Today The Blonde Plotters have met up with Mel Sherratt author of Tick Tock.
Thanks for popping by to visit us.
Please can you tell us a bit about Tick Tock?
Tick Tock is my second novel featuring DS Grace Allendale. In the city of Stoke, a teenage girl is murdered in the middle of the day, her lifeless body abandoned in a field behind her school. Two days later, a young mother is abducted. She’s discovered strangled and dumped in a local park.
Grace and her team are brought in to investigate, but with a bold killer, no leads and nothing to connect the victims, the case seems hopeless. It’s only when a third woman is targeted that a sinister pattern emerges. A dangerous mind is behind these attacks, and Grace realises that the clock is ticking…
And the inspiration behind it?
I was walking in fields near to my home and I saw a woman out running and I started to think how dangerous it could be as she was on her own and also how sad that I thought that way too. It may be my crime writer’s mind but really, she was out for a run and why shouldn’t she be? And that’s when I came up with the whole idea of people being killed in broad daylight, quite daring, and then a pattern forming that made Grace remember something that had happened when she’d been working in Manchester before coming to Stoke.
Can you tell us a little about your route to publication?
Gosh, it was a long one. I started writing in the early 2000’s, querying agents on and off until 2004 when I got my first one. She retired in 2007, having failed to even send any of my work to a publisher – we were working on rewrites… Then I had another agent in 2008, with lots of rejections and near misses with publishers.
I then decided to self-publish Taunting the Dead, which was the fifth novel I’d written by then, and things literally took off from there. Five weeks later it was sitting in the Kindle top 10 in the UK, where it stayed for 4 months. I decided to part company with that agent and self-publish some of my earlier rejected novels, The Estate Series. When they did well too, I was approached by several agents and I chose to work with Madeleine Milburn in late 2012. I’m with her now, we have a great relationship, and I have published eight crime novels since then with publishers. I also self-publish occasionally too. Since that first book in December 2011, I’ve sold 1.2 million books – I’m still a little staggered at that fact.  Â
What have you learnt that you wished you’d known when you started writing?
That being an author is an up and down career, but I can ride the waves. There are lows and highs in most jobs, but this one can be particularly cruel at times. Rejections, downright vindictive reviews and people slating me is all par for the course. But equally so too are messages from readers who love my books, winning awards, reading the better reviews, working with publishers and editors, seeing your books in the shops, taking part in festivals and panels, and being asked to represent charities as ambassadors.
What would be your biggest tip for a new writer?
Don’t listen to advice per se – find your own path on your journey. If you want to work with an agent, go ahead. If not, there are lots of publishers you can try directly now. If you don’t want to go the traditional way, and lots of people aren’t nowadays, you can self-publish. The thing is find out what suits you – try both if necessary. Just keep at it.
You also write women’s fiction under the name of Marcie Steele. Do you prefer writing women’s fiction or crime?
Honestly? I just love writing stories with lots of characters, so I don’t really mind. Women’s fiction is great for cleansing the pallet – working on a crime novel and then a women’s fiction book. As well, I find the two disciplines task my brain in different ways. Writing as Marcie, it’s all about love and friendship and relationships, light but it can become emotional. Writing crime is quite demanding because there has to be lots of research and also it can be restrictive writing procedurals. I like to twist and twist the main story, and mostly do two sub-plots, so it is a challenge, but when it comes together it’s magical.
Bio
Mel Sherratt is the author of thirteen crime novels, all of which have become bestsellers and has sold over 1.4 million books. For the past four years, she has been named as one of her home town of Stoke-on-Trent’s top 100 influential people. She also works alongside the National Literary Trust as an ambassador on The Literary Project, to support their ongoing work in the city, aiming to raise literacy levels. She lives in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, with her husband and terrier, Dexter.
Book Blurb
TICK…
In the city of Stoke, a teenage girl is murdered in the middle of the day, her lifeless body abandoned in a field behind her school.
TOCK…
Two days later, a young mother is abducted. She’s discovered strangled and dumped in a local park.
TIME’S UP…
DS Grace Allendale and her team are brought in to investigate, but with a bold killer, no leads and nothing to connect the victims, the case seems hopeless. It’s only when a third woman is targeted that a sinister pattern emerges. A dangerous mind is behind these attacks, and Grace realises that the clock is ticking…
Can they catch the killer before another young woman dies?
Follow Mel Sherratt on social media:
Facebook: MelSherrattAuthor
Twitter: @WriterMels
