The Hippo Hands Over . . . . to Chris Curran

Today I'm thrilled to be handing over my blog to Chris Curran, author of Mindsight and Her Turn To Cry.

Chris Curran has written two psychological crime novels for Harper Collins Killer Reads. She left school at sixteen to work in the local library – her dream job then and now – and spent an idyllic few months reading her way around the shelves before reluctantly returning to full- time education. She lives with her husband in Hastings on the south coast of England and is very happy that the town still has a wonderful library, which she visits as often as she can.

 

Photo courtesy of Chris Curran

                                Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Chris Curran

I suspect there will more than ten things you don’t know about me, so I thought I’d start right at the beginning.

Apparently I was an enormous baby.  However, once outside the womb, I failed to keep up the momentum and I’m now only five feet tall and a little over eight stone.

        Some crime writers choose gender neutral names to appeal to a wide range of readers, but I insisted on being called Chris instead of Christine from when I was very young. Already a voracious reader I realised most storybook heroes were boys so I wanted to be a boy. Thankfully both I and the book world have changed since then, but I’ve stuck with Chris.

        My parents were not at all well-off so I never had a bike and I was in my twenties the first time I rode one. A friend suggested a biking holiday and it was only when I attempted to ride back from the hire shop that I was forced to confess. I returned from the holiday covered in bruises, but very proud of myself.

        I trained as a primary school teacher, but soon afterwards I joined a Theatre in Education company. We travelled around the country in a rackety van performing in schools, erecting our own scenery, writing scripts and playing multiple parts in each production.

        Later I was with a community theatre group in rural Gloucestershire. We acted in village halls, in tents or outdoors. In more than one venue we had to chase sheep off the stage before we could start the play. Amongst other things I learned to breath fire, to juggle and to dance as the back end of a horse – a surprisingly difficult skill. 

 

Photo found on Google

       I’ve always been a massive Star Trek fan. My son is also keen, but when I bought him a toy communicator and a phaser one Christmas I definitely played with them more than he did.

        I write standing up like Dickens and Hemingway. I like to act out my characters’ movements. My best ideas tend to come when I’m doing the ironing or washing up.

 

Chris' ironing board?

        When I wrote for women’s magazines I specialised in twist in the tail short stories. They were often about cheating husbands, which is strange as I’ve been happily married to one man for years.

I live in Hastings and am a proud community shareholder of the refurbished pier.

People are often surprised that, despite having published two books with such a well-known company as Harper Collins, I still don’t have an agent. I’d just completed my first novel, Mindsight, when the Killer Reads imprint launched an open submission slot so I decided to give it a try. To my amazement the commissioning editor loved the book. I’m sure good agents do a wonderful job, but so far I haven’t found the perfect fit or even the time to focus on a search.  

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Chris' latest novel Her Turn To Cry is now available in paperback as well as an ebook.

Twelve years ago Joycie Todd’s mother abandoned her. But what if she never really left? A tautly written psychological suspense novel, perfect for fans of B.A. Paris and Alex Lake.
London, 1965. Top model Joycie Todd lives a glittering life with photographer Marcus Blake. But her childhood tells a different story…
When she was eleven, Joycie’s mother disappeared. Run away with another man, so everyone says. But Joycie can’t forget the thumps she heard in the night, or the bloodstained rug hidden under the bed. A rug that was gone the next day.
Twelve years later, Joycie has left her past behind. But when an old friend dies, Joycie is left a letter beseeching her to find out the truth. Unable to keep the door locked any longer, Joycie sets out to discover why her mother left her – if she ever really did.
As she travels to the shabby seaside towns of her childhood, Joycie soon finds that it’s not just her mother who vanished all those years ago. Joycie knows the disappearances are connected, she just doesn’t know how. But there’s someone out there who does – and they will do anything to keep it buried.

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Mindsight

Five years ago, Clare killed her family – her husband, her father, and one of her twin sons. She has no memory of the car accident, but there is no refuting the evidence of drugs in her system. She has accepted her guilt, and served her time.
Now, released from prison, all she wants is to be reconciled with her remaining son, 13-year-old Tommy. To help him come to terms with her crime, and his own survivor guilt, Clare tries to find out the full truth of what happened on that fateful night.
Probing into the past, however, turns out to be dangerous exercise, threatening not only Clare’s sanity, but ultimately her life…

If you'd like to find out more about Chris you can find her by using the links below:

Website
Facebook

Twitter 

I'd like to say a big thank you to Chris for taking time out of her busy schedule to write a guest post and for stopping by today, it's been a pleasure finding out more about her and her books.