20 years and 29 books written, as of yesterday at 7.23 am
When I first started writing back in 2006, amongst shitty nappies, projectile vomiting, sheep yards and looking after my terminally ill mother-in-law, I could never have foreseen I would write 29 novels.
Yet, yesterday morning at 7:23 am, after pulling an all-nighter to finish, I submitted my 29th novel (hopefully to be published in April next year).
I’m looking pretty wrecked in this pic that I took just after I’d hit send!
I’d like to say I’m going to get a break between finishing The Runner and starting the next one, as I have a hectic tour starting on Sunday to promote The Buried, but that’s not the case! The next novel is due at the publishers in February, and I’m determined not to be late with this one.
The trouble is that, as of yet, I don’t have an idea for the next novel. The Runner turned up almost fully formed. I had to do a bit of work on it, but for novel 30, I’m going to have to have a whole lot of ideas come at me quickly. The other thing is, my fingers and hands are shot to pieces at the moment - although I’m typing this, my fingers aren’t doing what I’d like them to do (as in hitting the right keys), and I can’t type quickly. They’re feeling overworked and underpaid by their owner!
Anyhow, they will get a few days’ break as I drive across the Nullarbor and start the tour for The Buried.
In case you haven’t caught up with The Buried, let me tell you a little about it:
The Buried does what I love to do in my novels, which is have these two separate crimes occur, and I’ve heard from readers, they are going how is this going to come together!? How are these cases related? And it’s a puzzle for me as well when I’m writing; I love it. For The Buried, we have a convenience store explosion just off the main street of Kalgoorlie, a body in a toolbox, a mysterious quirky miner, a young girl missing – so I went with more than two this time! I also bring in a new detective from Perth to the established Kalgoorlie squad, and if you haven’t visited Kalgoorlie, you might not realise that it’s truly like a foreign land.
And here’s the blurb:
A place to hide. A secret to bury.
The fourth thrilling novel in the bestselling Kalgoorlie series from beloved Australian crime writer Fleur McDonald.
A fiery car crash into a shop is only the beginning ...
When a car slams into a Kalgoorlie corner store, Detective Angie Sullivan hopes that it is a chance mishap. But as she starts an investigation, unsettled by the arrival of a new detective from Perth, she is drawn into something darker than it first appears.
The death of a local homeless man at the same time seems at first to be a tragic accident. But inconsistencies at the scene - the abandoned mineshaft where he lived - suggest a more sinister truth.
Angie and her team must grapple with secrets, betrayals and murder to unravel a mystery that stretches back across decades.
And even though The Buried isn’t technically out yet (it comes out on the 27th of October - IN SEVEN DAYS!) There are a few reviews on Goodreads, and all of them are FOUR STARS! So I’m thrilled with that. You can read them here.
There is still time to pre-order THE BURIED. I’ve mentioned before that it’s important to have preorders come in. If you can, please order. If you can’t, run into your library and put a copy on hold to read when it arrives. I heard the other day that one library already has 150 on the wait list to read it!
And if you’re interested in knowing where I’m going on tour, click here.
See you on the road somewhere!
