Twenty Questions with... Paul Gitsham

One of the things I love about Carina is the diversity of genres,; from romances to chick-lit to psychological thrillers and also crime fiction which leads me nicely onto today's guest.

In the #TwentyQuestions hotseat today is Paul Gitsham, author of The Last Straw: A DCI Warren Jones Novel released earlier this week by Carina (Harlequin UK), so please give him a warm welcome as we get underway...

ACT ONE – all about you…

I started my career as a biologist, pursuing my research in such exotic locales as Toronto and Manchester. Along the way I've also had jobs as a massively over-qualified receptionist in a sports centre and spent 6 months working for a major UK bank ensuring that global terrorists and other international ne'er do wells banned from holding UK bank accounts hadn't managed to circumvent global restrictions and open a Junior Savings Account. This was even less exciting than the job as a receptionist. 

Finally I saw the light and decided to pass on my hard-won laboratory skills, bad habits and wilful disregard for Health and Safety (*) to a new generation and retrained as a secondary school science teacher.  I now teach science to 11-18 year olds and creative writing to Sixth Form students.

(*) For legal reasons, I should point out that I take the Health and Well-being of my pupils extremely seriously and am proud to say that none of my pupils have ever suffered permanent disfigurement from one of my science lessons.

A keen writer from an early age, my year 6 report on leaving primary school said  "Keep up the writing and one day you'll be the next Roald Dahl". For the sake of balance, it should be pointed out that it also said, "you will never get anywhere in life if your hand-writing doesn't improve." 

Twenty five years later and my hand-writing has, if anything, deteriorated. On the plus side I am loved by millions of children around the world (*).

(*) This is a lie. Just ask any of the students I've taught.

1) Have you always been a writer or is it something you fell into?

Writing stories was always the best part of any English lesson and I started writing at a very young age. My first memories involve me trying to write the screenplay to E.T., when I was 5 or 6 years old. I was gutted when Mum said I couldn’t because somebody had already written it!

2) Do you have a particular writing style or ritual?

I’m not a great “plotter” – I just “open the bull**** tap and let it pour!”. Because I don’t get to write as often as I’d like, I’m lucky enough to have a headful of scenes all clamouring for my attention, and so I rarely suffer from writer’s block – I typically find myself trying to get down the scene that’s shouting loudest first!

3) Is there a book or an author that has influenced you in your writing?

I love the spare, understated prose of Lee Child. He twists and turns with little warning and isn’t afraid to sit back in the middle of an action scene and let the anticipation build.

4) Is there one piece of writing (or life?) advice that has stuck with you, or that you would like to share?

Join a writers’ circle. Writing is a solo pursuit, but that doesn’t mean it should be done in isolation. Feedback, good and bad, is essential if you ever want your work to be enjoyed by other people.

5) Can you tell us three things about yourself that we probably don’t already know?

I do almost all of my writing in public libraries and have a list of the opening times for all those within 20 miles of my house.

I lost my carefully crafted best-man’s speech 2 days before my mate’s wedding when my laptop died. I had to wing-it using a list of cryptic bullet-points… 

I am a proud geek! As a science teacher, it is entirely acceptable to wear a DNA helix tie, use Harry Potter to teach genetics (the wizarding allele is recessive) and slip references to Star Trek into A level biology lessons (Haemoglobin in human blood is red because it contains iron; Mr Spock’s blood is green because Vulcan haemoglobin contains copper).

6) What five luxury items or gadgets would you hate to be without?

My laptop – I hate writing long-hand

My smartphone – I use it to watch TV and surf the web more than my computer

My memory foam mattress cover! It’s soooo comfortable…

Cheese. ‘nuff said.

BBC Radio 4 – I measure the length of long car journeys by the number of times I hear the pips; and nothing sends me to sleep faster than streaming a documentary on the Bank of England’s strategy for Quantitative Easing using iPlayer!

ACT TWO – all about your new release…

A DCI Warren Jones novel - Book 1 

When Professor Alan Tunbridge is discovered in his office with his throat slashed, the suspects start queuing up. The brilliant but unpleasant microbiologist had a genius for making enemies.

For Warren Jones, newly appointed Detective Chief Inspector to the Middlesbury force, a high-profile murder is the ideal opportunity. He’s determined to run a thorough and professional investigation but political pressure to resolve the case quickly and tensions in the office and at home make life anything but easy.

Everything seems to point to one vengeful man but the financial potential of the professor’s pioneering research takes the inquiry in an intriguing and, for Jones and his team, dangerous direction.

7) Congratulations on your recent release of The Last Straw, what was your inspiration for writing DCI Warren Jones’ story?

Well first of all, I would just like to state categorically, for the record, so there can be no mistake… the story about murdering a university Professor, was not inspired by my own experience as a PhD student – my professor was lovely! That being said, during my years in academia I both witnessed and heard about some pretty shocking behaviour and so it perhaps isn’t entirely surprising that my first novel takes place in such an environment! Add to that the fact that I’d always dreamt of writing a mystery novel ever since I started reading Enid Blyton and The Hardy Boys as a young child and it was almost inevitable! 

8) Did the story flow from your finger tips or did some scenes take a bit of cajoling?

The great thing about detective stories is you can write yourself into a corner and then spend ages banging your head against the wall trying to find a plausible way back out – to date I have yet to find a situation that I’ve had to give up on, but I’m sure it will happen!

9) I see The Last Straw is your debut, how long did it take for the initial spark of the story to make it onto the page and then onto the publisher’s desk?

I started writing it Easter 2011. I finished the first draft November of that year. I then wrote another complete book in the series whilst I drafted and re-drafted book one, before taking the plunge. My best friend bought me the Artists & Writers’ Handbook for my birthday and I started submitting to agents – still no luck by the way, if anybody is interested… - finally CarinaUK picked me up in June 2013.

10) Do you have a favourite paragraph or sentence from your story that you would like to tantalise us with?

Blood. 

Everywhere. Across the walls, over the desk, even splattered on the glowing laptop computer. The human heart is a powerful, muscular pump and a cut artery bleeds out in seconds, spraying red, freshly oxygenated blood across the room like a fire hose.

Tom Spencer removes his gloved hands from the dead man’s throat and rubs them down the front of his lab coat, leaving bloody trails across his chest. Hands shaking, he picks up the blood- covered telephone and presses 9 for an outside line, followed by another three 9s.

“You are through to the emergency services. Which service do you require?”

Spencer’s voice is shaky, his breathing rapid. “Police. There’s been a murder.”

11) Over to you, what can you tell us about The Last Straw, to make us rush out and buy it?

If you like a detective who is as human as the rest of us; who sometimes feels out of his depth and who favours bad 80s music over high-brow classical or existential jazz, then DCI Warren Jones is your man. If you like your mystery stories with a satisfyingly complex plot, interesting and quirky characters and procedural authenticity, then the DCI Warren Jones series will be for you. If you want an insight into the sexual jealousy, treachery and skulduggery that boils beneath the genteel surface of a university department, then The Last Straw is the book for you.

12) What can we expect from you next? Is there something you are working on right now? 

The second title in the series is with the editors as we speak and number three is well under way. DCI Warren Jones has plenty more tales in him yet!

QUICK FIRE ROUND – it’s pop quiz time…

13) Plotter or pantser?

Mostly Pantster

14) Digital books or print books?

Print mostly, but I am enjoying the convenience of my Kindle and the ability to sync to my phone for when I find myself with nothing to do and I’m too far away from my bedside table.

15) Tea or coffee?

Decaff coffee – milk no sugar, thanks. Any chance of a custard cream?

16) Extrovert or introvert?

*I* think I can be a bit of an introvert – anybody stuck in close proximity to me would probably disagree.

17) Facebook or Twitter?

Facebook

18) Christmas or birthday? 

Christmas – everybody’s celebrating, not just you!

19) Morning person or night owl?

Night Owl – even though my alarm clock goes off at 5:30 and I have to leave for school at 6:30 L

20) Sweet or savoury?

Savoury

And that’s a wrap!

Thank you so much for taking part, Paul, I wish you every success with your new release.

To discover even more about Paul Gitsham, and to keep up with his latest projects and shenanigans, you can visit him at: www.paulgitsham.com , follow him on twitter @dcijoneswriter or like his Facebook page www.facebook.com/dcijones

Buy it now…

Add to Goodreads

ISBN: 9781472094698
Release date: 24 March 2014

Carina UK
Amazon UK / US
Nook UK / B&N
Kobo
iBookstore
Google

Twenty Questions with... Reet Singh

I had the pleasure of 'meeting' todays' #TwentyQuestions guest in an author group on Facebook so I am delighted to be able to introduce you all to Reet Singh, author of Scorched by His Fire released last month by Harlequin India...

ACT ONE – all about you…

Reet Singh, a medical professional, has a romantic soul. Most of it is probably inherited from parents who have loved each other dearly forever, but a lot is attributable to the romantic fiction she devours by the kilo. When she's not doctoring people, and when she is not writing, she watches romantic comedies, does creative things with wool and a crochet hook, or struggles with the daily crossword or with online Scrabble. 

Occasionally, she can be found in the kitchen putting together her 'world-famous' one-pot meals – world famous because family scattered all across the face of the earth has, at one point or the other in their lives, encountered a meal that they couldn't guess the constituents of, but found finger-licking good nevertheless. 

