Q+A with............... ME

OK, Carl – game on! Here are your questions!

What have you been up to during lockdown?

Trying to catch up on the huge pile of unwatched dvd’s and unread books I’ve got lying around the place but I keep buying more so it’s a losing battle. I’m  in the middle of doing a roundup of everything I’ve watched and read over the last 9 ( is it  week 9 now?) weeks so that’s coming soon . I’ve got  a couple of book reviews to finish off and I’m also going to be reviewing some more movies since they seem to go down quite well.

You’re a huge fan of James Bond, so which Bond actor is your favourite and why?

 I absolutely love all the Bond’s but…. It’s Pierce , I just love the how he can go from being charming and sophisticated to being a cold hearted assassin . So he’s slap bang in the middle between Moore and Connery. Probabaly best to pretend Die Another Day never happened.

There’s a graph somewhere online that charts every Bond’s kill count and Pierce came out on top ,  If you look at him that way he’s the best Bond we’ve ever had so I’d like the next fella to be more like Pierce than Daniel Craig.

And favourite Bond film to date?

Goldeneye. Everything just seemed to fall perfectly into place with that film. From the direction , to the cast to the stunts . its one of the few that can’t be faulted

If you could, which Bond car would you buy?  I wouldn’t say no to any of them apart from the 2CV but Purely because of the noise it makes, the DBS from Quantum Of Solace

Where did your fascination of collecting watches come from, and which one in your collection has the most fascinating history?

I like mechanical stuff and I like taking them apart to fit new batteries and straps , which incidently is pretty much the only skill I’ve acquired during lockdown.

My Grandad has a gold Rolex Oyster Perpetual which I fell in love with at an early age . So that’s probably where it comes from.  I buy and sell a lot of watches so I tend to forget what I’ve owned but old seiko’s are good fun.

As to which one has the best history, probably my Casio F91-W digital, everybody’s had one of those.  I’ve got a Tissot Courtourier but that’s away at the moment, it was sent off for a new battery the day before the lockdown DOH! . My favourites probably an old Accurist I bought when I was 14. I’ve got one of the limited editon 007 swatch watches on order as well ,they’re going for silly money but I found one for a good price.

Can you share a photo of your dog, so everyone can see how cute Pip is?

 

Where can we find you?

(e.g. blog, social media)

Blog

https://bookebloke.blogspot.com/

twitter

https://twitter.com/bloke_book

Instagram

bookbloke

Film_bloke

From the books you've read to date in 2020, what are your top five recommendations? (And they don't have to include mine!!)

Die Alone by Simon Kernick

Only Fools And Stories By David Jason

On Her Majestys Secret Service by Ian Fleming

The Wrong side of goodbye by Michael Connelly

False Witness By Andrew Grant

How Not To Be A Professional Racing Driver by Jason Plato. ( worth buying for the JCB story alone)

Q+A Rachel Amphlett

Q+A with one of my favourite authors. Rachel Amphlett . 

How's lockdown going? 

Put it this way, there has been a LOT of writing going on!

You've got a new series out featuring Mark Turpin, can you give us the essence of it? 

The Detective Mark Turpin series is set in the Vale of the White Horse, a picturesque corner of the Berkshire/Oxfordshire border that is steeped in history from Bronze Age settlements through to Second World War airfields and more.

The locations and settings are as much a character as the people in these stories, and they have a slightly different feel to them from the Kay Hunter series.

When we first meet Mark, he’s emerged from a turbulent time with Wiltshire Police and has moved to the Vale in order to try to make some sense of his life and ease back into work. His sabbatical ends abruptly with the vicious murder of a parish priest.

How many books have you got planned featuring Mark? 

It’ll be an ongoing series – book 2, HER FINAL HOUR is out in November, book three is already written and ready to be published in 2021, and I’ll start work on book 4 in the New Year.

I visited Abingdon – where Mark is based – in October last year and had a wander around, and from that I’ve already got 2-3 new ideas lined up for Mark and his team that I want to explore.

What gave you the idea for this new series?

I had some ideas going around in my head for detective stories that wouldn’t fit in the Kay Hunter world simply due to the locations and settings.

I lived in the area where the series is set while I was playing guitar in bands in my 20s and my Dad grew up there, so what with all that and visits to grandparents when I was growing up, I’m very familiar with all the landmarks and locations.

Originally, the Kay Hunter series was going to be set there – or so I thought. Kay Hunter had other ideas, and that series moved to Maidstone…

How can we expect Mark's character to evolve over the course of the series? 

