byron Bay. Both of these are late in the year so details aren't on their sites yet. When it's all confirmed, I'll post them on my Learn with Katherine page. There are also a number of library talks coming up, the first at Garden City Shopping Centre in Brisbane on March 22nd, and the details for that are up now on my Events page. (The rest will be listed when confirmed.) But right now, I'm leaping back into writing book 8. If you've got your hands on a copy of Deserving Death, I hope you're enjoying it! And thanks for reading :) cheers, Katherine. |
The latest in Katherine's news, plus what she's been reading.
Archives
March 2017
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed