‘Write what you know’ they say... By Helen Hollick

 

It is always a pleasure having the wonderful, Helen Hollick visiting PBHQ. Helen’s visit today is even more special because Helen is talking about her latest book. It is a new genre for Helen, a cosy murder mystery. If you love cosy mysteries, you will love this book and if you don’t, then please treat yourself, I promise you won’t be disappointed.  Now help your self to a glass of bubbly and settle down to meet Helen and her new character, Jan Christopher...

 

When writers are asked, ‘How do I start writing a book’ (setting aside the obvious answer of ‘put bottom on seat and just write!’) the usual answer is ‘Write what you know about.’

Which I’ve always found to be a little puzzling as I write historical fiction and eighteenth-century nautical adventures. I don’t actually know any post-Roman Britons, was not there at the Battle of Hastings (I’m not that old!) and nor have I ever sailed in anything bigger than a small dinghy. However, the art of writing is making it up - with a lot of research added in.

 

When I came up with an idea to write a cosy murder mystery, however, I knew exactly where and when I was going to set it – and use as much of ‘what I know’ as I possibly could. I decided to set A Mirror Murder in the 1970s, using my experience as a library assistant during that decade for my lead character, Jan Christopher. Her uncle and legal guardian is DCI Toby Christopher, and she forms a romantic alliance with his Detective Constable, Laurie Walker. I had my characters, the setting, the plot – the murder (and the murderer) but to my astonishment I discovered that I had to do as much research for 1971 as I did for 1719!

 Did we have teabags back then? What fashions were popular? How did the police communicate in the ‘70s? (Remember the blue police telephone boxes now only used in episodes of Dr Who?) 1971 seems only yesterday but it’s actually fifty years ago! No computers back then, no internet, no mobile phones. When I left school us girls were expected to be shop assistants, hairdressers, typists or housewives and mothers – not meaning any disrespect to these, but at the lower level of Secondary School education, we were not thought bright enough to consider anything even remotely intellectual.

 Like me, in A Mirror Murder Jan Christopher knew that she wanted to write, but her ‘I want to be a writer’ was scorned by the teachers. She liked books and reading, so was guided to apply for a job in the local library. A library assistant was regarded as one of the more elite jobs. Even so, the librarian was always addressed as ‘Mr’, never by his first name. Equality was only on the brim back then, and if you were shy and naïve – like I was – well, you didn’t question anything, you just accepted it.

 Jan, (her full name is January, but she only uses ‘Jan’) is a little bit like I was at eighteen; shy, not worldy-wise, but I wanted to give her more opportunities than I had, bring out her confidence, her conviction in herself. All helped, of course by the dishy DC Laurie Walker who becomes her boyfriend.

 I enjoyed writing a little bit of fictional revenge into my story. One of the librarians at a library where I was sent to cover for absent staff was a bully. I’ve got my own back in A Mirror Murder; I’ve made him experience the displeasure of the Chingford CID! But, no spoilers...

 Most of the public who came into the library were lovely people, although there were those who grumbled (they will be in future stories – I might even murder one or two of them!) The old lady, used in A Mirror Murder, who cut food coupons out of the newspaper was real, as was the young lad who made a puzzling request for a book (again, no spoilers). We put new books under the counter for our favourite borrowers, learnt quickly that shelving returned books was not a task to be hurried (the longer you took the less likely you’d get other boring jobs to do.) Even during the electricity power cuts because of strikes during the three-day-week in the early ’70s we had people insisting that they could use a torch to select their books, and while tidying the shelves of a morning before the library opened various items would be found... an uncooked rasher of bacon used as a bookmark...

  

BUYING LINK:

Amazon Author Page (Universal Link) http://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick

 

The first in a new series of cosy mysteries set in the 1970s... Will romance blossom between library assistant Jan Christopher and DC Laurie Walker – or will a brutal murder intervene?

 Eighteen-year-old library assistant Jan Christopher’s life is to change on a rainy Friday evening in July 1971, when her legal guardian and uncle, DCI Toby Christopher, gives her a lift home after work. Driving the car, is her uncle’s new Detective Constable, Laurie Walker – and it is love at first sight for the young couple.

 

But romance is soon to take a back seat when a baby boy is taken from his pram,  a naked man is scaring young ladies in nearby Epping Forest, and an elderly lady is found, brutally murdered... Are the events related? How will they affect the staff and public of the local library where Jan works – and will a blossoming romance survive a police investigation into  murder?

 

ABOUT HELEN

Helen and her family moved from north-east London in January 2013 after finding an eighteenth-century North Devon farmhouse through BBC TV’s popular Escape To The Country show.

 First accepted for publication by William Heinemann in 1993 – a week after her fortieth birthday – Helen then became a USA Today Bestseller with her historical novel, The Forever Queen (titled A Hollow Crown in the UK) with the sequel, Harold the King (US: I Am The Chosen King) being novels that explore the events that led to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Her Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy is a fifth-century version of the Arthurian legend, and she also writes a pirate-based nautical adventure/fantasy series, The Sea Witch Voyages.

 Her non-fiction books are Pirates: Truth and Tales and Life of A Smuggler. She also runs Discovering Diamonds, a review blog for historical fiction. She is currently writing more Voyages for the Sea Witch series and the next in the Jan Christopher Mysteries series. She has other ideas for other tales – and would like the time to write them!

 CONNECT WITH HELEN:

Website: www.helenhollick.net

Newsletter Subscription: http://tinyletter.com/HelenHollick

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helen.hollick

Twitter: @HelenHollick

 

Thank you for stopping by and please come back as Helen had more to tell. Yes, of course, there will be bubbly. Now you must return.

I hope the sun is shining on your face and in your hear.

 Hugs

Pauline