Clare Flynn’s Blog
Interview with author Wayne Turmel
I'm delighted to welcome Wayne Turmel onto the blog today. Wayne noticed my latest novel The Chalky Sea was partly set in Canada and features a Canadian main character so offered to host me on his blog and I decided to return the compliment. Where do you live, Wayne,...
Interrogating my characters
I published my latest novel, The Chalky Sea, this month and have promised my readers to write a sequel. As I sat down to work on the second book I found I was struggling to re-connect with my characters. One of them was a secondary character in The Chalky Sea but...
Remembering the war after seventy years
Back in 2010, the anniversary of the Blitz, I recorded my elderly mother on video talking about her memories of wartime. Mum had dementia but was still relatively lucid then – she died in early 2016, by which time she was lost deep in a fog. Publishing my new book The...
Publication Day!
I’m very happy that today is publication day for The Chalky Sea – and by a happy coincidence also Canada Day – and the 150th anniversary at that. As the book is partly set in Ontario and has several Canadian characters that is good news indeed!
Author Interview – Alison Morton
My guest today is author Alison Morton. Alison lives in France and is crazy about all things Roman. A lifetime of reading crime novels and her six year career in the military has led her to combine her passions in the creation of a series of novels set in a fictional...
Guest Post from Robert Crouch
I'm delighted to welcome my guest today, Robert Crouch, a fellow Eastbournian. Robert has the unusual distinction of drawing on his past experience as an environmental health officer to inform his crime fiction. This opens some fascinating doors and methods for a...
Author Interview – Jean Gill
I'm delighted to welcome Jean Gill to the blog today. I met Jean in person at the Historical Novel Society Conference in Oxford last year – as is often the case we had crossed paths online and I recognised her face. Jean is a multi-talented individual, combining two...
5 Reasons to Write a Series Based on Your Own Life
I'm delighted to welcome my guest today, Helena Halme. Helena is a London-based Finnish author who writes in the English language - an amazing feat which she carries off beautifully. She is the author of six novels and is the winner of the John Nurmi prize for the...
Author Interview – Jane Davis
I'm delighted to welcome author, Jane Davis onto the blog today to answer my questions about her writing life. Jane is the author of seven acclaimed novels and is a former winner of The Daily Mail First Novel Award for Half-truths and White Lies which was described by...
The Books I Read in 2016: Part 2
Here's the promised follow up to my post of a few days ago on my reading during 2016. Of the 58 books I read, 36 were on my Kindle with a decent 40% of physical books. I find the Kindle Paperwhite is easier to read in bed as I don't need to have lights on and it's...
The Books I Read in 2016: Part 1
I set myself a target of reading a book a week in 2016 and managed to surpass this with 58. I’ve set myself the tougher goal of 60 books - or 5 a month for 2017 as, without a house move to undertake this year, I should be able to fit in more reading time. Goodreads...
A Visit to Standen
I spent a very interesting morning exploring Standen and its grounds this week. The house, just outside East Grinstead, was built for the Beale family between 1891 and 1894 by the renowned Arts and Crafts architect Philip Webb. James Beale was a prosperous London...