Faith Mortimer-author of crime, suspense, romance & action
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Before Dawn ~ Elita Daniels ~ featured author

28/2/2012

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_ G'Day,

It seems apt that as I've spent the last three and a half weeks in Australia visiting my darling little grandson, my next featured author should live in Australia too. So before I leave these shores for Thailand please welcome Elita Daniels, author of Before Dawn, Tree of Life Book two.  As each and every author I've featured on here, Elita has her own unique way of writing and planning her next novel. Thank you for participating Elita...

 

The idea for Tree of Life came as an isolated scene in my mind of mother and son running from something or someone who wanted to hurt them. There was no story to speak of until my old dog passed away and the reality of mortality hit me. I became completely obsessive about death and I struggled with the idea of having to lose loved ones and that one day my life would end, too.  

With the idea of mortality a story was beginning to take shape. But it wasn't until I came across a picture of Murtagh (a character from Christopher Paolini's Inheritance cycle) that I realised who my main character was going to be. I decided he would be the little boy and that something terrible would happen to him, and he would have to be raised in the immortal elven realm where he suffers the enhanced realities of his morality. I wanted Nature and the elves to be his antagonists, and I wanted him to be his own enemy, not just the bad guys. I also wanted a love story weaved in there with a dark priestess, which he struggles with, so even love itself becomes an enemy. 

The story for Tree of Life came together very quickly then. I went through the process I always do when writing. I keep hundreds of notes. I find as I start writing  ideas just keep coming on their own accord, especially at night when I'm in that stage in between awake and asleep, so I try to keep a pen and paper next to the bed. I like to set my mind to dreaming about different scenes in the story, like a movie going on in my head. 

I also ask myself a lot of questions, starting with the main character - want does he want, what does he hate? If he wants something unusual, who else wants it and who are they? What world is he in? Who is he going to fall in love with? I find asking myself questions will just keep building and fleshing out the story as I answer them. 

I never, ever imagined I would become a writer, even though I've always had a fascination with stories, usually in the form of movies. The two things that motivated me to write were escapism from pain and wanting to be involved in the movie industry. I wrote a screenplay for Project Greenlight and made it to top one hundred with some pretty encouraging feedback. So I decided to try my hand at novel writing with hopes of one day having them adapted into movies. 

One of the reasons I wanted to become an actor was to not only lose myself in fantastic roles, but also to work with extraordinary people who share a passion over the same project and sort of become a little family. I'm experiencing a similar satisfaction being an author. Working with a small team of people who get excited over the same project, the story, the cover design, the videos, and everything else that goes into bringing a book to life. It's been a pleasure to work with my friends and family, and all of you who have supported me along the way. We still have a long way to go, but I'm looking forward to it!  

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Thanks Elita - and thanks everyone who has been following my seriesof featured authors. My next blog post should see me back in Cyprus at the beginning of March. 

May I take this opportunity to thank all of you fab people who have supported me these last few weeks. Both The Assassins' Village and Children of the Plantation, and not forgetting The Surgeon's Blade have done phenomenally well on Amazon. THANK YOU! You all rock!
Have a great week and weekend ahead everyone.

Faithx


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Cosy /Cozy Mystery and 4 Days in a Row

9/7/2011

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Cosy /Cozy Mystery and 4 Days in a Row

Well I’d set myself a tough target this past week whilst hubby was away visiting the family in England. I’ve wanted to write a small collection of short stories and now seemed the perfect time. After waving goodbye to him at the airport in Paphos I sat down to start on Wednesday morning. Four days later I have achieved just that. Super. I now have four short stories all around 2500 words long. Reading through them later they all seem to bear a moral tale too, strange. Give me a week or two and I’ll publish them on Amazon. Watch this space!

Some of my writer friends tell me that things have picked up since June. My book sales are slightly above par but revenue is up. Wahoo! Can’t wait for that Amazon cheque (turns away for a laugh!)

I’ve playing around with my website this week too. It’s still a bit of a mess – I’m no techie and I have to design by trial and error. I also lose things – somehow? Please excuse the site and I promise to try harder.

Recently, I’ve heard The Assassins’ Village described as a cosy or cozy mystery. Now I’ve heard of that term before but never really thought too much about it. What exactly does it mean?

When I was writing my second novel, I knew it was a mystery, but I wasn’t sure of its sub-genre. So doing a bit of thinking and research (I love that) I’ve come up with this.

A cosy or cozy depending which side of the Atlantic you’re on, is a fast-paced, feel-good read that, when you put it down, you can hardly wait to get back to it. The story contains lots of clues (as well as red herrings or wild-goose chases). This gives the reader a chance and the feeling of wanting to solve the mystery along with the sleuth. The victim has no real emotional attachment for the reader—s/he’s the villain —so the reader isn’t upset by their death. We have twists and turns as well as surprises but, in the end, justice prevails and the sleuth is the heroine as shown by my own Diana Rivers in The Assassins’ Village.

The cozy’s heroine is usually an amateur sleuth (take Jane Hickson in Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple). This role she’s fallen into because she’s intelligent, intuitive, and downright nosey. She’s usually connected to the crime by someone she knows or because she was nearby when it happened. She’s likable, though flawed in a way that is not going to offend the reader – often a minor flaw, showing the reader that the sleuth is human too.

The sleuth has strong relationships; lots of friends, family, acquaintances who feed her missing links to solve the mystery. These characters are often eccentric, annoying, or amusing—just like people we all know. Frequently the protagonist has a friend or spouse who knows facts about the crime that aren’t yet public. This could be a member of the police force, or a prying neighbour for example.

