Tag Archives: Helen Christmas

#WritingWednesday with Helen Christmas: Character inspiration.

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How chatting to people helps character inspiration, by Helen Christmas.

My up-and-coming novel is a psychological suspense thriller set in Sussex. In the early days of drafting this story though, my enthusiasm dried up. I lost all focus. Had the plot sketched out, a climatic ending… but couldn’t seem to drive the story forward. Gradually it occurred to me that I hadn’t quite got into the minds of my characters. It took a while to coax them out of hiding and shape them into the amazing people they needed to be.

Talking to professionals really helped to get the inspirational juices flowing, starting with my main protagonist, Maisie, (a girl who is fostered and ends up working in a fostering department herself). So one approach was to contact WSCC and it paid off. I was put in touch with Rosemary Conroy-Smith, who not only advised me on processes and procedures, but invited me to one of their information events. This was a really enlightening evening and I could sense people’s enthusiasm; the valuable service they provide for families and children so fulfilling, I was able to reflect this through my own character.

But also interwoven into the story are Maisie’s memories of a children’s home she lived in, a hostile place where she befriended Joe. He too, is a complex character, a runaway who ends up in all sorts of trouble, before she finds him homeless on Bognor Beach. Writing Joe’s story was fun, but it took a chance meeting with a local man (with a similar background) to gain some insights into his character. I have author, Dan Jones, to thank for introducing me to his friend, Graham, and describing his work in children’s homes.

Furthermore there is a police investigation at the heart of this book, and when I started to lose momentum I spoke to two senior officers, (one from the Metropolitan police who handled similar cases to the one I was writing about). Two conversations later, I had all the inspiration I needed to finish this; from interviewing suspects to home searches and gathering evidence. Later down the line, as I was nearing the climatic finale of my story, I spoke to former Sussex Police Ops Controller, Andy Kille, who offered some great tips on procedures and helped me to visualise that all-important ending.

 Writing a thriller, it is essential to get police procedures right, so everything came together and by October 2020 I had completed the first draft. Deep in my heart, I knew I had a good story – but the people I interviewed were the driving force behind my characters and their motivation. I have written more in depth stuff about my characters on my blog, articles that not only discuss the story, but hope to raise awareness of some of the complex emotional issues that affect people today.

Lethal Ties will be published April 18th 2021 and is available to preorder on Amazon:

The Blurb:

A haunting vision. A spine-chilling nightmare. A missing boy.

When Joe, Maisie and Sam met in a residential children’s home, they pledged to look out for each other; three friends who were inseparable until the night Sam went missing…

Twenty years later, Maisie suffers flashbacks, unable to understand what lies at the root of her recurring nightmares. Shocked to find Joe, homeless on Bognor seafront, she helps him turn his life around, but it doesn’t seem long before their past comes back to haunt them.

 What really went on at Orchard Grange all those years ago?

Where did Sam go?

Only he can provide the answers but they need to find him.

Within weeks of Maisie and Joe being reunited, however, a series of eerie events rips the fabric of their world. A mysterious black car is tailing them. A campaign of online abuse makes Joe wonder if his enemies are still around. He has never forgotten Mr Mortimer from the children’s home, but a shocking attempt on his life launches a police investigation.

Lethal Ties is a tense psychological thriller, an untangling of secrets with an utterly chilling twist. Purchase here.

About the Author:

I am creative, ambitious, and enjoy working from home with my husband, running our web design business. I love where we live and with a passion for walking and photography, found inspiration to base my novel in West Sussex. I am also active on social media, I write a blog and like networking with other authors. In 2017 I completed a mystery thriller series (Same Face Different Place), but have many ideas for books in the psychological suspense genre. LETHAL TIES is my first psychological thriller, a standalone novel and there is even a little romance woven into the pages.

Discover more about Helen Christmas and her work here:  Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Website

Review of Helen Christmas’ Visions

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Visions by Helen J. Christmas

The Blurb

Visions is a psychological thriller mystery set in rural England. The year is 1985. It’s been 12 years since Eleanor escaped London, discarding the fragments of her tragic past to discover a new life. She is hiding in a remote country village, a place where she truly believes she will be safe.

