I sold my novel, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing, last October (2012). Since then I have eagerly been anticipating the day that I would be a published author. But that day is today... but it is not for my novel. Why? Well, when I sold The Last Winter of Dani Lancing, I told my editor (the lovely Gillian Green) that I had done all this research for the book and created decades of back-story for the main characters, including sketching out the case that makes the career of Detective Superintendent Tom Bevans. Gillian said she would love me to write it as a short story and I did - though at 30,000 words and 110 pages it is more of a novella (and took some considerable time to write).
It was released today as a download on Amazon.co.uk as a taster for the novel. And it is FREE. I am really proud of it and (even though I would rather people read it after the novel) it is a great introduction to my writing and the universe of Dani Lancing and Tom Bevans, aka The Sad Man. Here is the blurb.

Police officer Tom Bevans is nicknamed the Sad Man by his colleagues. As a Family Liaison Officer he is always the bearer of bad news - it is his job to tell the friends and family of victims the fate of their loved ones.

But Tom is weighted down by crimes both old and new - haunted by the death of his best friend Dani, whose murder has never been solved.

When a rare opportunity emerges for Tom to take the lead in a horrific murder investigation, he is determined to get justice for the victim. A young girl has been found in her own home, cut so badly - and so carefully - that she has bled to death, leaving a deliberate pool of blood in the shape of angel wings...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Sad-Short...