Welcome to my autumn update!
Hello to everyone across the globe. First of all, I hope you're all keeping well wherever you are, and have managed to have a read of my latest novel, The Moscow Whisper. It was an absolute joy to write, especially weaving in the many twists and plots, and I'm delighted to say it became a number one Kindle best seller in Australia in terrorism, and became a UK best seller in assassinations. Alongside that, The Failsafe Query has just become a number one best seller in the UK and Australia too.
A huge thank you to you all who have been reading and promoting my novels across the world. Readers who enjoy the stories make it all worthwhile. Talking of the world, I'm pleased to say my mum arrived back to UK shores last week having spent eleven months in New Zealand! Obviously a great, and safe place for her to be when they got locked down there (with us due to visit our families in the spring), but suffice to say, she loved it so much, she tried everything in the book to stay there longer!. All our family have a great affiliation to New Zealand and their wonderful people, with my fabulous wife hailing from the Bay of Plenty, so I thought it was time to bring her home town into my next novel - The Third Avenue. A sinister piece of action takes places in Tauranga and the spy novel weaves a theme of global terror that perhaps only one man can take down. Or can he? Enter Sean Richardson, given a mission that is almost suicidal in nature against a new and quite terrifying enemy. I've had a ball plotting this fourth novel - with all the bizarre happenings across the globe right now, it was tricky to choose which geo-political themes to pick up on. But I think I've picked the right one. As many of you know, my novels are closely related to current day activity across the globe, and I like to put the reader in a position where the novel is reflective of what they are seeing in the news on a daily basis. Then I love to get under the truth, and present the areas of espionage that are rarely seen or talked about. Hopefully I can pull it off for a fourth time! I really hope you enjoy all the stories, and do please share this mail and let families and friends know about the escapades of Sean and his gang. |
|
|
As the nights get darker, so does the story development for my work in progress, 'The Third Avenue.' I'm really enjoying pulling the plot together with a new and terrifying enemy for the second trilogy. I'm about half way through at the moment, around 48k words, with an aspiration to finish the first draft by the end of December. Then the real hard work begins. Editing, shaping, polishing, adjusting the plot, inserting new twists and turns - it's the part I really enjoy the most. I already know the ending, but the curious part when I write, is that it's actually the characters that lead me there as I type away! |
|
They take me on the journey - not the other way around, simply because they are so alive and exist for real in the world I write in. I actually never know what's coming next as the story progresses, and Sean is hard to control, but I do start out with a loose mind map of the story and a character linkage map like the one in the button further down the newsletter. From that, I can create all manner of twists and turns from the linkages between each person in the story. I hope you all enjoy this next novel, as it's a slightly different and more risky pivot towards something entirely new for me. But great fun to write and explore! |
|
|
It's still a bit raw, and not fully edited, but have a read of the first two chapters to see the trajectory of the storyline. | | |
|
|
I'm delighted to say I received my rights back from the publisher for the Failsafe Query, and immediately set about publishing it as a second edition. It's tighter, bolder, and still a riveting read as the first novel in the trilogy. If you haven't read it, your free copy is below. |
|
|
The Backstory - Free Download |
|
|
Interested in the backstory to The Failsafe Thrillers? How the characters were created from the personas & foibles of my real life friends that I served with? Or intrigued about the espionage & geo-political themes of the novels? I've put together a short ebook from a variety of interviews I've had with book bloggers over the last year that you'll hopefully find interesting - it provides some insights into how I plot, when I write, and how I devise the characters and scenes. I hope it piques your interest and curiosity about what's coming next. It's big! |
|
|
A superb series of books by former police officer, Lewis Hastings. His Seventh Wave concept came to fruition after a real-life incident at an international airport in August 2008 - a chance meeting with a mysterious Bulgarian female hell-bent on revenge and wanting to tell her story. |
|
And what a story, a tale straight from the big screen; of love, lust, revenge, the worst kind. Of borderless Europe, fast cars, diplomatic undoings, cruelty, excess, debauchery, trust, betrayal, financial crime, capital cities and a solitary police officer, prepared to listen to her ludicrous account - she provided him with the storyline - all he needed to do was craft it. I'm really pleased for Lewis, as he's just landed a deal with an excellent publisher who have re-created the first three novel covers, and now the fourth is due out next month. Have a look - they're great stories. |
|
|
Great read here! For those of you who know John, my long time mentor, well, this is his Father. The sequel to 'Gentleman Jim' by John's sister, Lorna, really gives a close up insight to their most courageous father. SAS founder, escapee (twice), sportsman, adventurer, explorer, man of derring-do. Out now! Click on the picture for the link and video here: Also: Check out some great Crime Thrillers at London Crime | | |
|
|
Thanks for all your support as ever - it's great to have such a great group of supporters behind me! Do feel free to share this mail with friends and family to get The Failsafe Thrillers out there, and it would be great if you can help me build up my readers group - share with your friends and family, links to join are on my web site and below. Wish me luck, and hope you all have a wonderful autumn and xmas. You're a great bunch! Mick |
|
|
|
|
