BLOG TOUR GUEST STOP~SETTLED BLOOD By Mari Hannah




Title: Settled Blood
Author: Mari Hannah
Genre: Mystery/Detective
Publication Date: November 19, 2013
Published By: Witness Impulse an imprint of HarperCollins
Event organized by: Literati Author Services, Inc.

Synopsis

When a young girl is found dead at the base of Hadrian’s Wall in Northern England, it’s not long before detective Kate Daniels realizes her death was no ordinary homicide. She was thrown from a great height and was probably alive when she hit the ground. 

Then a local businessman reports his daughter missing. Her description fits the dead girl exactly. Has Daniels found the identity of her victim-or is a killer playing a sickening game?

As the murder investigation team delves deeper into the case, half-truths are told, secrets exposed, and while Daniels makes her way through a mountain of obstacles, time is running out for one terrified girl.

GUEST POST
Plotting – by Mari Hannah

As the author of the Kate Daniels series, I’m often asked about my writing regime, how (if) I plot out novels before I begin. I do, meticulously. I was taught structure by a screenwriter who was of the opinion that I should be able to describe an idea in a sentence or two. The reason being that if I ever got the opportunity to pitch to an industry professional, they would expect that of me.

For example, the premise for my novel Deadly Deceit was this: Two people crave a better lifestyle but only one is prepared to kill to get it. The idea posed a series of questions. Someone prepared to take another person’s life in order to enjoy a higher standard of living is evil, right? How evil? Is there a line over which they will not cross? Will they outwit Kate or get caught?

When I read crime I like to know from the get-go what type of book it is: cosy crime, police procedural, suspense or conspiracy thriller. I also adhere to the ten-page rule because I truly believe that if the story doesn’t grab a reader by then, chances are they won’t read on. So I try to drop my readers right into the action.

I don’t use software to organise research or help me visualise a book. I use a card system, the obvious advantage being that I can move them around, altering the position of scenes or even whole chapters. I end up with a murder wall like you would find in any police station as detectives puzzle over a serious offence. No surprise there then!

It took years to develop a model that works for me, one that lets me focus on storytelling. Through trial and error – a lot of error! – I now know how long it takes to introduce main characters, set up and grab my readers’ attention.

A magazine recently asked me for my five points for writing an edge-of-your-seat thriller. This is what I told them . . .

Let’s assume for one moment that an idea has legs. After that it’s as much to do with how I structure a book as it is about characterisation. In The Murder Wall I created Kate (1) a memorable and believable protagonist. Then I needed an antagonist (2) whose name I can’t divulge for obvious reasons, but who equals her in deviousness and cleverness as he wreaks havoc on victims. Once I’d completed the set up and hooked my readers – I try to do this in the first ten pages – I never let up (3). As the book progressed, I escalated complications with lots of plot twists to blindside the reader (4). Then, just as Kate looked like she was home and dry, I put more obstacles in her way until she was at crisis point, then created a false ending (5) before moving onto the climax and resolution. All that took me around a hundred thousand words, each one earning its place on the page.

I never want to write to formula but neither can I afford to ignore genre conventions. If I fail to deliver, readers would be disappointed and I’d hate that. As a recipient of a Northern Writers’ Award in 2010 for my second novel, Settled Blood, and shortlisted a couple of weeks ago for the Polari First Book Prize for The Murder Wall, I can’t see any reason to change the way I write any time soon.  

Witness Impulse, digital imprint of William Morrow/Harper Collins will publish The Murder Wall in the US on Tuesday, 15th October 2013 and two further titles in the coming months.

You can catch up with Mari at marihannah.com and on Twitter here: @mariwriter

Purchase Links

About the Author

Mari Hannah was born in London and moved north as a child. Her career as a probation officer was cut short when she was injured while on duty, and thereafter she spent several years as a film/television screenwriter. She now lives in Northumberland with her partner, an ex-murder detective. She was the winner of the 2010 Northern Writers’ Award and is a nominee for the 2013 Polari First Book Prize.
Connect with the Author: Blog | Twitter | Goodreads



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