![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Ywrkwlxo6vJ5lIjmGRT01IyrDSGl7t8a9Th1DgMGH8w_9xJW474n5VH_9oZK93nCviUwZl6QysWL2zXfx5tLCAyQnzmijyKndCnQqkCywXbaIOApbRDyH3KhXqbYOs77fV65nMd732M/s320/Bt4nqT9IUAA6IfA.jpg)
Meanwhile, isn't the paperback of Someone Else's Skin just gorgeous? I love it.
I'm over at Omnimystery in the US today, talking about how Marnie stalked me until I told her story. Let's hoping she keeps stalking me until I'm done.
Marnie had a walk-on role in an earlier story of mine, and she'd been watching me from the wings ever since. More or less patiently, although I could tell she was starting to wonder when I'd get the hint and write her a whole story. It took me a little longer to find her detective sergeant, but Noah Jake entered the fray and I was all set, more or less.
I wrote the first draft swiftly, for the sake of the momentum and in case I lost my nerve. It wasn't great but it had a good spine, and I could see where the layers were needed to make it better. I was lucky with my cast of characters. Once I'd picked a women's refuge as the setting, the characters came to me: lost women with stories they were reluctant to tell; survivors. And the less savoury characters, one of whom hung back in the shadows until the second draft, unnerving me.
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