#Review of Bloody Scotland Panel – Watching the Detectives featuring Alex Grey, Neil Lancaster, John Sutherland, Graeme Macrae Burnet @BloodyScotland @neillancaster66 @GMacraeBurnet #AlexGray @policecommander @HQstories @OrionBooks #BloodyScotland #CrimeFiction

Watching the Detectives
Featuring Alex Grey, Neil Lancaster, John Sutherland, Graeme Macrae

Crime in the Spotlight debut novelist before the main event was Reme Kone who has previously worked on producing Killing Eve, Lewis and more… The book sounded mysteriously dark and gripping.

The main event

This was an insightful talk into the minds of crime writers, viewers and readers of crime fiction, hostage negotiation situations, forensics and the human condition.

The authors were compelling to listen to and chose interesting slants about how they approached the topics they wanted to speak about.

The authors talked about people fascinating them and celebrating scenic locations such as The Highlands of Scotland. You could just imagine them drawing upon experiences and people watching, taking everything in for their next books, including the darkness of humans, such as incels, having to negotiate hostage situations and more…

They mentioned how now, people think they are experts in the field of crime. Now, most of these authors have worked in this field, such as in the police. Now, and you see it when people watch or read detective novels, people assume they’re experts because they read everything that they deem to be true. There is a great deal of detail and truth, but as previous people have mentioned, such as Sue Black, not all the details go into a book as it is also there for entertainment. I thought this an incredibly important point they made, perhaps to have people re-assess their position when they are reading or watching crime dramas unfold.

They dug around the reasons for such a thirst for crime fiction at the moment and it isn’t all because we are a blood-thirsty society. We like to explore the human condition, dig beneath the surface into the psychological make-up of a person, they observed. Characters are pushed to extremes and unlike in real life, when an end result could take years, it’s done all in one or a few sittings, so a lot faster for a resolution.

Each have books newly published and a book in the pipeline…

#Review by Lou of Murderous Media. A Bloody Scotland Panel featuring Jeremy Vine and Steph McGovern @theJeremyVine @StephLunch @BloodyScotland #Deadline #MurderOnLineOne #BloodyScotland

Murderous Media
Jeremy Vine and Steph McGovern

Review by Louise Cannon

Jeremy Vine is someone who lots of us have listened to on the radio on BBC Radio 2 over many years. I practically grew up listening to Ken Bruce’s Popmaster, a bit of music and then Jeremy Vine, even when young on the radio on long car journeys to a UK holiday destination. He truly likes Agatha Christie.

Steph McGovern is known for doing some of the financial news on BBC Breakfast, who knew someone could actually make that watchable?! She has also done Steph’s Packed Lunch and has something else lined-up.

They are both highly entertaining and joyous on a panel together.

Both have debut novels published and have another on the way. These ones are set where they know, but in the case of Steph, she informed that she will be moving away a bit from the tv studio world in her second…

Jeremy’s is Murder on Line One and takes place at places where the radio listeners are tuning in… It sounds mysterious and entertaining. I’ll review in due course.

Steph McGovern’s is set on a tv set when the earpiece gets hacked and turns out there is an abduction… It sounds intriguingly immersive and I will review in due course…

The talk was illuminating and very entertaining. The insight behind the scenes, that they can carefully fictionalise through their experiences and what they’ve seen sounds interesting. They have terrific anecdotes about workplaces, Trump, Archer and more… They also talked about fiction being freedom from fact-checking to the same intensity and discipline you need to for the news, but there were some details they did check to ensure they were giving their readers correct information. They also gave insight into the beginnings of their careers and in Steph’s case, also the construction industry and the fact she dispelled the myth of needing a “BBC accent” to be on the telly.

They talked about their authentic selves and how they felt they needed to be their authentic selves on both the page and on-screen. What I often find interesting is that people who act or present, look confident, perhaps even a bit loud in that role, but in real life can be quite shy, something I have witnessed from some people I’ve had the privilege of meeting too. I think it gives hope for people and shows courage to be so exposed even when naturally shy and to be that honest with a room full of people too.

