Charlie’s latest newsletter

Apologies for the longer than usual gap between newsletters – I was going to send one out a fortnight ago but events in the UK meant it would have been inappropriate. Even if I’d been in the mood to send one. Please raise a glass to Her Majesty’s amazing life if you haven’t already done so.
 
News
 
Three bits of big news!
 
First of all, my lot for the Children in Read auction is live. I’m happy to send a signed copy of Lock, Stock and Peril to the highest bidder, wherever they live in the world, so why not put in a bid to support a cause that’s close to my heart.
  

 
Next there’s another one of those smashing themed events, this time featuring gay romances all of which have performers in, including my double-header, In the Spotlight. And, as usual with these things, it’s time limited so head over and make a note of the books while you can. 
 

All That Jazz
Francis Yardley may be the high kicking star of an all-male version of Chicago, but bitter, and on the booze after the breakdown of a relationship, he thinks that the chance for true love has passed him by. A handsome, shy rugby player called Tommy seems to be the answer to his problems, but Tommy doesn’t like the lipstick and lace. Can they find a way forward and is there still a chance for happiness “nowadays”?

If Music Be
Rick Cowley finds himself taking up am-dram once more, thinking it’ll help him get over the death of his partner. He’d never anticipated it would mean an encounter with an old flame and the sort of emotional complications the Bard would have revelled in. Still, old Will had the right word for every situation, didn’t he?
 
 Third, but by no means least, a reminder that Love in Every season has been relaunched with that smashing new cover.
 

 
Four seasons, four stories, one connection – finding love.
Two men who hate Valentine’s Day discover they might have been wrong.
A Paralympic swimmer gets an unusual incentive to win gold.
Love and lust flourish under desert skies, but nature’s cruel.
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night gets a new twist.

Excerpt:
Next morning, Jamie was first into the training room, stifling yawn after yawn.
Not his best night’s sleep. There’d been a phone call from work—problems on the plant that he needed to be aware of—that had spawned both a handful of further communications and waking at four in the morning worrying that he’d be called in today and not get to see Alex again.
Alex.
He’d been the other root cause of sleeplessness. The book. The wink. A dozen little things Jamie had noticed through the day that might mean something and might equally be nothing more than a mare’s nest constructed around his wishful thinking.
Why did romance—especially in its early, budding, “does he fancy me or doesn’t he?” stages—have to make you feel so nauseous? He put his papers on the table and wondered whether he could sneak a cup of coffee before the fun began.
“You look worse than I felt after the dentist.”
Jamie almost jumped out of his chair. How—and why—had Alex sneaked up so quietly?
“Nervous, with it.” Alex grinned.
“Sorry.” Jamie tried to compose himself and not keep looking at the left side of Alex’s face, which seemed a bit swollen. What would that feel like to kiss better?  “Problems at work. I keep thinking I’m going to have to go in and sort them out.”
“Oh, that would be a shame. To miss out on the practice interrogations, I mean,” Alex added, just a touch too quickly.
“Yeah. I’d hate to miss today. May be my last chance to practice, before next month,” Jamie said, trying to convey about a dozen different messages in his tone of voice and the look in his eye.
“And there was me thinking you were wondering who’d sent you that mystery Valentine.”
“What mystery Valentine?” What was Alex talking about? Surely the bloke hadn’t somehow managed to sneak a card through Jamie’s door, and he’d missed the bloody thing?
“Hey, I was only joking. Sorry.” Alex looked mortified. “You mustn’t have slept well. I’ll keep my stupid jokes to myself.”
“No, you’re all right. I just need to dose myself up with caffeine, and I’ll stop being an ogre and become my usual miserable self.” That definitely counted as fishing for compliments. He hurried on. “I can’t get out of my head the worry I’ll be called in.”
“Turn your phone off and if anyone from work asks, tell them had no signal. Somebody else can cover, can’t they?” Alex slung down his briefcase and jerked a thumb in the direction of the cafeteria. “Right. That coffee.”
Jamie leaped out of his chair. “I thought you’d never ask.”
 
