I am suffering from the dithers. I have so many projects on the go that I don’t know which to tackle first. You will remember that I lost 20 pages of script I’d put on a netbook? I did manage to re-write them, and I have finally made it to the end of the plot. Hurray! Rejoice! Then I did a word count and found I was way over because I had put in Too Much Plot. It’s not the first time I’ve done that, either. In this case it was easy to excise the offending section about a couple who’ve been lingering at the back of my mind for ages. Harold is a bitter little man who is constantly sniping at his big, good-natured wife. Gwen laughs off his nasty remarks, but I can’t help feeling that one of these days she’s going to lash out at him and then . . . who knows what will happen next? For the moment I’ve put Gwen and Harold into a separate file. Perhaps they’ll turn up in a short story some day.

Meanwhile, I am working hard to edit the next Ellie Quicke, to iron out inconsistencies, replace awkward sentences, tidy up loose ends. At the moment the title is MURDER WITH MERCY, but we’re still thinking about that. Delivery is to be by the end of November, and I should be able to make that in spite of all the other demands on my time.

So what has caused me to dither? To start with, the Methodist Recorder has asked for another short story for their Christmas issue, to be delivered by the middle of November. Yes, November – not December. I think I’ll write about the awkward guests or relations who don’t believe in Christmas – and what can or cannot be done about it. The words ‘Bah! Humbug!’ spring to mind. No doubt I can work them in somewhere.

My webmaster has turned the second of the Eden Hall quartet – The Lady of the Hall – into an E-book. There were favourable reviews on it within days, so we are going to look at transferring the third book pretty soon . . . if I can find the relevant floppy disc. Or maybe it’s on a memory stick somewhere? I really must get down to looking for it.

Then there are guest blogs to do. I seem to have missed out on some invitations to guest on other people’s blogs while I was recovering from shingles, and am now trying to catch up for Murder in Mind – which came out in May – and for False Alarm, which comes out this month. The problem is that although these books are published here in May and November, it will be another three months at least before they are available if they are sent overseas. So these guest blogs are set up months ahead of whichever date we’re thinking about and working from two calendars gets me thoroughly confused.

Another thing; I’ve been asked to produce an article for the Christian Writer about the pros and cons of putting your work into an electronic format. That probably won’t appear till the spring issue but I had to deliver last month, which meant more dithering – which job to tackle first?

MOST IMPORTANTLY – please note that FALSE ALARM will be published in the third week of November.  See below for a description and for the ISBN number.

                         RESERVE YOUR COPY AT THE LIBRARY NOW!

I very much enjoyed the two talks I gave here in London last month. Great fun, with lovely audiences. Thanks to everyone who was responsible for the arrangements.

Veronica Heley

COMING IN NOVEMBER 2012 (lst March ’13 in USA)

FALSE ALARM, the 7^th Abbot Agency story.

Bea is asked to find the person who laid a booby trap for the powerful tycoon, Sir Lucas Ossett,  in his own block of flats. She finds his wife in a state of fear, while gossiping elderly ladies cast doubt on the probity of their neighbours. These include a ‘therapist’, an ex-employee of Sir Lucas’s, and a cross-section of yuppies and oddballs with problems. Call-girl cards have been left in tenants’ letterboxes, a cat has met an untimely end, and snow is forecast. Sir Lucas’s influence reaches out to touch and corrupt even those nearest to Bea.  ISBN 9780 7278 8237 0.

I am not technically minded. Mind you, I have progressed from turning out books on a portable typewriter, via an Amstrad to different generations of computers and am now working on a Dell. I write, I edit and I send my stories off by e-mail. I save my work on floppies – the publisher likes floppies –  and on USBs and I keep records of what I’m doing. All right, I’m not that consistent about backing up but nobody’s perfect.

We were going off to Bruges for a much-needed holiday so I put the work-in- progress – another Ellie – onto a netbook to take with me. The uncompleted draft went on a treat, if you except the fact that the netbook refused to accept a mouse, so my aim was erratic. I wrote twenty pages of story and felt very pleased . . . until we got back and I tried to transfer my work back to the Dell. You’ve guessed it; nothing would make it move. I tried talking to it nicely. I tried Words of Command. I rang for help to my tried and trusted computer guru but he couldn’t retrieve it either. It had disappeared, completely. Unbelievably. So I have had to re-write those twenty pages from memory. Well, I managed it, but here we are at the beginning of another month, and not a whole lot forrader. 

When I started on this Ellie story, I didn’t think the boy Mikey would turn out to be the hero, but with flu raging in Ellie’s household and some nasty wrongs to get righted, he seems to have taken on the mantle of the Lone Ranger.  (To be continued)

On a lighter note, the Methodist Recorder published another short story from me on September 28^th. It’s called ALL CHANGE, and is about the expectations of ministers moving to new parishes at Harvest time, and what the parishes might expect of them in return. The tag line is ‘Kindness pays. Pass it on.’ If you can’t get hold of the original and would like to read it, send me an email and I’ll forward it to you.

Suddenly everyone is asking me for the E-rights of my early books. Sometimes they intend to bring out a large print version, sometimes a short print run, and sometimes just an E-book. These are books I wrote way back in the last century and I am thrilled to hear they are going to have a new lease of life. The first ones out will be the very early crime books, with women as heroines. I’ll keep you posted.

