Susi Qs – Week 49 – Steph Broadribb

For your Christmas Eve delight, I’m thrilled to be chatting to my partner-in-crime, the one and only Steph Broadribb! Woohoo! Steph was born in Birmingham and grew up in Buckinghamshire. A prolific reader, she adored crime fiction from the moment she first read Sherlock Holmes as a child. She’s worked in the UK and the US, has an MA in Creative Writing and trained as a Bounty Hunter in California. Her latest book DEATH IN THE SUNSHINE will be out on 1 March 2022 and is the first in the Retired Detectives Club series set in a luxury over-55s Florida resort community. Her other novels include the Lori Anderson bounty hunter series and the Starke/Bell psychological police procedural books (writing as Stephanie Marland). Her books have been shortlisted for the eDunnit eBook of the year award, the ITW Best First Novel award, and the Dead Good Reader Awards. She provides coaching for new crime writers via www.crimefictioncoach.com. 

Take it away, Steph!

Do you pair your socks?

Never. I mean, why is it necessary? Socks are, by their very nature, mix and match. That’s the fun of socks. I use my sock drawer as a random sock selection generator and leave the pairings to chance!

Do you worry about swallowing spiders in your sleep?

Constantly! In fact I’ve actually just bought a humane spider remover so that I can easily remove spiders that are lurking about in places that make it hard to catch them using my usual glass and piece of paper technique.

Have you ever written a fan letter?

Not that I can remember. (Maybe to Bon Jovi or Aerosmith – back in the day.)

Which dead celebrity do you wish was still alive?

It’s 50/50 between Marilyn Monroe and Michael Crichton. Can I have both?

What’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to you?

I was deep down in the murky Hell Fire Caves and a massive spider-type thing latched onto my ankle and wouldn’t stop biting me. Honestly, it was the size of my hand and I was terrified it was going to gnaw my foot off. I screamed and screamed. It was only once I’d been rushed back through the tunnels and above ground that we could get a proper look at the monster. That’s when I realised it was just a sticky burr. (My excuse – I was nine).

Do you empty your own hoover bag?

I empty my own hoover but it’s a Dyson so it doesn’t have a bag – just a cylinder thingy. It’s always 99% full of my dog Red’s hair – how he’s not bald with the amount he sheds is a mystery!

When did you last sleepwalk?

I don’t think I ever have. I’m far more likely to have vivid dreams and see dragons at the bottom of the bed!

Have you ever broken a bone?

I’ve torn a lot of muscles and ligaments, and had an awful lot of bruises, from falling off horses over the years. I’ve also been kneed in the head by a horse (my fault, not his) and had to go and get my head scanned as the docs feared a skull fracture. Due to the force of the blow and the impact on my skull I now have a slight dip in my forehead which is the exact same shape as the corner of my horses’ knee!

Do you find it hard to take criticism?

Yes and no. It depends what it is, who is saying it, and whether I think they’re right! 

What are you having for lunch tomorrow?

I was going to say ‘Hummus, sweet potato and olives’ but as you reminded me, it’s Christmas – yay! So I’m having vegetable moussaka with roast potatoes (my mum is making pigs in blankets and roasting a chicken for Red – he loves Christmas!)

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If you want to know more about Steph, you can find her on twitter @crimethrillgirl. Her books can be found HERE.

 

Harrogate Happenings

Yesterday afternoon, I returned from my annual trip to Harrogate for the Theakstons Crime Writing Festival, the event where 100s of crime writers, bloggers, authors, industry professionals and many, many readers converge at The Old Swan hotel (of Agatha Christie disappearance fame…) for a weekend of talks, parties, drinks, books, scandals and hangovers. As usual, the festival was excellent fun – and even the rain didn’t stop play 🙂

Great things…

• The Pimms-in-A-Tin tent… genius
• Promoting my new book The Deaths of December at the Hodder drinks party, which included pulling crackers and saying ‘Merry Christmas’ to a lot of bemused faces (and keeping my reindeer antlers on all night afterwards)
• Reading my short story ‘The Chair’ while my fellow Slice Girls A.K. Benedict and Steph Broadribb duct taped author Neil White to a chair at The Blues Bar (thanks to Zoe Sharp for the torch!)
• The Slice Girls performance afterwards (as part of fringe event Noir At The Bar)
• The Dark Side panel on Friday, featuring Clare Donoghue, Elly Griffiths (this year’s fab festival chair), Simon Toyne, Lesley Thomson & James Oswald – chatting about supernatural elements in crime and why we should all read it
• Chocolate cake and Prosecco at the Bonnier drinks party
• Hanging out with lots of really cool people and laughing very much at lots of unrepeatable and ridiculous thing (…laughing at Katerina Diamond telling me to stop laughing so much)
• Ed’s highanus
• Danny not being dead