Her neighbour, James Barton-Wells is desperate to save his beautiful historic country house from ruin; but this has attracted the attention of a wealthy property developer from London whose seemingly altruistic offer to bankroll the restoration masks a sinister game plan. Jarred by suspicion, Eleanor consults her friend, Charles Bailey. Charlie has his own story – fearful that Perry Hampton is the man who undoubtedly ruined his future.

Against all odds, the characters are drawn together in a battle to save Westbourne House, oblivious to the menace that surrounds them. Yet it is not until Eleanor comes face to face with a deadly adversary, she finally understands the dangers that threatens those she loves.

Can Eleanor unravel the clues that conceal an evil crime from the 70s? This book will draw you into a world of suspense with shocking psychological twists you will never see coming…

Visions is book 2 of the ‘Same Face Different Place’ series. 

Genre: Thriller / Suspense / Psychological
Publisher: Chichester Publishing

Guest review by Amelia Thomas:

Visions’ is part two of the series, ‘Same Face Different Place’. I had enjoyed the first in the series, Beginnings that was set in the 1970s, and so I was looking forward to this, and discovering what happened next to Eleanor.

Time had moved on to the 1980s. It took me a while to get into the story once more as I got to grips with the time shift and how Eleanor had moved forward with her son, Elijah.

While some of the story is slower and more descriptive, it still had dramatic elements that gripped me and made me read on. The ending particularly picks up pace. With scenes of sex, crime, violence, and assault the novel can be graphic at times, but this is in the context of the action of the gangland criminals, of the time. I enjoyed the historical aspect of this novel and the references to the decade, which Helen Christmas adds in through the action of the story.

Click to buy the book.

Same Face Different Place, the series: Beginnings | Visions | Pleasures | Retribution Phase One | Retribution End Game (See my review of Beginnings here.)

About the author:

Helen J. Christmas lives on the south coast of Sussex with her husband. With a love of writing since childhood, she started her decade spanning thriller series Same Face Different Place in 2011. Her first book Beginnings, set in 1970s London, combines romantic suspense with a hard-hitting conspiracy thriller. Writing is something she juggles around family and social life.

Helen is self employed and enjoys running the web design company, she and her husband set up from home. They have no children but enjoy the company of a faithful border collie and a fluffy white cat. Helen confesses to have got most of her ideas for writing, whilst walking Barney along the beach.

Discover more about Helen J. Christmas and the Same Face Different Place Series here: website | blog | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Helen is also a member of the Chindi Authors group known for celebrating and helping independent authors.

Thank you, Helen!

Amelia’s review has been added to Amazon Uk x

Guest Post: Creating book trailers with Helen J Christmas

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To celebrate Helen Christmas being the Chindi Authors‘ Author of the Week, she is joining me on my blog to talk about creating book trailers for her thriller series, ‘Same Face Different Place’.

And so over to Helen …

“Making a trailer has been on my mind for a number of years, having been inspired by the YouTube trailers created by other authors, so here is the story behind my own.

“‘Beginnings’ the first book of my series ‘Same Face Different Place,’ combines a gripping crime thriller with a romantic suspense. I was trying to depict a dark and sinister atmosphere based on the criminal underworld of 1970s London.

“I took some photos in East London around the dockland area; for example one scene is a chase across the East End, where the two main characters, Jake and Eleanor, find sanctuary in a park for a while. I used this as my starting point, focusing on shady patches of trees, tunnels and bridges, just the type of places you would have to duck and dive if you had a criminal gang pursuing you. I also took photos of Waterloo Station, in which another exciting ‘ambush’ scene happens in the story.

“Next I needed a young couple to play the fated ‘Eleanor and Jake’ so asked my nieces (13 and 17 at the time) if they would step in, along with one of their male friends. Together we spent a fun afternoon doing the photo shoot. Carys wore a short black dress and boots, (just like Eleanor when she escapes with Jake from an East End brothel) and I even bought a long dark wig for effect.

