S.J. Crabb's The Devil's Children

I started writing in 2015 and have- to date written 17 Romance Novels.

I like to switch between genres which makes for a very messy looking Amazon Author page.

I started writing The Devil’s Children and found that I couldn’t stop. I have always been fascinated by High School stories and it always seems so much more exciting than the UK system. I wanted a typical bad boy and decided to add a paranormal element by creating The Devil’s Son. This soon grew into the Devil’s Children.

However, far from being evil and cruel I focused on the family aspect. There are seven children who hate who they are. They hate their father and they hate each other. Their family life is dark and they crave a normal life. All of them have no love in their life so they desire it more than air.

Enter their Destinies – the woman and men who give them purpose and self-belief. In the middle of it all is their Father – Devlin Knight. A complex character who controls their lives. There is a lot more to him than his children give him credit for and it is as much about his struggle to give them purpose in their lives.

I live in southern England in the Uk with my husband and 17-year-old daughter. We have an adorable little Westie called Teddy who makes our family complete. They tolerate many burnt dinners and a house that begs for a duster. I am always tapping away on my computer and telling them “Just a minute.” Even on holiday I sit with my iPad, tapping away the thoughts in my head.

I do have a day job as a sales rep selling greetings cards. I love my job as it takes me all over the South-East of England and I get to spend most of my days in shops. Another hobby of mine-shopping!

I was once an Air Stewardess and travelled the world. I miss that as it was a dream job. However, I have a family now and would hate to be away from them.

I love chocolate, shopping, lemon drizzle cake and Nickelback. I am a frustrated Rock Chick and crave the sound of loud rock tunes and the gorgeous men that create them. Luckily for me I have a husband I adore who is something of a hero. As I write this he is in The British Virgin Islands helping with the relief effort with other members of the British Police Force.

You can find me online on the following sites. I spend a lot of time on Facebook and love to ‘chat’ with my readers on there as well as other Authors.

Sjcrabb.com

Facebook – Closed Group

Facebook – Author Page

Instagram

Twitter

Being An Author In The UK #amwriting

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of scifi and the supernatural with a romantic soul. One thing I love about being a UK author is how the settings and locations around me inspire my writing. It might seem odd that everyday contemporary Earth settings can find their way into alien planets and cultures, even onto space stations and into the far future. But that's what I love about them. Pretty much anything in my everyday life can lead to another story.

Mersea mudflats

For instance, drive half an hour from home and you have a choice of beaches. From the mudflats of Mersea (desolate, and yet beautiful in their stark appearance) came my marine planet Ulto Marinos. The glorious sandy beaches of Frinton-on-Sea where we spend whole days over the summer sparked the idea of the tropical island on Metraxi where my two main characters in Keir finally realized their true feelings for one another. And debris on the stonier sections of Mersea beach sparked the idea for my first short story, The Bones of the Sea.

Weird stone stumps at Mersea

Frinton beach

And it isn't just the more 'exotic' locations either. This fountain in Colchester town centre became the focal point for a creative writing exercise during a course I did with the Open University. Later it became the centrepiece on a space station called Venus Ascendant that promises the romantic getaway of your dreams, with holographic suits and an empathic AI who can read and fulfill all your desires.

It's since been filled in and planted up due to being vandalized too many times *sadness* but it's been immortalized in one of my stories at least.

Not a dragon or a snake skull, but the pelvis of a bird

Stag beetle

And not being far from the countryside or the local zoo, there are plenty of interesting things to be found. Um, I have a bit of a reputation for liking weird things...

Pet stick insect

Our pet leopard gecko. Love reptiles!

There *are* downsides. The UK is a small island, after all, and every year I sigh as my fellow US authors rave about travelling to the RT convention or RWA events. Or my fellow fangirls go to the big SF conventions. Most of my readers are in the US, and the chances of me ever being able to do a signing over there and actually meet any of them (or any of my author friends) is remote. But I would never move. Not while I love where I live and it still provides so much fodder for my writing!

Want to chat? Find me on Twitter as @pippajaygreen or at my website.

Have the English language, will travel

By Sue Moorcroft

I live in England, but, am the daughter of two British Army soldiers, and was born in
Germany and brought up in England, Malta and Cyprus.

You probably know that England’s part of the United Kingdom, and sometimes we consider ourselves part of Europe and sometimes we don’t, depending upon context, opinion and accuracy. England’s a small country with a big asset – its native tongue, English.

Writing in English opens up a lot of markets. My books can be distributed in the UK, US, Australia, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand etc without having to be translated. OK, I may write ‘colour’ where you write ‘color’ or use S in word endings where you use Z, but that just celebrates my Britishness.

And hot heroes are hot heroes, however they're spelled.

My hot heroes and dauntless heroines have made it in all English-speaking markets, plus been translated into Italian, Portuguese and Turkish. It’s interesting how these different markets react.

It’s too early to talk about Italy, as the first book’s barely made it onto the shelves, but in Portugal I have a lot of young women following me on Facebook, and I’m thankful for that little ‘translate’ button on FB posts. Some want to read my books in English, which is widely spoken in Portugal, and I’ve written blogposts for them and sent out my usual written-in-English bookmarks.

Turkey’s different. I’ve had as many messages from male readers as female. Is it the way my books are marketed out there? Or that Turkish readers don’t need to be directed to read according to gender? Or that Turkish men like romance?

My hot hero/English village books attracted attention at the two RT Booklovers conventions I attended in the States (if you want to read the series, begin with Starting Over) and my American heroine Honor, in Love & Freedom, was popular here in the UK! I like travel, including teaching a residential course halfway up a mountain in Italy, and I’m very happy if my work travels, too.

That’s the English language for you.

Award winning author Sue Moorcroft writes contemporary romance with occasionally unexpected themes.

The Wedding Proposal, Dream a Little Dream and Is this Love? were all nominated for Readers’ Best Romantic Read Awards.

Love & Freedom won the Best Romantic Read Award 2011 and Dream a Little Dream was nominated for a RoNA in 2013.

Sue’s a Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner, a past vice chair of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and editor of its two anthologies.

Sue also writes short stories, serials, articles, and writing ‘how to’.

Sue’s latest book: The Wedding Proposal

Website: www.suemoorcroft.com. 

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