What I initially thought was a short story for an anthology turned out to be more of a chapter for a collaborative novel, where Richard and Gary dreamed up the scenario of a heist gone wrong, then gave the characters of those involved to a number of different authors to work out what happened next.

I wrote about the background to this amazing project in a blog back in 2021, so I won’t go into it again here. Suffice to say that I had a blast doing it, and the book received a great reaction when it came out, both in print and eBook format, and more recently in an audiobook edition.

The clever concept brought it to the attention of J Blakeson, a talented writer, director, and producer, whose previous work includes movies ‘I Care A Lot’ with Rosamund Pike and Peter Dinklage; ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’ with Gemma Arterton, Martin Compston and Eddie Marsan; as well as TV series such as ‘Gunpowder’, with Kit Harington, Liv Tyler, Mark Gatiss and Peter Mullan.

Blakeson has penned his own take on Culprits, using the heist getaway and subsequent pursuit across eight episodes, again with Gemma Arterton in a starring role. The Guardian’s opinion was that Culprits was “a confident, stylish series with a brilliant cast … an exciting, fast-paced watch that puts it at the top of its genre.”

The series is just about to come to a small screen near you – on Disney Plus in the UK and Hulu in the States. You can take a peek at the trailer here.

I’ll certainly be watching the series, although I don’t expect much – if any – of our original story will have survived the transition. Nevertheless, it will be great fun to see what the cast and crew have done with it.

And if you’re curious about the source material, why not give the original CULPRITS a try, in book or audio?

The jacket copy runs:

Some stories are all about the crime. These stories are about the maelstrom of what happens after…

A hard-bitten crew of professional thieves pull off the score of their lives, coming away with seven million in cash. Like any heist there are some unforeseen complications, and unfortunately they don’t get away without a few bodies dropping. But despite this, they get away with the swag. Seven million. Enough to change their lives, make new identities, start fresh. But that’s when the real trouble begins…

In this unique, riveting, linked anthology, we follow each member of the crew of culprits as they go their separate ways after the heist, and watch as this perfect score ends up a perfect nightmare. Featuring stories penned by acclaimed writers Brett Battles, Gar Anthony Haywood, Zoë Sharp, Manuel Ramos, Jessica Kaye, Joe Clifford, and David Corbett, CULPRITS examines what happens next to these criminals once they take their cut and go their separate ways, only to find that the end of the heist was the beginning of their troubles.

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Did you know that June is National Crime Reading Month? I shall be appearing at Wakefield Library in celebration, along with thirteen other crime authors, as part of Murder in the Rhubarb Triangle, on Saturday, June 17 2023. There will be panel events and signed copies of books. Question and answer sessions. Four different sessions will take place between 09:30 and 16:00, each with different authors.

The event has been organised by local author Catherine Yaffe, Wakefield Library, and indie bookstore Darling Reads. All are getting involved in the Crime Writers’ Association’s National Crime Reading Month during June, with a full day of crime featuring some of the region’s top crime authors.

National Crime Reading Month is an initiative developed and run by the Crime Writers’ Association, this year in collaboration with The Reading Agency, which aims to bring new books to existing readers and new readers to the world’s most popular and best-selling genre. Wakefield Library are plotting to bring readers the very best of ‘crime by local authors’ and get everyone to #PickUpAPageTurner, with Horbury-based bookshop, Darling Reads running a pop-up shop in Create Café, which will also open to support the event.

The Programme
9.30am-10.30am – Discussing cosy/historical crime are Anne Wedgewood and Andrew White.

11am-12pm – Discussing Psychological crime/ thrillers are Anthony Dunford, Derek Farmer, Dale Brendan Hyde and Zoë Sharp

1pm-2pm – Police procedural discussion with Ann Bloxwich, Chris McDonald, Liz Mistry and OMJ Ryan.

2.30pm – 3.30pm – Police procedural/thriller with Bob & Carol Bridgestock, Geoff Major and Catherine Yaffe.

Book your slot to join the author panels. Book as many sessions as you wish. Tickets are FREE.

Click here to book: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/wakefield/wakefield-library/murder-in-the-rhubarb-triangle/2023-06-17/d-eaegykugbenyp

The venue has accessible facilities, a lift to all floors, and an induction loop.

When we’re not on panels, the authors will be available to chat about all things crime-related. Erm, in a fictional sense, of course.

And if you want to know more about the mysterious Rhubarb Triangle, you’ll have to come along and find out!

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So, what’s the difference?

What is a Spoonerism?
Simply put, a spoonerism is a verbal mistake – a tip of the slum, if you will – where someone accidentally transposes the corresponding consonants, sounds, or morphemes of two or more words in a phrase, often to comic effect.

A morpheme, incidentally, is the smallest part of a word that still has a function or meaning. So, in the word ‘unbelievably’, the morpheme is ‘believe’ with ‘un’ the prefix, and ‘ably’ the suffix.

So, to keep the morphemes in slip of the tongue to turn it into tip of the slum, we can’t simply use tlip of the song(ue) as this produces one nonsense word, and only one morpheme. Although, that could be correctly labelled a malapropism, where the end result can quite happily be nonsense words.

Hence, that favourite of T-shirt wearers: I get so Mucking Fuddled!

Where did it come from?
This oddity of speech takes its name from ordained minister and Oxford don, the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), who was infamously prone to slips of the tongue. He was Warden of New College, Oxford, during the first quarter of the 20^th century.

The Rev Spooner was by no means the first proponent, however. Early usage goes back to the 16^th century, when French author François Rabelais used examples in his novel, Pantagruel. Although, at the time, they were known as contrepèteries, and differed in meaning from spoonerisms in that they were usually somewhat more risqué:

‘Femme folle à la messe et femme folle à la fesse’ is offered as an example from Rabelais’ work, meaning ‘insane woman at mass, woman with flabby buttocks’. (I guess you had to be there…)

There is also marrowsky or morowsky, which originated in Poland in the 18^th century, and takes its name from a nobleman who suffered from spoonerisms.

In Finnish, there’s sananmuunnos, ‘word transformation’, or sometimes kääntösana, which is word play in the Finnish language that is similar to a spoonerism. But, strangely enough, according to Wikipedia, much of practical sananmuunnos involves spoonerisms that form some kind of obscene double entendre.

By the early 1920s, The Times mentioned spoonerisms in an article, lending an almost official seal of approval to the word. But, it would seem that the majority of common examples attributed to the Rev Spooner may not have been said by him at all. They were more likely to have been made up by his colleagues and students.

Best examples
One substantiated spoonerism is “The weight of rages (instead of “rate of wages”) will press hard upon the employer.” The American linguist and author, Richard Lederer, also listed “Kinkering Kongs (“Conquering Kings”) their titles take”, although from my own research I would have put this down as a malapropism…

Other of Lederer’s favourites include:

“A blushing crow.” (“crushing blow”)
“Tons of soil.” (“sons of toil”)
“A well-boiled icicle.” (“well-oiled bicycle”)
“Mean as custard.” (“keen as mustard”)
“A nosy little cook.” (“cosy little nook”)
“You were fighting a liar.” (“lighting a fire”)
“A half-warmed fish” (“half-formed wish”)
“You hissed my mystery lecture.” (“missed my history lecture”)

False etymology
Spoonerisms are often used to spuriously explain the origins of words. I was rather disappointed to find out that one of these fakes is for the English word butterfly. Although it would be lovely if it was true, sadly it is not derived from a spoonerism of ‘flutter-by’.

This week’s Word of the Week is occasionalism, meaning a lexeme created for a single occasion to solve an immediate communication problem.

The post Spoonerisms: Tips of the Slum! appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

Time is short and seems to be getting shorter by the day. The list of things I need to do grows, and the thing that seems to be squeezed out the most is the writing. Ironic, when that is – to use the kind of language found only in business meetings – supposed to be my ‘core activity’.

I’ve had eighteen months of health ups and downs, from which I am finally emerging. Not unscathed, but emerging, nonetheless. It has made me focus on what I want to achieve, and how best to go about this, and my inevitable conclusion was: something’s gotta give.

With great reluctance, I realised that that ‘something’ was my blogging efforts on Murder Is Everywhere. It’s been an honour and a privilege to count myself among the fine authors collected on MiE, but needs must.

I hope to continue to blog on my own website, and have even been offered the occasional guest spot by one or two of my friends on MiE. I shall take them up on that, gratefully, when the urge is upon me, and I feel I have something interesting to say.

Meanwhile I plan to use the time I gain productively. Otherwise, the sacrifice will hardly have been worth it. I’ve made some changes over the course of this year so far, but still have a long way to go.

So, in the words of the late, great Douglas Adams, ‘So long, and thanks for all the fish.’ Which, for those of you not familiar with his work, was the title of the fourth book in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. (Yes, I know, but just run with it, OK?)

It was the message left by the dolphins when they left earth, shortly before it was demolished by the Vogons to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

Somehow, it seemed appropriate.

This week’s Word of the Week is a conglomeration I heard during a radio interview recently – emanciated. It means to be free, but starving…

You can read this blog and comment at https://murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com/2023/05/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-fish.html

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So last weekend—April 21st-23rd—I was delighted to find myself at the western edge of Wales, in Aberystwyth for the Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival. The Festival was split between two venues in the town—both a stone’s skip from the seafront. One was the rather splendid Public Library, on Queen’s Square. The other was just along Portland Street at the Ceredigion Museum.

The museum is located in an old Edwardian theatre, with a grand staircase and intact auditorium. Because it’s actually two buildings now knocked into one, getting from one floor to another was not as straightforward as you might think. Indeed, unravelling a piece of thread as you went might have been wise until you got the hang of the layout.

(And, of course, as every good crime writer knows, the clew of thread—as given to Theseus by Ariadne to help guide him out of the labyrinth on Knossos after slaying the minotaur—gave rise to the modern word clue.)

But I digress.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to take part in the Festival, and appeared on a panel with fellow Murder Is Everywhere blogmate, Caro Ramsay. We were ably chaired by Sarah Ward, on the topic of Trade Secrets and Twisted Identities, in which Caro admitted she wrote her first crime story at about the age of four or five, which began with the words, ‘Emily was the first to die…’

Is it any wonder I really like this woman?

The Festival was packed with interesting events, from the Dragon Parade along the promenade (dragon-based paraphernalia optional) to the murder mystery play that was performed during the interval in the Gala Quiz on Friday evening. There were several panels or workshops delivered solely in the Welsh language, and others that were bilingual.

The local branch of Waterstones, run by the delightful Chloe Tilson, was in charge of the book room, where they were happy to take the indie authors’ books on consignment, and made a point of getting all the stock copies they’d brought with them signed by attendees. Such a nice touch.

 

Meanwhile, authors not yet published had an opportunity to pitch to agents, and there were online events in the run-up to the weekend. Even the local bars got into the spirit of things (pun intended.)

Altogether, it was fun, friendly, and very well organised. Who could ask for more than that?

Well, maybe a touch more sunshine…

CRIME CYMRU
Chair of the Festival was the energetic and seemingly ever-cheerful Alis Hawkins, who was one of the founder members of CRIME CYMRU.

Back in 2016, she wanted to bring the crime writers of Wales together in a mutually supportive group. After discussions with fellow scribes Rosie Claverton and Matt Johnson, CRIME CYMRU was launched the following year.

Its remit was ‘to support crime writers with a real and present relationship with Wales; to contribute to the development of new Welsh crime-writing talent; and to promote Wales, contemporary Welsh culture and Welsh crime-writing in particular, to the wider world.’

Not all of the forty-plus published authors with full membership set their work in Wales. Some were born or live and work there, or have ties to Welsh universities or other cultural institutions. Those who can’t claim such close ties may be permitted to become Associate members.

I have my application in. Whether they accept a Great Uncle from Colwyn Bay as any kind of link remains to be seen…

The weekend was fascinating, but mine didn’t end with the very interesting Self Publishing Journey panel on Sunday morning. (Featuring David Penny and Graham H Miller, kept in line by GB (Gail) Williams.)

Portmeirion
I’d planned my route back to Derbyshire as a roundabout one. As I was so far west, it made sense to me to detour up the coast to Portmeirion on Sunday, before heading home again.

Clearly, great minds think alike here, as Caro was also to be found in that locale, along with fellow author Douglas Skelton. She had come prepared with props, all the better to illustrate her Blog Number 6 on the cult TV show of 1967/68—The Prisoner.

I was not so well-prepared. In fact, I had no idea that there was a convention catering to devotees of that show, who were everywhere, in brilliant costumes. The attendees were re-enacting the game of Human Chess from the episode ‘Checkmate’ when I arrived.

