Finding The Love Solution
Today is publication day for The Love Solution, a fun rom-com with a difference, which has been published under my pen-name, name Ashley Croft. This is a… Read More
Avon Authors
A Wonderfully Magical Wildflower Park
As a child I spent many happy hours engrossed in books and many more lost in my own imaginary world. Stories like The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Enid Blyton’s Secret Island captured my imagination and transported me to somewhere magical. I got that same sensation when… Read More
Balancing Fact and Fiction
Using Real-Life Experiences in My Novels The Missing Wife is my fourth psychological suspense novel and as its publication day fast approaches I’ve been thinking about what ‘goes in’ to my novels: where the ideas come from, how the characters are developed, how I choose their traits and back stories,… Read More
How characters move a story along in unexpected ways
Authors sometimes talk about how characters can come alive on the pages as they write. Sometimes these people we create take on a life all of their own and it can feel as if they, and not us as writers, are the ones putting words down on a page. In… Read More
A Fling in the Scottish Highlands
20th May 2019 sees the release of my fourth book, Secret Things and Highland Flings. Unlike the previous three books, the theme of this book is more along the lines of ‘crime comedy caper’ with a twist of romance, rather than a traditional ‘rom-com’ formula. I’ve taken a bit of… Read More
A Perfect Cornish Festival
The light was mellow, the sun drowsily warm as we drove down the hill towards the sleepy little Cornish fishing village of Porthleven. We planned on a stroll round the famous double harbour, maybe a drink in the pub if we could find one open late on a Sunday afternoon… Read More
The Good and Bad in us all
As I get ready to publish my thirteenth crime novel, which is the second book in the DS Grace Allendale series, Tick Tock, I’m already wondering what my readers will think of it. I always like to find the light within the darkness, even though I write crime thrillers. I’m… Read More
Puzzles and Plots
Some intuitive writers sit down at their desks with no more than the wisp of an idea in their heads, and let the story unfold as they write. That’s never been me. I don’t write a word of my books until I have worked up a clear outline of the… Read More
In Search of Nelson’s Bar
I love sunshine, I love the sea and I love my job as an author. These three things came together beautifully when I took a research trip to the north Norfolk coast in a heatwave last summer to decide where to place the tiny village in A Summer to Remember. Read More
New Beginnings
New beginnings can be scary. The main reason being that it normally follows an ending. In my forty-something years, I have had a few new beginnings, and with each new beginning – whether it was when I moved to Singapore, or decided to concentrate all my efforts into becoming a… Read More
Motherhood, crime writing and hypocrisy
Most of the time, my career as a writer perfectly complements being a mother of three. I’m extremely fortunate. I take my children to school and pick them up. I never miss a parents’ evening or sports game, and I’m always around to help with homework or to run an… Read More
The Best World War Two Films and TV series for Complete Obsessives
For a World War Two obsessive there’s no greater event for me than finding a wonderful new novel set in this period or a history podcast I can devour. But if I want a real feast for the senses—a real visual indulgence in WW2 nostalgia, I delve into the wonder… Read More
Poison in life and literature
My fascination with poison began in the early nineteen eighties. Then, as a young woman fresh from university, I worked at the UK National Poison’s Information Service at Guy’s Hospital, London, as part of a team specially trained to provide information on the treatment of poisoning. A service for members… Read More
Ten tips to help you deal with writer’s block
In my new book, The Mini-Break, my main character Lulu is a successful, popular romance writer who has been published around the world. Suddenly she gets writer’s block. I could be wrong, but I think most writers experience this. I have done some exhaustive, in depth research (I asked my… Read More
How My First Trip to Morocco Changed Everything
It had begun like any last minute away break – booking a cheap Easyjet flight to Marrakech, a trip to Boots for travel stuff and the bank machine for some cash, last minute packing, and a 3am taxi to Gatwick with my friend Marilyn (the friend who’d strong-armed me to… Read More
When I met DS Josie Masters again
Hello, old friend! It’s been a while…’ Bringing back a main character in series fiction is an odd feeling. Life as writer has moved on, but the protagonist of one’s creation has remained in a sort of limbo world, needed no more after the final page of the previous book. Read More