#GuestPost The Crime Writing Life by Faith Mortimer

Faith Mortimer – Crime Writer & Why my life took a different turn and I took up writing

Trolling back through the years, I realise I’ve lived an amazing life – and God willing I’ve got a lot of living still to do!  Since the age of five I’ve been fortunate in visiting many countries and six of my tender years I spent living in Malaya and Singapore. I am the eldest of three daughters and my family live in the south of England in Hampshire and Surrey. 

One of my great loves is for the theatre and the arts. I started a dramatic society in Cranleigh, Surrey with a few other members back in the 1980’s and since then I’ve been a member of many different drama groups. Nowadays, since I live in Cyprus for part of the year, I’ve been an actor in Shakespearean plays which we perform in the ancient amphitheatre of Curium. Pure magic, acting under the stars to an audience of around 2000! I’ve also discovered a passion for musical shows and I’m a member of a Limassol group; Premier. We’ve just completed a run with our own production of ‘One Day More’ which was a complete sell-out with standing ovations!

Loving literature as I do, I’d always wanted to write – whether it was novels, plays or poetry. As a child I used to write stories for my sisters and then as I grew older, my short stories became much longer until they resembled novellas. In the early 2000s, I started writing my first full-length novel –The Crossing. In 2001, my husband took early retirement. We were delighted; until it was discovered he had a heart complaint. Not knowing what the future might bring we decided to downsize our house and buy a brand-new 50-foot sailing yacht and see some of the world. In Altarial, we ventured along the French and Portuguese coasts, across to the Canary Islands and then down the coast of Africa to the Cape Verde islands. After a short stay we then hopped across the Atlantic Ocean to Antigua. We spent many happy years cruising up and down the Caribbean island chain sailing as far north as New York and as far south as Venezuela. When we tired of these tropical islands we sailed Altarial back to the Mediterranean and spent a few years cruising as far as Turkey.

Now you might be wondering what all this has to do with writing…Well it was during this time that I spent many hours writing on board as well as studying for an Open University science degree. It wasn’t easy I can tell you! We came up against rough seas, almost non-existent internet and pirates! But I persevered and eventually I finished my first novel.

The Crossing was published in 2009 with a London publisher. I have to be honest and say that the publisher was rubbish! They gave me little support with marketing my book, and in 2011, when eBooks started to take off I decided to go it alone and self-publish. Since then I haven’t looked back. I recently rewrote, edited and added a lot more copy to The Crossing and have renamed it and turned it into two novels; The Seeds of Time (Book 1 of The Crossing) and Harvest (Book 2 of The Crossing). These books genre are hard to determine as they cover action, adventure, romance, mystery and World War Two.

In 2012, I embarked on writing crime novels~ murder mysteries of suspension and thrillers! So far, in the Diana Rivers series (which are all stand-alone books), I have received some splendid accolades for, The Assassins’ Village, Children of the Plantation, The Surgeon’s Blade and Camera Action…Murder! The Assassins’ Village was voted #1 book on Harper Collins site Authonomy becoming a bestseller on Amazon and The Surgeon’s Blade sold over 50,000 copies in 2012 after becoming #1 in suspense and voted in the top #3 in the Sunday Mail!

My newest release, A Very French Affair is my first foray into romance. And I’m now in the process of editing my fifth Diana Rivers murder mystery, Evil’s Unfinished Business, (yes set in Cyprus again due to popular demand!) This novel should be published in April.

I think my message is simple: don’t be afraid to take a different turn in life. You can write that first novel – it may take you some time, but if you persevere it’ll happen. Don’t be afraid to go it alone, many thousands of Indie writers are successful and don’t be afraid to learn from others. Take whatever opportunity comes your way, grasp it with both hands and say, this is what I want to do! Then do it! When my husband fell ill we took a risk – but this is why my life took a different turn – yours could too.

Thank you for stopping by – have a great week

Faith

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