 
 
Charlie

Charlie’s newsflash – Love in Every Season

Newsflash

Delighted to say that Love in Every Season has a spiffing new cover (thanks, Alex Beecroft) as part of its relaunch, timed to be off the back of the Commonwealth Games, with its wealth of para sports. 

 
Four seasons, four stories, one connection – finding love. Two men who hate Valentine’s Day discover they might have been wrong. A Paralympic swimmer gets an unusual incentive to win gold. Love and lust flourish under desert skies, but nature’s cruel. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night gets a new twist.
  

Charlie’s latest newsletter

The Cochranes are all home safe and sound from holidays on Jersey, which was gorgeous and very inspirational, in a sort of “clear your mind and recharge your batteries” way. Maybe I’ll get some of my works-in-progress actually progressed.
 
News
 
This time’s news can be summarised as a big competition, a title reveal for the Cambridge Fellows/Actor lads crossover and a shoutout for a good pal.
 
Let’s start with a chance for you to win in total 11 x backlist ebooks, 2 x Signed Paperback (International postage), 2 x Audible Audio Codes and $40 in Amazon Gift Cards (or equivalent in your country). Good, isn’t it? All you have to do is agree to join mailing lists and as you’re on mine already, that’s one less to sign up for. You’ll find the event here: link but note that the competition shuts in 11 days.
 

 
Now for that crossover story and I can exclusively reveal that it will be called “The Case of the Undiscovered Corpse” which sums the story up completely. And might put you off going into cellars for life. 
 
My old mate Anne Barwell, whom I’ve known almost as long as I’ve been published, has a new release which I’m delighted to share here.
Double Exposure (Pōneke Shadows Book 1)   
 
Vampires and werewolves live long lives. The Sleepless City saga might have ended but the story continues…
 
Someone is hunting supernaturals.
Vampire Simon Hawthorne and his human partner Ben Leyton’s plans for a peaceful holiday with family are hijacked by the New Zealand Supernatural Council.
Tensions are on the rise in Wellington. Supernatural councillors are disappearing. Werewolves are suspicious of anyone human or vampire. If they don’t work together, their enemy has already won.
And no one with a connection to the supernatural world is safe.

 
As for my books, a reminder that Lock, Stock and Peril is now out in ebook and print. 

 

 
 
Charlie

Pictures of Billy

Many of you will know that I tend the local war graves, one of which belongs to Billy Clegg-Hill. For years I’ve gone to give him a tidy up and wondered what he looked like, but to no avail. Until…

A couple of months back I was contacted by a lovely chap called Martin Malcolm, who – long story short – has been commissioned to write a play which Billy will feature in and we’ve been batting research back and forward. That includes some admittedly blurry but nonetheless brilliant pictures of my Billy himself, from the now defunct Gay Times. I would like to thank him, them and the Bishopsgate Institute for both the info and permission to share some of the pictures here.

Jonty and Orlando fans might recognise this beach…

Their official biographer (me) has never seen it from this angle. 

Charlie’s latest newsletter

The weather at Cochrane Central is glorious, if a tad hot, as we head towards the longest day of the year. Nights start drawing in all the way to Christmas after that. 😊
 
News
 
Lock, Stock and Peril is now out in ebook and print and I’ve been Bette Bolt’s blog talking about  – among other things – some of the things I learned while writing it.

 
In other book news, I’m thrilled to say that my Cambridge Fellows/Actor lads crossover will definitely be out from Williams and Whiting later this year. Release date when I have it and, of course, when the publisher and I have agreed on a title. That’s always the hardest bit.
 
There are so many good books around at present, both new and backlist. Please don’t ask me about my ever increasing TBR pile. That’s at risk of growing even taller as a result of the Read With Pride event starting today at Bookfunnel. Crofton Hall by my old pal Rebecca Cohen is on offer, alongside various other discounted titles and freebies. As I always warn you, make a note of the titles because when the event ends on June 27^th, the page will disappear.

 Excerpt:

Today’s excerpt is a real sneak peek, because it’s from the ‘in edits and untitled’ crossover story.
 
