Flashback to 1999. A conversation with
an editor: ‘You get such lovely reviews, Margaret,’ (sigh) ‘It’s a pity they
don’t translate into sales.’ I was taken aback; sales weren’t my province
– that surely was the publisher’s job? She frowned: ‘Oh, but it doesn’t work
like that.’ Clearly, she was right – on that point, at least. Good reviews
don’t sell books; marketing and publicity sell books. Yet only a tiny, favoured
minority of authors have marketing budgets.
Not being one of this happy band – and
not one to give up easily, either – I decided to try to find a way of building
my profile – which meant publicising my own work. But one small voice is easily
drowned by the roar of the collective publicity and marketing machines of the
mighty publishing houses, who can spend six figure sums promoting their big
names. At that point, my advances were under £10 000, so paying for PR wasn’t
an option, and shouting about my own books was definitely not going to happen –
but talking about other writers I admired – that might be fun.
The next step was to find a few
like-minded colleagues, which proved remarkably easy. At the next meeting of
the Northern Chapter of the Crime Writers Association I approached John Baker,
Chaz Brenchley, Ann Cleeves, Martin Edwards, Stuart Pawson and Cath Staincliffe,
who all readily agreed, and so Murder Squad was conceived.
We shared ideas and contacts, set up a
website, designed and had brochures printed, and emailed or wrote to every
library reader development officer and festival we could find across the UK.
The response was hugely encouraging, with offers flooding in from festivals,
libraries, and bookshops, as well as from journalists interested to hear more
about this band of northern crime writers, and we launched in March, year 2000.
But the squad met with opposition – even hostility – from a quite unexpected
quarter: within the CWA itself. While for many members it was a lightbulb
moment, a few criticised Murder Squad as ‘divisive’, and in 2003, one Dagger
judge even cited the absence of Squad members from the CWA annual conference as
evidence of ‘an unwelcome schism in the membership of the CWA’. The reality was
that we promoted the CWA at every event we did, and Martin Edwards had edited
the association’s anthologies of short fiction since 1996 — in fact, he was editing
a special collection to celebrate the CWA's Golden Jubilee in the ‘year of
the schism’! By then, there were five other collectives of crime writers,
most of whom were CWA members. A lively and frank exchange of opinion followed,
the consensus being that, as the CWA had survived three whole years since the
inception of Murder Squad, it was probably over the worst. Indeed, the CWA has
thrived, despite the fifth columnists in its midst, and is stronger today than
it has ever been. As is Murder Squad.
We could not have imagined that it would
run and run. But it did, and here we are celebrating Murder Squad’s 20th anniversary. To
date we’ve given hundreds of talks and workshops, published three Murder Squad
anthologies (one of which won two awards), gained 20+ prizes – including CWA
Daggers, Edgars, Macavitys, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, RTS and Agatha
Awards – as well as honorary degrees. Not bad for a bunch of mid-listers
who refused to accept the status quo. Sadly, Stuart Pawson died a few
years ago and Chaz and John stepped down from the squad, but Kate Ellis and Chris
Simms have joined us, and the mutually supportive ethos continues.
Ann has famously gone on to write two
phenomenally successful book series, Vera and Shetland, which
are equally successful on TV, while Cath created the highly popular Blue
Murder TV series. I went on to Chair the CWA, as did Martin Edwards, and
both Martin and Ann Cleeves have been awarded the association’s highest honour:
the CWA Diamond Dagger.
The COVID-19 lockdown has meant we had
to cancel parties, discussion panels and workshops across the UK, but we’ve
increased our online activity to compensate, with more frequent newsletters and
occasional ‘Personal Perspectives’ on writing – do join us at
www.murdersquad.co.uk. The squad approaches the next twenty years with the same
enthusiasm to reach a wider audience that we began with. In addition to our
website and regular newsletters, we’re now on Twitter and Facebook – and we
have a new anthology of short stories in the works. Called 21, it will
celebrate our 21st anniversary with twenty-one stories – three by each of the
current members, and one each from Stuart, Chaz, and John. The anthology will
be published in 2021 in both the UK and the US by Severn House.
Margaret Murphy on her new novel, Before
He Kills Again
I started working on this novel over a
decade ago. I’d always been fascinated by human psychology, and in 2001-2002,
I’d even completed the first year of a degree in the subject at the University
of Liverpool. During that time, I was volunteering at a refugee charity as part
of my research for a novel and had befriended an asylum seeker. ‘Faith’ (not
her real name) often became mute during consultations and interviews, and sometimes
even collapsed. But slowly, her story emerged: she had been abducted in her
home country, taken across the border into another country, and illegally
imprisoned. Over many months she had been repeatedly raped, starved, and
tortured. She had been forced to watch as her partner was murdered and had seen
her friends mutilated by her captors. The UK government was adamant: there was
no such regime in her home country – it was safe for her to return. My own
research demonstrated that the British Government’s intelligence was out of
date, but it was not accepted as sufficient proof, and it was only the delay in
her asylum hearing which allowed time for their intel to catch up. After
eighteen months, Faith was granted asylum and was finally able to begin building
a new life.
With her permission, I included some of
her experiences in See Her Burn, and a year or two later, I was invited to
speak to professionals and service users at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust
– a mental health trust in London which specialises in talking therapies. The
trust wanted to hear about my practical experience of working with a refugee
with PTSD. The session was introduced by the Portman Trust’s Clinical
Director, psychoanalytic psychotherapist Stanley Ruszczynski. I told
him that I wanted to write a novel centred around a psychotherapist, and Stan generously
agreed to read and comment on my outline. His insights shaped the novel in such
positive ways, and I am deeply grateful for his insights which gave depth and
enriched the narrative.
The original version of Before He
Kills Again went out (under a different title) to half a dozen editors,
who praised it warmly – and rejected unanimously. But the late, great Reginald
Hill read an early version of it, and he really liked it; he urged me not to
give up on it, even when I found it impossible to place. This year, I rewrote
the novel and submitted it to Joffe Books – and they loved it. An object lesson
in never giving up on the stories you believe in.
Before He Kills Again is available in Kindle, and will
be released in paperback at the end of July and is published by Joffe Books.
To find out more about Margaret’s books,
visit www.margaret-murphy.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment