I’m still head down, writing the first draft of my third psychological thriller and am over 71,000 words in (so am approaching the home straight) but I have managed to escape from my desk for several very exciting events in June and July.

In June I went to the Worcester Literary Festival where I chaired a crime panel with Sarah Hilary, Clare Mackintosh and Alex Marwood. We had a great turn out and a wonderful evening. The audience were really warm and engaging and there was a lot of laughter as well as discussion about some quite serious topics.

Also in June domestic noir author Julia Crouch wrote a fabulous piece for MsLexia about psychological thriller authors exploring toxic friendships and had some wonderful things to say about The Lie.

This week I’ve been in up in London for two days in a row (a six hour round trip from Bristol so I’m exhausted now!). On Monday I went to HarperCollins Towers (aka The NewsCorp building) and filmed a round table discussion with fellow crime authors Simon Toyne, Alex Marwood, Helen Smith and Martyn Waites (aka Tania Carver). It was just like being in a proper TV studio and the discussion was lively and a lot of fun.

The discussion will be aired as a ‘HarperCollins Presents’ YouTube film at the end of the BritCrime festival (details should appear on the BritCrime Facebook page very soon)

NB: I will be taking part in a BritCrime panel with Mark Edwards, Louise Voss and Chris Ewan on Saturday 11th July from 8pm-10pm. It’s FREE and online. Here’s a link, you just need a Facebook account to join in.

Here are some photos from Monday’s filming:

Last night was the magnificent HarperCollins author summer party. It was held in the Victoria and Albert museum and we had exclusive access to the amazing Alexander McQueen exhibition. I spent a wonderful two hours drinking champagne, eating the most amazing food and catching up with my agent and her team and an array of authors. There were over 800 people there and there were so many people I wanted to talk to but didn’t get chance to speak to. I could only spend two hours at the party before I got the train back to Bristol (I got home at 1am!) and it passed far too quickly.

June and July have also brought the very welcome news that The Accident is going to be published in Swedish by Lind&Co and The Lie is going to be published in Czech by Domino.

After all that excitement I’ve got a week to get my head down and get some more words written before I head off to the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Festival in Harrogate next week. I’m not on any panels but I am up for a couple of Dead Good Books Reader Awards (link to vote for me is in the previous post if you’re interested) and I’m really looking forward to a weekend of crime, crime and more crime.

p.s. THE LIE has now sold over 215,000 copies in the UK. A HUGE thank you to everyone who has bought it and spread the word!