Annoying things…

• Not getting a burger because it started to piss down with rain and they had to close it down before everything blew away
• Not spending enough time with some people (and not seeing others at all…)
• My agent not being there
• Rain
• Forgetting to buy Farrah’s fudge
• Rod Reynolds*

Sad things…

• Thinking about the beautiful Helen Cadbury, who had planned to be there and will always be missed 💔

Some pics below, mostly stolen from others. Thanks to the organisers for a fantastic event, my publishers for spoiling me with a lovely meal and showering me with praise, the cleaner at The Cairn for giving me extra biscuits, and all the lovely people who kept me entertained. Roll on 2018!!

*Not really 🙂

Girls On Top: Sex in Crime (Part 2)

‘Don’t you think there should be more people handcuffed to beds in thrillers?’

…says Mark Edwards (The Devil’s Work) over at CrimeThrillerGirl (aka Steph Broadribb)’s blog, where we are talking about SEX in crime fiction (you should read PART 1 first!) Part 2 continues below…

[STEPH] Many of the female crime thriller writers we spoke to agreed with Mark and enjoy putting sex into their books. Angela Clarke has a sex scene in a disabled toilet in her thriller Follow Me, and Elizabeth Haynes has her detective almost die in a queening box in Under a Silent Moon.

Alexandra Sokoloff said, ‘Most of my books have the common theme of an equal male and female protagonist (or in my Huntress series, an equal and combative male protagonist and female villain) joining forces to solve some horrific crime. And erotic tension is just part of the mix, and when those two people finally come together (yes, I meant that) it has to be explosive and character revealing.’

Marnie Riches writes a lot of sex scenes in her ‘The Girl Who…’ series, she said of women writing sex scenes, ‘Maybe we have the vocabulary for desire more naturally and are less embarrassed.’

[SUSI] I think Marnie makes a good point here. I don’t think there are many female writers out there who didn’t read some of their mum’s books with the naughty bits in, as teens – you know, stuff like Jilly Cooper and Jackie Collins – girls, I think, are more inclined to explore these images of desire, and thus as adults are possibly more inclined to write about them? Mark Edwards aside (who makes a good job of it, so to speak), I think females might have the upper-hand when it comes to making sex scenes sexy and not cringey! My biggest problem with sex scenes is when people use what I consider to be THE WRONG WORDS, especially too many of the wrong words… Doing research for this article I searched several novels for certain words and found that ‘penis’ came out as a very over-used word (especially by male authors) – please… come on. It’s cock, surely?

[STEPH] I totally get that, there’s nothing more likely to put you off your stroke than a badly used sex word. ‘Her sex’ is particularly cringe-worthy to me, as are ‘lady-parts’; she’s a woman, therefore all of her is a lady part – be specific! My only exception to this is that I think it’s important the choice of word fits the character – so if the character is very repressed maybe they would call it ‘her sex’ (shudders) but if they’re a tough talking, kick-ass woman that’d be the totally wrong fit.

While we were writing this the only area of disagreement Susi and me had was over ‘panties’. I have the word panties in DEEP DOWN DEAD at least once – during flashback to when my lead character was working as a stripper. It works for the scene and it works in the American voice, but I know the panties set Susi’s teeth on edge!

Even if you decide you’re going to include it, writing good sex is a tricky business. Too little information and its just confusing, too much and it reads like a sex manual – neither are much fun, and neither are sexy – so how to get the perfect balance? If the nominees in the annual Bad Sex Award are anything to go by, the more metaphors and similes used when describing sex increase your risk tenfold. Critically acclaimed writers can fall foul of this too. And, if you’ve not already had the chance, I recommend listening to the hilarious Bad Sex Award special podcast by the brilliant Two Crime Writers and a Microphone.  Listening to Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste reading out each nominated scene makes the pitfalls of writing a sex scene abundantly clear!

[SUSI] Exactly. Just as in the art of seduction itself, writing a good sex scene involves giving it just the right amount, and no more. The words used are important, and you need to make sure it’s just the right length (ahem!) – any more and you’re venturing into erotica territory, and that’s not what we’re talking about here (btw, for brilliantly written erotica/crime – try something by Ava Marsh… for grubby but nonetheless entertaining erotica/crime… try L.S Hilton‘s Maestra) As author Mel Sherratt – Watching over You – says, go for the ‘hot and horny, but quick scenes.’ This is spot on. Don’t get too graphic, but don’t be too scared to give us a decent flavour. My top tip for writing a sex scene – if it turns you on when you are writing it and reading it back, it will most likely have the same effect on the reader.

