Blog Tour : An afternoon Q&A with Tana Collins author of the recently released Robbing The Dead

We have the lovely Tana Collins on The Crime Warp today. Tana's going to tell us all about herself, her current novel and maybe a few sneaky bits of info we didn't know previously about her.  Over to you Tana!






Current Work
Without giving too much of the plot away the inspiration for

Available on Amazon
Click here

my current book, Robbing the Dead, came from an event that occurred over 40 years ago. Even though I was too young to know about it at the time hearing about the event affected me greatly and still does.  I was moved to write about it and weave it in to a story which has become the first in the Detective Jim Carruthers series, which was released on 14^th February 2017.

Robbing The Dead took 10 years in total to write! In that time I wrote the second in the series, Care to Die, but went back to Robbing the Dead and did a major rewrite as, I could see after writing the second, the first just wasn’t good enough for publication!

I knew early on that I wanted to write police procedurals. However, in the way I’ve approached the writing all three books have been different. With the first I woke up in the middle of the night with a title and then created an opening scene around the title and the book grew from that opening scene. However, with the second book the location and the setting were instrumental to the novel and subsequent plot. I built a cast of characters that I hoped could handle whatever was thrown at them, sometimes with varying degrees of success. Both my first and second books begin with a murder which was unintentional.

Writing Habits

We all have days where the writing just doesn’t flow. And days where we can barely write a word. A great piece of advice that was given to me by Peter Robinson was that if you are struggling with your writing you are probably looking at it from the wrong character’s viewpoint. This has been a huge help.

The best piece of advice for would-be writers seeking publication would be to get yourself a damn good editor and pay for a professional critique/edit before submitting to publishers. You have a much better chance of getting a book deal, especially with the smaller publishing companies if your manuscript is

already looking professional. I had an excellent Editor who made me a much better writer. Also I would recommend attending Crime Writing festivals like Crimefest at Bristol and Harrogate. You can learn much from other writers and you make the most fantastic connections. Arvon Foundation courses are also excellent and I’ve made lifelong friends through them. Be open to improving your work. You can always become a better writer.  I also found it helpful to read the Amazon reviews of other writers to see what readers enjoy. And above all else don’t give up!

Author as a Person

My day job is as  a Massage Therapist which I absolutely love. Don’t get me wrong it can be hard physical work but a perfect balance with writing and some of my clients I’ve had for 16 years. They’ve become friends and I’ve watched their kids grow up! I’m very lucky

Peter Robinson was the first crime writer whose work I ever read. Through pure chance I started with ‘In a Dry Season’ which I think is still considered his finest DCI Banks novel.

There are many writers I love but I think in terms of heroes it has to be Henning Mankell.

Like many writers of crime fiction I love the fact that it can be used as a vehicle for exploring social issues which is why I love Mankell.  I also love that both location and weather are so important in crime fiction. I’ve struggled with the Scottish weather (being English) but now I look forward to the different seasons as I know I can use them in my writing!

Future Projects 

My second novel is part set in Iceland and my third part set in Estonia.  I’ve visited both countries twice, once for the

purpose of holiday and once for writing.  I would love to have an Ian Fleming lifestyle and live somewhere exotic and write.  I do my best writing when I’m on holiday abroad. Crete is a particular favourite. I’ve been working on a new series which has a rather exotic female detective from a South American country. I don’t want to say too much as it’s in the early stages and I may jinx it!

I’m in the process of completing my third novel in the Inspector Carruthers series but I’ve also started a new series (see above answer!) set on the South East coast where I grew up. However, with all three Carruthers’ books due for publication this year I think I’ll have to put my new series on hold! For a few months I was rewriting the first novel in the Carruthers series, editing the second and writing the third. It was murder!

I’m one of these writers that loves doing research and 
although I start my research before I begin writing a new book, most of it gets done during the writing process.  For the third novel, Mark of the Devil, I had to do a lot of research on international art crime. It was fascinating.  For me both researching and writing is a voyage of discovery.

Huge thanks to Tana - whilst I've got her here I'm fitting in a sneaky massage...mmmm!

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