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| Welcome to my Blog! Wander through wonderful worlds real and fictional, meet interesting people, visit exciting places and find a few good books to enjoy along the way! |
ABOUT ME - CAROL WESTRON
I am an author of crime fiction: police procedurals, victorian murder mysteries, cosy/comedy crime and children’s picture books. My first professional writing was writing short stories for Woman’s Weekly, which fitted well with my lifestyle as a young woman with three children and a part-time job in a nursery school. After a while I discovered short stories weren’t fulfilling enough, I wanted to write crime fiction novels and, as I had a lot of other things going on in my life, I didn’t have time for writing both novels and short stories.
As so many authors have discovered, writing the books was the easy part, the struggle to be published was much harder. After several years of trudging through the traditional publishing route, I came second in an international competition where the first prize was publication of the novel, in my case The Terminal Velocity of Cats. This gave me the confidence to self-publish.
Eight published crime fiction books later I am glad I chose the route I did and wish I’d done it earlier. The books started with Police Procedurals but a friend urged me to write a Victorian Murder Mystery, which I did. It’s called Strangers and Angels and I have the next in the series, From Envy, Hatred and Malice ready for publication. Wanting something a bit lighter, I turned to writing a cosy/comedy crime novel, The Curse of the Concrete Griffin.
Most of my social life revolves around creative writing. I’m the secretary of my local writing group, Havant & District Writers; I teach fortnightly creative writing workshops at my village community centre; and I’m a member of ALLi; the SWWJ and Dunford Novelists. Above all I’m a member of Mystery People and I owe an immense debt of gratitude to Lizzie Sirett the founder and organiser of that not-for-profit group who has encouraged me in every way and, a few years ago, persuaded me to write regular articles about the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, which appeared in the Mystery People Newsletter and on her Promoting Crime Fiction blog.
This has led to a whole spin off career in which I’ve given talks and papers to some very exciting conferences, including Saint Hilda’s, Oxford and Captivating Criminality. Lizzie also set up The Deadly Dames crime panel and told me that she wanted me to be the participating moderator and she has collaborated with me in running Mystery Fest, a day conference that has been running for seven years as part of Portsmouth Bookfest. Unfortunately, Portsmouth Library Service have decided they no longer have the capacity to assist with full-day events, so we’re a day conference looking for a new home.
WRITING IS GOOD FOR YOU
(although sitting at a computer all day isn’t great for weight control)
I’ve made up stories ever since I could read and write and quite probably before that. I think being an only child living in a flat above shops in London in the early 1950s made me turn to my imagination for companionship and adventures and weaving stories became an intrinsic part of me.
I’m the generation before creative writing became an established degree subject. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad: it might have won me earlier success but also it might have curtailed my imagination into the channels my tutor thought I should travel along.
My first experience of encouraging creative writing as a therapy for someone other than myself was when I removed my seven year old dyslexic son from primary school until they acknowledged and sorted out the bullying that he was suffering. I suggested that he wrote something for an Elefriends Competition to raise awareness of the potential extinction of elephants and left him to it, although when asked I made one suggestion regarding a line that didn’t scan. To our delight he won in the youngest age group and we went to the Natural History Museum to receive his award from Virginia McKenna the Born Free actress. That success and the realisation that he could express himself did wonders for his self-esteem.
For the last part of my teaching life, working for an FE college, I spent many years teaching adults with life-limiting conditions. The creative writing side of this came about because a far-seeing manager of their day centre agreed to pay me to come in during the summer and teach any of the people in the centre that wished to try it out.
They loved it and the manager persuaded the college where I was employed to teach literacy to run creative writing as well. I watched those students blossom and grow in confidence until the amazing year when I and my team facilitated them to enter the Reaching Out competition at Winchester’s Writer’s Conference and they swept the board: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and four Highly Commended!
Barbara Large, the conference director came to the centre in person to deliver their prizes and certificates. In the same year the student who had won 2nd prize also received an award as the college’s Special Needs Student of the Year. Sadly, all good things come to an end and the government withdrew funding for courses that didn’t lead to employment, even though such courses did so much for the disabled people’s mental and physical health.
I have two quotes from that time that will stay in my mind forever. One was from a man who had been severely disabled by a stroke: “This is wonderful. I can do things in my imagination that I can’t do with my body anymore … In fact I can do things in my imagination that I could never do with my body.”
The other is from a retired plumber who had aggressively progressive MS. When asked by an inspector what he got out of the classes he replied, “A reason to get out of bed in the morning.”
An experience much closer to home was when I wrote a short story for my autistic grandson, Adam, and he illustrated it and we published it. There are now four books in the series and others on the way. These are stories about the adventures of the Dream Train, a magic train that travels through the darkness delivering happy dreams to children who are unhappy or afraid and the boy who is different and can see the secrets behind the darkness. I was delighted when Adam loved the book and overjoyed when he started taking ownership of the Adi and the Dream Train series and outlined plots and created characters for it.
People often say, ‘I didn’t see that coming’, well I never foresaw the three magic dinosaurs that will make their debut in the next book. Every time I tell him we’ve sold a book or he sees them on display his self-esteem grows and he takes even more pleasure in story telling.
Back to my own writing. The NHS backlog (and the indifference of my GP) meant that I spent years waiting for the hip and knee replacements I required and the advent of Covid only made matters worse. I decided I needed to lighten my mood and embarked on the first of my cosy/comedy crime novels, The Curse of the Concrete Griffin. The original concept for this book, set on a senior citizens’ residential estate, had been in the back of my mind for years. I had submitted a short story to Woman’s Weekly about two elderly women who were close friends until one of them sabotaged the other’s goulash in order to destroy an incipient romance. The story was rejected because ‘the central characters were too unsympathetic’ but I kept it in the back of my mind and, many years later, it became my opening chapter, and the protagonists, when fully explored, were both likeable and funny.
The second novel of the series, Death and the Dancing Snowman, was published just before last christmas and in my opinion is even funnier as conservative Grace struggles to cope with the christmas show that the other residents of the Clayfield Estate are rehearsing, especially the sight of Maddie as a plump little penguin and Freddie who keeps complaining that his antlers are too wobbly.
As American novelist MK Graff says in her review of the second novel: ‘Age and complaints don't slow these two very different friends down, even when rehearsing for a christmas show. Don't be fooled by thinking these two older ladies are doddering around. They give new meaning to Golden Oldies as they pursue several issues and bring great style to their investigations.’
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| Read An Excerpt |
FROM CHAPTER 1 OF DEATH AND THE DANCING SNOWMAN
“Grace! Welcome back!” Maddie ushered her friend into her hall and shut the door. “You’ve brought some lovely weather with you. I wouldn’t be surprised if it snowed.”
“I’m sorry.” Grace looked nervous. Maddie wondered whether she was apologising for the December weather or feeling guilty that her ‘few days away’ to visit relatives had turned into several weeks.
For that matter, Maddie still wasn’t sure how she felt about Grace’s desertion soon after their Hampshire senior citizens’ estate had been thrown into turmoil by blackmail, violence and death. Maddie had been hurt that Grace had left so abruptly at a time when she’d have appreciated her support, but she’d told herself not to be pathetic and tried to get over it. Everyone had their own coping mechanisms and she should have guessed that Grace’s would be to withdraw. There had been several days when reporters hung round the estate and Grace hated any trace of notoriety.
She smiled at her friend, “Come and sit down, I’ve just made a pot of tea. If I’d known you were coming I’d have baked a cake.” She bustled into the small kitchen that adjoined the sitting room and returned carrying an iced Victoria Sponge. “What do you know? I did bake a cake. I saw you drive round The Green a couple of hours ago.”
“Thank you.”
“Have you collected Tiggy from the cattery yet?”
“No, I’ve arranged to get him tomorrow morning. Are your family all well?” Maddie thought the enquiry sounded polite rather than engaged.
“Fine. Libby and the boys are away this week. They won a Christmas competition and the school gave them permission to go.”
“How nice.”
“Is your aunt okay?” Maddie wondered if she’d wronged Grace and her extended stay was because her aunt was seriously ill.
“Quite well. Frail and rather forgetful, but then she’s over ninety.” Grace sipped her tea.
“You were away longer than I expected.” Maddie knew that Grace’s long-estranged cousin had seen her mentioned in a newspaper report and invited her to visit but she hadn’t anticipated the absence would be so long.
“I know but I felt I owed it to my aunt. After all I hadn’t seen her for over forty years. Father quarrelled with her at mother’s funeral and never allowed any contact with her again. At first she wrote and sent christmas and birthday cards but he tore them up and forbade me to answer them.” Grace hesitated, and Maddie thought she looked uncomfortable, almost shifty. “I’m not sure what to do. My aunt has asked...”
A loud, drawn-out moan echoed around the room. Grace jumped, sloshing tea into her lap. “What was that?”
“Nothing to worry about,” said Maddie, at her most nonchalant, “just Hatty, my new next-door neighbour, summoning the dead. I’ll get you some kitchen towel to mop up that tea.”
WHAT I’M WORKING ON NEXT
Hip and knee having been replaced, life now seems more positive so I am happy to return to slightly darker themes. In the next few months I will publish two books which continue the story told in The Fragility of Poppies: Delivering Lazarus and a spin off from that series, Paddling In the Dead Sea.
I’m halfway through writing the next book in the series, Walking on the Wire, and having a lot of fun. Revisiting old characters is like reuniting with old friends and, like most of my friends, the characters don’t usually do what I tell them to
Website: www.carolwestron.com
XTwitter: @CarolWestron
1. What was the first novel you read that made you think: ‘Wow, I want to write like this!’
I think that the novel that made the most impact was Mary Renault’s The King Must Die. Sadly I soon realised that her rich and majestic prose can easily turn into purple prose and aimed for a different, lighter style.
2. What book (fiction or nonfiction) is a treasure that you’d pass on to a grandchild?
That’s a hard one, so many to choose from, but I think it would probably be the only book I have ever known that can keep a class of six-year-olds rooted to the story mat and begging for it not to be home time yet, which is equally engaging for most adults: The Iron Man by Ted Hughes.
3. If you found a genie in a magic lamp what would your three wishes be?
a) A publicist who’d take on all my promotion for me and do it really well.
b.) The second knee replacement I’m going to need to be over and done with without all the tedious and painful bits (well you did say it was magic.)
c.) A time machine so that I could visit all the fabulous countries I’ve read about in Golden Age novels as they were when the authors described them.
4. If you could have a holiday anywhere in the world (for free!) where would you go?
I think it would be New Zealand, which I know we’d never have the money to visit in style. But to be honest that would take far too long away from all the people and pets I love and I’m happy here and now.
5. Your favourite time period – and why
In my own lifetime, the late 1960s to early 1970s when I was at university. In history I’d like to go to the 1850s to check out all the details I need for my victorian novels to save doing so much research.
6. Name one thing you regret that you didn’t do
Make the decision to self-publish many years before I did it, rather than wasting so much time and energy trying to get a traditional publisher.
7. Name one thing you’re pleased that you did do
Made the self-publishing move when I did.
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