Ruth Dugdall

2012-01-17T02:38:00.001-08:00

Southend Libraries Book Festival2012 marks the bicentenary celebration of the birth of Charles Dickens. His legacy still makes an impact in film, radio and theatre today. We are delighted therefore to bring Simon Callow to launch this year's festival with his talk 'Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World.' This wonderful event brings to Southend one of our best loved actors and a tribute to the great Victorian writer. Please note: Please contact us to check ticket availability for Simon Callow, Gold Pass Tickets and Silver Pass Tickets. Simon Callow Friday 2nd March 7.30-9.30pm His career spans a wealth of film, theatre and writing but for most of us he remains one of our favourite actors, appearing in Four Weddings and a Funeral, A Room with a View and many others. His talk 'Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World' launches this year's festival and will be hugely popular so book early to reserve your place. Individual tickets £10 or book as part of a gold or silver pass. Please contact us to check ticket availability Andrew Miller and Kevin Howarth (narrator) Thursday 8th March 7.30-9.30pm Shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize, Snowdrops documents a life of crime, corruption and moral decline in modern Russia. Andrew's debut novel was written while he was the Moscow Correspondent for the Economist but he emphasises it is not an autobiographical account. The novel comes to life in the expert hands of actor and narrator Kevin Howarth making this a truly memorable evening. Individual tickets £5 or book as part of a gold or silver pass Ruth Dugdall Wednesday 14th March, 7.30-9.30pm Award winning author Ruth Dugdall brings a fantastic novel in 'The Sacrificial Man.' A psychological thriller, the book weaves a tale that is both surprising and disturbing. Winning the Debut Dagger Award in 2005 set Ruth on the path to success as a writer but she remains keen to help others in the field and regularly runs workshops to help bring new talent to life. She is an inspiration and a wonderful speaker. Individual tickets £5 or book as part of a gold or silver pass Vicky Kelly/Abbie Norbury and Relaxation/Rejuvenation Workshop with www.blossomdays.co.uk Saturday 24th March 11-1pm We are delighted to bring this local author and life coach for this wonderful workshop designed to help you get what you really want out of life. The session begins with a look at wellbeing and how to prevent stress and illness. As most people juggle too much the workshop will teach you techniques to unwind and help you find your point of control. To finish the morning you will learn gentle and restorative yoga poses which help quiet the mind and relax the body. They are designed for everyone and you need no prior experience. This workshop is a must if you simply want to relax and enjoy life more, no matter what demands you have to deal with. Check out the website on www.blossomdays.co.uk. Tickets £5 or book as part of a gold pass Robert Goddard Friday 30th March 7.30-9.30pm His books regularly hit the Sunday Times Bestseller Lists, he is a master writer enthralling all with his plots and characters, his latest book Fault Line appears on the 29th March but perhaps most of all he is one of the most entertaining authors you can wish to hear - a great finale to our festival this year. Tickets £7 or book as part of a gold or silver pass Gold Pass Ticket - entrance to all events £26 Silver Pass Ticket - entrance to events but not the Workshop £22 All tickets include refreshments. To Book online please use the online form, phone 01702 215011 or visit the central library. All events take place at Southend Central Library, Victoria Avenue, Southend on Sea, SS2 6EX

My love affair with Amazon

2012-01-03T10:41:00.000-08:00

Like all affairs, it is not always easy. Amazon is a fickle lover - one day I am rising the ranks, flushed with the excitement of seeing my sales increase and Amazon feeds me sweet statistics, telling me sales of Sacrificial Man are up 2000% (with my stunted maths knowledge I didn't even know that was possible...)Other days I will log on, blissfully ignorant of the horror that waits in the form of a scathing review. I see the star ranking first, and sometimes log off, refusing to scroll lower and read the damning reviews.Once I did this and, after restraining myself for three and a quarter hours, burst out during a family walk, "I got a shit review on Amazon."Hubbie, one step ahead as always, nodded sagely. "Yes. I saw."So, at the stroke of twelve on New Year's Eve I released my Chinese lantern into the air and resolved: I will NOT look at Amazon. I will beat this obsession. The book is the point. I worked hard, and I'm pleased with the end result. Let that be enough.Oh, fool, that I was....Today a friend e-mailed me to ask if I knew my books are currently 99p on the spurned site? Then I saw this on my publisher's site:The Woman Before Me - 25 in the Amazon Kindle ChartComing into the office this morning it was fantastic to see that The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall is currently number 25 in the Amazon Kindle chart. The book is currently being promoted by Amazon for 99p.It is fantastic to see this brilliant book doing so well... even beating Stieg Larsson, P.D. James and Martina Cole in the rankings. If you haven't read it yet, make sure you pick up a copy and let us know what you thinkSo, back I go, to the arms of Amazon. Still scared to scroll down too far, doing it with one eye half-closed horror-film style. My resolution broken, and it's only January 3rd.

Dear Anonymous

2011-11-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

I just received an anonymous message from someone who has bought The Woman Before Me but is scared to read it in case it upsets them. As I can't respond personally (no e-mail address) I am using this site to send a response: yes, the subject is emotional. And you may cry; I cried when I wrote it. But when you finish the book I hope you will be left with the feeling that you have been on a journey you are glad you took. Will you let me know? x
To convince you further here's the latest:

60 Amazon reviews for The Woman Before Me

Word of mouth is a fantastic tool for promoting a novel, so it is great to see the fantatic reviews for The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall on Amazon. There are now 60 reviews on the site (42 five star and 10 four star), and it is great to see such overwhelming support for this fantastic debut.

Below are some of the fantastic endorsements:

‘instantly engaging and kept me gripped throughout. I'd go so far as to say it's unputdownable… an impressive debut and I would recommend it without reservation.’ – TARguy, Colchester

‘The characters are very rounded and believable, arousing sympathy and mistrust throughout the book. It's very pacy and keeps you guessing right to the end.’ – LadyMacbeth

‘Dugdall spins a very clever web of deceit and entwines her characters into her story. I totally enjoyed the book, as did the book club.’ – May Bee

‘the pages turn faster and faster as you go. This story is a refreshing change from the usual crime mystery, populated with real characters you can believe in. An excellent novel.’ – Frances Day, Gloucestershire

‘I really liked the style of writing and the way it differed from so many other crime thrillers out there… I would not hesitate to recommend this book’ – Julia Shaw

‘There were no winners among the characters in this novel but this is a winning book in more senses than one and I am glad I read it.’ – H Gore, Essex

‘Dugdall draws her characters with consummate skill, using her personal experience as a Probation Officer in a women's prison to bring them to life. She holds the reader's attention through to the end’ – Wendy

‘This story is about so many different things, loss, relationships, jealousy and obsession all displayed in a measured manner… Fantastic I hope Ruth Dugdall writes more for us’ – C. Bannister, Jersey

‘psychologically acute; it is also, more importantly, very, very moving.’ – David Rose

‘a finely crafted piece of observation. A precise study of human need… excellent stuff!’ – Gary Murning, author

‘Dark and disturbing, this psychological thriller will stay with you long after you've put the book down.’ – S Lovett, Essex

‘I loved this book even with its dark subject matter, and read it in two sittings. It is a real page turner and written with real insight into all the characters.’ – M. Squirrell

‘Absolutely brilliant. I could not put it down and read it in a day. Still thinking about the characters now.’ – schoolescort

‘this one is definitely addictive and definitely leaves you wanting more.’ – kayscarpetta, Cleveland

‘What makes this thriller so successful is the way sadness and creepiness combine - in the sense that the reader feels that such a story could happen in anybody's life.’ – Petch

‘This was a page turner from beginning to end… I cannot wait for the next installment from this author.’ – AY Smith

‘With a fantastic eye for detail and sense of place this story will stay with you long after you've finished reading it.’ – Green One

‘A dark and captivating read. Dugdall reveals her skills as a `wordsmith', creating a spare and compelling narrative that is both satisfying and disquieting.’ – bhgirl

‘If you like dark and disturbing plots, this is for you! You'll be gripped by the relentless pace of the story and be prepared for a couple of shocks at the end.’ – Roz Colyer, Essex

‘Pacy, believable, with characters you can really root for; Ruth Dugdall is a talent to watch out for.’ - Devon Violets

‘It was marvelous, a real diametric juxtaposition of raw emotion and sophisticated narrative, pacy plotlines and luxuriously laconic descriptions reminiscent of authors such as John Connolly’ - Mark

40 five star reviews for The Woman Before Me

2011-10-11T06:30:00.000-07:00

The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall has received a fantastic response so far from readers on Amazon - with 40 five star reviews posted up for the book.

There is great word of mouth momentum behind this book - and we would love you to join the discussion by reading the book and reviewing online.

Here are some reader's thoughts:

'Ruth Dugdall has written her with great psychological insight and captures Rose's descent into obsession with chilling precision. I found myself desperate for Rose to do the right thing and yet simultaneously understanding her needs, even empathising with them. It's quite an achievement and left me disturbed long after I had put the book down. This is an impressive debut and I would recommend it without reservation.'

'Ruth Dugdall draws her characters with consummate skill, using her personal experience as a Probation Officer in a women's prison to bring them to life. She holds the reader's atention through to the end, with its horrifying twist.'

'This is a book that you're drawn into right from the start and it quickly becomes a page turner that you just can't put down. I didn't see the twist coming. The characters are very rounded and believable, arousing sympathy and mistrust throughout the book. It's very pacy and keeps you guessing right to the end. I can't wait to read Ruth Dugdall's next one. A totally unique book that creates its own genre. Great movie material.'

by Jim Murdoch - most detailed reviewed on the internet?

2011-09-03T00:23:00.000-07:00

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Friday, 2 September 2011The Sacrificial Man

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide – Albert Camus

A year ago I reviewed Ruth Dugdall’s novel The Woman Before Me. It has the feel and shape of a crime novel but the twist is that we already know who the guilty party is; they’ve been apprehended, charged, tried, convicted, sentenced and are now up for parole. What the book does is follow the probation officer, Cate Austin, as she tries to come up with a recommendation to put before the parole board. There is a catch. The sole criterion for eligibility for parole is remorse and the prisoner in question, a woman called Rose Wilks, who has been charged with the accidental murder of a child, has always – and continues to – maintained her innocence. How can one express genuine remorse for something you say you never did? As it transpires, she is innocent of the crime for which she had been convicted, but everyone is guilty of something. Now, that might seem like a lot to tell you about Ruth’s first ‘Cate Austin’ novel but I have my reasons. If you have the time and the inclination you can read the whole review here.

I was very taken with The Woman Before Me. It has its weaknesses and I’m not going to ignore them but I loved the premise and frankly expected to be disappointed by her next novel which I imagined would fall back on a more traditional style. I thought this approach would work for one novel but that would be it. I’m pleased to say I’ve been proved wrong. The question is: Has she fallen foul to the law of diminishing returns? You know what I’m on about: you’re hungry and someone hands you a ham and mustard sandwich and it’s the very best ham and mustard sandwich that you have ever had in your puff and it’s so damn good that you want to eat it all over again, whereupon your kindly host hands you another, identical sarnie but it never is the same, is it? Whereas the first one was great, this second one is only very good at best.

The Sacrificial Man, much to my surprise, has exactly the same structure as The Woman Before Me. It’s as if Ruth has rubbed out all the characters in the first book bar Cate and filled in new ones. The ‘Rose’ character is now Alice, a university lecturer (Exeter College, English Literature). The crime is not murder, it’s assisted suicide, a crime that can attract up to fourteen years in prison so it’s not that it’s not serious, it is. The premise is the same and the approach the same – Alice gets to narrate her story and Cate’s side of things is told in the third person – and again the question is: what is, in this case Alice, guilty of? She’s been charged, tried, found guilty but not sentenced. This is where Cate Austin comes in. It is her job to make a recommendation to the court.

That surprised me. I thought that the judge would have simply decided that there and then. In an article in the East Anglian Daily Times, Ruth, who used to work as a probation officer herself, had this to say about the job:

I loved being a probation officer. They get a really bad press, but I think they do a great job. People generally have the totally wrong idea about what they do. They think they're there to befriend offenders and give them cups of tea and sympathy; actually, it's all about challenging them and getting them to accept what they've done and think about the victim.

Anyway, I’m pleased to report, Ruth Dugdall has got better at making ‘sarnies’. The approach may be identical but her writing has improved. It is still not a perfect novel and the main weakness in the first book for me is actually amplified by the fact that her new antagonist is a much bigger character this time. In The Woman Before Me, Rose doesn’t exactly jump off the page but Alice does. Do you recall Tim Burton’s Batman, the one featuring Jack Nicholson as the Joker? I remember at the time some criticism was levelled, quite rightly, at the film because Nicholson dominated the film. Some critics even went as far as to say the film should have been called The Joker there was so little of Batman in it. If this book had been called Cate Austin I might have said the same.

