Avon Authors

Anatomy of a Detective by Paul Finch

It may come as something of a surprise, but lots of police officers don’t want to be detectives any more. The popularity of the role has dwindled in recent times. In fact, so serious is the problem that many UK police forces are now mounting big promotional drives within the… Read More

Top Tips for Throwing a Great Party by Maddie Please

#1 Numbers -Don’t put out an open invitation on Facebook, you might be surprised at the response. -Invite people you like who will mix well together. -Encourage people to text/email/WhatsApp to let you know they are coming. -You need to know how many people to cater for. (You don’t want… Read More

Creating The Story of a Family

Before I started writing any of the books in the Mill Valley Girls trilogy, I’d been doing some family research of my own and was lucky enough to stumble across my family tree on Ancestry. A distant relative had already done all the hard work, uncovering several generations of my… Read More

Social media: the good, the bad and the ugly?

As I write this, the publication of One Little Lie is just around the corner and I am getting ready for the chaos, excitement and nerves to kick in. Being a digital-first author, the internet – specifically social media – will be the main focus for me getting the word… Read More

5 Tips For Building an Author Brand

When I chat to other authors, the biggest challenge isn’t a massive plot hole they’ve just encountered or an impending deadline. It’s how they can market their work effectively without eating too much into their writing time. I know how they feel. There is so much out there for us… Read More

Even Monsters Bleed

A few years ago, when I was doing research for The New Girl, I was lucky enough to have a friend who worked in the field of neuroscience and psychology / psychiatrics at the time. He referred me to the appropriate texts, medical journals, and of course I had to… Read More

Jacqui Rose is Back!

The Return Hello, I’m back, and I couldn’t be any happier – but what I could be is a little bit less nervous! It’s probably just under four years ago that I typed ‘The End’ on Disobey, the last book I wrote for Avon – I just don’t know where… Read More

How To Create a Meaningful Wedding Bouquet

Floriography was at its most popular during the Victorian Era, when flowers were used to communicate and express feelings. With each flower holding a special meaning, the receiver could decode secret messages. These days, the Victorian Language of Flowers might be largely forgotten, but there’s something romantic and nostalgic about… Read More

The Joy of Cornwall

Writing about why Cornwall is the perfect setting for joyful fiction has left me a little stumped. Not because I don’t have anything to say about this most inspiring of counties, but because I have too much. Cornwall has inspired eight of my novels now, including the Cornish Café and… Read More

Recipes with a Deadly Twist

‘Don’t talk with your mouth full.’ Sound advice from Mum and Dad. Nobody likes watching someone speaking and eating at the same time, for obvious reasons. It’s gross to look at. But on the printed page you can get away with it. No messy crumbs, no unpleasant noises, no unwelcome… Read More

Unleash Your Dark Side

From the age of 14 I was obsessed with women’s fiction. I dreamed of writing books like my heroes – Maeve Binchy, Patricia Scanlan, Sheila O’Flanagan and then, as I grew a bit older, Marian Keyes. I wanted to tell stories… Read More

Bella’s Favourite Gin Cocktails

My name is Bella and I like gin. So it was no real surprise to those that know me to see gin featuring in my latest novel Coming Home to Ottercombe Bay. That said, I still felt that if I was to do a proper job then some serious gin… Read More

Sophie Jenkins’ Little Guide to Happiness

Happiness is… something that happens to us when our lives become perfect, like for instance when we’ve fallen in love with the perfect man (and he’s fallen in love right back), and we’ve also got the perfect job – writing, of course – and we live somewhere lovely right in… Read More

What I Love About Italy

Aside from a long-ago holiday in Sorrento in the south, I knew little of Italy when I began visiting Umbria in 2013. At the time, I’d answered a plea from an author buddy, Gilli, to help her friend Sara expand her residential courses to include writing. Hand-on-heart, Gilli did type… Read More

The Happily Married Divorce Lawyer

Like a beautifully fitting glove, My Husband’s Lies slips snugly into the ‘domestic noir’ genre. What are the ingredients of such stories? Well, they are generally set in homes or work places and there’s often a dark narrative and a sense of claustrophobic danger or unease between husband and wife… Read More

My Own Summer Theatre

My love of theatre started when I was aged ten and my parents took me to see a local amateur pantomime. I was mesmerised by the cheeky Dame, the slapstick comedy duo, and the heroic principle boy – even if I was confused as to why the male parts were… Read More