My webmaster has turned the second of the Eden Hall quartet – The Lady of the Hall – into an E-book, too. There were two favourable reviews on it within days, so we are going to look at transferring the third book pretty soon.

Finally, I am very much looking forward to the two talks I’m giving in London this month. On October 10^th I’ll be at our local Pitshanger Library in North Ealing for a free talk and on the 24^th at the Townswomen’s Guild in Ickenham, Uxbridge. Details from the website. Perhaps I’ll see some of you there?

Veronica Heley

www.veronicaheley.com.

Last out . . . MURDER IN MIND . . . May 2012

Ellie is asked to look into two ‘accidental’ deaths in the family of the local big estate agent because her daughter Diana intends to marry him once he’s got rid of his current wife. The surviving members of the Hooper family appear to be self-centred and unsympathetic but as their numbers diminish, Ellie begins to understand the reasons behind the way they act. ISBN Hardback 978 0 7278 8179 3

Also the paperback of MURDER MY NEIGHBOUR.  Ellie looks into the case of a wealthy lady who tells everyone she’s moving to a retirement home – but never arrives. ISBN Paperback 978 1 84751 360 1

NEW in July!

The large print version of FALSE PRETENCES.  Bea finds all is not well at an old established charity. The death of one director may have been from natural causes, but those which followed definitely were not.  ISBN 978 0 7278 9884 5

FALSE REPORT is coming out as an Ebook. Bea discovers that assisting a vertically challenged musician to get some home help is asking for trouble, especially when a pretty girl has been trafficked into this country by a gang who target wealthy men. ISBN 978 1 78010 201 6.

Also: LADY OF THE HALL, second in the Eden Hall series, is now out as an E-book.

E-BOOKS. Find them at http://www.veronicaheley.com/ebooks.php?l1=102

Also; log on to www.SevernHouse.com and follow the links for the latest news.

Many thanks to all my kind friends who emailed to commiserate when I went down with shingles. Yes, it was ultra nasty, and I do not wish ever to have to go through that again. I lost three weeks of work time, during which I was good for nothing but drifting around the house or lying on my bed. Gradually the pain eased and, although I still do get some in my left arm, it’s nothing like as bad as it was and I am managing to do some writing – if for less hours than usual.

For those of you who have suffered please note that, although it doesn’t seem to be generally known, there is a vaccine for shingles. Google and see if it applies to you.

And then, just as I was beginning to crack on with the next Ellie book, the copy-editing for FALSE ALARM, another Bea Abbot story, dropped through the door. My editor has been most sympathetic and allowed me extra time to do this job but I have kept at it, and little by little, the corrections and queries have been dealt with and the amendments are on their way back to source. Proof reading should be next month and the book should be out on time in November.

It was hard to pick up the Ellie book again after these interruptions, but I must say I have been heartened by having some very nice reviews for MURDER IN MIND, Ellie’s last story, which came out in May.  Kirkus write that ‘Ellie’s 12th is right on the money’; Publisher’s Weekly says that ‘Ellie is as spirited as ever, and her daughter as detestable, in this entertaining entry’; and Booklist paid me a back-handed compliment; ‘Heley’s latest, despite its Miss Marple-like heroine and British cozy style, is full of contemporary drama, suspense, and surprises’.  Not bad, eh?

I have also had to produce another short story for the Methodist Recorder – delivery end of August for their Harvest issue. I thought it might be interesting to focus on Methodist ministers who move to their new posts at this time of the year – and the complications that might arise. Please note; this is fiction! I don’t want to be sued by someone saying that ‘But I’m not like that!’ Details in the next newsletter for those who’d like to have a copy sent them by email.

So, on with the next Ellie. Sometimes when I’ve been writing as Ellie Quicke, I find it hard to switch into ‘being’ Bea Abbot. I’ve enjoyed ‘being’ Bea for a while, but now I must get back to Ellie, who really ought to go on a diet, but probably won’t do anything about it. And what do you think her daughter Diana is up to next?! And that little scamp, Mikey? I’m afraid that what I thought was a sub-plot is going to take over – and maybe that’s all right, and maybe it isn’t.  (To be continued)

Veronica Heley

www.veronicaheley.com

MURDER IN MIND . . . May 2012

Ellie is asked to look into two ‘accidental’ deaths in the family of the Great White Shark – as the local big estate agent is called – because her daughter Diana intends to marry him once he’s got rid of his current wife. The surviving members of the Hooper family appear to be self-centred and unsympathetic but as their numbers diminish, Ellie begins to understand the reasons behind the way they act. Can she save the rest of them – or is it too late to act?  ISBN Hardback 978 0 7278 8179 3

Also the paperback of MURDER MY NEIGHBOUR.  Ellie looks into the case of a wealthy lady who tells everyone she’s moving to a retirement home – but never arrives. ISBN Paperback 978 1 84751 360 1

NEW in July!

The large print version of FALSE PRETENCES.  Bea finds all is not well at an old established charity. The death of one director may have been from natural causes, but those which followed definitely were not.  ISBN 978 0 7278 9884 5

FALSE REPORT is coming out as an ebook. Bea discovers that helping a vertically challenged musician to some home help is asking for trouble, especially when a pretty girl has been trafficked into this country by a gang who target wealthy men. ISBN 978 1 78010 201 6.

E-BOOKS. Find them at http://www.veronicaheley.com/ebooks.php?l1=102

Also; log on to www.SevernHouse.com and follow the links for the latest news.