Alice Mariani suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, a condition in which people have an inflated sense of self-importance and an extreme preoccupation with themselves. Dr Gregg, the psychologist assigned to assess her, asked Cate Austin:

“Have you heard of egomania?”

“Well, yes,” she replied cautiously, “but I didn’t think it was a medical term.”

“It isn’t. It’s the nineteenth century word for a Narcissistic Personality Disorder, but I think it sums things up nicely. I think Alice is a classic case. There are nine key features to the disorder, and my initial assessment is that she scores high on most of them. She’s preoccupied with power, arrogant and has a feeling of entitlement to act as she feels fit. Another feature is a lack of empathy.”

On top of this she is very beautiful. And knows it. She is poised, articulate, and comes across as very sure of herself. She drives an MG Midget (Cate, “a run-around in dull green with a dent in the wing.”) This is her book and don’t you forget it: she’s talking to you:

I’ve chosen you. You will listen. You are my judge, the true arbiter.

Those words aren’t addressed to Cate or Smith or any other character in the book. Alice kicks down the fourth wall and makes sure you’re paying attention.

(For the record, by the way, the most likely diagnosis for the Joker, although definitely a narcissist, is probably antisocial personal disorder.)

So, what is her story all about? Alice has responded to an online advert:

Man seeks beautiful woman for the journey of a lifetime. I will lift mine eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help. Will you help me to die?

The quote is from Psalms 121:

1. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,
from whence cometh my help.

2. My help cometh from the LORD,
which made heaven and earth.

If you read the entire psalm is has a similar feel to Psalm 23, the LORD is my shepherd. The appeal is from a guy who uses the Internet name, Smith – his real name is David Jenkins – Alice going by the name Robin, names which they mostly continue to use in the real world once they finally meet. Smith is not a crank, at least he doesn’t appear to be, he says he’s not terminally ill and despite quoting the Bible he doesn’t come across as a religious nut either. His online profile reveals little though:

He’d been a fan of Morrissey in his teens and I imagined a melancholic youth with floppy hair smoking dope. He said he was a Catholic and, however lapsed, the faith was in his blood.

It’s the name that first attracts Alice:

To me, Smith was beautifully anonymous – an Everyman. I didn’t want the unique or standalone; I sought the mediocre, the average, the one lost in a crowd. I wanted the man who worked behind a desk, who microwaved cardboard meals, who rubbed the sore grooves down his nose, scored by his glasses, Mr Mousy Hair, Mr Nylon Shirts. Strange, that I sought the ordinary when I’m anything but.

Others respond to his ad, but Robin/Alice is his choice.

Her assessment of Smith is right on the nail. He works as an actuary for an insurance firm in London. He’s twenty-seven, a popular age to die, although John Keats, whose poetry and philosophy of life features, was only twenty-five. In chapter ten Cate gets to see Alice deliver a lecture on Keats, albeit one on film as she has been suspended from actual teaching duties. The talk ends with…

As Keats said, ‘I conclude,’ projecting to the camera, ‘now more than ever seems rich to die. To cease upon the midnight with no pain. A perfect death is a way to cheat the dulling, dumbing effect of time. To die at the heart of love is the only way to preserve its purity.’

Alice, predictably, enjoys watching herself onscreen:

My onscreen image is beautiful, slim, clever. To Cate Austin, as to the students sitting enthralled, it must appear as if I have it all.

So why would this clearly intelligent woman who has “it all” agree to help a complete stranger end his own life? She’s not a member of The Hemlock Society, although this pro-suicide organisation does take an interest in her case, in fact she doesn’t appear to have any strong feelings on the subject that don’t come out of a book and like many academics when asked a question she’s prone to respond with a quote. Or is that just a front? At her core she comes across as a Romantic. Even when she thinks about the very real possibility of a custodial sentence, this is what she comes up with:

The word is too romantic, a beautiful lie. ‘Prise’, a word for open. Said quickly prison could be present – birthdays and Christmas. How can such a word mean something so ugly, so absolute, as incarceration? I shall say jail. The word is more honest, in it you can hear the clink of keys in locks. I like to be honest with words…

David Jenkins – Smith – on the other hand is very different but one can also see why, once she got to know him, there might have been some attraction. He’s a decent bloke, organised – his suicide note is written months in advance and goes to great pains to ensure that Robin, as he calls Alice, is protected from prosecution. He writes:

Robin is no more responsible for my death than a train driver who runs over a guy who jumped on the tracks. She may be driving the train but she never made me jump. It will be me swallowing the drugs, knowing they bring death. The eating, too, is my request. Robin doesn’t even really want to – she’ll be doing it for me. And I’ll be alive at that point, so it’s not even illegal.

Right. I probably should have mentioned the eating bit. But I won’t, if you don’t mind, mention that bit. Yeah, I know, that puts a whole different complexion on everything. Especially since Alice is vegetarian. Is this all starting to ring bells now? Let me remind you:

Recently [in 2002], a man in Germany was put on trial for killing and consuming another German man. Disgust at this incident was exacerbated when the accused explained that he had placed an advertisement on the internet for someone to be slaughtered and eaten—and that his ‘victim’ had answered this advertisement. The man had first castrated his willing victim, and then the two had eaten the removed flesh. Following this, Armin Meiwes administered a drug, stabbed Bernd-Jurgen Brandes to death, cut him into pieces, and placed him in the freezer—a delicacy to be consumed over several months. – J. Jeremy Wisnewski, ‘Murder, Cannibalism, and Indirect Suicide: A Philosophical Study of a Recent Case’, Philosophy in the Contemporary World 14:1 (Spring 2007)

The man in question was Armin Meiwes who was arrested in December of 2002 and, indeed, it was hearing about the case on the news that first sowed the seeds in Ruth Dugdall’s mind. Meiwes was put on trial in 2003, and convicted of manslaughter in January, 2004. He was sentenced to 8½ years. Of course Ruth references it in the book along with other similar cases; she’s obviously done her research. There are clear differences, however, between the circumstances surrounding David Jenkins’ death and what happened in Germany but, needless to say, the press, ever keen to sensationalise things, focuses on the act of cannibalism, something Alice thinks little of:

It was like eating the dead skin from a scab. It was nothing. It was rubber and salt.

As with The Woman Before Me the facts in this case appear clear cut. No one is accusing Alice of misrepresenting the facts or of trying to wriggle out of anything. But what we believe to be true isn’t always what turns out to be true. And that is what Cate Austin, as she carries out her investigation, uncovers.

Like all novels of this ilk the suspense is derived from eking out information. As it happens the day of his suicide Smith posts a letter to one of his workmates, Krishna Dasi, that proves to be the sole piece of evidence that is needed to clarify what really happened and who is guilty of what and if Krishna hadn’t hung onto it for weeks before deciding to hand it over and, if, when he did choose to hand it over, he had picked a police officer rather than Cate Austin, or if Cate had been a faster reader than she apparently is (taking another 113 pages to get through something she could and should have read in an hour), then everything would have been done and dusted by page 163 or thereabouts. I’m being picky. It’s not as if her being a slow reader gets someone else killed. It just means that it takes a bit longer for everyone to find out the truths and how they change their lives.

There is another layer to this book. We have Alice talking straight to us, we have Cate’s story and then we have a third story, the backstory where we learn where Alice came from and what happened to make her the person she has turned into. Really, the fact that she willingly agreed to be a party to someone’s suicide is one of the least interesting things about her once you learn about her mother and what happened to the two of them, how Alice ended up in care and also how Alice ended up rich: by the end of the book she’s been transformed from merely the accused into a real person. Smith, not so much, although we do learn a lot more about him, but this is Alice’s story.

As with The Woman Before Me, Cate is the weak link. This is what I had to say about her last appearance:

I found Cate the most predictable character here. It’s a common ploy of crime novelists to have a fair degree of overlap between protagonist and antagonist and I never truly engaged with her. She does her job, metaphorically and literally.

and I feel exactly the same about her in this book. I know that Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple’s talent as a detective lies in the fact she is unobtrusive, blending into the background where she can conveniently overhear relevant snippets of conversations but she still has character; in the early novels she’s a gleeful gossip and not an especially nice woman before Christie softened her down and made her more “fluffy”. In an e-mail Ruth said this to me:

The question of whether Cate should be more to the fore was one I struggled with, and in earlier drafts she is much more present. I removed these sections as I felt Alice – and Smith – had such strong storylines and I was worried about distracting the reader. Maybe I was too heavy handed with my removals?

It’s a difficult call. But my main feeling about Cate in this book is the fact that she does precious little detecting. Yes, she notices that Alice swapped vases – that was well spotted – but she failed to notice how ill Alice was until it was pointed out to her and Krishna simply hands her the vital piece of evidence; no one knows it exists before then. To be fair it’s more realistic this way – my wife and I are always tearing apart cop shows on TV apart for the remarkable leaps in deduction they make and don’t get either of us started on forensic evidence – but it does make her a bit dull; a necessary player but not a very exciting one. But then she doesn’t need to be; we have Alice.

Bottom line? I enjoyed this. It asks some serious philosophical questions in the midst of everything and there are no easy answers. This is not just a crime novel or a psychological thriller. I like that. Ian Rankin chose to be a crime novelist because he realised that a detective was the perfect tool to prise open the lid of society. He’s a serious novelist masquerading as a crime fiction writer and I believe the same is true of Ruth Dugdall. The Sacrificial Man is also topical, Sir Terry Pratchett, for one, having raised the public’s awareness of the subject. The copy I was sent has four pages at the front praising Ruth’s writing but I’ll echo what Frances Day (an Amazon reviewer) had to say: both Ruth’s novels are a “refreshing change from the usual crime mystery, populated with real character you can believe in.” I would have no problems reading her next book but I would like to see something a little different next time. When William McIlvanney (another serious novelist) wrote his third and final Laidlaw novel rather than writing in the third person as he had done in his first two novels he wrote Strange Loyalties in the first person presenting a very different book. I would like to see Cate Austin come out of the shadows.

I thought I’d ask Ruth about this.

In your e-mail to me you said that you deliberately toned down Cate’s role in this book because Smith, and Alice, especially, are such large characters. That wasn’t the case in the first book and yet I still felt that she lacked in many ways. I see from reading other reviewers that this is the common criticism of your protagonist. How do you think you’ll avoid us saying the same about her next time?

I’m responding all the time to what readers tell me. Because it took me several years to find a publisher I was, to a large extent, writing in something of a void, not sure how my novels would be received by the general public. Now that I am in the fortunate position of being published I often hear from readers, especially at book groups (I usually visit one every few weeks) and what I am hearing is that people are intrigued by Cate and want more of her.
In earlier drafts of The Sacrificial Man there was more of Cate’s back-story, but I felt it distracted from Alice’s narrative (which, for me, is the pulse of the novel) so I deleted it. I’ve learned that readers see Cate as the voice of reason and are also interested in the rarely portrayed probation perspective. My next Cate Austin novel (Humber Boy B – a work in progress) will see her coming more into the foreground, and will reveal what motivated her to train as a probation officer. Readers have guessed that she has some skeletons in her cupboard and it’s time for me to reveal some of them.

In both of these books the ‘bad guy’ is actually a woman. Obviously your experience working as a probation officer brought you in contact with a lot of ‘bad’ women. Do you think that the way that women are treated in the criminal justice system is different to males; mad rather than bad?

I feel this very strongly. For me one of the final frontiers of feminism is to acknowledge that women are equally capable of violence, of harm, of terrible deeds, as men. As a society we are still shocked when women are involved in violent or sexual crimes and prefer to believe that the woman was either under the influence of a male or mentally ill. I know it’s anecdotal rather than statistical evidence, but I worked with many people who had been abused by women, and in several of the murder cases I supervised there had been women who were also involved who had avoided charge. Women are treated very differently by the Criminal Justice system and as long as that remains the case we won’t have a true picture of crime and the psychology behind it. Novels are just one way in which it is possible to challenge normal assumptions about criminal behaviour, and I hope my novels add something to this debate.

You said in a recent Radio 4 interview that motherhood was one of the reasons you started writing in the first place. Can you explain?