Married for nearly three decades, her tall, handsome, and sensitive alpha-husband still makes her heart skip a beat. Writing about love and happy endings feeds her romantic soul and brings to a full circle her love affair with romances, from reading them ardently to writing them. 


1) Have you always been a writer or is it something you fell into?

Aurelia, I'm delighted to be here; thank you!

I have always been a story-teller, in the nicest sense of course! I was sandwiched between a younger sibling who needed entertaining, and an older sibling who had directorial qualities. We ended up enacting make believe stories, and so it was inevitable, I suppose, that I would someday write.

2) Do you have a particular writing style or ritual?

Linear writing, that's what works for me. I tried, with my second romance -  tentatively called 'One Memorable Night in His Bed' - to do some scene structuring, but I floundered, because I could never predict what my characters would do two chapters down the line! Extremely slippery main characters can be sometimes. Even with book one -Scorched by His Fire - once I had fleshed out Mita and Tanay, they took over; for example, I had not planned for a detour to Dubai, but M & T wanted some fun, so off they went before I could say no! That brought home to me that I had better stick to linear writing and not write in bits and pieces, because in the end the pieces mightn't fit. I start from the beginning and carry on stoically to the end. 

As far as ritual is concerned, I have to finish everything, every other chore, before I can sit down and write, so writing is usually the last thing I do every night. I follow this ritual until the deadline is so close I can feel its hot breath on the back of my neck - then I ignore everything else and only write!

3) Is there a book or an author that has influenced you in your writing?

I adore PG Wodehouse, Victoria Holt, Georgette Heyer, and Margaret Way, each excelling with their own unique style. I really wouldn't be surprised if they have surreptitiously crept into my writing.

4) Is there one piece of writing (or life?) advice that has stuck with you, or that you would like to share?

“Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” ― Anton Chekhov 

Show, don't tell! This is one mantra of good writing that I struggle to obey because it makes perfect sense. The reader has to invest something to stay interested even in a good story; you engage better with your reader if you 'show' her by painting a picture with your words, thereby letting her interpret scenes in her own way.

5) Can you tell us three things about yourself that we probably don’t already know?

Ha, I sure can!

1. I am a medical teacher and I love interacting with and growing because of my students. The questions that students ask are incredible tools for my own learning!

2. I have nominal aphasia, which literally means I forget names of people and objects. For inanimate objects, I can get by by saying 'thingy'. As far as animate objects are concerned, people are often compelled to throw thingies at me when I forget people's names (a teensy bit of an exaggeration here, but what the heck - literary license!)

3. I have an irreverent fondness for the ridiculous that sometimes results in foot-in-the-mouth disease!

6) What five luxury items or gadgets would you hate to be without?

My Dell laptop with its internet dongle; cellphone with its whatsapp; the microwave oven; my Kindle White; my my-time (you did say 'luxury' item!)

ACT TWO – all about your new release…

.

Convenient boyfriend, inconvenient attraction!

Mita Ramphul can’t face another family set-up with a ‘nice young man’. What she needs is to divert her family’s attention… so introducing the devastatingly handsome Tanay Devkumar as her new boyfriend is a stroke of brilliance! Until Tanay’s blazing hot kisses threaten to shatter her plans for the perfect pretend date… 

He might drive her crazy, yet spending time with Tanay sparks a passion Mita never knew she had. It’s only meant to be temporary, but when Tanay looks at her with that smouldering fire in his ebony eyes, Mita can’t help but surrender to the temptation of her fake boyfriend…!

7) Congratulations on your recent release of Scorched by His Fire; what was your inspiration for writing Mita and Tanay's story?

Thank you Aurelia! I've always enjoyed reading about tempestuous heroines and the brave, strong men who cannot resist them. Naturally then, Mita and Tanay had to be true to that. A work-related trip to Mauritius; a chance encounter with the tail end of a cyclone; a news story about Kolkata – these inspired the settings for Mita and Tanay to first resist, and then succumb to, the scorching fire of love!

8) Did the story flow from your finger tips or did some scenes take a bit of cajoling?

Some days the words just flew off the keyboard. When they didn't, I would have a little chat with Mita and Tanay before I went to bed; that helped! What also helped was that I worked away inside my head during the long commute to and from work, so that by the time I got home, I would have enough to type up a storm.

9) I see Scorched by His Fire is your debut; how long did it take for the initial spark of the story to make it onto the page and then onto the publisher’s desk?

I started writing it with the long-term goal to send it in some day to Harlequin®; but then, suddenly, Harlequin® India announced their 'Passions' contest for romance writers from India. I sent in an excerpt, was short listed in the final five, and finally won the contest. What followed was a fairytale two-book contract!

