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SHE’S WATCHING YOU,
BUT WHO’S WATCHING HER?
Meet Polly. Meet Emily. Meet Belinda. They’re all me. My name is Lisa and I’m an identity thief. If I’m not inside your system stealing your money, I’ve probably already stolen it. I’m your friend. I’m a thief. I’m gone. I’m in control. Only now, the tables have been turned. I’m in danger. My son is in danger. And I don’t know where that danger’s coming from.
Any friend.
Any enemy.
Any stranger.
Anyone from the past I’ve been trying to outrun for years.
NOBODY CAN BE TRUSTED.
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Q&A
When and where do you prefer to write?
Well, it’s my main job – I do some editing for other authors and a little editing and consulting for finance/legal clients, but the majority of my time is spent writing, plotting, editing etc. In practice, this means during term time, between the hours of 9:30 and 3, and then later in the evenings and bits squeezed in at weekends. During school holidays I just take what I can.
As for where, my wife and I share an office, but it’s her office more than it is mine, and in these days of the Zoom/Teams call, I find myself exiled to the kitchen more often than not. During various home-schooling phases I’ve spent many hours sitting in my younger daughter’s bedroom while she gets on with her schoolwork and I try to write and find myself in fact helping her with her schoolwork. In the past I’ve spent significant periods of time writing in the car, in hotel rooms, local cafés and pubs and on trains, but I can always focus best at home.
Do you need peace and quiet when you are wrting?
YES! I bought us a couple of Amazon Echo Dots last year and I’m kicking myself, because my wife has decided she likes to work with music in the background, and I really don’t. Silence is golden!
If you had the chance to co-write a book. Whom would it be with?
Kazuo Ishiguro, or Eimear McBride. Both of them, in fact. Plus, if we’re talking contemporary crime, Kate Atkinson, Chris Whitaker, Jane Harper and my pal Susie Lynes. This book will have seven writers which might make it messy, but by god it’ll be an interesting read.
Say someone asks if they can use your name in a book. Would you rather be the ‘good one’ or the ‘bad one’?
Definitely the bad one. I’m the good one in real life. Need some change!
Who would you like/have liked to interview?
James Joyce. Mad and brilliant and a lot of fun. I think we’d have got on really well, but I might be flattering myself a little.
Where can I find you when you are reading?
In the rocking chair that is in fact the nursing chair we got 15 years ago when my wife was pregnant with our first child, but is still the most comfortable chair I’ve ever sat in. It lives in our kitchen, which means easy access to tea and alcohol as well as crisps, biscuits, or something more substantial.
Where can I find you when you are not writing/reading?
You might spot me sitting at the piano, or running, or practicing MMA, and they do happen, but not often enough. More chance I’m either cooking a massive batch of beef madras or lamb rogan josh for the freezer, or sitting somewhere, anywhere, solving that day’s Times Cryptic Crossword on my iPhone.
What goes through your mind when you hold your new book in your hands for the first time?
Arrrgggghhhh, I’ve just spotted a typo on page forty-seven!
How do you come up with a title for your book?
I come up with half a dozen options and ask a few author and editor friends, and we talk about the theme and plot of the book, and one of them comes up with something much better than any of my half-dozen. Shame I can’t outsource the actual writing of the book in the same way, really.
How do you pick a cover for your book?
Well, my publisher, SpellBound, did a great job of picking the cover for The Lies I Tell, and if I hadn’t liked it, they’d have come up with something else, but it was brilliant, so that’s where we are. With previous books, I have a couple of friends who’ve designed covers for me, most frequently the brilliant writer John Bowen who has done all my Sam Williams covers and always comes up with something better than anything I could even imagine. I don’t have a fantastic visual eye, unfortunately: I’m all about the words.
I’d like to thank you for allowing me to talk my particular brand of nonsense to your readers today!
Thank you, Joel Hames and Zooloo’s Book Tours
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About the author
A Londoner in exile, Joel Hames lives in rural Lancashire with his wife and two daughters.
His works of fiction include the bestselling Sam Williams trilogy Dead North, No One Will Hear and The Cold Years, and the standalone psychological thriller The Lies I Tell.
When not writing or spending time with his family, Joel likes to eat, cook, play the piano, and make up excuses to avoid walking the dog. There’s the MMA thing, too, but he doesn’t like to show off.
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Author Links
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/joelhamesauthor/
Twitter https://twitter.com/joel_hames
Website: http://www.joelhamesauthor.com
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Book Links
Amazon UK : https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08THZRDRW
Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/Lies-Tell-Know-Whos-Watching-ebook/dp/B08THZRDRW
B for Bookreview 