Emma Calin (@EmmaCalin)

I’m a Londoner through and through. My heroines are also all London girls who have red buses and black taxis circulating in their blood. As a kid I read anything. There was no person who led me toward “literature”. I saw the movie “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” and started to read Thomas Hardy. As a teenager I sent a couple of stories to magazines and got some good feedback from kind editors who bought the odd story. After that it was a case of clinging on in the belief I could achieve something.

Wow! Who doesn’t like steamy romance? I wasn’t so much inspired to write it but tried to live it and then get it onto paper. Much of my writing career was in trying to publish literary fiction and not within a genre framework at all. What I love about the genre is that it gives pleasure. It’s not just love love love. There’s fast action, there’s tension, tears and hot sex interplay. It pays off with a Happy Ever After buzz. I love to write stories that turn you on, keep you turning pages and sign you off knowing you’ve had a passionate ride with girls on top, in love and loved by a sexy guy. What’s not to like?

If I’m honest my writing history has made me a bit of a Jack of all trades. The bottom line is that a good story is always and will always be a good story. Fairy tales are evergreen because they’re so good. There’s an element of the supernatural and aspects of wealth versus poverty, might against the weak and romantic desire. It’s not a long way from there to a gritty short story. The Fairy tale is often pretty scary with evil witches, giants and ghastly siblings. We know of course that the bad will be balanced and in the end defeated by the good. In a short story quite often the ending is ambiguous or even bad. You just can’t beat a happy ending can you?

My favourite time to write is when I’m not doing book marketing. I often have a frenzy about 11am after a strong coffee and a hot frenzy from about 6pm with a glass of red wine. I only stop when I’m exhausted if I get into the flow.

I’ll be honest – I’m not a writer of books for children at all. An American publisher asked me to contribute to a book of modern fairy stories. I did three items but a fairy tale is actually a morality lesson for folk of all ages. To be a proper children’s author is a tremendous skill and not one that I possess. The great writers for children are sophisticated adults who still have the innocence, curiosity and sensitivity of a child. Much of my life has been a hardening process to be frank. If I really really studied and took good advice for the next fifty years just maybe I could be a mediocre writer for children. It is a fantastic talent way beyond my abilities.

In all forms of writing connecting with readers is what it’s all about. As social media fashions and music styles evolve it’s a struggle to keep up with what kids are into. I do not write for young adults but they often pop up in my stories. I still have young adult- ish kids so I can put a lot of questions to them. Actually writing for this audience would be like trying to run on a treadmill while writing notes. Even their language changes constantly. A day is a long time in the history of teen-speak. Social media helps with everything and You tube features all manner of teen gurus.

Master chef – hey first and foremost I’m a mum. Between my partner and I we have seven children. Eating out was way beyond budget. I love to cook for three reasons. I love to eat. I want good nutrition and health. I want texture, flavour and passion in every corner of my life. I never understand why supermarkets sell so many cook-books and so many ready meals. I had such great fun producing the companion cook-book to go with “Seduction of Dynasty”. The dishes were the everyday diet of a busy London cop but I cooked them all and had a ball with the photography. Food is just such a joy to share – like a good story.

Well, a novelist encompasses everything and for sure a poet. A good sentence has a harmony and balance. A novelist is a philosopher because she’s looking at the human condition, asking the big questions. I write about crime and police action. I have to reflect on the good and the bad, the means and the ends. I think, therefore I’m a novelist. These days I’m not so much a blogger because to be frank, very few people read blogs these days. They just don’t have time and there are so many other forms of media.

I must start by explaining that I’m a humble poor writer who has a partner living in France. We stay together but muddle through between two countries. We are both bi-lingual and so in France we are French and in England we are English. Both towns are small with local markets but they are completely different. Much of France is like England fifty years ago. Life is far more traditional in France and changes slowly. My dual life gives me the ability to see both places with fresh eyes and appreciate the differences. I love UK supermarket prices. I love the French bread and fresh sea food. I love the lack of crowds and the freedom to cycle and kayak in nature in France. However, in such matters as love, sorrow, birth and death – there is just one human life and one human heart.

Several years ago I became aware of ACX – the Amazon audio book platform. Independent authors have to be aware of all possible ways of getting their product out there. I had to learn how to use recording software. My partner, Oscar Sparrow, was on the performance poetry circuit. He auditioned for and received contacts for several projects and I did the technical production. Being anything in the book business is a struggle – it’s fifteen hours a day every day if you want to earn any money, or a least give yourself a chance to make money. I recorded my own story “Escape to Love” but I feel I don’t have the voice. Oscar can do accents and a big range of characters so I prefer to produce him. When a narrator is doing a character of the opposite sex, there is a range of approaches. Some narrators just read the whole thing flat but most males soften the female voice into the head and females deepen the male voice into the chest. My books have a female POV so it needs a female narrator. The fabulous Rebecca McKernan has done “ Seduction of Combat ” for us.