Cambridge September 3^rd 1952
 
“Good morning, Orlando. Lovely to see you.”
Those words had been spoken first thing in the morning on numerous occasions and in many different settings over the best part of fifty years. From lips that had once been young and full, but which were now showing fine lines and downed with white, rather like the hair which crowned Jonty Stewart’s head. A full set of hair—he’d inherited his paternal grandfather’s locks rather than his father’s bald pate—yet the tawny gold had now all gone to be replaced with hoary silver.
“Lovely to see you, too.” Orlando Coppersmith turned in the bed, easing into a more comfortable position. He was currently beset with an issue concerning his left rotator cuff, or so the doctor had diagnosed, one that should get better with exercise. It had been a result of over-exertion in the garden and not, as Jonty told everyone, due to Orlando having dealt the bridge cards too vigorously.
“What does your diary have in store for you today?” The airy tone in Jonty’s voice as he asked the question immediately put his partner on alert.
“The usual. College business and the like given the arrival of students is hull up on the horizon. Why do you ask?”
“I’d like to suggest a slight change to plans dinner-wise. Are you free tonight?”
“Ye-es. Why?”
“I had a phone call last evening, when you were at your orgy.” That was another line which had been used innumerable times over the years, referring to Orlando being out playing cards. He’d learned to ignore it. “It was to invite us to dinner and a discussion.”
“A commission, do you think?” It had been a while since they’d had a really good mystery to get their teeth into. Odds and ends of investigations, yes, including ones bound up with the war that they simply couldn’t accept, because they’d have had little chance of fulfilling them. Finding where Aunt Elsie had hidden the family silver because she thought that Hitler would invade—said aunt having then been so inconsiderate as to get herself killed in an air raid before she could share the location of the treasure with the rest of the family—had been a typical kind of request. As were the string of entreaties to locate the whereabouts of men who’d been declared missing in action, at least one of whom Jonty had decided had likely taken a convenient opportunity to get away from home.
At least they could now decline the commissions with dignity, pleading old age and the inability to travel as far as they used to, alongside not being up to the physical challenge of digging up bomb sites to find Aunt Elsie’s spoons. These excuses might have been seen through had the applicants observed the pair of them working vigorously in the garden at Forsythia Cottage or indeed still almost as vigorously sharing the pleasures of the double bed.
“It’s not about a commission as such, although there’s a peripheral link to an old, unsolved mystery.” Jonty raised an eyebrow. “One we might have got involved with at the time had we not been otherwise occupied. No, this is something quite different and rather exciting.”
“Am I allowed a clue to whatever you’re on about?”
“Not a single one. I want you to come to this meeting with an open mind and if I drop the merest hint, you’ll mull it over all day. Suffice to say the discussion could lead us into pastures entirely new for us, which is rather nice at our time of life, wouldn’t you say?”
“I’ll only say one way or the other when I know what these pastures new are and whether they’ll be green or arid.” Orlando was rather pleased with his analogy. “You’re not even going to make an indication as to whom I’m eating with?”
“No, because it risks giving the game away entirely. A knight of the realm. Title conferred as opposed to inherited. You’ve met him before, although that doesn’t cut down the field. Very nice chap, who has a proposal for us and—” Jonty cuffed Orlando’s arm. “That’s quite enough. You’re wheedling secrets out of me. I’m easing my stiff old bones out of this bed before you spoil all the elements of surprise.”
“Just one more question, then. Will this different and exciting whatever-it-is be the sort of thing to make me jump for joy or run away screaming?”
“I can’t imagine you running away screaming from anything, at this point in your life. Quite below your dignity. I might have to see if I can engineer it happening, simply for the novelty.” Jonty, now on his feet, stretched extravagantly, like a great cat rousing itself.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“True, oh light of my life, although that’s simply because I can’t formulate an answer. I’ve been weighing it up since last night and I honestly don’t know. All I can state with any certainty is that we’d be stupid not to explore the possibilities. Too young still to be stick-in-the-muds.” Jonty made an elaborate bow. “And now I exit, if not pursued by a bear, then pursued by your third degree. Patience, old man.”
“Patience my arse,” Orlando muttered, although he couldn’t help smiling. Whatever happened over dinner would turn out to be gratifying. If he liked this mysterious proposal, then it would add a new challenge to their lives and if he hated it then he could go into a pleasing yet dignified huff for at least twenty-four hours. And tease Jonty over his rashness for the next few weeks.
Despite the ache in Orlando’s shoulder, life was still good. 
 
