When I was young, we lived in a very pleasant upper-floor flat in Low Fell, Gateshead, before moving to the coast when I was eleven years old. The move came about after we spent a wonderful holiday in Whitley Bay.
Two years after I was married, my husband and I moved to London when his application for a position with a well-known corporation was accepted. Though I enjoyed my time in the city, I still missed the North East and regularly visited my parents at weekends when my husband was working. Twenty-five years later, my husband took early retirement, and we moved back north.
Looking for something to occupy my mind, I suddenly had the urge to take up writing and decided to join a rather well-known online writing course. After only a month on the course, my first article was accepted by The Lady magazine. I then went on to write more articles for The Lady, all of which were published. A short while later, I was awarded a Certificate of Competence from the organizers of the course. It is still hanging on the wall near my laptop to this day.
I then decided to write short stories using my imagination rather than researching information from the past. My short stories were also published by The Lady magazine until the format changed a few years later. It was then that I began to write a delightful, romantic love story which I called, Only Twelve Days. However, as it was turned down by several publishers, I wondered whether an adventure thriller might catch their eye.
Therefore, I began to write a thriller set in the Cheviot Hills, Northumberland. I made the story as frightening as possible, hoping to grab the attention of anyone who read it. The novel, The Trojan Project, was first published in 2008. However, since then, it has been republished by my current publisher, Next Chapter Publishing. They also republished Divorcees. Biz, a novel of fun and romance when the first publisher closed their doors. Next Chapter then accepted and published my charming novel, Only Twelve Days.
But, when I began to write my fourth novel, a murder mystery, I immediately chose to set it on Tyneside. It then didn’t take me long to dream up the character, Agnes Lockwood, a middle-aged woman visiting the area to catch up with her past. However, while Agnes is staying at the Millennium Hotel, on the Quayside, expensive jewellery is stolen from one of the rooms. When the police are called to the scene. DCI Alan Johnson quickly recognizes Agnes as a former classmate at Kells Lane School. From then on, Agnes can’t resist helping Alan with the case – whether he wants her help or not. The title of the novel is, Murder on Tyneside.
From there, I went on to write another three Agnes Lockwood Mysteries all set on Tyneside. I am now working on the fifth in the series.
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