Once more, the last couple of months seem to have flown in. Autumn is now well and truly here, and with it the shorter days and colder weather and, of course, the magnificent autumnal colours as the trees shed their summer coats. It’s safe to say I don’t have a whole lot in common with Zoe, one of the main characters from my Anna Scavolini series, but one thing we absolutely see eye to eye on is our shared loathing of hot weather and the summer months. I’ve been taking a few seasonal snaps over the last few days when I’ve been on my travels, trying to capture for posterity some of this all-too-brief period before the onslaught of winter. I’ve included a few of them below – just a selection of the ones on my Facebook and Instagram pages. (If you haven't already, why not give me a follow on both?)

Of course, quite a lot has happened since the last regular issue of the newsletter, the most significant event being the release of my fourth novel, The Shadow Men. As you’re probably aware, it came out just over two weeks ago on Monday 18^th October, and since then I’ve been genuinely touched both by the positive word of mouth and the number of you who’ve picked up a copy. If you’ve not got round to snagging yours yet, the Kindle edition is still available for only £1.99/$2.99 (a 50% discount) until Friday, so there’s still time to get your copy before it goes up to full price. (And of course paperback copies, of both the regular and signed varieties, are also available.)

If you’ve already got yours, how are you progressing with it? Have you finished it, or are you still working your way through it, or have you not got round to it yet? There are no right or wrong answers here! I’d love to hear what you think of it, whether you’ve read the whole thing or only some of it (I know it’s a long book!). Reply to this email and let me know. Don’t be shy now!

If you have read it, something that would mean the world to me would be if you could write an online review of it, either on Amazon or Goodreads (or even both!). Online reviews are absolutely vital when it comes to getting word of mouth out, and it’s a big help both to me as the author and to potential readers – so it’s a win-win for everyone! Every review helps, long or short. It doesn’t have to be a magnum opus – just a few words saying you enjoyed it would be amazing!

As a result of The Shadow Men’s successful launch, I’m thrilled to report that October 2021 has been my best month in terms of sales to date by a significant margin. That’s down to everyone who bought a copy, posted about it or otherwise contributed to the positive word of mouth that’s been doing the rounds – so give yourself a hearty clap on the back! (The graph above should give you some idea of just how monumental an achievement this is. For comparison, the brownish-yellow spike in the middle was The Library Murders’ launch last August.)

Perhaps even more gratifying is the fact that these sales figures haven’t just been driven by The Shadow Men itself. A significant number of people also bought copies of In the Silence, and a few picked up Cruel Summer (and The Library Murders) as well. It’s great to see that the release of the third Anna Scavolini novel has sparked a renewed interest in the previous entries in the series.

Despite The Shadow Men’s launch having consumed a fair amount of my attention over the last couple of weeks (and in the run-up to it as well), I’ve not been resting on my writing laurels. After a few false starts – mostly caused by uncertainties surrounding some of the plot elements in the opening chapters – I’m pleased to report that work on the second draft of my next standalone crime novel, Without a Trace, is progressing well. As of Sunday (when I wrote this email), I have just over 13,500 words in the can and am thundering towards the first major plot twist with all speed. Because this is a redraft, I’m focusing more this time round on getting things right than on simply getting words down on the page as quickly as possible, so I’m not going to commit to any overly optimistic deadlines at this stage, but I’d quite like to have got the bulk of the rewriting done by the end of December or early January, and at the current rate of progress that doesn’t seem unreasonable.

But that’s not all! While I won't be doing NaNoWriMo this year (I don’t have any projects at the moment that are at a stage that would benefit from that hyper-intensive, “vomit out as many words as you can as quickly as possible” style of writing), I will be continuing a little side project I’ve had on the go for the last few weeks.

This venture was sparked by a conversation with a friend, who mentioned that another author she knows commits to writing 100 words a day of a separate novel he’s developing. 100 words per day is, of course, a glacial pace at which to construct a book, but it requires little in the way of time commitment and means that, assuming you stick at it and meet or exceed the target each day, in a couple of years’ time you’ll have a first draft of a novel you wouldn’t otherwise have written.

I started my own version of the project just under three weeks ago and have avoided mentioning it publicly until now in case it ended in ignoble failure… which, of course, it still might. But with 4,500 words in the can, I’m actually feeling quite optimistic, and more pleased with myself than I probably have any right to feel. I’m not ready to talk about what it’s about yet, save to say that, as per usual with me, it starts with a dead body. In stark contrast to my usual process, I’m writing this one straight ahead, with no outline and only a broad idea of what’s going to happen, but the piecemeal nature of the way it’s coming together seems oddly suited to such an approach. (I did cheat slightly a couple of days ago, though, and jump ahead to write a scene set much later in the story while the inspiration was with me.)

Needless to say, you shouldn’t expect to see the fruits of these labours any time soon. For now, though, I’m having fun. It’s a nice, low-pressure way of generating some additional content without needing to commit to spending hours a day on it or to chasing a looming deadline. And it keeps me out of mischief!

After an extended, COVID-induced hiatus, Noir at the Bar Edinburgh is back with a vengeance. I appeared at the inaugural event back in September, reading an extract from The Shadow Men (of which you can see footage here), and while I wasn’t able to make it to October’s session, I’m planning on going through for the next one, scheduled for Thursday 25^th November (book your tickets here).

The new venue, the Rose Theatre Café, is excellent (I heartily recommend the chicken burger), and co-hosts Kelly Lacey and Jacky “Dr Noir” Collins always ensure a great show. November’s line-up includes Neil Broadfoot, Helen Fields, Lesley Kelly, Michael J. Malone, Caro Ramsay and Douglas Skelton, so don’t delay – book your ticket today!

While I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m a big aficionado of Halloween itself (I never went trick-or-treating as a youngling, and I seem to recall that my one foray into the age-old tradition of dooking for apples at primary school resulted in me being the old child who couldn’t manage to actually fish an apple out of a bucket with my bare teeth), I do enjoy a good horror movie, and I always make an effort to watch as many as possible during the month of November. This year’s final tally was an impressive 24, including a number of old favourites (Suspiria, the film that originally got me into Italian cult cinema; The Silence of the Lambs and its under-appreciated sequel Hannibal; and of course the obligatory Halloween), a couple of New French Extremity delights (Coralie Fargeat’s magnificent Revenge and Julia Ducournau’s superlative Raw), and a handful of first-time viewings, the strongest of which was certainly Alexandre Aja’s Crawl, a down-and-dirty, no-nonsense movie about a woman trapped in a flooding Florida basement with hungry alligators for company. You know – the usual.

What about you? Do you make a habit of marking Halloween? Are you a fan of horror movies? Seen any especially scary ones recently? Let me know!

That’s it for another instalment of the newsletter! I’ll be back in touch in early January (seriously, I know I sound like a broken record, but where has the year gone?) with the next regular issue, or before then if I have any important breaking news to report.

Oh, before you go – I’m going to be making a real effort to grow the Readers’ Club over the coming months, so if you know someone who you think might enjoy the sort of books I write, be sure to direct them to the sign-up page. (And mention that they get two free books as part of the package!)

Until next time, happy reading!

Anna Scavolini mysteries
In the Silence*
Cruel Summer
The Shadow Men

Other novels
The Library Murders

Short stories
The Girl Who Wasn't*
The Library Murders: Origin

* FREE for Readers' Club members!