Target Age: YA / Adult
Genre: Crime Fiction ( Cosy)
Estimated Page Count: 400
Standalone Tenth book in the Carmichael series
I am thrilled to have Ian for a guest post today ~ thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for organizing.
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Stealing from reality to create fiction
I’m frequently asked whether I draw inspiration from actual people and real-life events when I’m creating my whodunits. The answer is simple – you bet I do!
Not always, of course, and the vast majority of what I write is created from my mind’s eye; however, real people and factual occurrences are far often more interesting than anything I could conjure up from somewhere in the recesses of my brain. In fact, sometimes I feel I must tone down what really happened before it goes into my storyline – as, if I just transcribed, parrot fashion, the actual event or drew a picture of the genuine person the reader may not think them true to life.
A good example of this was my character, Aunty Audrey, from my sixth Carmichael novel, Death in Winter.
Audrey is DC Carmichael’s aunt who, at very short notice, is thrust upon the family at Christmas. She’s a formidable character, who, probably through the passing of time, appears to have mislaid any filter she may have once possessed on her words and actions. Her arrival at the Carmichael household, offered a pleasurable light distraction from Carmichael’s case at that time – a missing person.
Audrey was created from three main sources, an aging family member ( I won’t divulge who as my wife may not like me mentioning her mother), an aging mother of one of my closest friends ( who hated being old and found it impossible not to tell all and sundry at any and every opportunity how dreadful her lot was) and a work colleague of my wife ( who either has an incredible knack of being able to totally miss the need to try and make decisions that also include the wishes of others, or just doesn’t see their wishes as being important compared to hers). Between them they made what I thought was an interesting character; often rude, at times funny, without doubt annoying, but strangely endearing too. I also included a flatulent dog in that story, which was similarly based upon real life – but that’s a different tale altogether which I won’t expand on here.
Without giving too much away, the unwelcome Aunty Audrey comes up trumps by helping Carmichael realise what’s going on in his case. I’ll leave it there.
I also get asked if I do much research for my books. Again, the answer is yes. However, I try to write about environments and occupations that are familiar to me – which enables me to include characters and scenes that I know to be plausible. This was particularly so in my earlier books. However, as I’ve started to exhaust my well of experiences, I find myself having to do more and more research to ensure that my story holds enough credibility to pass a basic level of scrutiny. The internet and talking with people who work in the environments I’m using in a particular story are my best reference points, particularly the latter and as people generally love sharing their
knowledge when they find out you’re an author I normally get all I need quite easily.
My Carmichael series is a predominantly fabricated group of stories emerging primarily from my imagination. However, by including traits from real people and using actual life events and focusing, as far as I can, on occupations and situations I’m familiar with, I reckon the books seem truer to life.
In my new novel, ‘Blood Matters’, two of my favourite characters are Pam Hutton and Suzi Ashcroft. The pair, as they appear in the book, are grossly exaggerated caricatures of two lovely ladies I know – but please don’t tell them as they may not realise what I’ve done or, worse still, they may dislike the creatures they’ve become.
Book blurb:
When the body of Doug Pritchard, an aging music journalist with a history of sensational scoops, is found face down in a dark roadside ditch, DCI Carmichael and his team embark on an investigation that takes them in several directions.
What did Pritchard uncover?
Did that secret bring about his violent demise?
And do the tragic deaths of two local pop idols, twenty years before, have any relevance to his murder?
As DCI Carmichael delves deeper into the case it becomes clear that, despite the outwardly close connections of the residents of the small hamlet of High Maudsey, neither long term friendships nor family ties should be taken at face value.
This the tenth in his series of well-honed detective novels by Ian McFadyen featuring DCI Carmichael, leads the detective and his team through as many twists and turns as the quiet country lane where Doug Pritchard’s body was discovered
As with all McFadyen’s Carmichael novels, this book is packed with a host of intriguing characters and an expertly crafted plot; and once again the author displays his skill as a writer in the great tradition of English crime novels.
Purchase Link –
Author Bio –
Ian McFadyen was born in Liverpool and enjoyed a successful career in marketing before becoming a writer. He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife but spends a great deal of his time writing in his bolthole retreat on the Norfolk / Suffolk border. Blood Matters is the tenth in a series featuring DCI Carmichael.
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