 
Charlie

Writing rituals, role models and the rest

Am guesting over at Bette Bolte’s blog, talking about writing and things I learned while drafting the latest Lindenshaw.

Charlie’s latest newsletter

“Here we go gathering nuts in May”…or should that be “knots of May”? I don’t think even the experts on English nursery rhymes know for sure. But it’s May and summer seems as if it might be round the corner (in a typically Brit fashion of cold one day and sweltering the next).

News:

There’s another one of those themed events going on at the moment, this time focussing on military themed stories. Lots of authors, lots of books, including my Pack up Your Troubles. As I always remind you, if you fancy working through several of these, take a screencap, because the page with the list on will disappear when the event ends.

Pack Up Your Troubles is brought to you by Indie publisher Williams and Whiting. I’m delighted to say that they want to contract my Cambridge Fellows/Toby and Alasdair crossover novel. More news on that when I have it.  

The cover for the new Lindenshaw has had its official reveal so I can share it with you properly. I really have been very lucky with the artwork for this series. It’s available for pre-order on the Riptide site and will be on other outlets very soon.

They may be locked down but this case isn’t.

Lockdown is stressful enough for Chief Inspector Robin Bright. Then a murder makes this strange time even stranger. In one of Kinechester’s most upmarket areas, the body of Ellen, a brilliant but enigmatic recluse, has lain undiscovered for days. Pinning down the time—and date—of death will be difficult, but finding a killer during unprecedented times could prove impossible.

Adam Matthew’s focus on his pupils is shaken when a teaching assistant reveals his godmother has been murdered. Keen to avoid involvement, Adam does his best to maintain a distance from his husband, Robin’s, case, but when it keeps creeping up, Adam lends his incisive mind to the clues again.

Between Robin trying to understand the complex victim and picking his way through a mess of facts, half truths, and downright lies from witnesses desperate to cover up their own rule-breaking, he realises this could be the cold case that stains his career and forever haunts a community. And when it looks like the virus has struck Adam, Robin’s torn between duty and love.

Excerpt:

Today’s excerpt comes from one of the stories in Pack up your Troubles. 

The leaves on the copper beeches danced in the breeze; the late summer sun lighting on them produced a warm glow. Nicholas had always loved them more than any other trees on his estate, even in their bare winter form. Now, leaving the cab at the gate and savouring the walk along his own drive, he saw them afresh. He used to meet Paul under these branches when they were hardly more than boys, taking a chess set or pack of cards to play seemingly endless games bathed by the warm August Hampshire sun. There’d be no time for such frivolity now.
 He told Nanny that he was signing up almost as soon as he reached the house, before anyone else. She’d been so proud at the thought of him putting his name down. “You’ll look a picture in your uniform. Have all those mesdemoiselles waving their handkerchiefs at you. Be careful you don’t come back with one of them on your arm.”
 “I promise.” Only recently had Nicholas been able to address his former governess and not feel seven-and-a-half again. Even though he towered over her, she would always seem the grown-up one of the pair. “I hope to be off training in just a few weeks, which will give me time enough to set my affairs here straight. There are plenty of safe pairs of hands to entrust things into.”
 “Young Mr. Haskell will keep a steady eye on things,” Nanny said, fiddling with her knitting. No doubt those fingers would be employed producing socks or scarves or who knew what else over the next few months. “You’ll be back come the spring, in time to see the lambs over at Longlea.” She made the pronouncement as if it were a certainty, as sure as Christmas Day falling on December the twenty-fifth.
“I hope so.” As Nicholas spoke the words, he felt a prophetic jolt, and knew it was all a lie. Somewhere inside—heart or brain, he couldn’t be sure—he was certain they were in for a long campaign. Leaving the old lady with her wool and her thoughts, he went out into the gentle light to find Paul.
 As he walked down the path back to the beech avenue an instantly recognisable, elegant figure came to meet him, a gun hanging off its shoulder and an uncharacteristically serious look on its handsome face.
“You’ll sign up?” Paul didn’t attempt any small talk; it wasn’t their way. They usually met three times a week, if Nicholas was down in Hampshire, and those meetings always began with a litany of business, action taken or to be considered on the estate, successes and failures. Only when all the business was dealt with would Paul take a beer, relax for half an hour and indulge in chit-chat. A discussion of parish scandal, something which might have been called gossip if they’d been female, a brief harking back to the days when they’d traded all their secrets over that chess board. True to form, Paul hit straight at the crux of things now.
 Nicholas wasn’t sure if the question was an order—you do this for the honour of the estate, I can’t—or some sort of expression of jealousy, that he could go where the other man could only dream of. He couldn’t dare hope it was the beginnings of a plea for him not to go.
“It’s my duty.” The words seemed inadequate, barely expressing anything Nicholas felt. Yes, he was bound by duty, but there were other considerations. He was, he knew, running away from conflict as much as running towards it.
“I’ll look after things.” Paul’s eyes registered something which might have been offence.
 Nicholas replied hastily. “Of course you will. I’ve never doubted it.” He’d doubted his own intentions, of course.
 He cast a sidelong glance at Paul, wondering what expectations he’d have. The estate manager wore his business face, a cool, clear eye surveying the fields, maybe weighing up the chances of the next pheasant brood surviving the depredation of fox or buzzard.