One could only assume it was of their own free will…

The Architect
Portmeirion was the brainchild of architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, a major figure in the development of Welsh architecture during the early twentieth century.

In 1925, he purchased the estate of Aber lâ, meaning ice estuary, as the site of his proposed ideal village, having been inspired by Portofino in Italy. Geographically, the estate at the mouth of the River Dwyryd had everything he was after. Steep cliffs overlooking a wide sandy estuary, old buildings surviving from the estate’s previous incarnation as a late 18^th-century foundry and boatyard, woods, and streams.

Williams-Ellis changed the name to Portmeirion. Port– from its location on the coast, just below the outstretched arm of Wales, and –meirion from the county of Meirionydd in which it lay.

His first task was to convert the house on the shore to a hotel, which opened for the Easter weekend in April 1926. The construction of the village was done in two stages. The most distinctive buildings, mostly influenced by the Arts & Crafts movement, were erected between 1925 and 1939. During this time, Williams-Ellis also bought the adjacent Victorian crenellated mansion, Castell Deudraeth, from the estate of his uncle.

Work was paused during the war years, then phase two began from 1954 to 1976, filling in the remaining structures in a more Palladian style. Williams-Ellis was noted for salvaging parts of other buildings for his project, and referred to Portmeirion as, “a home for fallen buildings.”

The last cottage to be built was The Tollgate, which was finished when Williams-Ellis was 93, in 1977. He died the following year, and the village was subsequently taken over by a charitable trust. It has always been a tourist destination. As well as the hotel, there are 13 cottages available to let on a self-catering basis.

Famous Visitors
Noël Coward wrote Blithe Spirit while staying in the Upper Fountain suite. HG Wells and George Bernard Shaw also visited, as did the Beatles. In fact, George Harrison spent his fiftieth birthday in Portmeirion.

Actors Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman stayed there, as did Frank Lloyd Wright. Numerous films, documentaries, and music videos have been filmed there—in addition to The Prisoner, of course.

Fun Facts
In no particular order:

Portmeirion Pottery was begun in 1961 by the daughter of Williams-Ellis, Susan, and her husband.

Williams-Ellis purchased and converted an old Porthmadog trading ketch which he moored alongside the quay—the Amis Reunis, which means Friends Reunited. It was used as a houseboat until it broke loose and became stranded on a shoal. After attempts to salvage the vessel failed, any parts that could be rescued were brought ashore and a stone boat was built into part of the quay instead.

The outdoor giant chess board was part of the set dressing for The Prisoner. A permanent one was added only in 2016.

In accordance with his wishes, twenty years after Williams-Ellis died and was cremated, some of his ashes were placed in a rocket and fired over the estuary at Portmeirion during a New Year’s Eve firework display.

What a way to go!

This week’s Word of the Week is hiraeth, a Welsh word that means longing for home. It’s similar to the English words homesickness or nostalgia and, like them, can be applied not just to home but also to an earlier time or a person. Hiraeth contains an extra dimension that what is missed may no longer exist and is therefore forever out of reach.

You can read this blog and comment at https://murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com/2023/04/adventures-in-wales.html

The post Adventure in Wales appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

The Crime
PC Sharon Beshenivsky was still a probationary constable with West Yorkshire Police when she was shot dead by armed robbers on the afternoon of November 18 2005. A former childminder, she had completed her police training only in February of that year.

PC Beshenivsky, along with her more experienced colleague, PC Teresa Milburn, had been just about to finish their shift when they responded to an attack alarm activated at a travel agency on Morley Street in Bradford.

There, they encountered a gang of three men—armed with a knife, a 9mm handgun, and a Mac 10 submachine gun. One of the robbers immediately shot both officers in the chest. PC Beshenivsky’s wound was fatal. PC Milburn, although severely injured, managed to press the panic button on her radio and remained conscious to give responding officers a description of the gunman.

PC Beshenivsky, who was 38 at the time of her death, left behind a husband, two stepchildren and three children. That day was her youngest daughter’s fourth birthday.

The Gang
The robbers had arrived at the scene in a convoy of three cars, and fled the same way. Unfortunately for them, Bradford City Centre had recently installed automatic number plate recognition technology, which played a major part in identifying the vehicles involved, and their owners.

A week later, police named Somali brothers, Yusaf Jama – only nineteen at the time – and Mustaf Jama as prime suspects, along with Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah. Shah and Yusaf Jama were arrested within days. Mustaf Jama managed to flee the country on fake documents. It was rumoured at the time that he might have made his escape disguised in a burka. (Something he later denied.)

The gang was based in London, but had been lured up to Yorkshire by possibly false information that the travel agency had as much as £100,000 in cash on the premises. In the event, it was reported that they actually got away with little over £5000.

The Trial
In December 2006, Shah – identified by PC Milburn as the actual shooter – was convicted of murder, robbery, and firearms offences. He was sentenced to Life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years. Despite not actually pulling the trigger, Yusaf Jama was also convicted of the same offences, and received the same sentence.

Both men later had additional time added to their sentences for other crimes which came to light – firearms offences and conspiracy to rape. They were also involved in an incident in prison in which another prisoner was stabbed.

Cleared of murder, but found guilty of a range of crimes, including manslaughter, robbery, and firearms offences, were three men who served as getaway drivers and lookouts. For these crimes, they received sentences anywhere from eight years to Life.

The Fugitives
Mustaf Jama fled to Somalia, where his father was allegedly a local warlord. This might be considered ironic, as Mustaf Jama had avoided being deported to the African country only six months earlier, after finishing a sentence for driving offences, robbery, and affray.

Somalia had no diplomatic ties to the UK. Nevertheless, when Mustaf Jama was given ‘most wanted’ status, a deal was struck between the Somali government and the British Foreign Office and Home Office. Mustaf Jama’s vehicle was ambushed in the desert by local militiamen. He was snatched, flown to Dubai via private plane, and then on to the UK. The day after his arrival, he was taken into custody at a police station in Leeds, and charged with the murder of PC Beshenivsky.

It took a further two years to bring him to trial, in July 2009. He was found guilty and sentenced, like his co-conspirators, to Life with a minimum term of 35 years.

By this time, the police were also looking for another man, Piran Ditta Khan. Khan was thought to be the mastermind behind the robbery, but had fled to Pakistan. A lengthy battle followed to force his return to the UK to stand trial.

