“I don’t know where I would be without the enthusiastic help of book bloggers.”
CRIME AUTHORS SPILL THEIR GUTS ABOUT WRITING. Every Thursday topnotch authors of psychological thrillers and crime fiction share their writing secrets – and the secrets to their success – with you and me.
This week: ALAN JONES
Tell us about yourself…
First of all Barbara, I’m honoured to be asked to do this, so thanks very much.
I’m in my mid-fifties and I’m married with four grown-up kids. I write books, make furniture, sail a 40-year-old boat, cook and read, but the only problem with all of that is that I still need to work. My job is in the animal health industry and, because I write very gritty crime stories with strong language, violence, sex and Glasgow slang, I agreed to keep my writing and real life identities separate, so I use Alan Jones as a pen-name. No-one in my home town, other than family and few friends, know that I write. The town is one of many on the Ayrshire coast, and it allows me to keep my boat nearby. I gave up playing football last year due to a goosed ankle, (and old age if I’m honest) which has left a big hole in my life.
I started to write about 15 years ago. I’ve always been an avid reader of a wide range of genres, and one day, after finishing a number of books (from pretty big authors) which left me distinctly underwhelmed, I made a disgruntled comment that I could write better myself. Over the next few days it struck me that I should put up or shut up, and have a go at trying to put something down on paper. I’d always been good at short stories in school, but I hadn’t written since then. To cut a long story short, it took me 10 years to come up with a plot and write my first book, ‘The Cabinetmaker’.
When I was unsuccessful in finding an agent or publisher who was interested, I nearly gave up, but within a few weeks I had two ‘nibbles’. One publisher thought my book had merit and, although it wasn’t for them, they suggested a… TO READ THE INTERVIEW IN FULL, CLICK HERE