Sarah Parry's Blog

I've always tended to write books that I would like to read myself. The only trouble with that is, that I'm never sure anyone else has the same tastes as me! So it's been a lovely surprise to find out that my latest novel, Reel Time, seems to be finding likeminded readers who seem to be enjoying it, judging by the lovely reviews it's received so far.

It's hard being an indy writer without the backing of a publisher to get your name out there, so reviews are really important, and I really do appreciate them. If there is anyone who'd like to read Reel Time in exchange for an honest review, I am happy to send you a pdf copy.

Have a look at what other readers have to say about it both here and on Amazon, and if you think it's something you'd also enjoy, then please message me with your email address.

Sarah x

Okay, so it's been a while since I last blogged and a lot has happened since then! I've completed two YA novels, which will be released this year, and have started two others - one of which is a steam punk fantasy - something new for me! The first book to be released will be REEL TIME a time travel murder mystery, which I've had so much fun writing. It's about an old horror film star and a boy and girl who hate each other who have to go back in time to solve a murder mystery to prove the film star's innocence. It should be out at the end of January, and I will be looking for reviewers so it anyone's interested, please let me know!

So I'm over half way through writing REEL TIME and I made the brave decision to start putting it out there in weekly chapters first on www.channillo.com, which means I now have a deadline to get it finished by. Chapter 2 has just gone live, and so there's no going back now - except in time of course (excuse the pun)!

In the past I've always shied away from writing in first person and getting into the complications of time travel, so what's made me do it now?

It's getting that idea that suddenly bursts into a whole myriad of other ideas within that idea - an exciting new alternate universe with characters that suddenly popped into my head whom I know as well as myself.

I got the idea for REEL TIME a couple of years ago, and it's taken me this long to get it properly underway, because time travel stories do have their complications. I made mine even more complicated by adding a murder mystery to it - something else I'd never done before, and on top of that a romance between two protagonists whom hate the sight of each other, yet on the flip side are ripe for falling in love with each other too, making for the kind of sparky, flirtatious banter I love!

If you can't wait until REEL TIME comes out on Kindle, you can start reading it on www.channillo.com.

I started my writing career writing serials for a very famous fiction magazine in the UK called The People's Friend. This was where I learnt my trade with a wonderful editor called Sinclair Matheson, who taught me how to structure my stories and develop them into complete full length narratives that didn't lose pace, had believable characters the reader could invest in and came to a satisfying and enjoyable conclusion. It's funny to think that the magazine serial wasn't a twentieth century invention, but did indeed enjoy an immense amount of popularity in the nineteenth century, with some extremely illustrious authors honing their trade in much the same way as I did.

While I don't profess to having the same kind of talents as Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, George Elliott, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, I do enjoy the fact that most of their famous novels started out as fiction serials in monthly publications. They were the equivalent of the soap opera in those days, believe it or not!

And now things are going full circle with the revival of the serialised novel. http://www.channillo.com offers a range of novels, journals, short stories and poetry published in weekly, bi-weekly, twice weekly instalments. To my mind this is a great idea! We all love a good TV series, and don't always have the time to sit and read at our leisure, so getting a book in short sharp bursts seems a great way to enjoy reading in our busy lives.

My new novel REEL TIME has jut gone live on the site, with Chapter One just waiting to be read. It is a YA time travel, murder mystery novel about two people who absolutely loathe each other finding themselves in the most peculiar and frightening of circumstances when they accidentally discover they can go back in time through a home cinema room in an elderly horror movie star's crumbling country house. This same movie star may or not have murdered someone at a party back in the 1950s, so our hero and heroine get the chance to go back in time and find out what really happened that fateful night - with a little romance thrown in for good measure, of course!

I don't know which is harder - writing in first person, or writing about time travel! So the new book is 20,000 words in and is about time travel, and written in first person. It's a young adult novel, and even if travelling through time is a bit of a head scrambler, it certainly gets the little grey cells going! My new protagonists are Becky and Mack, who have hated each other since they were six years old, but end up going back to 1952 together to solve a murder mystery. Throw in the UK's answer to Vincent Price and a sparky I hate you, but love your really romance, and I hope it will be as enjoyable to read as it is enjoyable to write!

Don't get mad - write a book about it!

Well not IT exactly, but writing a book is what Nell Flanagan did to get over her philandering husband Patrick, leaving her for a younger model. An exercise that started out as therapy, but ended up with her becoming an International best selling author. Things are looking up at last, until events start happening in real life that start mirroring events in Nell's book.
When Patrick goes missing in similar circumstances to the husband in her novel, Nell finds herself under the scrutiny of handsome Detective Sergeant Rob Parsons, whom she labels with the same womanising brush as her husband, particularly when he tries to flirt with her during questioning. And then when her twelve year old daughter, Laurel, is kidnapped, Nell finds herself on the road south with the last person on earth she would want help from - the handsome police officer himself!
Imitating Art is a romantic caper introducing a new detective duo that sizzles like the best flirtatious banter!
Imitating Art by Sarah Parry available on Kindle Unlimited to read for free if you are a Prime member.

New Book Imitating Art will be out in the New Year, so looking forward to that! Hope you're all having a happy Christmas and that 2015 will be everything you hope for!

Imitating Art will be available to download exclusively on Kindle in a few weeks time. It's a bit of strange one. I see it as an ode to all those TV cop shows of the seventies, where an oddball/quirky couple solve the crimes. I would even say it could go back as far as the thirties and the Thin Man films with William Powell and Myrna Loy - they don't make them like that anymore! A bit of antagonism between the leading man and leading lady, a lot of romance and a feelgood ending after a caper of sorts to find a missing ex-husband and daughter. I don't see this as a one off - like the Harts and Nick and Nora Charles, there is definitely lots of mileage in Nell and Rob's relationship - with lots more stories to come - so watch this space!

Cracking knuckles ready to start the last leg of the new book called Imitating Art. Always exciting and frightening at the same time. The really hard work begins after this though - reviewing the manuscript and polishing it up ready for publication! Happy times!

Imitating Art, my new book will be available towards the end of November. A bit of a Hitchcock-esque caper, fun and romantic, with a classic I hate your guts, but fancy the pants off you leading couple. I always like it when then happens, I don't know about you? Don't worry, there will be more Aggie Greenwood stories, I've just got to get this new novel off the computer and on to Amazon. I've been getting really good reviews for Meaning To Be and Charlie, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this one too, even if it is a little quirkier than the others. Happy Reading! Sarah x