“The next stage was to use photoshop, to superimpose the best shots onto a background, quite an engrossing task but worth it. Here are some of the pictures I used to make those images.

“Waterloo Station. One of the first scenes, showing ‘Eleanor’:

“My niece, Carys enacting the role (cut out using photoshop). The resulting scene of Eleanor’s capture:

“These stairs are actually from Morrison’s car park, Bognor. Scene of Eleanor escaping (I also had to create a shadow):

“So I had all my images worked out, the trailer script and the music. But the next part I struggled with. I tried using Flash to put it all together but this is old technology and the resulting YouTube video was very poor. The only solution I found was to make an image slider for my website with the same text and pictures, but this still couldn’t be published on YouTube.

“Finally, (some four years later) Carol and I met up in Haskins café and spent a most enjoyable morning creating the trailer in i-Movie.

“Carol showed me how she put together her trailer and so I’ll hand back to Carol to share the stages used to create a book trailer in iMovie …”

I use iMovie. It is easy to use on any Apple device, once you know how, and the end product is easy to download and share across social media channels.

The process (this is what works for me):

  1. Have the script prepared: A shorter version of the book blurb tends to work well as you will have already worked on that and prepared a piece of text to entice readers.
  2. Gather photographs that relate to the script: I use Istock or similar where I can create a board of pictures I think will work. I screen shot them to try them in place before I purchase them, otherwise expensive mistakes could be made. Of course you could use your own photographs (as Helen has) too, but they need to be good quality clear pictures.
  3. Have videos ready: I like to add bits of video as I think it brings the trailer to life. For the trailer for my first novel Crazy Over You, I purchased a bit of video I felt fitted well. For The Purrfect Pet  Sitter I was more prepared. I had recorded my dog running, a shot I knew I wanted to use, and had videoed the Littlehampton fireworks when researching the book. Video clips can be expensive and so using your own saves money.
  4. Select your music: There are many sites offering music suitable for trailers, search royalty free music.

Put it all into place:

  1. In iMovie select projects and movie (not trailer or theatre) and import the images and video.
  2. Once there, you can begin dragging and dropping the images into your movie; adjust the amount of time you want each to be shown and how you want them to appear, I like the movement created by using the ‘Ken Burns’ option on images. (I aim for the final trailer to be around a minute and a half).
  3. Use the text options to add captions to your photographs or to insert titles.
  4. Insert transitions to move smoothly between slides.
  5. For uploading to Amazon you need to have a still image that stays for a few seconds to start the trailer off; this will be your trailer thumbnail on your author page.
  6. Add your music and adjust timings of your clips and the piece of music to suit your trailer. You can trim the music to size, fade in and out and so forth.
  7. Having trouble? Do a Google Search for the problem you are encountering. There will be step by step guides and videos to help!
  8. Saving, downloading to your device and uploading to social media is easy with the share button.

Helen continues,

“Thus, after my cup of tea with Carol, by the end of the day, I had created my first ever book trailer for Beginnings and successfully uploaded it to YouTube.

“I had so much fun doing this and it was wonderful to get together with Carol and spend some time with her to create it. But I didn’t stop there. I was on a roll now and couldn’t wait to create another trailer for ‘Visions’, the second book of the series:

I didn’t use actors for this one but I did purchase a few stock images from 123RF.com. Eleanor is older in this story as depicted by the young woman walking up a hill and the movie is also little longer.

“Quite a few people have said the trailer makes them want to read the book which makes it a very worthwhile exercise. Book trailers are another useful marketing tool for authors and easy to share across social media as well as adding to your Amazon and Goodreads author profile.”

About Helen J. Christmas:

Helen is self employed and enjoys running the web design company, she and her husband set up from home. They have no children but enjoy the company of a faithful border collie and a fluffy white cat. Helen confesses to have got most of her ideas for writing, whilst walking Barney along the beach.

Discover more about Helen J. Christmas and the Same Face Different Place Series here: Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

To purchase books from the Same Face Different Place series: Beginnings | Visions | Pleasures | Retribution Phase One | Retribution End Game

Thank you, for sharing your experience of creating book trailers Helen and I am glad to have been able to help! