I've always enjoyed writing. After 33 years of reports I could now write for pleasure, unworried by reality. (Some clients might think I'd been practising this already). My favourite books have long been crime stories. The location was obvious: my wife and I had just bought a small cottage in rugged North Cornwall, we were getting to know the area and I could pass some of this on.
I wanted an amateur detective as my main hero, though some policemen would be needed. We are urged to "write about what we know". In my case that was the world of analysis, so I took my hero to be a mathematician and business consultant. Fictional mathematicians are rare, so it was good to give them greater representation. My hero was a woman as I'd worked with several resourceful females during my analytical career.
Another mainstay was a local policeman with tenuous links with the police authority. For a policeman based in Delabole, with a boss in Bodmin, I thought this was likely to occur anyway.
Finally I needed ways of anchoring the crimes in Cornwall. My stories had to take place here. Readers will have to decide how successful this has been.
I wanted an amateur detective as my main hero, though some policemen would be needed. We are urged to "write about what we know". In my case that was the world of analysis, so I took my hero to be a mathematician and business consultant. Fictional mathematicians are rare, so it was good to give them greater representation. My hero was a woman as I'd worked with several resourceful females during my analytical career.
Another mainstay was a local policeman with tenuous links with the police authority. For a policeman based in Delabole, with a boss in Bodmin, I thought this was likely to occur anyway.
Finally I needed ways of anchoring the crimes in Cornwall. My stories had to take place here. Readers will have to decide how successful this has been.