Charlie

Lock, Stock and Peril cover art

Now that we’ve had the official reveal, I can post the swishy cover here, too! Release date less than a fortnight away – 6th June.

They may be locked down but this case isn’t.

Lockdown is stressful enough for Chief Inspector Robin Bright. Then a murder makes this strange time even stranger. In one of Kinechester’s most upmarket areas, the body of Ellen, a brilliant but enigmatic recluse, has lain undiscovered for days. Pinning down the time—and date—of death will be difficult, but finding a killer during unprecedented times could prove impossible.

Adam Matthew’s focus on his pupils is shaken when a teaching assistant reveals his godmother has been murdered. Keen to avoid involvement, Adam does his best to maintain a distance from his husband, Robin’s, case, but when it keeps creeping up, Adam lends his incisive mind to the clues again.

Between Robin trying to understand the complex victim and picking his way through a mess of facts, half truths, and downright lies from witnesses desperate to cover up their own rule-breaking, he realises this could be the cold case that stains his career and forever haunts a community. And when it looks like the virus has struck Adam, Robin’s torn between duty and love.

Charlie’s Newsflash – the next Lindenshaw

The big news I’d like to share is that the new Lindenshaw mystery – Lock, Stock and Peril – is now available for pre-order on the Riptide site. The cover reveal is still to come, so all I can give is a sneak peek:

They may be locked down but this case isn’t.

Lockdown is stressful enough for Chief Inspector Robin Bright. Then a murder makes this strange time even stranger. In one of Kinechester’s most upmarket areas, the body of Ellen, a brilliant but enigmatic recluse, has lain undiscovered for days. Pinning down the time—and date—of death will be difficult, but finding a killer during unprecedented times could prove impossible.

Adam Matthew’s focus on his pupils is shaken when a teaching assistant reveals his godmother has been murdered. Keen to avoid involvement, Adam does his best to maintain a distance from his husband, Robin’s, case, but when it keeps creeping up, Adam lends his incisive mind to the clues again.

Between Robin trying to understand the complex victim and picking his way through a mess of facts, half truths, and downright lies from witnesses desperate to cover up their own rule-breaking, he realises this could be the cold case that stains his career and forever haunts a community. And when it looks like the virus has struck Adam, Robin’s torn between duty and love.

And in other exciting news, I’ve finally finished my big organisation of free stories, so all the ones that had broken links because the blogs they were on no longer exist, have been rescued and put together into themed bundles. This includes all the Cambridge Fellows freebies which are now exclusively on my free stories page.

Charlie