Blog Tour: With an article from Revenge Runs Deep author Pat Young

Available here

Delighted to welcome good friend, fellow Scot and great author Pat young onto The Crime Warp today as part of her Revenge Runs Deep blog tour. Pat has taken the time to write an article about wrtiting and stuff. You'll enjoy it!

Pat Young writes psychological thrillers. Her debut Till the Dust Settles won the Constable Stag Trophy and an Amazon number 1 best-seller award. Her recent release, One Perfect Witness, sat for a while at number 2 in the Scottish Crime charts, nestled between Rankin and Cleeves and ahead of the mighty Val Mc Dermid!

But Pat never intended to be a writer. Then a story got inside her head, demanding to be told. She is fascinated by what happens when someone suddenly disappears and all her books have that theme.

Pat loves meeting readers and has been on the programme at Bloody Scotland and Tidelines. She is really excited about appearing at this year’s Boswell Book Festival at Dumfries House in May where she plans to launch her fourth psychological thriller Revenge Runs Deep.

 But first here's the blurb for Revenge Runs Deep

BLURB

Your boss is a bully. How far would you go to get revenge?

Thomas Smeaton is a powerful man who makes life a living hell for his employees.

When his bullying drives a woman to suicide, three of her colleagues decide it is time to take action before Smeaton destroys any more good people.

Six months later, a car is found submerged in a reservoir, with a single body inside. Suicide? Or murder?

Two people were there the night that car rolled into the depths of Loch Etrin. And one is still missing.

Guest Article by Pat Young

It’s a funny old thing, this writing lark.

I started because a story got in my head and demanded to be told, so I wrote it. I

thought that would scratch the itch, but it didn’t, because I’d caught the writing bug by then, big-time.

Eventually I joined a writers’ club and started to win prizes. Folk said, ‘You’ll get published.’ ‘Don’t be daft,’ I said, ‘and anyway, why would I want to?’ Soon it became more of a goal than a dream and I went after it. My debut novel Till the Dust Settles found a publisher. I needed another dream to chase.

Book festivals.

Like many bloggers and their readers, I’d been going to book festivals for a few years, sitting in the audience in total awe of the writers up there on the platform. ‘Just imagine,’ I’d say to myself. ‘Get real,’ my inner spoilsport would reply. ‘That’s never gonna happen to you.’

But then it did! Bloody Scotland chose me as one of the ‘Crime in the Spotlight’ winners. I got the chance to stand on that huge stage in the Albert Halls, Stirling, before the big stars came on, and I got 3 minutes all to myself to read from Till the Dust Settles. What a buzz!

I have to tell you that, unlike a lot of writers, I love an audience. My brother would say I was always a show-off. He was wrong. I just worked out early that being asked to ‘perform’ for doting aunties could be very lucrative. A quick recitation of the poem I’d just learned at school or an off-key blast of my grandfather’s favourite song made people happy (and often earned me money for sweeties!)

Anyway, whilst that 3 minutes onstage was wonderful, it was over very quickly. What lingered from Bloody Scotland 2017 was the joy of walking around all weekend (and all week, if I’m honest!) with a lanyard and a badge that said AUTHOR. It reminded me of running my first marathon - I swear I slept wearing that medal. I even wore it to work the next day, I just did not want to take it off.

Soon I began to get invitations to other book events. Local libraries, charity fund-raisers, after-dinner speeches, talks to groups and book clubs. My second book launch had a hundred and twenty bums on seats! We nearly ran out of chairs. Maybe it was the free wine that attracted so many, but who cares?

No matter to me if the audience is nine or ninety because I have a blast every single time. After all, what could be nicer than chatting to a bunch of lovely people who have the same interest as you? Books. When the books under discussion are your own, the pleasure factor increases a thousandfold. I still can’t believe folk part with money to read them and then want to come long and hear me talk about them. How exciting is that?

The cherry on the icing on the cake came only this week when I heard that my session at the prestigious Boswell Book Festival, held at Prince Charles’s place Dumfries House, has sold out!

Clearly, I’ve got a lot of pals!

Follow the rest of the blog tour here: