Almost Done/My Second Novel

I’ve just completed the advanced proofread for my second novel EggHead, a crime thriller featuring an adolescent boy who goes by the nickname of Egghead.  In the first part of the story, the fourteen-year-old Egghead resorts to drastic measures to tackle a bullying vendetta.  His actions backfire and he has to leave home.  In the second part of the story, Egghead, now seventeen, struggles to rebuild his life in a secluded village off the North Sea, but his past soon comes back to haunt him, leaving him isolated and in danger….

My heart nearly stops when I see the elaborate blue handwriting on the envelope, fountain pen style.  The writing doesn’t belong to Uncle Graham or Mum or Grandpa or anyone else I remember. No one I know uses a fountain pen, just Biro. No one should have this address, only Uncle Graham and Belinda. Official mail always looks official, not personal like this letter.  Should I open it or not? Supposing it explodes in my face, blinding, scarring me. 

I tear the envelope open.

A newspaper cutting falls out.

An obituary. 

Best wishes, kid, someone has written. 

Meanwhile, my first novel – Secrets by Lawrence Estrey - is available from Amazon (paperback, e-book).   Genre: psychological thriller.   

Newspaper article on author.

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Brief Visit Up North

Spent the weekend in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, about sixty miles from where I grew up.   On my first evening there, I took some photographs in the rain from the promenade:

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Brief Writing Sample: The New Novel

I’m in the proof reading stage of my new novel EggHead, a teenage crime thriller featuring central character Wayne who has to leave home at the age of fourteen following a bullying campaign.  Now aged seventeen, the character struggles to come to terms with life on a remote North Sea village, miles away from anyone he knows.   And once again, his past revisits him….

In the following section, the fourteen-year-old boy begins to suspect that something isn’t quite right….

Footsteps. Two lots this time. 

I throw a glance over my shoulder. 

A figure ducks out of sight.

I tear down the side alleyway that connects with the mews and leg it up the outside rear steps, nearly slipping on clunks of damp concrete. I can still hear the footsteps, even now. Someone, or a couple of people, must be in the side alleyway, following me back.  Digging in my pockets, I find the key and thrust it in the lock. Forcing the key round, I open the door, dash into the hallway and bang the door shut. 

‘That you, Wayne?’ Simon calls.

I tiptoe through to my bedroom in the dark.  Perching low, I creep towards the bedroom window and look out. There are no signs of movement outside, no one standing by the foot of the steps, no one on the steps, nothing suspicious – only an empty mews with storage lock ups by the rear wall used by the shop owners on the ground floor. But just as I turn, I catch another flicker of movement down near the lock ups, like a wiry shape deftly moving out of sight and blending into the shadowy darkness. Then my mobile rings and Private Caller flashes up on the screen, but no one speaks. 

 ‘Oi, Wayne,’ Simon shouts from the kitchen.  ‘You got a voice or what?’

Meanwhile, my first novel – Secrets by Lawrence Estrey - is available from Amazon (paperback, e-book).   Genre: psychological thriller.   

Newspaper article on author.   

 

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Secrets by Lawrence Estrey, Newspaper Interview/The Archer, East Finchley

Last year, I wrote and published a novel, Secrets, a psychological thriller set in Lancashire.  Since then, I’ve written a second, unrelated, novel and am in the process of working out what to do next with it. 

Last month, a reporter for the Archer newspaper interviewed me. For online archive of the interview, click here.

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Short Writing Sample/Second Novel

Finally completed EggHead and am in the process of considering what steps to take to get it published.  In EggHead, the fourteen-year-old protagonist has to leave home and go into care when his attempts to deal with bullying backfire.  Now aged seventeen, he is struggling to rebuild his life in a remote village off the North Sea.

After lunch, Uncle Graham drives me to the nearest large town, puts some cash in my bank account and picks up a few cleaning items from a ninety-nine pence shop. On the way back to the car, he spots a store selling suits and insists on getting me one.  I choose a grey one and check it out in the changing rooms.  The transformation surprises me.  When I looked in the mirror, I was expecting to see an exhausted individual with stooped shoulders and a defeated expression in their eyes – a sort of tired of running expression – but instead I see a youthful face staring back at me.  Egg shaped head, soulful blue eyes, Labrador blond hair.  When I was at school in Manchester, my mates used to call me Egghead.  

Meanwhile, my first novel – Secrets by Lawrence Estrey - is available from Amazon (paperback, e-book).   Genre: psychological thriller

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