Characters are distinguishable and to a great extent that has to be down to the writing, at least when there are only two persons. When there are five or six characters in a scene you need to consider accents, age and all other factors to split them up. Narration and audio book production may seem easy. It is not! But, it can pay more.

You only have to walk around the streets of London to see the great mix of people. This mix is also reflected in the police. She’s a mixed race girl with a name pronounced ‘Ag-Where-ee’. Her father came from Antigua in the Caribbean to London. Her mother came from Ireland. They met at the local catholic church. In a sense this is the narrative of London - fixed cultural elements fusing and blending around shared traditions. I wanted to give Shannon a name which native English people wouldn’t immediately know how to pronounce. It gave her a platform from which to proclaim herself – a unique opportunity to say just exactly who she was.

Names are vital for characters. A name can speak a huge amount about a character. It’s the original “Show don’t tell” cliché of every writing course – not that I’ve ever done one. For the girl cops I look at their age and choose the right name for their generation. For the hunky guys I look for sex, sex and sex appeal. Randolph, Spencer, Charles...it just depends. Oscar is a really sexy name for me – but hell – he’s my man.

The word “Seduction” wasn’t always in the title. Originally the books had their own titles and followed the “Passion Patrol” theme. I wanted to write strong female characters who at the same time had emotional depth. Such depth does not diminish the strength of a woman but leaves her open to the pains of love and of course its joys. It was natural for me to write about cops because my partner was a London cop and is always there to give me insights.

The writing of “Seduction of Guilt” was a challenge like any book. As you move through a series you see feedback and reviews and you are able to focus more and more on what my readers love. The biggest challenge of a writer’s life is the book that’s in production. At the moment that is “Seduction of Power”. It’s the sexiest, the most action packed and the most romantic ever…

There was nothing that surprised me during the writing of the story. What does always surprise me was that we are so tolerant of low level criminality. These guys are both quite ruthless and amoral. All the same you kind of feel you want them to win.

I never expect any book or story to be a best seller. The brutal truth is that short stories sell far fewer copies and so it’s easier to get enough sales to be a best seller.

Well, I didn’t write this collection. I worked as editor and produced the audio book edition. The writer was Oscar Sparrow, the one-time National Poetry Foundation poet. We get to talk a lot. His inspiration was the idea of “consequence” . That is to say that what we do has echoes and ripples that roll on through all time. I have a great affection for poetry and believe that all writers can learn from it. It’s about getting the most bounce out of every word. The sad truth is that there is no commercial market for poetry. Most literary agents and publishers will not even accept submissions. However, it is all around us in advertising and music. I have had some personal success with love poetry on media such as You tube. Anyone interested can check me out here .

I’m from a blue collar, working class background. You can get the idea from novels, particularly romance, that the “underclass” only exist as criminals or have walk-on roles as servants, bus drivers, baggage handlers etc. The love and emotion action is for higher clean folk who have jobs like fashion executives who end up in passionate clinches with billionaire hunks. We all love a billionaire hunk and I’m waiting for mine. All the same there is a life of real love and passion in much grimmer corners of existence. “Love in a Hopeless Place” is about those guys. There’s a man and a woman thrown together as casual labour killing turkeys for Christmas. There’s a working class woman with a handicapped daughter on the run from a violent partner. There’s a woman with a husband more interested in boxing than romance. She falls for another woman who works in the same warehouse. There’s a couple of broke guys with a criminal scheme to get some cash. There’s a down at heel chauffeur with an unwanted baby on the way. These are not the normal material of romantic fiction. They are the weary face on the bus or the poor looking guys in an old van at the traffic lights. They are life.

“Escape To Love” is a story of a woman trying to start over following the end of a violent relationship. She has an autistic daughter and would protect her with her life. She’s tough and when she has to, she’ll break the law. When a guy on the run from a prison break rocks up at her door she decides to help him and run with him to a new life.

I hope that readers will love this piece as a love story like any other. I’d like them to see the good and bad in the heroine Maria. I want readers to feel that love grows in any soil. I suppose it’s a story where you ask yourself what is good and what is bad? I want readers to feel like me – hoping these guys will escape to love.

Simple – do not switch on the computer! Social media is like a plughole in the bath. If you open it, everything drains away. As an independent author far too much of my time goes on marketing and promotion. That’s why I love AllAuthors services. Even writers with big publishers are expected to jump through commercial hoops. Once I’m into a story I just love creating it. Then I don’t stop. The early stages can be harder. It’s like doodling – sometimes there’s a shape there but you can’t quite see it. My problem is that I’m interested in everything – cooking, the world news and politics, science, sport, films, books by other authors, opera, languages and on and on. We have seven kids. All I do is try to forget them and write. The main tactic is to love the story you’re writing. Then it’s a joy and I can’t stay away from it.

I was born an author and for sure I’ll die as one. The big question is will I still be creating fiction? Look, it’s a crowded market and there are so many talented and younger writers. For sure I won’t still be writing the same series. I’ll be writing as long as anyone wants to read my output. At the end I’ll probably write poetry because you know that no one will ever read it.