Well, firstly on a very practical level it gave me the time to really concentrate on writing. I’d gone from being a student into full time work, so when I was on my maternity leave it was my first real chance to really clear my head and start to pull together my ideas. I also think that when I was working I was very bound up in being a probation officer and the stresses of the job, so maternity leave gave me some distance and perspective. Motherhood is a very strong theme in both The Woman Before Me and The Sacrificial Man and having children myself meant that I cared even more about this very vital relationship. In my work I had seen how devastating it can be to have an abusive or absent mother, and it was natural for me to connect with this theme when I came to explain how Rose and Alice came to be the women they are.

I noticed that you did a lot of work on this novel using the site Authonomy. Can you tell us a bit about that experience? Is it an approach you would recommend and, if so, why?

I love Authonomy. It is a fantastically supportive environment, and I do believe it can open doors for people. At the very least it is a chance to meet (in cyberspace) with other dedicated writers and get feedback. This in itself is vital for a writer – we can’t be defensive about or work if we want to improve, and criticism that is given constructively is a gift. This is a lesson that can be learned on Authonomy, and in quite a safe way, as people are very generous with their support.

Writing is lonely, but a site like Authonomy is the virtual equivalent of the office water cooler. You can log on, enjoy a chat, read a thread, then get back to writing.

There are a lot of crime novelists out there and a seemingly never-ending stream of cop shows on TV, presumably read and watched by people who have never murdered anyone, nor would ever imagine murdering anyone. What is the attraction?

Fear. We all fear having the rug pulled out from under us, and crime novels allow us to experience this vicariously and then see the world restored to its rightful order, as usually the conclusion of a crime novel is redemptive in nature.

I believe you have two more books under your belt. Can you tell us a little about them?

The next novel that will be submitted to publishers is called My Sister and Other Liars and is a totally different kind of novel. It’s a coming of age story about Sam, a teenage girl, whose sister was attacked and left brain damaged. The police have no evidence about the attack and are closing the case so Sam has decided to find her sister’s attacker and enact her own revenge.

After that comes Innocence Lane, which is about a man who kills his wife, but says he was sleepwalking when he did this. The defence of sleepwalking has been used successfully in both the UK and USA and I think it’s a fascinating notion.

Both novels are stand-alone pieces, set in Suffolk, and feature characters introduced in TWBM and TSM, although not Cate Austin.

Well, all I can say is that I’m looking forward to reading them; Innocence Lane especially calls out.

***

Although the events that take place in it follow on from The Woman Before Me, The Sacrificial Man is a standalone novel. It is published by Legend Press and the last time I looked could be bought on Amazon, new, for as little as £4.00.

Back in the swing of things...

2011-08-24T02:56:00.000-07:00

Vermont was magical. It was my first time back since honeymooning there 13 years ago and we took the kids back to the same hotel which felt very special and nostalgic. Lots of mountain hiking (as the Americans call it) and swimming in `swimming holes`. In fact, the house we stayed in lost water for 4 days so swimming in the lake was our only way to wash! All adds to the experience.

Now I'm back, climbing a different sort of mountain (washing!) and still on American time, which had better adjust soon as tomorrow is my first publicity event. At 2.30 (UK time) I'll be interviewed by Hannah on Talk Europe Radio. Then on Saturday I'm back to the book signings, at Waterstones in Coventry from 10am. Coventry was a good event last year with The Woman Before Me so I'm hoping to see some friendly faces again. If you live in the area please pop along & say hello!

Phew. Glad that's over...

2011-07-23T08:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s been a mad week. If a writer’s life is a rollercoaster of highs (getting published / meeting a fan at a book signing) and lows (rejections / getting told to shove off at a book signing) then this week has been a condensed version.

It started a week ago when I drove 260 miles to speak to a book group where, I discovered the day before, only 7 of the 14 had actually purchased my book. Given the distance, and the fact that I don’t charge to do this, I thought this was a bit much but as I’d already booked my hotel I went anyway. Well, there may have only been 7 there but they made up for it with their enthusiasm and I was delighted by their comments. When they gave me some chocs and flowers as a `thank you` my cup floweth over… I arrived at the hotel pleased I’d made the journey.

The following day I did two book signings (mad idea – never again) and it was pouring with rain. Both branches of Waterstones were dead, so I was lucky to sell 40 books, and drove home feeling weary.

On Tuesday I went to Bodies in the Bookshop at Heffers, Cambridge. I knew that with so many crime writers there it would be a good networking opportunity, and I especially wanted to meet Sophie Hannah (we’d exchanged e-mails but never met in the flesh) and S J Watson (whose book led me to my new agent). Fate was on my side; by chance I was in the taxi line with S J Watson, and ended up sharing a cab, which gave me ample time to chat with him, and then Sophie was on the same book-signing table as me. I was one of the last to leave the event, and selling a few books was an added bonus.

Wednesday was manic. I drove to Wickhambrook, somewhere in the Suffolk wilds, and met the WI group there. We had a lovely lunch, and after my talk I sold lots of books, so it was a fantastic event. I also got gifted some fabulous cup cakes so the kids were happy when I got home… however before going home I zoomed to London for the People’s Book Prize awards. I am grateful to everyone who voted for me, and especially for the comments left on the site. I didn’t win but it was a lovely evening and I still felt fortunate to be there.

Thursday was another book club, this time a group that I had met last year when they read The Woman Before Me. Their response to The Sacrificial Man was, if anything, even more enthusiastic and it was a great night. I do love book clubs!

Friday was the short-listing of the New Blood Dagger and although I knew it was a bad sign that I’d heard nothing I was still disappointed to see the confirmation that I wasn’t short-listed. As the opening of The Woman Before Me had won the debut dagger back in 2005 I was hopeful that the completed version would be deemed worthy of a listing. I’d already predicted that Before I go to Sleep, Poison Tree and Into the Darkest Corner would be on the list. Fantastic novels all.

But I wasn’t downcast for long.

Today took me to Bury St Edmunds for one of the best book signings I have ever done. There is a growing awareness of my books, and several people came in knowing I would be there. Others had heard me on Radio Suffolk / BBC2 / Woman’s Hour so that was a good sign that the publicity works.
I’ve just arrived home – tired by happy.
It’s been a bit of an up and down week, but on balance a writer’s life is still the one for me.

The Bookback review of The Sacrificial Man

2011-06-22T08:58:00.001-07:00

Synchronicity? Is that what they call it, when unconnected events chime with each other in unavoidable significance? Maybe it is just the human need to see patterns and make connections where there are none, but it's still weird when it happens. In a week that saw a storyline in Emmerdale echoed in a very personal documentary by Terry Pratchett considering the possibility of choosing the nature and time of his own end, I found myself reading The Sacrificial Man.

This is a book that is also about choosing your own ending – albeit with a few gruesome twists that I'm hoping Sir Terry doesn't have in mind.

We meet Robin on a railway station. A terminus. The end of the line. Technically, unless the continuity error is corrected in the final version of the book (I was privileged with a proof copy), the station in question is seldom the end of the line. It's a major through-route. But we'll let that rest. It's the danger you meet if you choose to set your books in real places. For dramatic purposes it is the end of the line.

Robin isn't her real name. It's one she chose when she started her search on the internet. And the person she found called himself "Smith". They got to know each other, knew their real names in the real world, but still chose to call one another by their chosen names. She loved the chirpy 'cheer-leader' sound of hers, he the anonymity of his, and vice versa. In each other they found what they'd been seeking.

Specifically Smith had found a woman willing to join him on the journey of a lifetime… to help [him] die.

Why Robin wants to do this is something she needs someone to understand. Specifically, she wants us, the readers, to know those things that she may not be willing to tell the police, the social workers, the other authority figures that will surely get involved when the deed is done. Dugdall makes us complicit by directing the narration at us, on a very personal level. It is as though by continuing to read, we give the character permission to continue on this path.

We are also given the means with which to afford her absolution for it, or not. For this isn't just her story, it's her mother's too.

1977: Matilde Mariani is a second generation immigrant; she's 17 years old, terrified of her father, indifferent to her subjected mother, and pregnant. By a quirk of biology she's too pregnant for anything to be done about it before anyone really notices. By a quirk of character she finds the strength to refuse to let her baby go.

Cut to the present: Cate Austin, Probation Officer, is handed a case she really doesn't want. Alice Mariani has been charged with assisted suicide and she has to recommend sentence.

From here Dugdall spins her tale from the three main perspectives: that of Alice/Robin (what happened, how, why); Cate's investigation (her meetings with Alice, information feeding in from elsewhere); and the past, in the voice of the disembodied omniscient narrator, who primarily gives us more background for Alice/Robin. These episodes are stripped of the manipulative feel of Alice's own expositions aimed directly at the reader, but they are still heavily weighted in her favour. This is how it was, they say. And it was NOT nice.

Alice is clear: what she did she did for love. Smith wanted to die. He must have had his reasons, but they didn't talk about them. Even when he cast his last requests in a spiritual pseudo-Christianity vein (the blood and body), she did not question him. You do not question what you do for love. The evidence is there. The letter he wrote is clear.

Is this normal… is this love or loyalty… or is this something more? Or less?

Was this an assisted suicide (upon which the law looks increasingly leniently) – or was it murder? That is Cate's dilemma. It should not be so. The jury has spoken. There is no question of murder. All our probation officer has to do is recommend a sentence in the light of the perpetrator's mental state and likelihood to be a danger to herself or others. But Cate is not so sure… something about Alice has her digging deeper…

As a novel about the criminal justice system, as a thriller, as a literary exploration of the character of damaged individuals The Sacrificial Man scores on every level. It's gripping. It makes you slightly queasy in places. It forces you to question your prejudices at every step of the way. Reader sympathy is shunted around the cast-list as the tale plays out. Everyone has something to hide; everyone has a reason. Until a different reason comes along.

Stylistically, it's well pitched with exposition allowing us time to think about the potential psychological insights suddenly whipped away back into assertion or dialogue that gives us no time to breath and reinforces or counters our conclusions in equal measure.

As an addition to the expanding canon of fiction and non-fiction discourse on the rights and wrongs of allowing the "right to life" to encompass "a right to end it", rather than being transmuted into "an obligation to live", Dugdall manages to squeeze in powerful arguments on both sides of the debate.

As the second contribution to what looks set to be a series of Cate Austin novels it is well balanced. Enough of Cate's family life and personal dilemmas are exposed to draw readers to the character, but only just enough. We're not burdened with back-story that we don't need. The focus remains resolutely on the case in hand, which enables the book to stand solidly on its own account.

The book is heartily recommended… and the author is one to watch.

First review of The Sacrificial Man!

2011-06-16T05:37:00.001-07:00

The Sacrificial Man
by Ruth Dugdall
Release Date: 1st Jul 2011
Publisher: Legend Press
ISBN: 978 1 9082 4800 8
RRP: £7.99

Walking the tightrope between what is morally right and wrong is more dangerous that you think...
I had never contemplated the justice system from the probationary officer’s perspective. This entirely unglamorous, rarely discussed occupation is startlingly powerful and yet has mysteriously fallen between the cracks of literature; that is, until Ruth Dugdall created Cate Austin and opened up a whole new dimension to our legal system.

Alice Mariani has been found guilty of “assisted suicide”; an illegal act in Britain, despite protestations that suicide is a personal choice and if that individual wishes to take their own life; that is their right and anyone present or involved should not be subsequently punished. Austin’s job is to provide the court with a recommendation on the length and type of sentence that is handed down, but she’s stuck with Mariani. Her story doesn’t quite ring true and the abrupt psychotic break that lands her in a psychiatric ward fails to assuage Austin’s suspicions. The problem is: all the evidence clearly points to suicide. There’s a note written by the ‘victim’, a raft of email correspondence detailing his desire to overdose and for Mariani to be there – even to eat a part of him as well as precedents set across Europe. Mariani’s side of the story hangs on an unlikely love affair that grew out of the victim’s desire to die. The mode of death was meticulously planned, ritualistic, almost spiritual – but still Austin cannot shake a feeling of unease. It is the victim’s diary that finally sheds light on the true motivations behind the victim’s death-wish, the cannibalism playing a pivotal part and as Austin reads on, she discovers that victim may be murderer and murderer may be victim.

The Sacrificial Man is unflinching in its analysis of the complexity of the human psyche: the rationalisation of unfathomable acts of self-mutilation; the horror that lurks in the broken mind; the sickness that twists the moral compass beyond recognition. There is also the inscrutable lightness: the bond between teenage mother and child, the adulation that would lead you to do anything to stopper your loved-one’s pain… It is the clash of light and dark, sweet and bitter, destructive and tender that Dugdall emblazons the story into your retinas and into your brain. As repulsive as it is compulsive; The Sacrificial Man takes us on a sobering journey into a world of psychosis, sexual abuse, neglect, drug addiction, cannibalism and an act so horrific in conception it can only be described as evil.