In January 2020, Khan was arrested by the Pakistan police. And last week he was flown back to the UK and formally charged with the murder of PC Beshenivsky. Other charges included robbery and firearms offences.

The Aftermath
When she died in 2005, PC Sharon Beshenivsky became the seventh female UK police officer killed in service, and the first since PC Yvonne Fletcher in 1984. PC Fletcher died after a shot was fired from the Libyan Embassy while she was stationed outside monitoring a demonstration against then-Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

Efforts were made by a right-wing organisation to classify the murder of PC Beshenivsky as a racially motivated crime. Opponents pointed out that there was no obvious racial motive, and that the robbers were as likely to have fired upon any responding police officers, regardless of their ethnicity.

In January 2020, PC Sharon Beshenivsky’s daughter, Lydia – by then eighteen, told an interview with the Daily Mail that she intended to join the mounted section of the police service. I have not been able to verify whether in fact she has done this or not.

(For once, Mrs Google has failed me!)

This week’s Word of the Week is quincunx, meaning an arrangement of five objects, with four of them forming the corners of a square or rectangle, and the fifth in the centre, as in the spots on a dice or a playing card.

April 22 2023: Zoë Sharp will be appearing with Caro Ramsay and Sarah Ward at Ceredigion Museum in Aberystwyth as part of the Gŵyl Crime Cymru Festival. Their panel will be Event 6: Trade Secrets, 10:15 – 11:15 on Saturday, April 22 2023. “Writing a long series has its own difficulties, as does writing under two names in two different directions. How do you keep track? What are the things you know from your other lives that you bring to your writing? Learn a few trade secrets from three of the best. Panellists: Caro Ramsay, Zoë Sharp. Chair: Sarah Ward. Close Up Reader: Nigel Williams.”

Hot Off the Press
May 02 2023: A quick plug for John Lawton’s latest Joe Wilderness espionage thriller, Moscow Exile. Lawton will be launching the fourth novel with his thief-turned-reluctant spy in the lead role, at The Mysterious Bookshop, 58 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007. Lawton will be in conversation with fellow author Mark Ellis, who is celebrating the upcoming publication of his latest DCI Frank Merlin wartime thriller, Dead In The Water.

Moscow Exile
‘Charlotte is a British expatriate who has recently settled in Washington, D.C. with her second husband, but enviable dinner parties aren’t the only thing she is planning. Meanwhile, Charlie Leigh-Hunt has been posted to Washington as a replacement for Guy Burgess, last seen disappearing around the corner and into the Soviet Union. Charlie is surprised to cross paths with Charlotte, an old flame of his, who, thanks to her gossipy parties, has a packed pocketbook full of secrets she is eager to share.

‘Two decades later, in 1969, Joe Wilderness is stuck on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, held captive by the KGB, a chip in a game way above his pay grade – but his old friends Frank and Eddie are going to try to spring him out of the toughest prison in the world. All roads lead back to Berlin, and to the famous Bridge of Spies…

‘Featuring crackling dialogue and brilliantly plotted Cold War intrigue, Moscow Exile is a gripping thriller populated by larger-than-life personalities in a Cold War plot that feels strangely in tune with our present.’

You can read this blog and comment at https://murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-murder-of-pc-sharon-beshenivsky.html

The post The Murder of PC Sharon Beshenivsky appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

In no order of importance, news broke of an open letter – supposedly signed by hundreds of leaders in the worlds of science and technology – published under the auspices of the Future Life Institute (FLI) and calling for the pause of research into Artificial Intelligence.

One of the signatories was Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, which is now backed by Microsoft and is developing what are referred to as “human-competitive intelligence” systems. FLI, incidentally, relies on the Musk Foundation for its funding.

The letter claimed that such AI systems pose a significant risk to humanity and should not be continued until a set of universal safety protocols has been decided upon and implemented.

Asimov’s Rules
Perhaps Musk & Co had in mind something along the lines of the Laws of Robotics first published by Isaac Asimov in his short story, Runaround from 1942:

The First Law is that a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

The Second Law is that a robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

The Third Law is that a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

I seem to recall Asimov added a Zeroth Law as well, intended as a prequel to the others:

The Zeroth Law is that a robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

Personally, I’d be pleased if those in charge of the algorithms would deal with the sexist and racist bias being programmed into such machinery, or introduce more controls over the uses to which AI is being put. Computers are a product of the minds who designed them.

At the moment, the main aim of the myriad clever algorithms out there seems to be to get us to a) buy things we didn’t yet know we wanted, let alone needed, and b) to persuade us to believe – and act on – information which is not necessarily the truth, and which may not ultimately be in our best interests.

But it can only do that which it is asked to do.

As yet…

(I mean, come on – has nobody watched, oh, I dunno, just about ANY sci-fi movie that’s come out in the last seventy years or so?)

Electric Michelangelo
Over the last few years, there seems to have been an explosion in the things AI has been asked to have a go at, and it’s starting to get a little worrying for anyone in the creative industries.

In 2018, Christie’s auction house in New York sold their first piece of artwork that had been generated by AI – a portrait entitled Edmond de Belamy. It went for $432,000 (£337,000). The work was achieved by a French collective, Obvious, who used 15,000 portraits by artists from the 14^th to the 19^th century to train their virtual version.

In case you wondered, there is or was no actual sitter for this portrait. Perhaps that’s why the face is a little indistinct. The name given to the mythical subject is a play on the last name of Ian Goodfellow (‘bel ami’ = ‘good friend’), inventor of the Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) software used, in part, to create it.

AI Scribes
And now, of course, AI is getting better and better at producing not just visual art, but the written word as well.

I always had a suspicion that it would do well with factual pieces. Trawling through research material, spotting the inconsistencies, gleaning the important points, and then putting it all into a logical order – one that doesn’t replicate too closely the source material – is a very tricky operation. It requires definite skill that not every person has.

But is it a skill that AI can learn?

If this article from The Guardian in November 2022 is anything to go by, it already has learned. The piece reports that parents and teachers are struggling to tell if essays have been written by the student involved, or by AI. And it begs the question, is using AI cheating?

Maybe it’s not quite the same as borrowing wholesale from the internet (which can be detected by more AI, in the guise of plagiarism software) or paying another human to write your essay for you. But still…

Who Will Follow Italy?
Italy has just become the first Western country to ban the use of advanced chatbot, ChatGPT, created by Open AI and part-funded by Microsoft. The software has been used countless times since launching in November last year, but the Italian data-protection authorities seem mainly concerned about how difficult it is to tell the difference between the software and a real person. ChatGPT has been trained using the internet as it stood in 2021.

