Seriously. Every word is a typo.
Portland
I write this at 6:59 in a Starbucks in Portland, Oregon. USA. Mark Edwards and I arrived here late yesterday after a FUN day driving from Northern California. And everything *really* is bigger here. Oregon is about the size of Germany but has the geography of a ten-mile stretch of the M6 through Cumbria. Or at least the bit we drove up did. I’ll come back to the fun and games we endured in a later missive, but we shifted our plans from getting a train to San Jose (don’t get trains in America is my advice!) to driving up to Portland.
Amazing city, in a different way to Seattle which is literally an Amazon city. As you know, I’ve got a deal for three novels set in this part of the world, of which one is written, another is outlined and a third I did a revised synopsis on the plane over. Reassuringly, the location stuff for the first book worked quite well, but actually being in the city gave me a different feel for the place. Soaking up the culture, the people, seeing the places. All that jazz. And I got some great ideas for scenes and for another book. I also validated some locations for book 2, including a brilliant ferry crossing that I can barely remember through my jetlag, where I got some good material from smalltown America rather than big city America. We spent some time with my friend, Kim, who I used to work with before I scribbled for a living, and she lives here and showed us around some funky neighbourhoods in North Seattle, rather than downtown as they all say. And forcefed me some amazing vegan ice cream and hoppy IPA.
We just spent a couple of days down in south Oregon and north California, Klamath Falls and Mt Shasta. Crazy landscape and crazy people. I’ve got at least six book ideas I could write down there, I swear.
No photo this week. My instagram will be on fire.
But Project Bigtime is senseless. Literally. It’s called Senseless, and I can announce that it will be published by Headline in ebook in March and paperback in July.
Here’s the blurb:
ALL YOU WILL BE LEFT WITH IS FEAR.
Six weeks after vanishing, Sarah Langton is suddenly found - half-crazed and starved close to death.
Without a single clue, the police struggle to find answers.
But when another missing person reappears, broken by months of solitary confinement, a deadly pattern becomes terrifyingly clear: a twisted predator is driving his victims to madness.
D.S. Aidan Corcoran, still haunted by a previous case, and Dr Marie Palmer, a leading criminal psychiatrist, must work together to find a link between the survivors - and unravel the deadliest of puzzles. And when another woman disappears, every second will be critical...
With a gripping hook that grabs you from the very first page, this chilling thriller is perfect for readers of Chris Carter, M.J. Arlidge, Sharon Bolton and Fiona Cummins.
And here’s the link to preorder it!
Two recommendations from this week. One, JOKER is incredible. Two, EL CAMINO (the Breaking Bad film) is incredible.
Now, I’ve got to get some sleep before 24 hours of travel. Or something. NEVER AGAIN. Love and kisses as ever.
— Ed