Dugdall challenges our preconceptions on just about every emotive topic out there. Bold and clever in her storytelling, she forces a spotlight into the darkest corners of humanity. But what really chills is the realisation that whilst we can look away, back to the light; a probationary officer lives with the dark.

*The Truth About Books review*

On being 40...

2011-06-16T03:56:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday. I woke up singing the Sugar Cubes song `Birthday` and realised when I got to "they're smoking cigars" that it's a totally different type of birth-day, but you get the idea.
To be honest, it feels like it was my birthday yesterday what with being on Radio 4. Here's the link, if you missed it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011vg8z#p00hl91j

I was as pleased for my Dad as for me, as he listens to it every morning whilst he's shaving so for him it gives me the `stamp of credibility`. Afterwards, the team at Legend Press took me for lunch, including a bottle of champagne that the waiter reduced by 40% in honour of my birthday, and I came home to more celebrating as the Amazon ranking for all my novels was already benefit ting from the `Jenni factor`. Amazon have also reduced The Woman Before Me & The Sacrificial Man to just £4.

Happy at 40? You betcha!

An outside chance...

2011-06-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

I was please to read a review by Mike Ripley (he of SHOTSMAG) yesterday that described me as a `dark horse`in the field of crime writers and `one to watch`.
After all, who wants to be the tipped favourite, the one with short odds and everything to lose?

I remember being interviewed on Radio Suffolk by Georgina Wroe just after THE WOMAN BEFORE ME had been long listed for the New Angle Prize for literature, alongside such stellar writers as Blake Morrison and Ronald Blythe. It was the day after the gold cup, which I'd had a bet on, and I said to Georgina that I felt a bit like the horse that's been bought by a group of locals who clubbed together, kept in a stable in a field somewhere. There is love and passion in that, but not a huge amount of capital. Also in the race are horses from prestigious stables (think Hodder, think Penguin) and these animals have glossy coats and the best trainers...

And they're under starters orders...

So, THE SACRIFICIAL MAN is out in three weeks time, and will be vying for summer sales along with other books backed by big budgets and publicity tours while I'm hoofing it (pardon the pun!) from Windsor to Woking hoping to flog a few books to the unsuspecting public.
There is an outside chance that THE SACRIFICIAL MAN could make it as a bestseller - the odds are stacked, but I have everything to play for, and not much to lose. So, here goes nothing...

Want to support me? Then please buy the book or order it at your local library.
And if I'm book signing in a store near you, please pop in and say hi!

Another way you can help is to take a moment to vote for THE WOMAN BEFORE ME as People's Book Choice. Just click this link:
http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/finalist.php
You have to register to vote (if you've already voted they'll send you a reminder of your password if you need it) and put a cross in the box. Voting is free, but prizes of books and tickets to the final are given out to randomly selected voters. I'm grateful to everyone who takes the time to vote for me. Another advantage of being the outside runner - everything is a bonus!

People's Book Prize

2011-05-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Still on the subject of competitions and motivation, it was a real boost to see the comments from readers who voted for The Woman Before Me to win the People's Book Prize. Thanks to all who did!

Reader Comments
could not put this book down brilliant writing desperate for the truth in a complicated web of a troubled woman
What a fantastic read. A friend leant it to me and I have to say it is not the type of book I would usually read (normally I just like an easy to read romance) however I thought I would give it a go well, I couldn't put it down and finished it in less than 3 days a super book and I look forward to Ruth's next one.
Having just got back into reading regularly I found "The Woman Before Me" excellent, powerful & enthralling. I enjoyed every page & look forward to Ruth's 2nd novel.
Ruth Dugdall is brilliant. Please, please read her
Wonderful twist! Keeps you guessing to the end!
Couldn't put it down.
Great read, Well thought plot & well defined charaters. A readable and enticing story. I'm enjoying the local Suffolk setting.
best book i have read in a long time !!
Not only exciting and scary but beautifully written.
Great read
Wonderful story and brilliant writing
This book reads true. Great writing, riveting story, characters and dialogue are believable.
The twist is intense. A must read for fans of the genre!!!!!
a stimulating book
Brilliant, Ruthie!
I vote for this book
Great to see this doing so well!
I vote for this book for the peoples book award!
A great read with one almighty twist!
Excellent read and set around where I live so an added interest
excellent book
I didn't see the twist coming.
Excellent book. Really cant wait till the next book!!
AHHHHH OOHHHH YEEHA. Loved it
Marvellous rollocking read. Near put the wind up my sales I can tell you
Really enjoyed this book, even more than her previous one. Looking forward to the next.
A joy to read. Well thought out and written thriller by an exciting new author. Look forward to reading more in the future.
A good read!
Great novel with absorbing characters. A very tense read.
A compelling read with a real surprise in the end! Looking forward to the next book already!
A fantastic read.
Extremely accomplished. I was unable to put this book down and read it in one setting. Sensitively written.
A gripping read right from the start, with lots of twists and turns. Once I started reading I couldn't stop.
Amazingly good. Had me hooked from the first page
Gripping, easy read with a surprising twist at the end.
A great read, with a clever twist
Great story, fluently written. I have recommended this book to others. I can't wait for the next one - is there one on the way? Hope so!
excellent book, couldn't put this down. read it several times too!!
Fantastic book. A real page turner and I couldn't put it down.
An excellent book. Totally absorbing and very thought-provoking.
Beautiful read! Love the voice! ;)
Brilliant read (what I've read sofar - the extract). The MC has a strong voice which is well depicted in the first person writing (even though I'm biased to first person writing). Very recommendable!
This is a wonderful, absorbing book which drew me in from the very first page. A fantastic read, can't recommend it highly enough.
Excellent book, you get to know every character in depth. I couldn't put it down. It gets my vote!
excellent read - pageturner and really good characters
A must read book for all readers wanting to read a great psychological thriller
Tense, page-turner of a book, seen from the unusual point of view of the 'criminal'. This book made me challenge some of my ideas and there is a great twist at the end. I couldn't put it down, would thoroughly recommend it!
A very strong thriller
This story gripped me from the very first page. Ruth Dugnall's writing is sublime - crisp, spare and utterly absorbing.
A compelling read with plenty of depth.
Well done, Ruth!
Excellant
A brilliant page-turner - a great read.
Very good psychological thriller with an unusual point of view.
Brilliant read. Characters that stay with you long after you have raced through the book.

Tough skin?

2011-05-26T08:59:00.000-07:00

I was interested to hear back from fellow writers who had some doubts about competitions as `morale-boosters` for struggling scribes. After all, most people don't win. True, indeed. And whilst I've had a lot of success I've entered lost far more competitions than I've won. But I don't think about those so much... PMA and all that.

Whilst it is true that failure is as inevitable risk with any competition - in fact a probability - there is something very motivating about a deadline (closing date) and if entering the comp does no more than spur the writer to complete and polish an opening chapter or short story, that alone has made it worthwhile.

The thing with writing is that it can be fairly depressing, what with rejections and writer's block and lack of time and then too much time but nothing to write about... in short, anything that works for YOU is good. And if that happens to be imaging wining a trophy (heh, heh) then why not?

Luke Bitmead Bursary

2011-05-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

On Friday submissions opened for the 4th Luke Bitmead Writers Bursary. This week we will be posting up blogs from the previous winner's of the Bursary and today is one from 2009 winner Ruth Dugdall:
If you’re reading this, and thinking about entering the Luke Bitmead Bursary, you may be interested to know how winning the bursary changed my life.

All you need is a novel to submit. Mine was The Woman Before Me, a psychological thriller set in coastal Suffolk.

It’s about Rose Wilks, whose life is shattered when her newborn baby Joel is admitted to intensive care. Alongside her in hospital is Emma, who has just given birth to Luke and the two women become friends. Joel dies and Luke is thriving – then tragedy strikes and Rose is the only suspect.

The novel starts with Rose having spent five years behind bars. She is just weeks away from release if she can convince probation officer Cate Austin to recommend parole. As Cate is drawn into Rose’s story she begins to question everything she thought she knew about justice, love and obsession.

The Woman Before Me won the Debut Dagger in 2005, which was a watershed moment for me. Until then I’d thought of writing as a hobby – I’d self-published my first novel (The James Version) but was still working as a Probation Officer. The Dagger gave me the confidence to resign and dedicate myself to writing full-time.

The day after the Dagger awards I signed with a top agent and the novel was going to be submitted to six major publishing houses. I thought I had made it…

But that would have been just too easy. The Woman Before Me didn’t get picked up by the major publishers. They worried that it was ‘not commercial enough’, and that it didn’t fit neatly enough into the ‘crime novel’ box. It went into the bottom drawer and I started to write my third novel, The Sacrificial Man. I have to tell you, this was all pretty soul-destroying and I was really beginning to wonder if I was just kidding myself and I should just go back to work.

Then, in the summer of 2009, I saw the Luke Bitmead bursary advertised in Writer’s News. It seemed perfect for The Woman Before Me. The bursary aims to promote and publish a new writer each year, and was set up in memory of Luke Bitmead, a talented writer who sadly committed suicide.

When I won the award in October 2009 I cried through much of the ceremony, knowing that I would finally see my novel in print. So, after waiting nearly five years, I finally achieved my goal!

Winning the bursary changed everything for me. The Woman Before Me was published in August 2010. Since then it has been short-listed for The New Angle Prize for literature and is through to the finals of The People’s Book Prize. It is already in its third print run, and rising in the Amazon ranks with 33 positive reviews. Rights have been sold in Germany, India, Turkey and large print.

And the good news doesn’t stop there: Legend Press will be publishing The Sacrificial Man, next month! Starting tomorrow I have a whirlwind of book signings, talks and events going right up until Christmas...

I had so many days when I thought this would never happen, and now it has it’s truly wonderful. A real dream-come-true.

To be a writer you have to be tenacious and dogged – having a strong support network helps. I would urge any new writers to consider competitions as a way of getting a foot in the door. The closing date for this year's Luke Bitmead Bursary is August 31st.

So, what are you waiting for?

Good luck!

Ruth

Caxton Books, Frinton on Sea, Essex event

2011-05-09T12:21:00.000-07:00

Thursday 19th May at The Cookery Workshop, 7-9pm

Wine & Canapés with author Ruth Dugdall

The award-winning Felixstowe based author will be talking about her psychological thriller The Woman Before Me, which is based in and around Ipswich. Bryan and Jo Beattie of Coastalfoods will be providing delicious canapés and we will be offering a glass (or two) of wine, orange juice or mineral water.

Tickets are £10 with 10% off the book.

For more information please contact Tel: 01255 851505

NOVEL WRITING WORKSHOP

2011-04-28T03:56:00.000-07:00

Ruth Dugdall, whose 2005 Debut Dagger-winning The Women Before Me is now in the running for this year’s The People’s Book Prize, will be leading an all-day workshop on 7 May with Creative Writing Groups, based in Brantham.
Ruth’s workshop, on novel-writing, will consist of a series of short talks on various aspects of the writing longer fiction, interspersed with breaks in which workshop partipants can practice the outlined skills.
The cost for the workshop, which starts at 9.30am and finishes at 4pm, is £54 per person and includes lunch and refreshments. Places are limited, and can be booked by calling Creative Writing Groups on 01473 858429 or online at www.cwgroups.org.uk.
Ruth’s third novel, The Sacrificial Man, will be published in June.

Book Launch - Everyone welcome!

2011-04-15T05:18:00.000-07:00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Book Launch
Ruth Dugdall
The Sacrificial Man

WATERSTONE'S IPSWICH
Saturday, 25 June 2011, 6:30PM
Tickets £3, available in store and redeemable against purchase of the book on the night
Local author and winner of the CWA Debut Dagger Award, Ruth Dugdall, will be in store to launch her new novel ‘The Sacrificial Man’ - a gripping tale that explores the very fine line between murder and euthanasia

Further details: 01473 289044

Reflecting on 8 months in print...

