Today on my blog, I have a special treat: an interview with author Kelly Creighton. Keep reading to find out about her, her writing journey, and her new book – Problems With Girls.

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How did you get into writing crime?

I always watched crime series and true crime documentaries, and read a lot of crime fiction, but I didn’t initially start writing crime. I started with a story. When my first published book, The Bones of It, was billed as crime I was surprised, but at that stage I was formulating an idea for a detective series so I thought, alright, it makes sense. My work and voice had developed to be more on the noir side.

Can you tell us a bit about your publishing journey?

I have been writing for a long time, on and off, but in 2012 I decided I would really take it seriously and so I started on a novel. It never got published, but I got to play around, learning about different forms. I published a book of poems with Lapwing, called Three Primes. Then in 2015 my first novel was published by Liberties Press. In 2017, Doire Press published my short story collection, Bank Holiday Hurricane. Now, this year, 2020, despite how hard it has been overall, somehow it has been my busiest year in publishing.

In March, The Sleeping Season, book 1 of the detective series came out with Friday Press. This month (November) Problems with Girls, book 2 of the DI Sloane series is publishing, and I have been working as co-editor with Claire Savage and a host of talented local authors on Underneath the Tree: a multi-genre Christmas story anthology. That launched at the start of November.

What are your favourite crime books/series?

I adore everything by Gillian Flynn: Sharp Objects, Dark Places, Gone Girl. I think she is the real deal, an excellent writer and she thinks up great, memorable plots. Her books have a bit of edge and her female characters are especially compelling.

Tell us about DI Sloane

Harriet (Harry) Sloane is a twin, the youngest in her family of five. She was raised on the Malone Road to parents who worked at the top of their game: one was the chief of police, the other a judge. Harriet has just got out of a bad marriage, her love life is a bit of a mess. She is very career-focused and isn’t sure if she wants what women around her seem to want. She’s quite complex but is doing her best considering everything she has been through in her life.

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Many thanks to Kelly letting me interview her. You can find Problems With Girls (alongside Kelly’s other books) for sale on Amazon here.

Welcome, one and all, to my new website, now with integrated blog! I’ve been stumbling around the internet making pages and writing posts for longer than I care to remember, but now I am here, and it’s a fresh start. Perfect timing, I’d say, to go along with the new year. But that’s not to say all the things of the past have gone, or that they were all bad. Certain posts are being polished up and will be archived here in the coming days, after which you’ll notice my old blogs begin to disappear. (And, yes, I mean blogs, not blog posts – well, not just blog posts.) My “God Blog” is in the process of moving, and the blog I set up for Bible Study and Sermon Notes is vanishing (with the posts being merged into the aforementioned God Blog). Meanwhile, my creative writing blog (formally titled ‘Writing Through the Night’) and my main blog (‘This and That’) are being merged and moved here. Exciting, eh?