Anna Sayburn Lane

Thriller author

Unlawful Things

February newsletter: treats and recommendations for the winter months.

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January can be tough, can’t it? My theory is that the only way to make it through the dark mornings, dark afternoons and dark evenings is to indulge in plenty of treats.

I had some lovely treats in January. I went to the candle-lit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the recreated Jacobean playhouse that stands next to Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, to see a wonderful and very funny play about storytelling. And I had a very special posh afternoon out, with tea at the Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly, London, for a friend’s special celebration (see photo!).

But mostly, I indulged in lots of evenings curled up with a good book. It’s what winter evenings are made for.

Free books promotion

I’m sure you could do with some good books, too! Whether you’ve finally made your way through your Christmas stash, or just feel like trying something new, February is a good month for new books.

If you haven’t read my first novel, Unlawful Things, now is the time to try it for free. The e-book available free of charge until Monday 30 January. It’s part of a promotion by the book recommendation service Hello Books. Why not see what other free thrillers they have this month?

What I’m enjoying now

Here are some things that have kept me entertained this month:

MW Craven’s incredibly twisty and well-plotted novel The Botanist. Absolutely addictive! I loved the intricate plot but also the funny and believable detective team.
LJ Ross’s Northumberland-set mysteries, starting with Holy Island. My father comes from the north east of England so I know some of the locations – but fortunately my childhood family holidays didn’t involve quite so much murder.
The BBC crime drama Happy Valley. The series – the third and final – has been an absolute masterclass in acting and dramatic tension. The two female leads, Sarah Lancashire and Siobhan Finneran, and writer/director Sally Wainwright, conjured the most gripping scene I’ve ever watched out of two sisters talking quietly in a cafe.

Christmas offer – two-book signed bundles

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Are you looking for a perfect present to introduce someone to the Helen Oddfellow mysteries this Christmas?
I’m offering two-book bundles, each including a signed copy of Unlawful Things and The Peacock Room, gift-wrapped and sent to the address of your choice, for £15 (including posting and packing). UK postage only.
I only have a few of these available, so if you’d like to order one, email me today at hello@annasayburnlane.com.

Lewisham Voices podcast: Beyond Unlawful Things

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I enjoyed a long chat with Rachel New, outreach officer for Lewisham Libraries, for their Lewisham Voices website, about the inspiration behind Unlawful Things and my next novel, The Peacock Room. Includes tips on writing in lockdown, becoming a journalist, and how not to give up on your novel during eight years of writing!

You can listen to our conversation here.

The history and mysteries behind Unlawful Things – online talk

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The usual talks and events that I had planned for this year are on hold, so I decided to try an online talk. On Monday May 4 at 7pm, I’ll be talking about the real-life history and mysteries that inspired the novel.

The talk will take you to some of the fascinating places in London and Kent that I visited while researching the novel. I’ll talk about the amazing archives at Dulwich College, the ancient pilgrim hostel in Canterbury and the magnificent Cobham Hall in Kent.

To join the talk, email me hello@annasayburnlane.com and I’ll send you a link.

NEW: Listen to a recording of the talk here.

 

 

 

What makes a crime writer?

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A murder of crime writers (and doctors, police officers, teachers, journalists…)

Journalists. Police officers. Doctors. Engineers. School teachers. I met a lot of crime writers at the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival – and pretty much all of them had another string to their bow.

As someone who came to fiction writing late, I found it really heartening to discover that my fellow “new” crime writers picked for the Crime in the Spotlight strand of the festival were not the dynamic 20-somethings of my imagination, fresh from their creative writing MA. I wasn’t the elderly elephant in a roomful of under-30s, but typical of a group of professionals who’d spent 20 or 30 years working at one field or other, before translating that wealth of life experience to writing fiction.

For some of us, writing is a second job – I wasn’t the only working journalist who’s turned to fiction, and I met a teacher who manages to scribble down a novel during the six week summer holiday (respect!).

Others had begun writing after retiring from a career in medicine, or in the police force, or the army. Perhaps it’s no surprise that these professions that can bring you up close and personal with the grittier side of life tend to produce writers of crime fiction.

Book signing with Yrsa Sigurdardottir

But the biggest surprise was Yrsa Sigurdardottir, the wildly-successful Icelandic crime writer I was paired with. I was amazed to discover that she doesn’t write full time – far from it. She’s an engineer who runs her own construction company.

Writing, she said, was like a hobby she turned to at the end of a hard day’s planning construction projects with her team. She says she takes a couple of weeks off when she’s nearing the end of a book, to get it ready for publication. Is it hard to go back to work again? Certainly not. ‘I kiss the floor of the office ,’ on her return to work, she said!

I get that. Working in the ‘real world’ means you engage with people, share the load, focus on clear, deliverable results. Writing a novel is about trying to choose between the endless possibilities in your own head, and what you hoped to achieve never seems quite to translate onto paper. Perhaps that’s why so many writers in the crime genre, which involves letting your imagination go to some pretty unsavoury places, are firmly rooted in the real world outside of fiction.

By the way, if you’re a crime fiction fan, I can heartily recommend the Bloody Scotland festival. It was tremendous fun, with a wide variety of events catering to every type of crime fiction imaginable. See you next year?

 

Unlawful Things at the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival

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I’m excited to announce that I will be appearing at the prestigious Bloody Scotland crime writing festival next month, reading from Unlawful Things on Sunday 22 September.

The festival attracts lots of big names. This year the programme includes Ian Rankin, David Baldacci and Lisa Jewell, and many more.

The festival has a “Crime in the Spotlight” programme, which highlights new and upcoming crime writers. I was thrilled to be selected as one of this year’s 12 Spotlighters. I’ll be appearing alongside Icelandic crime queen Yrsa Sigurdardottir, who will be interviewed after my reading. Her detective Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, a lawyer, is also an amateur sleuth with a record of digging up secrets from the past.

It’s great for a new writer to get such good exposure, and I’m hoping to introduce some crime fans to Helen Oddfellow. I wonder how the two fictional detectives would get along in real life!

Find out more about the festival here.