2011-04-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

I wish that on the 18th August last year I’d written something down, just taken a moment from the launch of my novel to write a few lines about my expectations and hopes for the novel. I stopped keeping a diary years ago (least said about that the better…) but if I had penned by thoughts I think that, at best, I’d have hoped to sell maybe a thousand books. A few local book signings would have been nice, perhaps a feature in the local press. My expectations would have been modest but also realistic – most debut authors don’t sell many books. And everyone has witnessed the sight of an author sitting forlorn behind a desk in a bookshop shadowed by an unsold pile of their life’s work…

But I’ve been lucky. And pushy. And something has happened that seems to be largely a result of word of mouth resulting in more sales and more people who want me to talk to their book club or woman’s institute meeting or rotary club…

When Legend Press published me I said them ‘send me anywhere; I’ll go. I’ll talk to anyone’. I may have regretted my words when the tenacious Lucy managed to get me onto the Jeremy Vine show to talk about a subject totally unrelated to my novel, but I did it. I arrived at a book signing in Windsor after my sat nav sent me on a three-hour detour through central London, but I turned up and sold books for six hours. I went through heavy snow to talk to a book club of six, only two of whom had actually read the novel… oh the joys! But I am grateful, profoundly grateful, that Legend took a punt on me when mainstream publishing houses said The Woman Before Me was ‘too dark’ ‘didn’t fit neatly into any one genre’ ‘had no commercial appeal’. Despite winning the Debut Dagger in 2005 the manuscript was roundly rejected and took five years to find a home with Legend Press via the Luke Bitmead Bursary. And what has happened since has left me wondering just how in touch those big publishing houses are with the public taste. Consider the evidence:

The Woman Before me was published in August 2010.
By Christmas we were into a second run. The publishing rights have been sold to Germany and India. Large print rights have also sold. I have been interviewed on radio in counties as diverse as Yorkshire and Sussex, West Midlands and Cambridgshire. I have done book signings as far flung as Coventry and Woking, Lowestoft and Slough. My novel is the summer read for the Westcliffe WI and the Bungay Festival. It was long listed for the New Angle Prize for literature.

I wake every day a little shell-shocked at how my writing career, so long a Sisyphean uphill struggle, is gathering pace like a snowball rolling down the other side.

In June Legend Press are publishing my next novel, The Sacrificial Man. This novel also had it’s share of mainstream rejections for being ‘too dark’ and editors wondered if readers would be interested in a suicide pact where a man asked his lover to kill and eat him…
We’ll see.
I’m sacred, I admit. I can see that The Sacrificial Man is an uncompromising read as it explores an odd world of love and obsession. I hope that I can take the readers I have gained with me, on a journey that the mainstream commercial publishers would never have been brave enough to sanction. Want to travel with me?

The Sacrificial Man

2011-03-14T06:50:00.000-07:00

Ruth Dugdall's second novel out in June

Legend Press are very excited about the launch of Ruth Dugdall's second novel The Sacrificial Man this summer on 25th June 2011. As a sneak preview below is the blurb for this great book:

What I want to say is that suicide is my choice. No-one else is to blame. Man seeks beautiful woman for the journey of a lifetime: Will you help me to die?

When Probation Officer Cate Austin is given her new assignment, she faces the highest-profile case of her career. Alice Mariani is charged with assisted suicide and Cate must recommend a sentence.

Alice insists her story is one of misinterpreted love, forcing those around her to analyse their own lives. Who is to decide what is normal and when does loyalty turn to obsession?

Investigating the loophole that lies between murder and euthanasia, Cate must now meet the woman who agreed to comply with her lover’s final request. Shocking revelations expose bitter truths that can no longer be ignored

People's Book Prize

2011-03-06T03:46:00.000-08:00

I am delighted to say that The Woman Before Me won enough public support to be one of the 3 fiction novels to win the 'winter' round of the People's Book Prize.
Each season a new set of books, nominated by publishers, are put up for public vote and the top 3 go forward to the final in July.

So, there will be 12 fiction novels competing for the title of People's Book, and I'm so pleased to have had the support to get this far.

Thanks to everyone who voted!

On another note, last night was World Book Night and I was at Waterstones, Ipswich for this fantastic event. Five `givers` of books were handing out fantastic titles like 'Stuart' and 'Agent Zig Zag'. I was there to sign copies of my novels, alongside Guy Saville whose debut novel 'Afrika Reich' is un-put-downable. A really great, pacy read with enough depth to provide food for thought after the journey ends.

Over bucks fizz & pretzels we wandered around the store, chatted about books & had a thoroughly lovely evening. Let's hope this initiative introduces more people to books!

New Angle Prize

2011-03-01T06:40:00.000-08:00

The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall has been featured on the Lesley Dolphin show on BBC Radio Suffolk, following its longlisting for the New Angle Prize for Literature.

Ruth's hotly anticipated second novel The Sacrificial Man is published by Legend Press on 25th June 2011.

You can listen to the feature by clicking here and going to 1:55hr:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00dytqc/Lesley_Dolphin_World_book_night_and_the_New_Angle_Prize_for_Literature/

World Book Night / New Angle Prize

2011-02-28T04:42:00.000-08:00

Celebrate World Book Night with
Ruth Dugdall whose novel The Woman Before Me has just been longlisted for the New Angle Prize for Literature 2011.

WATERSTONE'S IPSWICH
Saturday, 5 March 2011, 7:00PM - 9:00PM
Local author Ruth Dugdall will be in store to help us celebrate World Book Night. She will be signing her books 'The James Version' and the prize winning 'The Woman Before Me'. Both available to purchase on the night.

Beccles Library Event

2011-02-16T02:34:00.000-08:00

Ruth Dugdall

will be speaking about her books
‘The Woman Before Me’
and
‘The James Version’

at Beccles Library
Monday 7th March, 7:30pm

(this is a FREE EVENT! Admission by ticket only - available at the library)

Signed copies of both books available for £7.99 each on the evening.

Biting my nails...

2011-02-07T05:51:00.000-08:00

...as I wait for 2.10 to come around when Lesley Dolphin will be reviewing The Woman Before Me live on Radio Suffolk.

Here's the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/suffolk/

Hope she likes it!

Amazon ranking!

2011-01-27T01:17:00.000-08:00

Having done my usual obsessive morning routine I was delighted to discover my Amazon ranking has gone up! Just goes to show that radio shows do spread the word...
I also found out yesterday that Legend Press have sold the Indian rights for The Woman Before Me.
What a wonderful start to the day!x

THE WOMAN BEFORE ME
Publisher: Legend Press Ltd (28 Aug 2010)
Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
5 star: (12)
4 star: (3)
3 star: (0)
2 star: (0)
1 star: (0)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 9,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

BBC RADIO SUFFOLK

2011-01-24T09:18:00.001-08:00

Today I was the `sofa guest` on Lesley Dolphin's show.
Here's the link (scroll on to just after 3pm!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00d4hts/Lesley_Dolphin_Connections_between_Arsenal_and_Ipswich/

Listen Again!

2011-01-19T03:46:00.000-08:00

Ruth on 3 BBC Radio stations yesterday

Ruth Dugdall was busy promoting The Woman Before Me on BBC local radio stations yesterday. She will be signing copies at Waterstone's Staines this Saturday from 11am.

You can listen to her on iplayer on BBC Sussex by clicking:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00d4gr5

Ruth's interview starts at 36:06.

BBC RADIO TODAY

2011-01-18T03:58:00.000-08:00

Ruth Dugdall on BBC Radio today

Ruth Dugdall will be speaking about her debut novel The Woman Before Me on 3 BBC Radio stations today:

- 1:40pm on BBC Radio Surrey with Sarah Gorrell

- This afternoon from 4pm - Interview with Paul Franks for BBC West Midlands

- This evening from 7pm - Interview with Sue Marchant for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

It is great to see the word spreading for this fantastically gripping novel!

If you haven't already take a read of this brilliant book

People's Book Prize - please vote for The Woman Before Me

2010-12-04T11:22:00.001-08:00

http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/

The Woman Before Me podcast

2010-12-03T06:33:00.000-08:00

Radio 2

2010-11-25T08:48:00.000-08:00

Today I was on Radio 2 (the Jeremy Vine show) talking about happiness. Which is rather ironic when my career as a social worker / probation officer / crime writer is not exactly the most cheerful occupation!
But, okay, happiness is important. Happy means healthy, productive - better for the individual and the community, so I was glad to throw in my views.

And, yes, after a day at the computer, talking only with the characters in my head, I'm happy to talk about anything! Do other writers feel like that??

Keep happy!

Crime Time Review!

2010-11-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

Crime Time Home Latest News Reviews Features Interviews Profiles CrimeSpace Crime Time Magazine
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Woman Before Me Ruth Dugdall
Giles Morgan
Rose Wilks has spent nearly five years in prison accused of the murder of a child. It is now up to her probation officer Cate Austin to help determine whether she should be released or is still potentially a danger to others.
This apparently straightforward decision is the starting point for a complex and often tortured enquiry that reveals a succession of damaged and painful lives whose paths end in tragedy. It is revealed that Rose comes from a broken home in Lowestoft with a mother who suffered from severe depression who ultimately took her own life. Rejected by her father and his lover she is handed on to her Auntie Rita who though supportive dies when she is still only sixteen. Having lost so much at such a young age she becomes insular and withdrawn and develops obsessive relationships over which she is desperate to gain some sense of control. When she embarks on her first serious relationship she becomes involved with a young man who has recently split from his wife but is still intensely in love with her. It is this potentially dangerous situation that leads to the horrific death of a child in a house fire which Rose is accused of starting.

The Woman Before Me is a harrowing portrait of personal trauma and dysfunctional family life and provides an authentic and believable portrait of life within the prison system. It is a novel that reveals its secrets slowly as probation officer Cate Austin builds up a picture of the chain of events that have defined Rose Wilks' personality and ends with a final shocking conclusion. Author Ruth Dugdall does an impressive job of creating complex characters who are capable of terrible actions but who also remain human and sympathetic. Indeed, many of the prison staff emerge as more morally corrupt than the inmates themselves in this intelligent and realistic depiction of life within the penal system. The Woman Before Me has generated praise as a debut novel winning the CWA Debut Dagger Award. The author was also the winner of the 2009 Luke Bitmead Writers Bursary. Impressive in its unflinching realism, this is a dark and haunting psychological thriller that possesses both depth and sensitivity.

The Woman Before Me

Ruth Dugdall

Legend Press, £7.99, 9781907461156

Giles Morgan

Posted at 12:54PM Friday 05 Nov 2010

Feeling it...

2010-11-01T07:46:00.001-07:00

I went to see a jazz singer at the weekend. She's internationally known and has won many accolades, so it promised to be a good night. I settled down to listen, and she could certainly sing. The musicians were equally lauded, and I could hear the talent, the skill, the training...
But I felt nothing.

At the interval I got chatting with another woman in the audience, who said it left her a bit cold too. I spent the second half watching, listening, and wondering how it is that someone can have such ability yet still miss something.

It reminded me that at the moment I'm reading a book by an award winning author. Her language is beautiful, her images astound, yet I close the book and forget about it until I next go to pick it up. It hasn't moved me. Like the jazz, I can appreciate the skill, but my heart is untouched.

That is why computers can't do art. Technical ability is all well and good but for an artist to really reach an audience they have to invest a little of their soul.

As posted on Authonomy today

2010-10-27T05:42:00.000-07:00

Writing a novel was the easy bit. It was finding a publisher that nearly sent me off the rails….

Winning the Debut Dagger in 2005 was a watershed moment for me. Until then I had thought of writing as a hobby – I’d self-published my first novel (The James Version) but was still working as a Probation Officer. The Dagger gave me the confidence to resign and dedicate myself to writing full-time.

The day after the Dagger awards I signed with a top agent and the novel was going to be submitted to six major publishing houses. I thought I had made it…

But that would have been just too easy. The Woman Before Me didn’t get picked up by the major publishers. They worried that it was ‘not commercial enough’, and that it didn’t fit neatly enough into the ‘crime novel’ box. It went into the bottom drawer and I started to write my third novel, The Sacrificial Man (still posted on the site).

I joined authonomy when it first began, and receiving feedback from fellow authonomites gave me the confidence to keep going. Having my novels posted on the site has helped me develop as a writer and I made several friendships that extended beyond the forums.

A few of the writers on the site were already with Legend press and last summer one of them posted a thread about the upcoming Luke Bitmead Bursary. It seemed perfect for The Woman Before Me. The bursary aims to promote and publish a new writer each year, and was set up in memory of Luke Bitmead, a talented writer who sadly committed suicide.

I won the award last October. I cried through much of the ceremony, knowing that I would finally see my novel in print. (The second place winner and two runners-up are also authonomites.) A few days later I signed a publishing deal with Solidus Press for The Sacrificial Man.

So, after waiting nearly five years, I finally achieved my goal.

To be a writer you have to be tenacious and dogged – having a strong support network helps. If I had one piece of advice it would be this: don’t give up. You never know just how close you are to succeeding.