He’s still finding his feet in his new role in Oxfordshire, and readers will see how he’s struggling with that in book 2, HER FINAL HOUR but his working relationship with his colleague DC Jan West is the anchor that holds him steady. I’m having a lot of fun writing about the two of them – they’re chalk and cheese.

The Kay Hunter books are still going strong, what does the future hold for her? 

We’ve got TURN TO DUST coming out on July 13, and I’ve just started writing book 10 in the series so she and the team are still going strong – I have a lot of fun writing this series, too so as long as you enjoy reading them, I’ll keep writing them. I’ve also got some surprises lined up for readers later this year so I’d recommend signing up to my Reader Group for first dibs on that news :)

Would you write another standalone like The Friend Who Lied? 

Absolutely – the standalone novels are a great way to capture stories that don’t fit in one of my series and gives me a chance to try new writing skills so I’m always learning.

Would you ever be tempted to write a continuation novel for another series e.g. Bond or Sherlock Holmes? 

I wouldn’t rule it out completely but it’d have to be for the right reasons and at the right time, simply because I’ve got so many of my own ideas lined up to write over the next 2-3 years – and of course, by the time I get to the end of next year I’ll already be planning ahead for the next few years!

Which author have you discovered in the last 12 months that’s really surprised you?

I don’t know why I hadn’t read Cara Hunter’s series before now – time, probably! – but I discovered her first book Close to Home last year and quickly smashed through the read of the series in no time at all. I can’t wait for the next one.

Which movie or TV show have you watched during lockdown that's really surprised you? 

We’ve just binged seasons 1-3 of Travelers on Netflix and now I’m bereft because there’s no season 4. It’s another show that we missed the first time around while we were living in Australia but I got very invested in the characters. Clever ending, too. It surprised me because I don’t read sci-fi but I do like a lot of the TV shows – my other half’s favourite genre is sci-fi so through him I’ve discovered The Expanse and Picard as well.

What new releases are you most looking forward to? 

Michael Connelly’s Fair Warning, out on May 26 – I’ve already got my copy pre-ordered, and please don’t expect any writing to happen until I’ve finished reading it. Which will probably be between 24-36 hours – I love Connelly’s writing and will have to force myself to slow down while I’m reading it!

You always seem to have new projects on the go, how do you keep track of them all? 

I use an Excel spreadsheet set out a bit like a Gantt chart – I used to work as a project administrator in Australia and studied project management. All projects use one to keep track of their design and production schedule. My version is a slimmed-down version of that. I use it to note down when a book is due to be finished, when it’s got to be sent to the copy editor, proof reader, audio studio if we’re doing that format, and what the publication date is. Of course, by the time a book goes to the copy editor I’m already working on the next one.

What’s next for you?

I’m scheduled to finish the next Kay Hunter book by the end of July and then I plan to use August to write some short stories and learn some new skills before starting the next book on 1 September.

The second book in the Detective Mark Turpin series, HER FINAL HOUR will be out on November 9 and I’ve got a couple of surprises up my sleeve for later in the year as well to share with readers.

Links and things:

Instagram/Twitter: @RachelAmphlett

Website: www.rachelamphlett.com

Reader Group: https://www.rachelamphlett.com/join-rachels-reader-club/

and now for something i've never done before. asked an author to pose ME some questions. keep an eye put for the next post to see that.

Book Review Past Tense by Lee Child

Book Review Past Tense by Lee Child

The 23rd Jack Reacher book starts with Reacher wandering aimlessly through new hampshire when he spots a road sign for the town his father grew up in. Being reacher he has nowhere to go and plenty of time to get there , so he decides to take a detour an have a look around. Except when he starts asking questions , it transpires that no one called Reacher has ever lived there….   

Meanwhile a short while away a young couple named Patty and Shorty are trying to get their knackered old honda civic from canada to new york to sell a chest full of ‘treasure’ but when they break down outside a motel in the middle of nowhere it quickly becomes clear that something isn't right. And the motel owner isn't exactly keen to help them as he has something truly barbaric in mind for his ‘guests’  after they make several botched attempts to escape from trying to mend their junker of a car to stealing a quad bike to good old fashioned making a run for it.

As the two seemingly unconnected storylines come together ,Past Tense goes from Reacher’s episode of who do you think you are? To one of the darkest novels Child has ever written , its not quite as dark as the horrific events in Make Me but it gets close.

In amongst all the darkness though past tense is shot through with all the bar fights and dry humour and plain eccentricity that Reacher has become famous for and there's even a tip of the hat to the #metoo movement . 

Overall Past Tense is a classic Reacher novel and serves as a reminder of why even after 23 books and counting Lee Child is the finest crime writer working today  and when he inevitably ends the series it will be a very sad day.  That's for damn sure.

Verdict. Cracker