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Hornsea writer, Penny Grubb, launched her new novel, Death By Column Inches, at Fantastic Books Publishing’s Massive Autumn Book Launch Event (MABLE).
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed a pseudonym. Penny says, “This book was first conceived before any of my private investigator series had seen the light of day. It’s very different and I was advised not to use the same name.”
The story of the book and its long journey from initial idea to launch is outlined in its launch video.
Author Penny Grubb says the only consistent part of her varied career has been as a writer; when it wasn’t part of her job, it was something she pursued in her own time.
‘I wrote my first novel when I was four,’ she says. ‘It was
written in pencil in a small lined notebook. I didn’t need the whole notebook
as it barely ran to half a page, but it felt more like a proper book that way. I
can remember three things about it; it starred a cat on a mat, I asked for help
to spell its only two-syllable word, and it gave me a tremendous sense of
achievement. I think that was the moment I decided to be a novelist.’
Almost half a century would elapse from then to Penny’s
first published novel, although she published non-fiction as part of her
various day jobs. The first three books in her Annie Raymond mystery series
have recently been rereleased as a trilogy, Falling into Crime, one of them having won an
international CWA Dagger in 2004.
Penny’s career laid the foundation for her becoming a crime novelist. She worked in hospital pathology labs, an early job giving her access to renowned Home Office pathologist Dr Alan Usher who regularly entertained and educated the medical school staff with lectures about his work. ‘I learnt a lot about sudden and suspicious death. It was information I used when I began my PI series.’
Even after she moved on from Pathology, Penny’s brushes with the world of serious crime continued. In a career switch, and after graduating with a degree in Maths and Computer Science, she spent some time working as a software engineer helping to build a system, the forensic analysis of which later contributed to the conviction by the UK’s most prolific serial killer. She talks about this in an article published in Kings River Life magazine.
Penny later moved into medical computing, founding one of Europe’s first Medical Informatics research groups. ‘It was a very busy decade,’ she recalls. ‘But all the travelling around Europe gave me a wealth of settings for stories and novels. I wrote a lot during that time; including many draft novels that weren’t very good and never saw the light of day.’ The publications that came out under Penny’s name were technical reports, academic papers and textbooks.
When the research field took a different turn, Penny changed career again, and was seconded from her academic post to become Chair of the Authors’Licensing and Collecting Society, the largest authors’ society in the world. During this time, she wrote several of the books in her crime series.
Penny teamed up with fellow crime novelist, Danuta Reah, to run creative writing workshops. Together they wrote How to be a Fantastic Writer.
In 2013, Penny stepped down from the Authors’ Licensing and
Collecting Society and returned to academia, specialising in nurturing fragile
learners to go on into Higher Education.
After leaving academia, Penny continued her Annie Raymond mystery series, her 8th book coming out a year into her retirement. She says she expects to be writing Annie books ‘until Annie is too old and decrepit to climb the office stairs or until I get fed up and push her off a cliff.’
A sudden pandemic causes problems great and small; one of the lesser being the jar to continuity of a contemporary series of crime novels. Author Penny Grubb mentions this on her blog as she announces the launch of her latest novel, Boxed In.
The book is available in paperback. The ebook can be pre-ordered for delivery on the official launch date.
Yes, Happy New Year from Hornsea Writers.
If you’ve just emerged bleary-eyed from what passed for the Covid-baked New Year’s celebrations, don’t despair. As we speak, members are girding their loins – or at least donning woolly hats and thick sweaters – to bring you interesting content throughout the coming year.
For a start we have not one, but two monthly series. And we have book launches!
Penny Grubb’s Boxed In, the latest in her Annie Raymond PI Mystery series, hits the shelves in late February. You’ll never look at a container lorry the same again.
Also before Spring, April Taylor wraps up her long-running Cosy Crime series starring that acerbic early music singer Georgia Pattison with Who Wants To Live Forever. Might there finally be a wedding? Certainly there’ll be a dead body.
Horse of the Same Colour, follow-up to Melodie Trudeaux’s debut children’s comic romp Horse of a Different Colour, launches in the summer. There’s already a lot of information about it on her website and, shush – unicorns!
Sometime “back-end”, as we say in these parts, Joy Stonehouse will be launching the third in her 18th century East Yorkshire Reighton series based on genealogical accounts, Whisper to the Bees.
And this is a mere scattering to whet your reading appetite. To kick off, come the series. Mid-month will be member profiles shining a somewhat different light on what makes this group of writers tick.
Next Friday April Taylor will start her series Aspects of Crime Writing, continuing it on the first Friday of the month. And who’s going to remember that? It’s much easier to pop your e-address in the box top left and have posts arrive direct in your Inbox.
See you next Friday!
At this time of year, several Hornsea Writers would usually be heading for Fantastic Books Publishing's FantastiCon convention. The pandemic has put paid to a physical gathering, but there will be a virtual event on 15th and 16th August where six new books will be launched.
Although no Hornsea Writer members have books launched at this event, their work will be showcased, so please call in and expect to hear from Linda Acaster, Stuart Aken, Penny Grubb, Shellie Horst and maybe more.
The virtual FantastiCon schedule is HERE.
The event will be streamed on Twtich TV HERE.
For mini reviews on each of FantastiCon 2020's launch books, click HERE.
I’ve written enough over the years that even when a novel is
just an embryo idea, I know how long the finished book will be.
My idea for Boxed In, due out later in the year, was always a book of under 100,000 words, so when the first draft came in at 140,000, the serious editing hat had to come out.
The editing journey was a slash-and-burn fest – CLICK HERE for some more detail on nuances, twists and the ghost of a children’s book.
The end result of the initial charge through all 140k words,
wielding the newly sharpened editing pen, was an uncannily accurate match to my
original prediction – a book of exactly 99,999 words.
Boxed In is the latest book in Penny Grubb's Annie Raymond series,
following on from Falling into Crime,
Where There’s Smoke,
Buried Deep and Syrup Trap City.
Despite all this, I still rather treasure an early review
that appeared on Like False Money, which is now published as part of the Falling into Crime trilogy.
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| From a Native American re-enactor |