The Woman Before Me is now in print. It is a psychological thriller set in coastal Suffolk. It is about Rose Wilks, whose life is shattered when her newborn baby Luke is admitted to intensive care. Alongside her in hospital is Emma, who has just given birth to Joel and the two women become friends. Joel dies and Luke is thriving – then tragedy strikes and Rose is the only suspect.
The novel starts with Rose having spent five years behind bars. She is just weeks away from release if she can convince probation officer Cate Austin to recommend parole.
As Cate is drawn into Rose’s story she begins to question everything she thought she knew about justice, love and obsession.

Good luck to all of you in getting that elusive publishing deal!

Best wishes,

Ruth

Where does the time go?

2010-10-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how quickly time has flown. Since The Woman Before Me came out in August I seem to have been in this whirlwind of activity - and I totally love it! It must be all those hours/days/years cooped up writing that have suddenly made me a bit loopy for interaction.
And I have been sooo lucky. The book signings have been a joy - some really memorable people, sharing their stories. Like the young mum who bought my book and read it in just one night, having never finished a novel before. And the woman who had come out of prison just the day before. So many generous people...
The readings are also a real eye-opener. Like the event in a rural cow shed (re-furbished, I hasten to add) on a foggy Monday night, when everyone bought 2 books each. I drove home (carefully - fog lights on) with a big smile on my face.
Yes, so far I love the publicity side of writing.
So, I've updated my events list. Hope to see you in a cow shed sometime!

Reaching Denmark...

2010-09-27T06:05:00.001-07:00

'very fine debut' - The Woman Before Me

The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall has officially reached Denmark and received a great review from DJs krimiblog. Below is a taster:

This British thriller is a debut. We enter this story when Rose Wilks´ newborn baby dies, and Emma Hatchet´s boy lives. After the tragedy, Rose keeps in close contact with Emma who is the ex-wife of Rose´s lover, Jason. She babysits little Luke as often as his parents will let her, and she even begins breast-feeding him and sneaking into the house behind Emma´s back. So when Luke dies in a fire which started during one of the nights that Rose used her copy of the kitchen door key, she ends up in court, accused of murder...

Important themes of the story are love, obsession and jealousy, and even though the novel is written in the present tense, I was absorbed by it immediately.

To read the review in full click here

Lucy

2010-09-21T03:50:00.000-07:00

Review of The Woman Before Me

The Woman Before Me has been reviewed by author Jim Murdoch on his blog The Truth About Lies.
There are many people in prison who maintain their innocence: for some that’s just what they’ve been told to say no matter what evidence is put in front of them; others truly believe in their innocence – they may acknowledge that they have committed some offence according to the laws of the land but they believe they are answerable to a higher power, if not God then at least their own conscience and there are those who because of some miscarriage of justice find themselves incarcerated for a crime they did not commit.
To read the rest of the review click here

This is probably the most detailed review yet of the novel, and I found it very thought provoking I don't know Jim, and I'm grateful to him for such a thorough review.

The Bookbag Review

2010-09-10T03:37:00.000-07:00

The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall
From TheBookbag
Genre: General Fiction
Reviewer: Louise Laurie
Summary: This is a tense, taut, almost claustrophobic domestic tragedy. Two couples' lives caught up in childhood illness and death - who will be punished and who will go Scot-free?
Buy? Yes
Borrow? Yes
Pages: 288
Date: August 2010
Publisher: Legend Press Ltd
ISBN: 978-1907461156 l

We're introduced to one of the female central characters, Rose. There's been a serious house fire and a baby has been involved. Rose is implicated. But is she innocent or guilty? Unfortunately for Rose, she's been in the wrong place at the wrong time - and she's put behind bars. Five years is a long time for a young woman with the rest of her life to lead. Even more so, if you're telling anyone and everyone that you are, in fact, innocent of the crime. But is anyone listening?
Well, yes. Enter a young, fresh-faced probation officer called Cate. It's her job to listen, after all. Cate has to make a big decision - and soon. And this decision will have implications not only for her client, Rose but all those involved in the past tragedy. And all those wasted years in prison have altered Rose. She's tougher, knows the system and also how to play it - to her advantage.
This book is full of bubbling emotions and all the more so as the reader is taken behind bars to hear Rose's side of the story. And her story makes for uncomfortable reading at times. Dugdall takes us right back to the young Rose. We discover her childhood was not great. She was aware of grown-up issues which shaped her adolescence and beyond. Dugdall spends a long time on Rose and I got a real sense of the troubled character. Low self-esteem and low self-confidence in spades. Not helped by the fact that Rose is no beauty. And even although we all know that beauty is only skin deep it doesn't help Rose one bit. The whole boyfriend/social scene seemed to passed her by.
And to add a good dollop of angst, the other female character in the story, Emma, appears to have the perfect life: pretty, adored by her husband (successful, of course) and she is universally liked. All the things Rose craves. And so the tension builds and builds with the alternate story of these two very different young women. There is a link which binds them together. But what is this link? The reader is also given the probation officer's background. She grapples to remain professional at all times but it's not easy.
Dugdall has written a very good storyline which is full of emotion and suspense. She drip feeds the reader with important information which is always a page-turner. A deft touch is Rose's constant black book entry which gives us the inner thoughts and workings of Rose's mind. It also tells us whether she is innocent or guilty of the crime. Dudgall keeps the best till last, keeps us dangling. Just when I thought I'd got it sussed, I'm proved wrong. This is a clever and suspenseful story told in an engaging style. Recommended.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.
If this book appeals then you might also enjoy No Escape by N J Cooper.
You can read more book reviews and buy The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall at Amazon and Waterstones

Petrona Review

2010-09-10T03:33:00.000-07:00

Petrona review just up. Many thanks to them for taking the time to review TWBM:

09 September 2010
Book Review: The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall
The Woman Before Me Ruth DugdallLegend Press, August 2010, £7.99 paperback.
This novel is an extremely addictive debut, which deservedly won the CWA debut dagger this year. The publisher very kindly contacted me to offer a copy, and though books about babies in danger are definitely not my cup of tea, I accepted the generous offer -- and I am glad I did.
The novel is a real page-turner, being mainly the story of Rose, a woman who is on trial for setting a house on fire with a baby and his mother inside it. The novel explores Rose’s past via her diary, exposing a history of neglect by her parents and parent-figures for a variety of reasons. As a young adult, Rose ends up working in various menial jobs in a seaside hotel, where she meets Jason, the barman, and falls for him. She and Jason begin to live together, fulfilling Rose’s fantasy of a happy relationship. The reality, though, is that Jason is still in love with his young ex-wife Emma, and isn’t that interested in Rose. The author builds up the suspense within this eternal triangle, and cleverly portrays emotions and events spiralling out of control.
The contemporary part of the novel centres around Cate, a newly qualified prison probation officer. She has to decide whether or not Rose deserves parole when her case comes up in the next few weeks. Cate has a tough time of it, partly as a newly-single parent whose young daughter Amelia is in child care while her mother works, and partly because of the prison culture, which consists of (mainly) deeply sexist, lazy and overweight men (there is one butch female guard), together with devious prisoners who are pretty good at playing the system and hoodwinking their keepers.
There is plenty of suspense and melodrama in this novel; even though the main plot twist is very easy to anticipate, it is delivered with high impact. I won’t say more in my review as I do not want to provide any spoilers, but the subsidiary twist is not convincing to me, given what we know of the principal characters.
As a debut novel, this is a remarkably assured and well-written book. It only takes an hour or two to read, and is well-worth the effort. The book is not without its flaws, unfortunately, and at several points during Rose’s back-story I was hardly able to suspend my belief even while my emotions were engaged in her sad yet creepy tale. The other story, about Cate, peters out towards the end which is quite disappointing, as the prison scenes, from the perspectives of the inmates and the administration, are perhaps the strongest part of the book (the author worked in the probation service), and Cate is an intriguing character. The novel is clearly by a very talented author, and despite the occasional lapses from believability, it is certainly a novel well worth reading as an exploration of the nastier aspects of human nature and the bleaker end of the genre.
Legend Press is an independent book publisher, and it’s great for them as well as the author that the novel has won the CWA debut dagger. I hope that it does very well.
News and reviews about this novel at Legend Press's website.
Interview with the author at Books You Love.
Read another review of this novel at The Bookbag.

Book Signings: Please come along!

2010-08-31T02:47:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Now that The Woman Before Me is finally published I have a few book signings coming up.
If anyone is able to pop along that would be great:

Saturday 4th September / Magpie Books, Hamilton Rd, Felixstowe, Suffolk (10.30-12.30)

Saturday 18th September / Waterstones, Lowestoft, Suffolk (11.00-1.00)

Saturday 25th Septemeber / Waterstones, Smithfield Way, Coventry (10.30-12.30)

Many thanks!
Ruth

Book Launch

2010-08-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

Here I am with my mum, dad and daughter Amber.

This all came about as a result of my winning the Luke Bitmead Bursary last year. I would urge any unpublished author to enter this wonderful competition, which closes on 31st August. So get those entries polished & e-mail them over to Legend Press. The winner will get a publishing contract with Legend Press and £2,500.

What have you got to lose?

Book Launch

2010-08-28T14:39:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to all those who came to support me at the book launch on Thursday.
It was a wonderful, relaxed, happy event.

I have been waiting 5 years to see The Woman Before Me in print, and felt emotional giving my reading and holding the novel in my hands. Of course, now the novel is not just `mine`; it is out there in the world to sink without a trace or make its own way. Whatever happens, it had a good start on Thursday!

I am very fortunate to have such great support from friends and family - I would have given up long ago without that. x

TWBM just got its first review on Amazon!

2010-08-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Dark and disturbing tale of motherhood and murder, 23 Aug 2010
By M. D. Ripley "Mike Ripley" (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Woman Before Me (Paperback)
Ruth Dugdall is a young British crime-writer who uses her career in the Probation Service to stunning effect in "The Woman Before Me".
This is a bleak, dark psychological thriller, at times quite hypnotic. It is a tragic story of two young mothers linked by the horror of the death of a child, and a third mother, a Probation Officer, who has to show the judgement of a Solomon. The prison system does not come out of this with any honour - prison warders of both sexes are brutish and cruel - nor do men in a more general sense, but this is a thriller about women and women who want only to be good mothers, as they see it. With most psychological thrillers, you just know something terrible is going to happen. With this one, the reader discovers the most terrible crime already has happened. A far-from-relaxing read, this is as bleak as its coastal Suffolk setting, but gripping and powerful. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
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The Woman Before Me

2010-07-30T04:56:00.000-07:00

From Legend Pres website:

The novel is published on 28th August.

Ruth was the winner of the 2009 Luke Bitmead Writer's Bursary. Below is the blurb:

They came for me, just like I knew they would. Luke had been dead for just three days.

Rose Wilks’ life is shattered when her newborn baby Joel is admitted to intensive care. Emma Hatcher has all that Rose lacks. Beauty. A loving husband. A healthy son. Until tragedy strikes and Rose is the only suspect.

Now, having spent nearly five years behind bars, Rose is just weeks away from freedom. Her probation officer Cate must decide whether Rose is remorseful for Luke’s death, or whether she remains a threat to society. As Cate is drawn in, she begins to doubt her own judgement.

Where is the line between love and obsession, can justice be served and, if so… by what means?

‘Dark, disturbing and authentic’ CWA judging panel.

Lucy

Luke Bitmead Bursary

2010-07-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

FROM LEGEND PRESS:

Submissions are now open for the 2010 Luke Bitmead Writer’s Bursary. The award
was set up shortly after Luke’s death in 2006 by his family to support and
encourage the work of fledgling novel writers, with the top prize being a publishing
contract with Legend Press, as well as a cheque for £2500.
We are pleased to be continuing this brilliant bursary for a third year, and hope to
follow in the success of 2008 winner Andrew Blackman, who published his debut
novel On the Holloway Road in February 2009, and last years winner Ruth Dugdall
who publishes her hotly anticipated novel The Woman Before Me in July 2010. The
deadline for submissions is 31st August 2010, with the winner announced in
the week of 27th October 2010. For further details visit:
http://forward.legendpress.co.uk/mainsite/luke-bitmead-bursary.html

The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall (Legend Press, 21st August)
Rose Wilks’ life is shattered when her newborn baby Joel is admitted to
intensive care. Alongside her is Emma Hatcher, who’s just given birth to Luke.
Joel dies and Luke is thriving, until tragedy strikes and Rose is the only suspect.
Told through a series of letters from Rose’s prison cell, her probation officer
Cate must decide whether Rose is remorseful for Luke’s death, or whether she
remains a threat to society. Can justice can be served, and if so… by what
means?