10) Do you have a favourite paragraph or sentence from your story that you would like to tantalise us with?

Sure! 

“For  a  moment an  angry  pair  of  eyes  duelled  with  a  cruelly  determined pair. Mita’s heart thundered in her rib cage. For the tiniest moment she felt fear. Tanay could hurt her if he wished. But he didn’t; he broke eye contact, his gaze drawn to her mouth where a pink tongue had emerged to moisten lips  that  were  suddenly  dry.  As  his  eyes  followed  the movement of her tongue, Mita felt her breath catch. She  felt  exquisitely  sensitive;  to  the  feel  of  her  breasts crushed against hard muscle; to his minty breath, warm on her face; the masculine scent of his skin; his ebony eyes, hooded now, but speculative a second ago. 

Tanay was every bit as captivated as Mita. What was it about this woman that got under his skin? He only had to touch her for him to forget his resolve to teach her a lesson. He drew in a sharp breath of air, and drew back, regretfully letting go of her.”

11) Over to you, what can you tell us about Scorched by His Fire, to make us rush out and buy it?

I'll let reader reviews do the talking; my particular favourites are up on Goodreads:

“A modern Lucy Walker - (Ms Walker piqued our interest in Australia) - Reet Singh wants us to see Mauritius as she sees it. The story line is gripping and you cannot put down the book till the last page is read.”

 and

“Set in balmy Mauritius, Reet gives us a wonderful bird’s view of life on the island and skillfully weaves in different and scenic locations that immediately pulled this reader in. And the lead characters’ interactions from the opening scene are, to say the least, explosive. Tanay and Mita do not get along at all, and yet are thrown together through very interesting circumstances.”

12) What can we expect from you next? Is there something you are working on right now?

My second romance for Harlequin® India is about a quarter done; I've tentatively called it ' One Memorable Night in His Bed'. Simi, an almost-ready-to-graduate medical student from India, and Rudy, a surgeon, meet up in New York, and carry the sparks-that-fly all the way to India. I'm excited about this one too and hope to have it on bookshelves later this year.

QUICK FIRE ROUND – it’s pop quiz time…

13) Plotter or pantser?

Pantser; I seriously tried my hand at plotting for book two, but was all at sea; also, I felt that  it would involve a ton of editing later, so went back to living life on the edge!

14) Digital books or print books?

Print books, but am rapidly falling in love with digital. Did I mention I have published one of each? My Kindle Direct book is The Zaken Takeover. It is all about aliens and abductions and is understandably for children, although adults looking for a short read may also try it.

15) Tea or coffee?

Tea first thing when I wake; coffee (only if it is Indian filter coffee) for elevenses.

16) Extrovert or introvert?

Extrovert.

17) Facebook or Twitter?

Facebook; I still don't get how twitter works, although I'm a twitterati too.

18) Christmas or birthday?

Birthdays.

19) Morning person or night owl?

Morning, any day!

20) Sweet or savoury? 

Sweet, definitely, but don't tell my dentist!

And that’s a wrap!

Thank you so much for taking part, Reet; I wish you every success with your new release.

To discover even more about Reet Singh, and to keep up with her latest projects and shenanigans, you can visit her at http://reetsingh.in.

She would love to hear from you, so write in at reetsingh.author@gmail.com or tweet to her at @AuthorReet.

Buy it now…

Add to Goodreads

ISBN: 9789351063742
Released: 1 February 2014

HQN India
Amazon India
Flipkart
Crossword
Infibeam

(not yet available internationally)

Price drop... Popping the Cherry **JUST 59p/99c**

So this happened over the weekend!

Since then, the price has gone down even more in the UK! o_O

Yes, you can now snap up a copy of Popping the Cherry, book 1 in my YA/NA series, for the princely sum of just 59p in the UK and only 99c in the US. Oh, and it's €1-ish for my Irish and other European contingent.

Crazy!

The promotion is across most major ebook retailers including Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, Nook UK, Google Books and more. You can find all of the links HERE.

The blurb...

Click here for book trailer

You only get one first time...

From driving tests to relationships, Valentina Bell thinks she's a failure, with a big fat capital F. At this rate, she's certain she'll be a virgin forever. So Lena's friends plan Operation: Popping the Cherry to help her find the perfect first time.

Yet somehow disastrous dates with bad boy musicians and fabulous evenings with secretly in-the-closet guys aren't quite working out how Lena planned.

Soon Lena's avoiding Operation: Popping the Cherry to spend time with comforting, aloof Jake, her best friend's older brother ,who doesn't make her feel self-conscious about still clinging to her V card. But could Jake show Lena that sometimes what you're looking for most is right by your side?

A Forever for the twenty-first century