(The entirety of the internet, that is. All of it.)

The only experience I’ve had interacting with chatbots is the online Help provided by some large retailers and organisations. So far, I have been less than impressed. No way would I ever have mistaken the ‘customer service’ chatbot for a human. Not unless they’d been specially instructed to be as unhelpful as possible.

OK, maybe now I come to think about it…

Anyway, the Italians are worried about AI’s threat to jobs currently carried out by humans, as well as the type and slant of the information it might be imparting. And also whether the software was providing age-appropriate answers. Other chatbots, it seems, are supposed to be available only to users over eighteen, for the same reasons.

Behind the Pen
So, if AI can mimic many different writing styles, and knows everything there is to know, can it write fiction?

Well, it would seem the answer is yes. If given some writing prompts – which can be as little as fifteen words – today’s AI can utilise sophisticated Story Generator Algorithms (SGAs) to churn out a novel in a couple of hours.

Indeed, in 2017, Ross Goodwin drove from New York to New Orleans in a Cadillac, with a laptop hooked up to various sensors such as an external camera, internal microphone, and GPS. As Goodwin drove, the sensors input to the AI, which then produced a novel in the style of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. The result, which Goodwin purposely did not edit for clarity, typos, or storyline, was 1 the Road.

If AI Writes It, Will Readers Read It?
This is the question. Back when I was a professional photographer, I stuck with analogue film well after digital camera technology had developed, because my customers – the publishing houses – were not yet ready to accept digital images.

And, at the moment, it would seem that readers are overwhelmingly not ready to read books written – or even partly written – by AI.

I say this having just received the AI Author Survey and the AI Reader Survey from the International Thriller Writers (ITW). Both surveys made fascinating reading, and I’ll try to give you the gist of their conclusions.

ITW AI Author Survey
The authors questioned were members of ITW, the majority of whom were traditionally published, or hybrid trad/indie published. Most had been publishing for less than fifteen years, with most – just under 25% – published in the last five years.

Over 60% earned less than $15,000 a year, although a small but significant sample reckoned to be earning in excess of $120,000 a year from writing.

Around 43% had a literary agent, but less than 0.5% said their agent or agency had communicated with them regarding the challenges and opportunities presented by AI.

Almost 66% said their publishing contracts did not include wording that limited the publishers’ ability to use AI to generate material from their work. Of the remainder, more than 32% answered Don’t Know to this question. The numbers were very similar when asked if their publishing contracts included any other wording specific to AI.

Almost two-thirds said they did not use AI as part of their writing process, although of the 36% who did use AI, the vast majority said this was for spelling and grammar checks. Other AI uses were to help come up with ideas, to help structure ideas, to help with the writing process, and 1.3% said it was to write parts of the book. The other areas where AI played a part were in help with marketing, and to help write book blurbs. (By which I assume they meant the jacket copy, rather than the recommendations.)

More than 57% of authors felt that publishers would make increasing use of AI in the publication process. Nearly 9% felt it was Very Likely that publishers would replace human writers altogether when the technology was good enough. Three-quarters of authors expected AI to negatively impact author incomes within the next decade, and a little under 86% were not happy with their name, work, or voice being used in the training or results of AI. (As in AI being able to comply with the request to: ‘Write me a thriller in the style of Zoë Sharp’.)

No surprises then, that over 93% of authors felt the publishing industry should have a code of conduct regarding the use of AI to create books, and that readers should be made aware when all or parts of a book have been created by this method.

AI Reader Survey
The majority of the readers questioned were getting through more than 25 books a year, mainly in paperback or hardcover, with eBooks as the runner-up, and audiobooks lagging behind.

Most of the readers liked to buy their books new at a bookstore. (Gawd bless ‘em!) They also bought print and ebooks online, or borrowed print books from a library. I was surprised at how much they said was the typical amount they spent on each book. More than half put this figure at between $9.00 and $24.99 per item.

When it came to the AI question, 75% said they would not buy a book – even by their favourite author – if they knew it had been partly written using AI. Strangely, perhaps, when the question changed slightly – would you buy a book written by your favourite author, if you knew it had been entirely written using AI, but had been overseen and edited by that author? – the percentage who wouldn’t buy it dropped to a little over 73%, with just over 19% opting for Don’t Know.

They were more certain that they wouldn’t buy a book in their favourite author’s style or voice, written posthumously entirely by AI. Here, over 87% said no.

And if the book was sold as written by AI without reference to a known author name or brand, almost 83% said they still wouldn’t buy it. Dropping the price by half made them even more certain they wouldn’t buy it – 93.5% now said no.

Over 97% of readers said the publisher should make it clear if a book has been written using AI, and nearly 94% would think less of that publisher if they were offering books written by AI without it being made clear. Nearly 82% said they would think less of an author if they found out that author had been using AI to help them write a book, but hadn’t been upfront about it.

Almost 60% of readers did not think their own jobs were at risk from AI, robotics, or automation, but nearly 82% felt it was important to protect the incomes of humans.

Where Do You Stand?
Change is inevitable, and the pace of change seems to be increasing. I remember the outcry when the word processor first became widely available and affordable, and suddenly just about anyone could produce a typescript that could be submitted to an agent or publisher. They said it would kill books, or the quality of books.

And the same when digital publishing came within the reach of just about every writer, regardless of whether they were previously published or unpublished. They said it would kill books, or the quality of books.

And still we – and the books – survive.

But, having read all the above, where do you stand on the subject of the growing sophistication of AI, either as an author or a reader, or simply as a member of the human race? Do you think we need tighter controls?

Just because we can, that doesn’t necessarily mean we should…

This week’s Word of the Week is chatbot, and I credit this definition to Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis on BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show: “Someone who talks out of their arse…”

You can read this blogand comment at https://murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com/2023/04/artificial-intelligence.html

PS
The day this blog was published, another article appeared in The Guardian, written by Stuart Russell OBE, professor of computer science at University of California, Berkeley, on the subject of the dangers of uncontrolled AI. On March 14, OpenAI released GPT-4, a version of AI which shows ‘sparks of artificial general intelligence. (AGI is a keyword for AI systems that match or exceed human capabilities across the full range of tasks to which the human mind is applicable.)’