The James Version

2010-06-03T09:53:00.001-07:00

The James Version

2010-06-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

My first novel, The James Version, has just been re-published. Very excited to see the listing on Amazon today! Here`s the blurb:

‘The airless cottage stifles me, and I cannot breathe. The glass reveals another world, but it entombs me. I am captive, but I have seen the outside. It is November 1826 and I am thirty-one years old... There is a storm brewing’
New Year 1851
Rector James Coyte arrives at his bleak Suffolk destination. Full of apprehension, he expects his first post to be provincial and unchallenging. But Polstead is a village with a secret.
A young woman murdered in a frenzied attack, then buried in a shallow grave in The Red Barn. She was just twenty-seven, and only six weeks before birthed an illegitimate baby.
Based on true events which shocked nineteenth century Britain, The James Version is set in 1851 when Ann Marten, nearing the end of her life, reveals the story to the novice Rector. Through their meetings, the truth of the murder is gradually uncovered to its shocking climax.
Ruth Dugdall was inspired to write by her experiences working as a probation officer. The James Version, her first novel, was an award- winner at the Winchester Writers` Conference. Her second novel, The Woman Before Me (published by Legend Press), won the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger, and her third, The Sacrificial Man will be published by Solidus in late 2010.
Published by Back to Front
www.back-to-front.com
CRIME WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION
DEBUT DAGGER WINNING AUTHOR

Back to school...

2010-02-22T06:07:00.001-08:00

I had a week off from writing last week, which is something I don`t often like to do, but it was so nice...
Being half-term the kids were off, and hubbie also took leave, so we had some family time seeing animals (even feeding some new-born lambs!) watched films (Invictus & Princess and the Frog)ate pizza and generally chilled out.

So, the kids are back at school, hubbie`s back at work and I`m back at my pc.
Coming to my writing fresh was a good idea, and I`ve worked better today than I have for a while. Let`s just hope it shows in the end-product!

London calling...

2010-01-22T04:47:00.000-08:00

I`m just back from a few days in the big smoke - in fact, I had 4 meets in my diary and was late for every one. How do you Londoners cope with the trains? I was practically rocking, it was so frustrating. A fire in Battersea delayed the train by 40 minutes, and I was nose to armpit with several men, standing in a swaety carriage.
Also, no-one speaks, do they? Except for into their mobiles, though most people were texting.
When a pigeon entered the train I said, "Oh! Look!" and rather than looking at the bird everyone looked at me like I was nuts.

Anyway, I did meet up with the wonderful people at Legend Press, who are publishing The Woman Before Me in June. Oooh, I`m sooo excited! We talked marketing and covers and launches and I came away a very happy bunny (until boarding another train and realising that a happy face is interpreted as madness on the tube!)

Snow Day

2010-01-08T07:32:00.000-08:00

You novelists with children will know what I mean, when I say Christmas just gets in the way of writing. I mean, I did my best, but frankly I was looking forward to school starting up so I could get back into routine. I`m a bit like a sodding racehorse with my training schedule, and get jittery if I`m off it...temperamental.

So, Tuesday I dropped the kids at the school gates and raced back to my comfy chair and laptop, switched on and loaded up. I`ve finished editing The Sacrificial Man & The Woman before Me, but I still have Family Snap to work on. I`m meeting Laura Wilson, my mentor, in a few weeks and want my first 3 chapters to sparkle. It felt so good to plan out my timetable of what chapters I`d look at each day and start honing words, but then...
THE HEAVENS OPENED!

Snow. Beautiful, isn`t it? Makes everything so clean, like a blank canvas.
And the children just loved being sent home early. I turned up at the gates with the sledge, and pulled it home, both kids on it, pelting me with snow balls and shouting `mush`. Hard work, but I consoled myself I was burning calories. "Faster, mummy! You`re too slow!" Perhaps that was when my joy started to falter.

Friday. Snow still around. We did a long walk, which was abruptly ceased when my son announced that he had no socks on! Imagine wearing wellies with bare feet. I marched them home, chastising him all the way with tales of Scott and frostbite. Miraculously, his feet felt toasty when I pulled the boots off.
We`ve had the video on, but now I`ve sent them upstairs (how can they have nothing to play with when Christmas was just 2 weeks ago?) and loaded Family Snap up again. But I feel guilty. Surely a good mum would be out there, sledging. Or at least rallying the kids into a game of Monopoly.
Hmmm.
Modern dilemma. Good writers make bad mums, discuss.
Who else saw the Enid Blyton biopic and winced?

In the news...

2009-12-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

This is the article that was in The East Anglian Daily Times!

Ruth Dugdall
When Ruth Dugdall won a national crime-writing competition - a biggie - it looked as if a pukka book contract was hers for the asking. There were whispers of £50,000 advances and she gave up her day-job. It didn't quite go to plan . . . But, four years on, she's discovered publishing deals are like buses: you wait for ages and then two come along at once. Steven Russell reports

WELL, here's a paradox and a half. Ruth Dugdall is bright, bouncy, full of laughter. Yet her fiction takes her into some dark corners. Some very, very dark corners. Think stalking, babies at risk, a teenage vigilante, and (sorry) cannibalism. Perhaps it's not surprising: as a probation officer in Suffolk she actively sought to work with some of the UK's worst young rapists and murderers. Even giving birth didn't put the brakes on her fertile imagination: Ruth was thinking of plots and motivations while lying in her hospital bed. Husband Andrew, arriving the following morning, was greeted with an enthusiastic “I've got this idea! I've got this idea . . .”

She cheerfully admits some people find it weird and contradictory that a normal-looking and sparky mother-of-two can have all these macabre thoughts swirling around inside.

“What happens is people will read my book and think it's about me, somehow. One of my mother-in-law's friends said to her - after she'd read The James Version, 'cos there's some sexy bits in it - 'I didn't think Ruth was like that . . .' Like what? Didn't think I knew about sex?!”

Ruth recently read an extract from her story The Sacrificial Man to a writers' group she attends, “and one person said (in a caring, concerned tone) 'I really worry about you . . .' It just makes me laugh! This isn't me; I'm not this character. I have not got an internet lover who's going to arrive and be garrotted! It's fiction. There might be bits of me in those books - of course there are - but I'm very conventional and sane.”

She insists her tales are very moral, portraying visceral events as disgusting, rather than a good idea worth copying. Her fiction, in a way, is a kind of therapy: about being able to safely manage and control fear.

“I like to be in control, and crime and bizarre behaviour is kind of outside that control. I always felt that if I could understand things I could manage them.

“Also, I come from a northern family who tell stories. My parents aren't readers; what my mum, especially, does is tell stories. She tells 'bad' stories - ugly stories. She doesn't tell stories about people getting engaged or married; it's 'Did you hear about that child who was sucked into that swimming pool pipe?' or the member of my family who was impaled on a fence as a toddler.

“It took me years to work out that that's where the story-telling comes from.”

Ruth was born in 1971 and spent her early life in the Hull area, before moving to Ipswich when she was seven and her dad got a job down here. She went to Chantry High School and read voraciously - invariably darker material. “Books were always a place where you could fit in - create your own little world.”

After A-levels at Westbourne school she read English and theatre studies at Warwick University. A visit to prison - not as an inmate, obviously! - convinced her she wanted to work in jails after graduation, using drama therapy and suchlike to help offenders.

Ruth got a job with an Ipswich-based charity that helped people get their lives running better. Then, aiming to work in prisons and use drama and writing, she did an MA in social work at the University of East Anglia. She qualified in 1996 and worked in Lowestoft.

“I loved being a probation officer,” she reflects as son Eden, four, lays out his train set. “They get a really bad press, but I think they do a great job. People generally have the totally wrong idea about what they do. They think they're there to befriend offenders and give them cups of tea and sympathy; actually, it's all about challenging them and getting them to accept what they've done and think about the victim.”

When the Carlford Unit opened in 2000 at Hollesley, near Woodbridge, she actively sought to work there. The prison takes some of the most serious young offenders in the country. Not an obvious choice for a place of work, you'd think.

“I've always sought out situations that I want to know about, and maybe that frighten me as well. I think that's why I became a probation officer. If somebody says something that is shocking, I want to know more! I think this is important for writers and artists: I will ask that question other people won't ask.”

Ruth wrote short stories, often drawing on work-related experiences. At the turn of the millennium -working in Lowestoft and living in Halesworth - she took a writing night-class in Bungay. The first story she wrote was from point of view of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to hang in England.

After the course leader said she should consider writing a novel, husband Andrew bought her a lovely notebook that Christmas, with “Novel, by Ruth Dugdall” written on it.

During a Sunday walk around Polstead, near Hadleigh, she remembered the local story of Maria Marten and the Red Barn Murder. The molecatcher's daughter was apparently killed in 1827 by lover William Corder, son of a wealthy farmer.

Maria's remains were found the following year, after her stepmother dreamed Maria had been buried in the Red Barn. As a probation officer, Ruth thought that explanation extremely unsound.

Curiosity aroused, she went to the record officer at Bury St Edmunds the following weekend to read the trial notes, concluding it was fairly obvious Ann Marten had coached her young son to give evidence against Corder.

The two women were similar in age and both considered attractive. Stepmother Ann was effectively also caring for Maria's child from a previous affair, and Maria perhaps seemed to be having more fun. “The jealousy and tension between the women in that house would have been extraordinary. I thought 'That's what the story is, for me.'”

Ruth thus did her research and essentially wrote the book in chunks.

After she and Andrew had first child Amber early in 2002, they talked about how long Ruth - “I'm not a domestic animal . . .” - should stay off work. Hubby said: Just look after Amber and do the book. Take a year - but write the novel. “I think he's come to regret his words!” she laughs. “He comes home to a tin of beans on the side and a loaf of bread!”

Rather serendipitously, Ruth, now in Felixstowe after they moved south, won £1,000 in a Sleep Council competition in the EADT. She used the money for childcare, which gained her precious time to write.

The James Version that summer won a competition at the Winchester Writers' Festival. Ruth didn't intend to self-publish, but as the prize was 50 bound copies it seemed logical to pay for extra ones and sell them.

Wise move. Outlets such as Waterstones, Ottakers and even WHSmith took it, thanks to its local flavour, and 700-plus books were sold. Ruth returned to social work - not back to a prison environment this time but, instead, training student probation officers.

She'd started writing The Woman Before Me as soon as The James Version was finished. Without giving the story away, there's a strong stalking aspect, with Ruth drawing generally on elements of life she'd experienced during her career.

She's worked with stalkers - offenders who got hold of keys and entered houses at night, say - and feels strongly that they're frequently treated too leniently by courts. “If someone stole my TV, that would not bother me nearly as much as someone entering the house and going through my underwear drawer.”

The Woman Before Me is “the novel that really taps into the fear. The most terrible thing is to lose a baby”.

Late in 2005, the story topped more than 400 entries to win the highly-respected Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger - open to novels not yet published commercially.

Winning is no guarantee of a professional book deal, but it's a great omen. The judging panel is made up of editors and literary agents and, at that stage, all previous winners had secured publishing contracts. So did Ruth expect to be next?

“Yes! They (book industry movers and shakers) were talking to me about the minimum advance we would take . . . 50 grand . . .”

The story was looked at by about half a dozen publishers. Some thought it too dark; too relentlessly bleak. And what was its genre? It didn't qualify as a “misery memoir”, because it wasn't a true story. “They also said it was too uncomfortable for readers to be in the head of the criminal for a whole novel.”

Ruth admits being a bit naïve about the industry at that stage, too, in that publishers wanted to be presented with a finished product: stories needed to be honed and polished - with the help of external advisers and editors. It couldn't be promising but raw.

It all went a bit anti-climactic - not great, really, especially as she left the probation service early in 2006.

The Sacrificial Man was the next big hope. (Do skip this bit if you're squeamish.) Ruth had been intrigued by the report of a German man who advertised on the web for a lover happy to be killed and eaten. She found it was not uncommon and the theme inspired her novel.

Tired of waiting for the big boys to take a chance on her, Ruth approached small independent publisher Solidus Press. Director Helen Miles fell for The Sacrificial Man and offered a genuine publishing contract for 2010. “Thank god!”

Then Andrew drew her attention to a competition: the second Luke Bitmead bursary, run in conjunction with Legend Press and honouring a young writer who died at the age of 34. Ruth always felt The Woman Before Me had deserved to be published and was given up on too early. So she sent it off.

And - hallelujah! - it took the £2,500 prize. Her reaction - officially recorded on her blog - was ohmygodicantbelieveitsomeonepinchmecosthemostamazingthinghappenedandiwon! And she burst into tears rather dramatically on what, with Luke's family present, was an emotional evening all round.

“Having a book is like having a child go out into the world and get knocked over and bruised, and then finally find a home. The main emotion was one of relief - that in 2010 two of the books are going to be published, after people sort of washed their hands of them.”