The cosy’s sleuth usually has another job—solving crimes is something she does because she wants to. She could be a shop owner, doctor, nurse, —or she might be retired with extra time on her hands. Instead of or in addition to a profession, a cosy might have a hobby such as sewing, knitting, tennis, or gardening.

The murder in a cosy isn’t described with an excess of gore – this is no Patricia Cornwell look alike. It usually happens before the real story begins like at the beginning. Sometimes there are multiple murders, but they’re described in general terms—not too much blood and guts.

A cosy is often geographically specific, usually in a small town or village, my novel is set in an old and small Cyprus village, complete with a motley collection of people all given rounded characters.

Of course there has to be law enforcement—but they are often short-staffed, unavailable and ineffectual in the short term. Procedural accuracy is often overlooked and not necessarily needed in this genre and the police seldom take the protagonist seriously. A lot of cosies are written as a part of a series because this allows the reader to become emotionally involved with the recurring characters on an on-going basis.

I believe the real measure of a cosy, is a book you want to read while snuggled in your favourite chair on a cold, miserable afternoon, hot chocolate to hand. This is a book that when you finish it, it leaves you with a smile on your face and you’re left wondering when the next one will be published.

Just noticed! The Assassins’ Village is now ranking number 28 in Kindle #mystery & thrillers #women sleuths. AND The Bamboo mirror is ranking number 10 in Kindle #history #horror #ghosts! Wahoo! These are the highest rankings these two books have reached.

What a fantastic week. Thank you everyone! And I hope you all have an equally good week yourselves ahead.

Faithx

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The Harper Collins Review for The Assassins' Village

30/4/2011

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The Harper Collins review for The Assassins’ Village.

Well, what a fantastic, exciting week I’ve just had. I’ve seen the launch of my latest book, The Assassins’ Village in Amazon’s Kindle (Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk And Amazon.de), and received my long-awaited review from Harper Collins.
The review reads very well; constructive, full of praise and very positive – thanks HC! I’ve included the highlights here for you to see;

The Assassins Village.

‘The Assassin’s Village’ is a traditional murder mystery, set in Cyprus. It centres on the brutal murder of Mr Leslie, an expatriate whose Lothario ways, military past and cavalier demeanour have earned him no shortage of enemies among the villagers. It is a novel written very much in the style of Agatha Christie: a classic who-done-it, in a small, gossiping, rural village. The prose is brought up-to-date with the fairly explicit themes of sexual liberation and exploitation.

As a thrilling read, ‘The Assassin’s Village’ certainly fits the bill. I flew through the first 19 chapters. The prose is easy to follow, and dramatic in duly regular intervals. I was particularly engaged by the different perceptions of Mr Leslie. We are already interested in the character, knowing from the prologue that he is to be our victim, and the author cleverly throws our judgment of him with every new perspective. Particularly endearing is the relationship between Antigone and Mr Leslie. Indeed, the sequence of chapter seven, where Antigone watches her brother hunting, is by far the strongest in the novel so far. It illustrates all of the strengths of the writing, the prose is obviously impeccably researched, and brings in a political element that raises the calibre of the story; the setting is evocative; and the characterisation is strong and feels fresh…

…I should say that, I really like the way you subverted normal linear chronology to lay out the events. It is, clear that you are capable of presenting the clues very well, and I particularly liked the way you used Diana’s sketching to map out the facts and unlock the possibilities.

From here I would consider the relevance of everything in the plot. There are many motifs centred on the play, Macbeth – the suggestions of occult activities, the play being put on by the villagers, the quotes prefacing each chapter, the relationship between Antigone and Mr Leslie, and Mr Leslie’s endearing side in general, the political history, and the parallels of Diana’s writing to the unfolding of the broader plot are all strong – these are all interesting themes…

... Overall, there is a lot to commend in this manuscript. Editor, Harper Collins.

Fine praise for, The Assassins’ Village indeed. So now there’s nothing to stop you from going out and buy your Kindle copy – just £0.69p or $1.14. Now that is not going to break the bank is it?!

Just a word…if you don’t have an e-reader of some sort you can still read, The Assassins’ Village. Simply download a free application to enable you to read e-formatted books from your search engine, then download The Assassins’ Village from Amazon and presto – you can read it on your pc.

Now something even sweeter; try this recipe for perhaps the best pudding of them all:

Lemon Delicious Pudding

This is a classic and, in many families, the ultimate pudding - the golden sponge topping hiding a creamy lemon sauce. Lemon delicious belongs to the era when a roast was invariably followed by a hot pudding. Making 2 dishes rather than just 1 would have been seen as a sensible way of utilising the heat from the oven.

Serves 8

    2 lemons
    60 g butter
    1 1/2 cups castor sugar
    3 eggs, separated
    3 tablespoons self-raising flour
    1 1/2 cups milk

Preheat oven to 180°C and butter a 1 litre oven proof basin or serving dish. Zest 1 of the lemons and juice both. In a food processor, cream butter with zest and sugar, then add egg yolks. Add flour and milk alternately to make a smooth batter. Scrape mixture from sides of processor bowl and blend in lemon juice. Transfer to a clean basin. Whisk egg whites until creamy and firm and fold gently into batter. Pour batter into prepared basin. Stand basin in a baking dish and pour in hot water to come halfway up sides of basin. Bake for 1 hour. Allow to cool a little before serving. I like lemon delicious best with pouring cream.

Have a great day!

Faithx

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