A Word from the Author ... Anne Coates author of the Hannah Weybridge series

Anne Coates 

 

Dear Reader, 

So many people assume that writers (living without children who need home schooling) have welcomed the current lockdown so that they can get on with the business of writing with no interruptions. In principal this is true – for me little has changed and yet everything is different. I’ve worked from home since before my now grown-up daughter was born so I’m used to that aspect but choosing to stay at home is an active choice a totally dissimilar prospect to a lockdown. As soon as you can’t do something it becomes an all-encompassing need. I enjoy living alone but pre-corona virus, I could find company when I wanted or needed it. Now that isn’t an option.

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     Friends assume that the fifth book in my series must be well underway but in fact I had already started a standalone psychological thriller set more or less in the here and now (it will definitely be pre-Corvid19) inspired by a short story I published some years ago. I have written the opening chapters and the final scene with lots of the middle chapters mapped out but was finding it difficult to concentrate on writing.

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     Then, preparing for some blog posts about Perdition’s Child (published by Urbane Publications in February) I was reassuringly back in the 1990s and it felt the right place to be. Hannah’s world was welcoming me back. I had been wondering about the premise for the next in the series and had been sketching out several scenarios, which I had left on the back burner, not convinced that any of them would work. Just the other day, one of them beckoned me and I started writing.

     It was wonderful to be back with old friends I could “socialise” with. That’s the brilliance of books – for a writer and a reader – they can take you to places and situations you can’t get to in real life. I

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may not be able to hug and be with my family and friends but Hannah can and through her I can enjoy many of the things I am missing most.

     However the 90s didn’t enjoy the technology we have now. I am so grateful to the friends I have made via Twitter and then in real life – I met Liz at CrimeFest. And the book world is so supportive. Plus being able to keep in touch by FaceTime is such a boon. Harriet and I have used this to continue reading together and have also played board games. I have been able to have a drink with friends, meals with my family and even attend meetings via zoom.  

     And if and when that all becomes too much I can time travel back to the 90s.

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