That's because the other part of the prize was a publishing deal. Even better, Helen Miles at Solidus and Tom Chalmers at Legend - being independent, sensible and flexible - are working together to ensure the books complement each other, with similar covers and so on.

Legend will publish The Woman Before Me next summer, with Solidus bringing out The Sacrificial Man later.

So 2010 looks like being a vintage year for Ruth, after all that plugging away. “Now that I'm finally on that bus, I'm damn well going to enjoy the ride!”

RUTH Dugdall is a committed writer - committed with a capital C. She aims to write every day - squeezing in three hours last night, for instance, when the children were in bed. Weekends, birthdays, even Christmas Day . . . none of them an excuse for work not to be done.

“I am a writer who writes every day,” she says. “I always have a notepad with me, whatever bag I've got. If I'm in Caffé Nero, and notice someone, or overhear something, you can pull the pad out. Someone was telling me the other day how her mum was obsessive with the rug, and combed the fringes. I thought, 'God, that's good! Use that . . .'”

She jealously guards her time when Eden is at nursery. “You have to ring-fence it. People have this idea that when you're writing you have your coffee and brownie and it's lovely and you wait for the muse to come. Ha! You have to make yourself write, even when the muse is on holiday.”

Ruth's currently keeping three plates spinning: editing The Sacrificial Man with Solidus, polishing The Woman Before Me before sending it to Legend Press, and writing new novel Family Snap. After being accepted on an Apprenticeship in Fiction scheme - an Arts Council initiative designed to nurture emerging writers - she's got mentoring help from crime fiction author Laura Wilson.

Ruth relishes deadlines, so she's set herself a daily target on each piece of work. Manageable chunks are much more achievable, she finds.

“I am a control freak. I have a timetable and I have to hit it every day: however many chapters, or however many pages. I tick it through.”

Happily, husband Andrew - human resources director with the online retailer Play.com - is hugely supportive. He's heavily into music, so he's often doing that while his wife weaves her words.

Although they were at Warwick University at the same time, they actually met years later on a film course in Ipswich.

Christmas writing

2009-12-01T08:06:00.000-08:00

So, today is the 1st of December. Christmas is just around the corner, and as I was walking through town earlier, watching people rush about buying presents, I thought what an extreme month December is.
Christmas is such a major event, that it polarises things:
It`s the worst time to be unemployed.
The worst time to be bereft.
The best time to be in love.
The best time to have a new baby...

A few years ago my daughter was in hospital in December. I counted my blessings as she recovered, but other children on the ward were not so fortunate. We got home on Christmas Eve, but the season was overshadowed by an awareness of what others were still going through. I wrote throught it, a kind of therapy.

Terry Pratchet once said that he writes every day, even on the day he buried his father. In fact, he says, we should write especially on emotional days because we`ll produce the best writing - it will be infused with feeling.

I think Christmas is like that. So I will be writing every day, but especially on Christmas Day (once the kids are in bed, you understand. And probably with a glass of wine to one side, but still...)

Whatever the emotion, a writer can always use it as a springboard for interesting prose.

My Interview!

2009-11-12T01:46:00.000-08:00

Writer`s Centre News, Norwich

2009-11-09T02:06:00.000-08:00

Ruth Dugdall: Publishing deals are like buses
By WCN, on November 6th, 2009
Before the approaching weekend arrives, we’re delighted to post a guest blog from author Ruth Dugdall. Ruth was a 2006 Escalator Literature winner, and we’re pleased to see that she kept the momemtum going in her quest for a publishing deal. Read on to discover her journey…
Publishing

Pinch, punch...

2009-11-03T02:47:00.000-08:00

Yup, it`s a new month.
Ah, November. Smoke in the air, leaves underfoot. The promise of Christmas just ahead...

So, I`m kicking off this month with a tight work schedule. I`ve got 3 projects on the go - The Woman Before Me & The Sacrificial Man both have to be up-to-snuff, so I`m editing and polishing, getting them ready for publication.

I`ve also got my `homework` from my mentor Luara Wilson, who has set me the take of re-working the opening chapters of Family Snap before our next meeting.

I like to work to a timetable, so I`ve set myself a target each day, which includes a piece of work on all 3 novels. I learned when I was a probation officer how people respond better to `smart` objectives. You know, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-limited (or something similar). I think it really works. To just think about editing a 90k novel would seem like a tall order, but break it down to a certain number of words per day and within a month you`ve achieved it.

Happy writing!

I won!

2009-10-30T05:01:00.000-07:00

Or should that be:

ohmygodicantbelieveitsomeonepinchmecosthemostamazingthinghappenedandiwon!

I feel very honoured to be chosen as the second winner of the Luke Bitmead bursary.
Last night was simply wonderful - the atmosphere at the event was warm and friendly, and before the announcement we all chatted and got to know each other. I spoke with finalists Garlen Lo & Catherine Scott, both of whom had great sounding novels, and then got to meet Elaine & Tiffany, Luke`s mother & sister.
Luke tragically died in 2006, aged just 34, and his family established the bursary to ensure that Luke`s name & memory lives on. The bursary was set up to encourage & support the work of struggling talented writers.
Possessing the strength and optimism to turn such a sad loss into a positive venture is a very special thing, and Elaine is obviously an emotionally courageous woman.

When the winners were announced, I just burst into tears. I couldn`t help it - the whole event just felt so charged with feeling, and of course I am grateful that the judging panel liked my book. The Woman before Me will be published by Legend press in summer 2010!

Andrew Blackman, last years winner with his novel On the Holloway Road, gave a heartfelt speech about how, though he had not met Luke, he is a apart of his life because of the bursary.

I also enjoyed chatting to Legend press, Tom Chalmers & Lucy Boguslowski, and to writers Zoe Jenny & Sam Mills.
Such an inspiring group of people, such a special event.
I feel very blessed.
x

Luke Bitmead Bursary

2009-10-02T06:08:00.000-07:00

Yey! Good news today!

I just heard I`ve been shortlisted for the Luke Bitmead bursary, organsied by his mum & sister, and Legend Press.

The winner gets a publishing deal with Legend press and £2,500.

Last year`s winner was Andrew Blackman, with his novel On the Holloway Road, and he seems to have gone from strength to strength after winning.

I entered my novel The Woman before Me, and just to be shortlisted is a real boost.

An antidote to all those days (weeks, months) when we doubt out ability/sanity and wonder if it`s really worth it...

Because of course it is!

Keep the faith. Keep writing.

Oh, ye of little faith...

2009-09-04T07:50:00.001-07:00

I just had an e-amil from hubbie. "I`ve found a job for you!" it said.
Thing is, I think I`ve got a job. Okay, it`s not paying any bills at ye mo, but that`s just about time. And faith.
Which brings me on to my latest project. I am currently an `apprentice`, one of 5 chosed by Adventures in Fiction, and will soon be starting a mentoring programme with - wait for it! - Laura Wilson. How chuffed am I? Laura is a writer who is already on my bookshelf, and I`m thinking if anyone can tell me what I need to do to get a deal with one of the `big gun` publishers, she can.
Yesterday I met the other 4 writers, and that in itself was a buzz. Writing can be so lonely, it`s good to know others are out there, just as depressed and frustrated...
We had a session with childrens` writer Brian Keaney, who was funny and wise (as well he may be, after 26 years in the business!). His main advice was to keep at it, keep re-inventing out `writer profile`, and to roll with the punches...
And to have a little faith!

Self-Publishing Pitfalls

2009-08-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

I never intended to self-publsih but when my first novel, The James Version, won the RPM competition (Winchester Writers` Festival) in 2002, the prize was 50 bound copies. It seemed like the obvious thing was to pay for extra copies and sell it.
From the outset I was clear that the end product had to look professional - I didn`t want a cover that had been created by a generic website, for example. I paid to have a cover designed, and for a copy-edit.
The result was a novel I was proud of, and which looked good enough to be sold by Waterstones, Ottakers (ah, we miss you...) and even - shock - WHSmith. Copies sold well (700 to date) but inevitably I have now moved on from The James Version and do not market it like I did in the first year. I had not kept tabs on what was happening.
I was therefore surprised when I went to order more copies to discover that RPM have gone bust! No answer on phone or e-mail. And they have not only 200 covers (paid for) but the disk with the novel and cover. Oops. I have older copies of the manuscript, but the final version is with them.
I am now in the process of dealing with the warehouse manager to get my disk, and maybe even those covers.
Lesson learned: always have a copy of the final product!

Apprentice in Fiction

2009-07-17T12:45:00.000-07:00

Well, it`s official. I`m going to be on an Apprenticeship in Fiction from September. Here`s the link announcing the 5 winners:

http://www.adventuresinfiction.co.uk/apprenticeships/index.html

Winchester Writer`s Conference

2009-07-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

I may have mentioned this already, but I love competitions. For the writer, competitions are a way to set mini-targets throughout the year, to give some deadlines and (hopefully!) build something of a writing cv.

I have a soft spot for Winchester, since it was winning the RPM prize in 2002 that marked my decision to write seriously, so I`m delighted that Family Snap got second place in the Slim Volum/Small Edition comp this year. I`ve won this twice before, and Winchester has some great prizes: 5o copies of your bound novel. How`s that for an incentive?

Every year Barbara Large organises the conference, and 15 competitions. You don`t have to attend to enter, although you do have to pay for each entry (£9, if memory serves.) But you do get a critique and all winners are published in an anthology.

The kids are alright...

2009-07-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

Just like Kylie & Robbie said, the kids really are alright.

I just got back from another day of writing workshops with year 6/7 & 8s, and what a great bunch they were. I`m not saying there wasn`t a bit of crowd control needed, but they had spirit and ideas, and I really enjoyed their stories.

The thing with writing is that it is is democratic. I mean, this was a school on an estate (the school I used to attend, as it happens) and maybe some hobbies are too expensive for these kids, (you know, the cost of musical instruments or golf lessons or whatever) but all you need to write is an imagination. I was telling them how I used to work in a prison with children inmates, and they discovered how to `escape` with writing.

And don`t we all need to escape once in a while?

School Trip

2009-07-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

School`s out for summer. Well, nearly. So today I visited my old school and ran workshops with the year 7 & 8s. The theme: Suddenly this summer...

Lots of books for children are set in the summer hols, so I read from selected texts then got the kids to write their own summer story. We looked at different genres, settings, creating a character and plot.

What strikes me is how children have fantastic imaginations, but can sometimes be afraid to put their ideas on paper. A few asked if they could use a pc - as if writing on the computer is easier. I tried to encourage them to just go with the story they were building. One lad said he was going to finish his story when he got home instead of playing a computer game like he usually did.

I had a great day. The highlight for me was that the kids were enthusiastic about my novel-in-progress, Family Snap, and wanted to know when it would be published. Funny, that. It`s what I`d like to know too!

Mentoring

2009-07-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

Here`s the way I see it - writing is a craft. Just like any craft, leaning from a master (mistress!?) is valuable.
I was lucky to be picked for the Escalator scheme in 2006. It`s run by New Writing East, and part of the scheme was to work with a mentor. My mentor, crime writer Michelle Spring, was an inspiration. She worked with me through my manuscript of The Sacrificial Man, and we had debates about what worked and didn`t. I ended up with a stronger novel, but also the confidence to say "I am a writer." So many of us feel we should whisper it, don`t we? As if we are admitting to something shameful... maybe it is the egotistical premise that we think we have something to say that others will be interested in. Hmmm...

I have just found out that I have won an Apprenticeship in Fiction, which will mean working with another mentor, this time on Family Snap. I have heard good things about Adventures in Fiction, and look forward to starting in September.

Writing is an isolated, lonely job - most of the time we live in our own imaginations. If we can access these brilliant schemes we can improve our skill, and also touch base with others in the business.

Also, there are ways to find funding for these schemes. I was lucky; I got Arts Council funding for Escalator. But there are other bursaries and grants available. Check out the section in Writers & Artists Yearbook. And good luck!

Why I write.

2009-07-02T06:25:00.000-07:00

We are all just one event away from the loss of love, of the status quo, of the illusory balance of our lives. And this is terrifying and liberating.

The characters in my novels are ordainary people made extraordainary by an unusual situation or choice. I am interested in extremities, situational and emotional, which includes crime and madness, sexual deviance, religious devotion, obsessive love...

Happiness is a fragile, transitory thing. Conversely, only when it is gone can we truly discover what we are made of, the very essence of our self: integrity; courage. Or the opposite.

Whether or not we are survivors. I am compelled to explore human emotion and the tentative grip any of us have on our lives.