If you ever get the chance to see Jeremy Vine and Steph McGovern do a talk, I highly recommend it.

#Review By Lou of Happy Ever Afters with Sharon Gosling, Heidi Swain and Rebecca Ryan – a panel at Edinburgh Women’s Fiction Festival@EdWomensFicFest @sharongosling @WriteBecsWrite @Heidi_Swain #TheSecretOrchard #ThePhilosphyOfLove #HomeForChristmas

Happy Ever Afters
Sharon Gosling, Heidi Swain and Rebecca Ryan
Interviewed by Sara-Jade Virtue from publisher, Simon & Schuster

This was a thought-provoking panel with well-crafted questions centred around happy endings and what that meant to them.

Sharon Gosling, Heidi Swain, Rebecca Ryan

The consensus was ‘Happy Ever Afters‘ involved working through problems/issues so couples can be together and/or for characters to be happy within themselves.

There was much discussion about how women’s fiction includes more communities, friends, family and how they all bring love as well as part of it being happy within yourself and relationships. They seem important messages to me and shows how romance/women’s fiction has evolved.

Sharon Gosling talked about tending to go to dark, imperfect places, with characters working out who they are ie reflecting life, and reaching a state of hope. On her latest book, The Secret Orchard, which is said to be a feel-good book about family, belonging and finding peace, she talked mentioned the history of apple and her fascination by how orchards survive for so long. In-relation of her book, she talked about how the past and future come together in the sisters and relates it cleverly back to the apple trees in the orchard. I haven’t read this book yet, but it sounds good.

I haven’t read The Secret Orchard, but I have read, reviewed and enjoyed:
The Lighthouse Bookshop and The Forgotten Garden

Rebecca Ryan, author of Philosophy of Love, is interested in women’s lives. She chose to write about people’s experiences of perhaps not having a traditional ‘happily ever after,’ but one of reflection and figuring life out.

She talked about how readers go into books with expectations. She reckoned there is a need to go into darker themes to see characters heal and how it’s about the journey, hope is happily ever after.

There was much discussion about how pivotal moments like sadness to go along with the romance, it makes it more like real life, which I found pleasing. I think it makes these books relatable on different levels.

Here is my review: The Philosophy of Love

Heidi Swain writes both standalone and series. She has a book published twice a year, one for Summer and another for Christmas. Her latest Summer book was:
The Holiday Escape. See my review below.Home For Christmas is her latest festive book (soon I will be reviewing this, so watch out for that). Having heard Heidi Swain talk, read previous Christmas books and reading her latest, she well and truly oozes with Christmas cheer and comfort, even though she has recently had a hard time at this time of year. Her answer was to be indulgent and create a character, a woman who she would love to spend time with and for us all to discover, who loves Christmas.
She reckons Home For Christmas was her favourite so far.Heidi Swain also gave insight in to the fact doesn’t write the same series back to back, which makes it interesting. I, personally quite like this as keeps everything fresh, since I like both her series and standalones.

Heidi Swain has written many books. Here are some reviews of books I’ve read and enjoyed.

The Winter Garden A Taste of Home Underneath The Christmas Tree

The Summer Fair That Festive Feeling The Holiday Escape

Rebecca Ryan, Sara-Jade Virtue, Morningside, Edinburgh
Heidi Swain, Sharon Gosling
Church in Morningside

#Review By Lou of Modern Family: Love, Drama and Defying Tradition with Georgina Moore and Melanie Cantor at Women’s Fiction Festival in Edinburgh @EdWomensFicFest @GeorginaMoore @melaniecantor #TheGarnettGirls

Modern Family – Love, Drama and Defying Tradition
Georgina Moore and Melanie Cantor

This panel was fascinating, entertaining and such a wonderful hour’s talk of sisters, family and all the different types of relationships in the world. It truly shows that traditional romance has changed and evolved from the days of it being just boy meets girl, it is more about how families relate to each other as well as a budding or growing romance. It truly was an hour’s talk and it felt quick, which is the sign of a good talk, that as well as it captivated me.

