TELL TALE update

I have several friends who are married to builders. They sometimes grumble that DIY jobs don't get done around their homes. Is it like this with writers and blogs, I'm wondering now, hands up in guilt as mine has languished somewhat untouched for the summer months? I spend so much of my time writing words - made up words - that when it comes to writing about real life it suddenly seems very daunting. But this made me think. Real life. That IS what I write about - hence the newly updated title of this blog. A little slogan. Very soon, my website will be transformed (again) and Real Life Fiction incorporated. Actually, it reminds me very much - and I hope she won't mind - of the title of my niece's beautiful album Real Life Computer Game. I am very honoured to have this very talented lady and her musician boyfriend staying with us at present so the house is full of even more music than usual.

During the last few months, I have finished writing TELL TALE. The blurb on the back reads:

The chilling new international bestseller from Sam Hayes is a story of three women bound together by a shocking secret...

WHAT DO YOU DO?

A woman stands on a bridge, the water rushing below. In a few seconds she will jump, plunging more than two hundred feet to her death. Who is she? And why is she desperate to take her own life?

WHEN THERE'S NO WAY OUT...

Nina Kennedy, a wife and mother, is afraid. A man is following her, threatening her family, toying with her sanity. What does he want? And how long will it be before he strikes?

AND NOWHERE LEFT TO HIDE?

Eight-year-old Ava sits waiting for her daddy. But, like the others in the children’s home, she knows her father will never come. The home is a place of whispers and shadows. But no one dare tell the truth. Until now...

I loved writing this novel. The idea came to me from several corners. I was deeply moved by the alleged abuse that went on at the Haut de la Garenne children's home in Jersey, yet I was also fascinated by the building itself and the secrets it contained. Having been a school, a youth hostel and a children's home it would have absorbed decades of human emotion. Hopefully, amongst all the alleged tragedy and abuse that went on, the building saw happier times and was, for some, a respite from their troubled lives.

In TELL TALE, Roecliffe Hall is a Victorian Gothic mansion built initially as a family home in Yorkshire. It's a magnificent piece of architecture, typical of its period with huge ornate fireplaces, stone mullion windows, follies and towers and, of course, many Pugin-esque arches. In modern times, Roecliffe is taken over by the local council and turned in to a children's home. Its most endearing features are stripped out or covered with linoleum and paint. The huge rooms are suddenly filled with metal beds rather than oak four-posters and the many twisting, ever-changing corridors are hiding place for the scared children that inhabit the building during the nineteen-eighties.

The second source of inspiration for TELL TALE was the internet and all the associated friend-making that goes on among young people. It's no secret that modern-day paedophiles have a much easier time of stalking and harvesting their prey. Social networking sites are not infallible and are just as much a hunting ground nowadays as were the corridors of Roecliffe Hall two and a half decades ago. I wanted to bring the two scenarios together, take a look at the differences and, more shockingly, the similarities.

I won't give too much away but do hope you decide to buy or pre-order a copy because I'm very proud of this book. It's a frightening look at a modern day family, how seemingly perfect lives can so very easily become nightmares and - a favourite of mine - how secrets from the past always catch up with the present. The hardback is out in the UK in November, and the trade paperback edition will be released in Australia at the same time.

I also love the cover for this novel (see above). My publishers worked very hard on getting it just right and I think they've done a cracking job. The little waif on the front reminds me so much of one of the characters, it brought a tear to my eye. Anyway, I'll give more updates and info nearer release date.

Meantime, I've been working away on my next book. It's as yet without a title but I'm a good half way through writing this one and I'm loving the characters! It's always hard in the long stretch of summer holidays to devote quite as much time to writing each day as I'd like, but then nothing beats spending time with the kids. I say kids in the loosest possible way as my eldest turned eighteen last week with the others not too far behind. Scary indeed, but (even if I say so myself!) our son is a credit to us and, as a token of my huge respect and love for him, TELL TALE is dedicated to him.

Finally, (and as ever) I'm going to try to be a little bit better on the net. So many authors are committed to updating their blogs and Facebook thingies that I really think I should be one of them. So if you want to add me on Myspace or Facebook, I'd love to be your friend. I have been known to add writerly (or not!) thoughts to these pages as well as rather random musings when the book words won't flow.

I hope to hear from lots of readers...see you on the dark side.

Sam xx