[STEPH] That’s a great tip! Another thing I’d say is that although books (and films) like Bond have always included a lot of sex scenes, and they’re always told from the male point of view. Personally I always give a little cheer when I’m reading a book and the female character takes the POV for a sex scene. Maybe that’s one of the subconscious reasons I wanted to write a sex scene from Lori Anderson’s point of view. Maybe I just like to see girls on top!

[SUSI] I agree. I definitely think women writing it from the female POV works best. You know, all the way through this, all I’ve been able to think about is the reverse cowgirl squat, which would be quite apt for Lori, don’t you think?

[STEPH] Oh hell yeah!!

So, we’ve had our say, what do you think – do you like a sprinkling of sex with your crime? And, if you do, what’s the most memorable sex scene in a crime thriller for you? Tweet us at @crimethrillgirl and @sjiholliday using #GirlsOnTop to let us know.

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Steph Broadribb is an alumni of the MA Creative Writing at City University London and trained as a bounty hunter in California. Her debut novel DEEP DOWN DEAD is out now – here’s the blurb: Lori Anderson is as tough as they come keeping her career as a Florida bounty hunter separate from her role as single mother to nine-year-old Dakota, who suffers from leukaemia. But when the hospital bills rack up, she has no choice but to take a job that will make her a fast buck. And that’s when things go wrong. The fugitive she’s chasing is JT, Lori former mentor – the man who taught her all she knows … the man who also knows the secrets of her murky past. Find out more at www.crimethrillergirl.com.

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This article was first Published on Barry Forshaw’s blog: CRIMETIME

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You can buy my books here: SJI Holliday’s Amazon Page (and in all good book shops)

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Recent Reads: One Word Reviews

Here are the last twelve books I read. In short, they were all excellent and I highly recommend them all (I don’t blog about books I didn’t like – life is too short!) They’re a mix of police procedural, domestic noir, psychological thriller, sci-fi/horror thriller,  dystopian thriller, thriller-thriller, crime-with-a-bit-of-romance and just a hint of the paranormal… take your pick from below 🙂

Disturbing

Captivating

Chilling

Sinister

Creepy

Compelling

Ingenious

Tearjerking

Tense

Poignant

Seductive

Dark

Have you read any of these? What did you think?

CrimeThrillerGirl and Orenda Books – A Killer Combination

You see this pic that has been madly doctored to leave the lady in the blue dress with bright yellow hair? Well that lady is Steph Broadribb, aka CrimeThrillerGirl – crime blogger extraordinaire… and now, soon to be published author.

I am so delighted that her first novel ‘Deep Down Dead’, set in the world of a US bounty hunter – which, may I add, is something that Steph has trained as herself – is to be published by the unstoppable Karen Sullivan of Orenda Books.

This news is brilliant for two reasons: Steph and Karen.

Orenda is a small publishing company, with huge talent. Karen handpicks the best, from stunning translations, to literary thrillers and everything in between. She’s already published some incredible stuff, and this year (and next year!) sees her doing more of the same… As for Steph, she’s been a huge champion of crime writers and crime writing for a very long time, via her brilliant blog: CrimeThrillerGirl. I’m sure that not everyone knew she was a talented writer in her own right, but now you do… So keep an eye on these two ladies, because they are doing BIG things.

❤

Here’s the official bit…

Orenda Books signs Crime Thriller Girl’s Debut Thriller

Karen Sullivan, publisher of Orenda Books, is delighted to announce the acquisition of World rights for Steph Broadribb’s Deep Down Dead, a stunning action thriller set in the USA.

Karen says, ‘I’ve worked with Steph professionally through her high-profile blog, and was delighted when she sent me her debut novel for assessment. It took me no more than about twenty seconds to decide that this was absolutely perfect for the Orenda list. Not only is it a well-written, tense, action-packed thriller, but the characterisation is sublime and there is an extraordinary, highly charged love story at its heart. Set in the USA, the unforgettable key protagonist (and single mother) is a ‘bail runner’ (aka bounty hunter) and in a plot that twists, turns and then does it all over again, she faces a series of events that threaten her life, and that of her daughter. I was completely mesmerised by the eloquent prose, the emotional depths of the characters, the authenticity of the setting and the dialogue, and, of course, an extraordinary, riveting plot. In a nutshell, this has “bestseller” written all over it, and I could not be happier to welcome Steph to the team.’

Steph says, ‘I’m thrilled to be publishing my debut novel with Orenda Books and to be working with people as dynamic, inspiring and devoted to books and publishing as Karen and her team. It really is a dream come true.’

Deep Down Dead will be published by Orenda Books in early 2017. For further details, contact Karen@orendabooks.co.uk.