Georgina Moore, author of the fabulous The Garnett Girls, lives on a houseboat.
In-terms of fiction, she mentioned enjoying Little Women and The Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

I had the privilege of reviewing her debut novel, The Garnett Girls in hardback. It is now also available in paperback.
Love makes you do things you never knew you were capable of…. It follows Margo, who had a love affair with Richard, but it implodes. Readers also meet her daughters and follow their lives and how they relate to each other.
There are secrets to uncover…
Here is the link to my review of this character led book: The Garnett Girls Review

Georgina Moore has revealed to be writing her second book, which I just know I would like to read and review, based on such a strong debut.

Melanie Cantor is the author of Death and Other Happy Endings and most recently, The F**k It! List. A rare time when you can legitimately swear at a book festival and on my blog. I haven’t read this, but it is said to be an uplifting, laugh out loud read about a woman who is forced to re-evaluate her life at the age of 40.
Melanie Cantor, interestingly talked about empowering women, which Georgina Moore also contributed to and it felt hopeful and uplifting.

Pictures are of me with Georgina Moore, Morningside and church where the festival was held

#Review of Peter May In Conversation with Craig Robertson @BloodyScotland Inc Link To Watch @authorpetermay @CraigRobertson_ #BloodyScotland

Peter May In Conversation with Craig Robertson

Black Loch is Peter May’s latest book, set 10 years later than the previous Hebridean/Lewis book. You can find out more here: The Black Loch

I saw this talk in person. You can watch this until end of September online. The link at the end of my review.

He discussed his career as a journalist and working in tv and becoming an author. It came as quite a surprise how challenging it was to get published and how no one initially wanted to publish The Black House, which later became book 1 of the highly successful Lewis Trilogy. Now, he’s been tempted back to writing more set in this area all these years later. The Black Loch is out now! You won’t be disappointed. It turns out, it was as wise move to return to the Hebrides.

He wrote a series set in China, which was intriguing to hear about as he talked about actually going over to the country. He divulged about a “propaganda office” which was not as scary as it sounds and was a marketing department for books. It was interesting to hear about how things work in a different country to the UK. He also talked about his publisher liking this series and urging him to carry on, but how he. at a certain stage, wanted to move onto writing other things.

Overall, it was an insightful, interesting talk.

You can watch this until 30th September from the Bloody Scotland site here: Digital Link

*Please note I am not affiliated nor gain from Bloody Scotland, just merely sharing the digital link.

#Review By Lou of Immoral Dilemma’s @BloodyScotland panel with Jack Jordan, Andrew Hunter Murray, Nilesha Chauvet @JackJordanBooks @andrewhunterm @NileshaChauvet #Redemption #ABeginnersGuideToBreakingAndEntering #TheRevengeOfRitaMarsh #CrimeFiction #Thrillers

Immoral Dilemmas
Jack Jordan, Andrew Hunter Murray, Nilesha Chauvet

* * * * *

Jack Jordan has written 8 books, but I discovered him in the books, Do No Harm, Conviction and most recently, Redemption. He cleverly asks in the books:
“What Would You Do?” as he places characters in challenging situations that pose immoral dilemmas to solve. Although quite dark and to some extent, cerebral, they are gripping and it was talked about having that hook so you keep wanting to turn the page.

He has set Redemption in a rather isolated place, in desert land. He talked about this setting and how he wanted the location to also marry up with the isolation feeling that the parents of the deceased when a gay teenager kills their son. The 5 stages of grief interestingly runs through the book. It is an intriguing concept. He talked about the fascinating subject of revenge and twisting things on their head.

Andrew Hunter Murray’s book, A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering is quite different as it follows a male squatter. He seems an unusual squatter as he enters the homes of the rich. It sounds a rather unique premise with a bit of snooping around how the other half live thrown in. The book tackles themes of rich people’s second homes with their luxurious swimming pools, homelessness and more…

Nilesha Chauvet talked about themes of vigil anti-ism, paedophilia, carehomes, women in her debut novel – The Revenge of Rita Marsh. She talked a bit about these themes that run through her book and how you can see why something is done by her characters and how the immoral dilemma is there. She also talked about settings being important in her book.