My Story
What would YOU do if you read your own death announcement? That’s the idea that sparked my first psychological thriller, I Want You Gone, and what fun I’ve had!
The last few years have been rather productive. Inkubator Books have published 20 of my psychological thrillers. We’ve sold over half a million books and many have hit Amazon’s best seller lists.
Just in case you’re interested, here are the reasons I’ve ended up writing psychological thrillers.
A long, long time ago, I studied handwriting analysis and wrote a self-help book called, How Compatible Are You? published by Bloomsbury. It was well-reviewed at the time and I was asked to analyse various famous people’s writing for newspapers (including a serial murderer!). Much to my amusement the book is now considered a ‘classic’ for graphologists. One of my fictional character in the Fatal series, Dr Pippa Durrant, is a specialist in lie-detection, micro expressions and graphology. She uses a few of the skills I’ve gained over the years!
In all my books I’ve drawn upon what I know. There’s the bucolic countryside of West Sussex, which was home for the first twenty years of my life and has become home again.
The places I love: Switzerland, South Africa and The Peak District (which was home for 17 years). I’ve taken inspirations from my world of work (setting up, running and selling businesses in retail and leisure) and in particular, what fascinates me most: family and friend dynamics.
The one thing I’ve left behind is my experience of having cancer. In August 2015, I was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma in my right femur. Apparently there is a one in three hundred million chance of getting that as a 48-year-old woman! It was undoubtedly the hardest year of my life. One day we left our home in the Peak District to move to London for treatment; I never returned. I went through eleven rounds of chemo and had my femur removed and replaced.
Knowing nothing about cancer but a fair bit about writing, I set up a blog (Brain Sparks). I was surprised that there were so few novels depicting the raw, realism of cancer treatments.
There are a few fiction books out there about cancer, but they tend to end in death. Fortunately, that is not the reality for many of us diagnosed with cancer today. So I set about writing a novel that gives hope, and, drum roll please…, Don’t Call Me Brave was born.
I did a fair bit of writing before that novel. The Eccentric Entrepreneur, a biography, was reviewed in various newspapers and journals and was long listed for the cricketing book of the year. In between work, I studied for a masters degree in writing and was thrilled to be awarded a first. I’m a member of The Society of Authors and The Crime Writers’ Association.
One of the positives of getting so ill was being given the chance to re-evaluate what I really want to do. Hand on heart, I am LOVING writing novels full-time. If you enjoy reading them just a smidgen as much I enjoy writing them, I will be ecstatically happy!
Finally, please join my Facebook Group where I run giveaways, freebies and we chat about all things psychological thriller.
Miranda