My last staff job was as Assistant Fiction Editor on Woman’s Weekly and Woman & Home – many years ago now. For a year before that I’d worked on a confessions magazine where I had my very first short story accepted and published. Strangely enough, that story involved a crime: blackmail with the perpetrator – the “I” of the confessional – ending up losing her job. Moral retribution.
Some of the serials we published in WW and W&H were written specifically for those magazines. Others were novels about to be published and serialised beforehand. Most were romances – although W&H allowed a wider remit and we had thrillers as well but always with a romantic perspective.
Most novels had to be abridged and each episode had to end with a cliff-hanger – some novels lent themselves to this easily. Others had to be worked on. I also had to learn the art of the synopsis as each week or month we began with “The story so far…” And even though I became adept at this I still find it difficult to write synopses for my own work!
Romantic stories tend to be predictable – the skill is to keep the reader hooked regardless. So many people (not authors) have told me that writing a romance is easy. I’d like to see them try. They are really difficult to get right. And if you’re not sincere, this will be exposed in your writing.
During this time, I tried my hand at short stories but without success. It took me some time to find my “voice” although I was given some encouragement along the way. By the time I left IPC magazines, I had some good contacts and translated two books from French for WH Allen (one under a pseudonym as it was an erotic novel for which I had to learn a lot of new words!).
While freelancing as a journalist, I started writing tales with a twist for Bella and also wrote longer stories. A lot of the twist stories had an element of crime – from bigamy to murder – involved. I also wrote an historical crime story linked to Sherlock Holmes, which was published in Candis.
Then came the commission to interview a police officer and a prostitute at King’s Cross and the knock on the door in the middle of the night which started a trail of “what ifs” that eventually became Dancers in the Wind.
I’ve always had a passion for reading crime fiction from Dickens and Wilkie Collins to Edgar Allan Poe and, of course, Arthur Conan Doyle. Patricia Highsmith, Minette Walters and Sara Paretsky all feature in my list of favourites. There are some great crime writers around now – each one with different skills and perspectives – and I love reading them especially the police procedurals that I’d never attempt myself.
In my novels the police investigation is in the background while Hannah investigates from a journalist’s point of view although there is always a personal connection which leads her into harrowing situations. And just with a nod to my past editorial roles, there’s also just an element of romance.
Dancers in the Wind is on sale in Foyles and other bookshops and can be ordered from Amazon UK or Hive Stores with free delivery.