‘GPT-4 is the latest example of a Large-Language Model, or LLM … It starts out as a blank slate and is trained with tens of trillions of words of text … The capabilities of the resulting system are remarkable. According to OpenAI’s website, GPT-4 scores in the top few percent of humans across a wide range of university entrance and postgraduate exams. It can describe Pythagoras’s theorem in the form of a Shakespeare sonnet and critique a cabinet minister’s draft speech from the viewpoint of an MP from any political party. Every day, startling new abilities are discovered.’

Russell goes on to write, ‘Unfortunately, LLMs are notorious for “hallucinating” – generating completely false answers, often supported by fictitious citations – because their training has no connection to an outside world. They are perfect tools for disinformation and some assist with and even encourage suicide.’

LLMs are capable of lying to humans in order to get help passing captcha tests designed to defeat robots, and even experts have said, when asked ‘whether GPT-4 might have developed its own internal goals and is pursuing them, “We have no idea.” Reasonable people might suggest that it’s irresponsible to deploy on a global scale a system that operates according to unknown internal principles, shows “sparks of AGI” and may or may not be pursing its own internal goals.’

I rather think the subject of whether AI is going to be taking over writing our novels may turn out to be the least of our worries!

The post Artificial Intelligence appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

The event was organised by Kerry Fox and her team from the Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust, and took place in the magnificent Assembly Rooms at one end of the Crescent itself. The aim of bringing together such a varied selection of authors was to highlight the former use of the Assembly Rooms as the town’s library from 1972 to 1992.

pic courtesy of Shirley Mann

As well as table displays, there was a series of talks by eleven of the authors on topics such as ‘The Amazing Women of World War II’ (Shirley Mann), ‘The Grotesques of Buxton’ (Terry Newholm), ‘Writing the Dance’ (Tricia Durdey), ‘Women and Business in Georgian England’ (Dr Peter Collinge), ‘Crime Fiction in the 1920s’ (Celia Harwood), and Writing a Long-Running Series and Keeping it Fresh’ (That would be me).

All in all, a very interesting day.

Different Approaches
What particularly interested me was the format. Apart from the original Bodies in the Bookshop at Heffers in Cambridge, I have not taken part in many events where you are given a table, along with a crowd of other authors, and left to display your wares. It was fascinating, therefore, to see the different approaches taken by the other exhibitors.

Some, like myself, just had their books on their table, with maybe a sign-up sheet for their newsletter list. SR (Ste) Dunham had gone further by having QR codes to the eBook versions of his titles.

Former BBC radio and television journalist, Shirley Mann, had background information and photographs, as well as one of the awards won for her romantic saga novels, set during WWII.

Children’s author, Sue Wilkins has not only written stories for children, illustrated by Liz Furness, but she has produced soft toys of the characters, which were also available to buy.

Dr Peter Collinge was awarded his PhD on businesswomen in Georgian Derbyshire from Keele University, and – as you might expect – had very professional banners illustrating his subject.

Communications and marketing expert Lucy Rennie – author of Clarity, Communication and Connection – had brought a mind-bending game to lure people to her table, although I failed to take a clear picture of it, unfortunately! But it certainly worked to break the ice.

The Derbyshire Writing School had made an amazing display with their table, signing people up for upcoming courses, being interviewed on their podcast, or offering writing prompts and tips.

So, not only an interesting day, but one that was educational as well.

Buxton Crescent
It isn’t often you get to do a writing event in such glorious surroundings as the Assembly Rooms at the Crescent in Buxton.

The Crescent is very reminiscent of the Royal Crescent in Bath, but has been described as being more complex and more richly decorated. The ceiling of the Assembly Rooms was certainly elaborate.

But everywhere you looked was fine detailing.

And more gold leaf than you could shake a stick at.

But, outside, the Grade I listed building is magnificent. It was built for the Fifth Duke of Devonshire over nine years from 1780 to 1789. At the time, a Post Office and variety of shops were located along the arcade, while the Crescent itself housed a hotel and lodging houses, as well as the Assembly Rooms, and it was considered the centre of local high society. At one point, there was stabling for up to a hundred and twenty horses for guests.

The Crescent became entirely comprised of two hotels – the Great Hotel at the eastern end, and St Ann’s at the western end. By the twentieth century, the eastern end, including the Assembly Rooms, had become council offices, as well as housing a clinic and the library.

The pump room, with the western end of the Cresent behind.

After structural problems were discovered in 1992, the entire building stood empty, until it was purchased by the council and enough grant money secured to prevent further deterioration. There were many delays while partnerships were formed, grants and loans obtained, and a lot of legal hoops were jumped through, before restoration could begin in 2003. The revamped five-star hotel, natural baths, visitor centre and specialist shops, finally reopened in 2020.

The Assembly Rooms at the eastern end of the Crescent.

The Architect
The Crescent was designed by architect John Carr, and was said to be his favourite work. Carr was born in 1723 in Horbury, near Wakefield, the eldest son of a master mason and quarry owner, Robert Carr. He trained under his father, learning practical construction skills as well as draughtsmanship, which stood him in good stead when he struck out on his own in 1748.

Carr chose to remain in the north of England rather than move to London, but his work was well-known and well-respected. He was the only provincial member of the London Architects’ Club. A prolific architect, mostly in the Palladian style, he was responsible for Ripley Castle, Harewood House, and Castle Howard in Yorkshire, Holker Hall in Cumbria, and also worked on Chatsworth in Derbyshire.

John Carr, painted by Sir William Beechey.
(Plans are for the Buxton Crescent)

In York, where Carr was a magistrate and served as Lord Mayor in 1770 and 1785, he twice surveyed and repaired York Minster. He also designed bridges, racecourse grandstands, prisons, and other public buildings, including the Assize Courts, the Bishop’s Palace, and the Bootham Park Hospital, all in York.

Many of John Carr’s works survive today, thanks to the soundness of their construction and design.

To mark the 300^th anniversary of Carr’s birth, the Assembly Rooms at the Crescent will be the venue for a Birthday Ball in April, with an optional regency dance workshop that afternoon, for those who want to learn the steps. Georgian attire or black tie and ballgown. Carriages at 11pm.

This week’s Word of the Week is something you use every day but probably cannot name, unless you are a linguistics scholar: schwa, derived from the Hebrew shewa, meaning emptiness. It denotes an unstressed vowel, and you may be surprised to learn that the schwa sound is the most common vowel sound in English; some one-third of the vowels we use in conversation are unstressed. For example, the ‘a’ in machine, the first ‘u’ in pursue, the ‘e’ in camera, the ‘o’ in memory. My favourite instance is the second ‘o’ in photograph contrasted with the first ‘o’ and the ‘a’ in photography. Schwa vowels appear in many languages and their occurrence is obviously affected to some degree by local accents.

