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A supernatural murder mystery.
An apprehensive Jos Ferguson travels from Edinburgh to northern Tanzania to visit the house her Uncle Peter built before he died. But Peter isn’t as dead as he should be… he was murdered, and he wants his niece to help him exact revenge upon his killer. With a little Maasai magic and a conspiracy of cats, Jos sets out to do exactly that.
A beautiful house. A horrible death. A brilliant revenge.
Who knew death could be so lively?
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Q&A
When and where do you prefer to write?
I seem to have more neurons firing in my morning brain, so I tend to work best before lunch.
Sometimes I’ll start as early as 5am, because I often wake up at silly o’clock. I try to write for
around six hours a day, but always have either my phone or a notebook to hand for notes and
ideas.
I have an ‘office’ in our spare bedroom upstairs, but will be relocating that into our
conservatory as soon as we have one of those! Hopefully that little project will get underway
early next year, because I like to be able to look outside (and keep one eye on the dogs). I can
daydream better looking out at the garden and, for me, daydreaming is a crucial part of the
process.
Do you need peace and quiet when you are writing?
I always like to listen to music. Sometimes in the background. Sometimes I might turn up the
volume a bit and use the tempo, especially when I’m writing something with a bit of pace. I
have theme music playlists for certain characters, music that helps me picture them and get
in the right frame of mind to write their part in a scene. I don’t like other interruptions
though… the doorbell, the phone, my husband hovering longer than the time it takes to
offer/deliver the coffee and biscuits.
If you had the chance to co-write a book. Whom would it be with?
There’s no way anyone would put up with me long enough to write a book!
That being said, I am working on a story surrounding a murdered prog rocker, his ghost, his
old guitar and its new owner. A black comedy focussed on the combined search for a recording
contract, a long lost little sister and a totally OTT revenge. My husband was a singer songwriter
back in the day, and he is corroborating with me on this. He is possibly the only person alive
qualified to put up with me.
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! They usually get to have all the fun, not to mention the best lines.
Who would you like/have liked to interview?
Ray Bradbury, Agatha Christie, Stephen King, Arthur Conan Doyle, C S Lewis. These are the
writers that fuelled my passion for books, so I’d invite them all to dinner and sit up all night,
drinking wine, talking books and putting the world to rights.
Where can I find you when you are reading?
On the sofa, in the garden, in bed, in the kitchen… just about anywhere. If I have some time
then I’ll open a book or fire up the tablet and read.
Where can I find you wen you are not writing/reading?
Probably up a ladder with a paint roller in my hand. We moved into our new home in June and
it needs decorating. Ian hates painting. I love it. Hallway, stairs and landing done so far. Sitting
room in progress. Bedroom next. One the decorating is done I’ll turn my attention onto the
garden.
What goes through your mind when you hold your new book in your hands for the first
time?
About bloody time, Bev! Conspiracy of Cats has been in my head for so many years it was
amazing to finally see it as something real that other people could share. And there lies the
other side of the experience; what if no one likes it? So there was joy tempered by trepidation.
How do you come up with a title for your book?
Conspiracy of Cats earned the title, as the finale depends on exactly that.
How do you pick a cover for your book?
I wrote the design people a screed about the infamous white house, the magical Maasai
laibon, brief descriptions of the stars of the show… Jos and Peter, and even Mount Kilimanjaro
with snow on top, and coffee and banana plantations around its knees.
After a couple of weeks they sent me a cover suggestion; the head of a lioness suspended
against a black background, her orange eyes looking right into mine. I went gaga for it
instantly. The only tweak was the addition of the little black and white cat resting on the
barcode on the back cover. That’s Imelda, and she’s as important to my story as the lioness,
so I wanted her to be included too.
Thank you, B.C Harris and Zooloo’s Book Tours
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About the author
B C Harris is a Scot who, at the time of writing, had just finished renovating a farmhouse in France. A labour of love that began from first sight back in 2016. No sooner had the final length of flooring been laid and the last paintbrush dried, than disaster struck in the form of pandemic. France went into a strict lockdown and, with time to do more than simply daydream about writing books, a new project began to take shape.
Writing began as an escape from the fear and isolation that was soon affecting us all, and quickly flourished to become ‘Conspiracy of Cats’. The global pandemic seems to be receding now, but the passion for writing has taken root.
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Author Link
Facebook : beverleycharris
Instagram : beverleycharrisauthor
Twitter : @BCHarris64
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Book Links
Amazon UK : https://www.amazon.co.uk/B-C-Harris/e/B09CQCHPJR/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1
B for Bookreview 