¿Hablas español? - Do you speak Spanish?

 If you do, then you might be pleased to know that two of my novels, Ring of Lies and The House on the Shore now are available in Spanish.  Translated by Ailin Denoya, they are available in ebook and print formats.

Here for my Spanish readers is a look at the lovely new covers designed by the very talented Mae Phillips at Cover Fresh Designs and the translated synopsis for each book.

Anillo de Mentiras/Ring of Lies

Cuando Daniel Elliott, el contador inglés, muere en un accidente automovilístico en una noche lluviosa, su viuda, Grace, es superada por el dolor... y el pánico. Daniel era controlador, y en su matrimonio no había amor, pero él siempre cuidaba de la protegida Grace. 

 O eso pensaba ella.

Pronto descubre que Daniel tenía secretos: un alias, lazos con la mafia, una lista de números, una misteriosa casa en Florida... y una novia que se parecía a Grace. 

 Tragando su miedo, ella tomó un vuelo a Miami para reclamar la casa que Daniel le dejó. Pero el precio de su curiosidad es el peligro. Figuras del inframundo la persiguen. La otra mujer ha dejado un maldito sendero de evidencia que apunta hacia ella. Y el buenmozo y fastidioso agente del FBI, Jack West, había cruzado caminos precarios con Grace anteriormente. Él podía ser su salvación o su condena. Todo lo que ella sabe con certeza, es que anhela estar en sus brazos. 

 Con casi nada para seguir y peligro a cada paso, Grace debe depender de Jack para ayudarla a navegar el mundo criminal de Florida sur, y encontrar la verdad detrás del anillo de mentiras.

 Sales Links:

Amazon eBook

Amazon Print version

Apple

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Scribd

La Case Sobre La Orilla/The House on the Shore

Anna MacDonald, con el corazón roto, deja Edinburgh para encontrar la paz al final de un lago escocés. Instalada de forma segura en la cabaña de su difunta abuela, finalmente puede sanar su corazón y escribir la novela que ardió dentro de ella por muchos años.

Su paz es de corta duración. Cuando el yate del elegante artista, Luke Tallantyre, se queda varado en el lago, él busca ayuda en la residencia más cercana – la cabaña de Anna. Ella, lo encuentra irritante. A él, le disgusta la maravillosa pero fastidiosa ermitaña. 

Pero hay una evidencia indiscutible de que un sicario está al acecho en el pueblo. ¿Está buscando a Anna? ¿Y qué es lo que Luke le está ocultando que podría agravar el peligro? Contra su voluntad, unen fuerzas y se embarcan en una aventura jamás imaginada… dando la oportunidad al verdadero amor.

Sales Links:

Amazon - available shortly

Apple  

Barnes and Noble

Kobo  

Scribd - available shortly

New Year, New Goals

I've been a very bad blogger of late... but I've had my reasons, which I wont bore you with, but suffice to say they've involved a few trips to the Accident and Emergency Department at our local hospital.

However, now that matters are more or less under control, I'm once again working on my manuscript and determined to finish it before summer is out.

One of the questions I'm frequently asked when giving talks, is where do I get my ideas?  Are they generated by things I read in the newspaper or hear on TV?  Is it a snippet of conversation overheard in a coffee shop that creates that spark and the idea for a novel?

Actually, it's none of the above!  With me, it's places.  My first novel, Three Weeks Last Spring is set on the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest.

The small, picturesque town of Friday Harbor, is unspoilt, and yet lies on a busy shipping route. The Islands are a paradise for wildlife as whales, sea otters and bald eagles .  I realised that it would take very little to upset the ecology of the islands and thus the idea for Three Weeks Last Spring was born.

The idea second novel, The House on the Shore, came from my experiences of managing a small company involved in the offshore oil and gas industry and from working as an administrator on an estate.  I'd also spent twenty years living on a croft in the North East of Scotland and was familiar with the area around Loch Hourn, the setting for the novel.

While sat on the beach on Gasparilla Island, on Florida's Gulf coast, admiring the stunning beach houses, I started to think about how it would feel to own one.  (Note the aspiration, readers!) I played around with the idea for a couple of hours while I thought about how much I was missing the winter weather back home in England (not one little bi, in case you were wondering!), until I had the rough outline of a plot.  Ring of Lies, was published eighteen months later and tells the story of Grace Elliott's struggle to navigate her way through the criminal world of South Florida.

All of which, brings me to my the book I'm currently working on.  It has a title, but I'm not going to share it at the moment.  However, I will tell you that it is set in the Peak District, in Derbyshire, and, as before, it was a place that gave me the idea.  See if you can recognise the setting from the photograph. 

You’ve come up with an amazing idea for a novel, so what’s next? Part 3

You’ve written your outline and/or plotted your novel. You’ve named your characters and given them a background, and are itching to put pen to paper, but what about the setting for your novel?

Many seasoned novelists will tell new authors to write about what they know, and its good advice. But most people see reading as a form of escapism from the humdrum of everyday life.

Just as life experiences often given us ideas for novels, places we travel to can often be the source of inspiration when it comes to settings. For example, when I set out to write my first novel, Three Weeks Last Spring, I had recently returned from a holiday in Seattle, Washington. Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands are spectacular. I realised that it wouldn’t take much to upset the ecological balance of the area. An oil spill from a tanker and the wildlife, in particular, the seabirds and mammals, would be facing a catastrophe, equal only to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound in Alaska. That vacation, not only gave me the setting for my novel, but also the idea for the story.

I knew I wanted to set my second novel in Scotland, but I needed an idea for a story, and a setting. Having lived there for twenty years I had travelled the length and breadth of the country, but I also had firsthand knowledge of the offshore oil industry. I recalled a visit to the west coast, and the drive along the single-track road to Loch Hourn, a fjord-like sea loch, and decided it would be a wonderful setting for a novel. But what to write about?

A little further south lays Loch Kishorn, another sea loch, and the site of the now defunct Howard Doris Construction yard. I tried to imagine how the occupants of the three small settlements on the shore, known collectively as Kishorn, must have felt when the Highland Council granted permission for Howard Doris to use the loch as a construction facility for offshore oil platforms.

From that setting, and my knowledge of the offshore industry, the idea for The House on the Shore, evolved.

So you see setting can be used as a plot devise. An isolated Scottish Glen, a bankrupt factitious Laird, desperate to salvage his family fortunes, and an offshore construction company seeking to build a deepwater facility, became the ingredients for a romantic suspense novel. But it’s a novel based on fact.

As a writer you should always be aware of your surroundings – you never know your next vacation or trip to the countryside could be the setting for a novel.