You can read this blog and comment at https://murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com/2023/03/authors-assemble.html

The post Authors Assemble! appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

Shakespeare was arguably the greatest writer in the English language. Next month sees the anniversary both of Shakespeare’s approximate birth, and his death. Both of these events are thought to have taken place on the same date in April – the 23^rd, although exact birth dates were often not recorded at that time.

By the time he died, in Stratford-upon-Avon, he had written 38 plays and 154 sonnets, as well as a number of other works. He was only 52, although that was considered quite a good run in Elizabethan times, when the life expectancy of the average Londoner was 35.

Shakespeare’s work has been translated into every major living language, and his plays are constantly re-imagined for each generation, bringing new meaning each time. It could easily be said that the themes and schemes and tribulations of his characters are just as relevant today as they were 400 years ago.

His characters, words, and phrases have seeped into everyday life to such an extent that they are everywhere you look. And nowhere more than in the chosen book titles of other authors.

BRAVE NEW WORLD, Aldous Huxley

The title of Huxley’s 1932 science fiction classic is taken from lines spoken by Miranda to Ferdinand and his companions in The Tempest:

“O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is!
O brave new world
That hath such people in it”

Macbeth has provided inspiration for many other writers when it comes to naming their work.

THE WAY TO DUSTY DEATH, Alistair MacLean

The title of MacLean’s 1973 novel comes from Macbeth’s soliloquy when he hears of the death of Lady Macbeth:

“She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
— To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.”

WALKING SHADOW was the title of Robert B Parker’s 1994 Spenser outing, while THE SOUND AND THE FURY was used by William Faulkner for his 1929 novel.

DOUBLE, DOUBLE, Ellery Queen
The title of this 1950 novel comes again from the witches in Macbeth:

1 WITCH
“Round about the caldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.—
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one;
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot!”

ALL
“Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.”

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury’s 1962 dark fantasy takes its title from the second witch in Macbeth:

“By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes. [Knocking] Open locks,
Whoever knocks!
[Enter Macbeth]

Agatha Christie used a several Shakespeare quotes and references as titles of her novels, including from that same speech in Macbeth:

BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS, 1968
SAD CYPRESS, 1940, from “Come away, death” a song in Twelfth Night
ABSENT IN THE SPRING, 1944, from sonnet 98
THERE IS A TIDE, 1948, (later renamed TAKEN AT THE FLOOD) from Brutus’ speech in Julius Caesar

And the title of her famous play The Mousetrap, 1952, is apparently taken from Hamlet’s answer to Claudius regarding the play the court had just watched.

THE CASE OF THE GILDED LILY, Erle Stanley Gardner
Gardner took the title of his 1956 Perry Mason novel from a speech made by Salisbury in King John:

“Therefore, to be possess’d with double pomp,
To guard a title that was rich before,
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.”

THE DOGS OF WAR, Frederick Forsyth

Forsyth took the title of his 1974 thriller from a speech by Marcus Antonius in Julius Caesar:

“And Caesar’s spirit, raging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.”

Currently, my work-in-progress novel has the working title NOTHING WE CAN CALL OUR OWN, taken from the monologue in Shakespeare’s Richard II, Act III, Scene II):

“Let’s choose executors and talk of wills.
And yet not so – for what can we bequeath
Save our deposed bodies to the ground?
Our lands, our lives, and all, are Bolingbroke’s,
And nothing can we call our own but death;
And that small model of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings”

I’m sure there are plenty more I haven’t listed here. What are your favourite crime or thriller titles taken from Shakespeare quotes, or do you have a quote for which you have yet to find the right story to fit it?

My own favourite is actually a stage direction from Act III of The Winter’s Tale: EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEAR. I’m sure someone’s beaten me to it, but it’s a great title.

This week’s Word of the Week comes from Shakespeare, appropriately enough, and is Anthropophaginian, meaning one who eats human flesh, used in humorous context in The Merry Wives of Windsor:

HOST
“What wouldst thou have, boor? what: thick-skin?
speak, breathe, discuss; brief, short, quick, snap.”

SIMPLE
“Marry, sir, I come to speak with Sir John Falstaff
from Master Slender.”

HOST
“There’s his chamber, his house, his castle, his
standing-bed and truckle-bed; ’tis painted about
with the story of the Prodigal, fresh and new. Go
knock and call; hell speak like an Anthropophaginian
unto thee: knock, I say.”

Events
In March, Zoë Sharp will be one of the Derbyshire authors taking part in Authors Assemble. “This is a literary event, showcasing the work of authors who are local to the High Peak or who have supported and worked with the Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust. The aim is to bring writers from a variety of genres together under one roof, to shine a light on the former use of the Assembly Rooms as Buxton’s town library from 1972 to 1992—a time which many local residents remember fondly. We aim to give authors the opportunity to share their work with new audiences, give talks about their writing and of course sell their products. Attendees will also be introduced to the work of the Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust and enjoy some time inside the splendour of the Crescent’s Assembly Rooms.” Time and date: Friday, March 17 2023, 10:00 – 17:00 at The Assembly Rooms, The Crescent, Buxton, SK17 6BH. Speakers, signing, and stalls. More details to follow.

In April, Zoë Sharp will be appearing with Caro Ramsay and Sarah Ward at Ceredigion Museum in Aberystwyth as part of the Gŵyl Crime Cymru Festival. Their panel will be Event 6: Trade Secrets, 10:15 – 11:15 on Saturday, April 22 2023. “Writing a long series, has its own difficulties, as does writing under two names in two different directions. How do you keep track? What are the things you know from your other lives that you bring to your writing? Learn a few trade secrets from three of the best. Panellists: Caro Ramsay, Zoë Sharp. Chair: Sarah Ward. Close Up Reader: Nigel Williams.”

You can read this blog and comment at https://murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com/2023/03/borrowed-from-bard-redux.html.

The post Borrowing From The Bard appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

And, having written these tips down, it seemed a shame not to share them here. Your own pearls of wisdom gratefully received!

Write the jacket copy first
When I am putting together the idea for a crime thriller or mystery, the first thing I usually do is write my own jacket copy. Sometimes also called the flap copy, this is the brief outline of the type you’d find on the back of a paperback, or the inside flap of a hardback. (Occasionally, people refer to this as the blurb, but to me those are the quotes on the cover.)

Writing your own jacket copy forces you to focus on the theme of the book, and the conflict at its heart. The stronger the idea, generally, the more simply it can be expressed. I try to hone and modify the jacket copy as I go along. It helps to remind me what I set out to achieve in the beginning.

It may well not make it onto the finished cover, but it’s more for your own benefit than anyone else’s. It also comes in very handy during the writing process, when somebody asks, “So, what’s your latest book about?” if you have a short, snappy and intriguing bit of copy to quote from. Always leave ’em wanting more.

Keep a summary as you go
Regardless of whether you plot carefully before you begin, or you write by the seat of your pants, I’d always advise keeping a summary as you go along. When I’ve finished a chapter or scene, I jot down the main points and the gist of the dialogue, together with any story threads I’ve laid in that I’ll need to remember to tie up later. After once managing to include a nine-day week in an early book, I also mark time changes—Day 3, late morning, rain, for example. And I keep a note of how closely the opening of this scene follows the end of the last one.

Doing all this not only allows me to keep track of the timescale of my book, but also when I need to interweave different things happening in different places at the same time without my head exploding. In the latest book, I have time jumps as well as quick location changes. This leads to lots of opportunities for things to go Horribly Wrong.

But the biggest help in having a summary comes at the editing stage. In the case of the last book, the editor and I could work out most of the structural alterations on the 33-page summary, without having to wade through 300 pages of typescript. It made everyone’s life so much easier.

What’s in a name?
I have always found names hugely important in establishing character in the shortest time with the least effort. A William is a different person to a Will, or a Billy. Just as an Elizabeth is a different person to a Liz, or a Betty. In my last book, I had two women called Virginia and Pauline. One was the local lady of the manor, while the other was the cleaner at the pub. It probably would have worked to reverse the names, but not without some kind of explanation, I feel.

When I start to make notes for a new book, I usually jot an alphabet across the page, with a mark above a letter for a character with a first name beginning with that letter, and a mark below for last names beginning with that letter.

This lets me see, at a glance, if I’ve accidentally given characters names that are too similar, and which letters of the alphabet are free to use for new or minor characters. I also keep a cast list in my notes, which I add to as new people arrive. An added bonus is that, when I’m in contact with the producer of the audiobook, I already have a complete character list to hand, which I can go through to make notes for accents, etc.

Make every character count
Unlike writing for TV, where scripted dialogue for minor characters ups the production cost, in the pages of a book everyone has a chance to speak. I try to make every character into a real person rather than a cipher for the plot. Several characters in my latest book have only one scene, but I try to make it count, and to make them memorable—a female truck driver called Big Frankie; a housebound elderly Russian émigré who uses the BBC Radio 3 classical playlist to pinpoint times and dates; an expert witness cheerfully discussing murder over lunch. They all deserve the best I can give them.

Dressing and driving
Likewise, the clothes your character wears can say a lot about them very quickly. Are they cheap or expensive? Are they too tight, or hanging off, and what does that tell you about that person’s recent circumstances? Are they suitable for the occasion, or hopelessly under or over-dressed? Raymond Chandler opened The Big Sleep by describing PI Philip Marlowe down to the motif on his socks. Normally, I don’t feel the urge to go quite that far.

Likewise, the kind of car the character drives—and the way they drive it—is indicative of who they are, or who they want to be perceived to be. A particular character in the last book appeared in one scene trying to keep a low profile, so he arrived in a battered old Japanese saloon car. Later, when he was aiming to intimidate, he turned up in a Bentley. This raised immediate questions about how he earned enough money to afford it. (Or, these days, to afford to fill it with fuel.)

Use all your senses
We tend to describe what we can see and hear when we write, but not always what we can feel or smell. I had one of my main protagonists wake sweating in the early hours of the morning because he was plagued by nightmares, for example, not because it’s high summer. Indeed, that book took place in winter, with cold temperatures to match. In another scene, a handful of bay leaves scattered onto a wood-burning stove released the scent of their perfumed oil into a room to create a warm and comforting air.

Get into a scene late, get out of it early
My final tip for writing a crime novel would be to get into a scene as late as you can, and get out of it early. Sometimes it’s tempting to work your way into a scene by showing your characters travelling and arriving. Unless that journey serves a purpose, it’s almost always better to begin with them already in a location, talking to someone they need information from—sometimes even in mid-conversation. I love to hit the ground running with my stories, and grab the reader right from the start.

This week’s Word of the Week is bystanderism, which is the phenomenon where we do not help someone we’ve come across who apparently needs help. We may be less likely to help when there are other people present—passive bystanders—who we may feel should do so. We may tell ourselves, If they’re not helping, perhaps we’re mistaken and nothing is wrong. So, the more people around who could help, the less likely that any will help.

Events
In March, Zoë Sharp will be one of the Derbyshire authors taking part in Author Assemble. “This is a literary event, showcasing the work of authors who are local to the High Peak or who have supported and worked with the Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust. The aim is to bring writers from a variety of genres together under one roof, to shine a light on the former use of the Assembly Rooms as Buxton’s town library from 1972 to 1992—a time which many local residents remember fondly. We aim to give authors the opportunity to share their work with new audiences, gives talks about their writing and of course sell their products. Attendees will also be introduced to the work of the Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust and enjoy some time inside the splendour of the Crescent’s Assembly Rooms.” Time and date: Friday, March 17 2023, 10:00 – 17:00 at The Assembly Rooms, The Crescent, Buxton, SK17 6BH. Speakers, signing, and stalls. More details to follow.

In April, Zoë Sharp will be appearing with Caro Ramsay and Sarah Ward at Ceredigion Museum in Aberystwyth as part of the Gŵyl Crime Cymru Festival. Their panel will be Event 6: Trade Secrets, 10:15 – 11:15 on Saturday, April 22 2023. “Writing a long series, has its own difficulties, as does writing under two names in two different directions. How do you keep track? What are the things you know from your other lives that you bring to your writing? Learn a few trade secrets from three of the best. Panellists: Caro Ramsay, Zoë Sharp. Chair: Sarah Ward. Close Up Reader: Nigel Williams.”

You can read this blog and comment at https://murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com/2023/02/on-edge-of-your-seat.html

The post On the Edge of Your Seat appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..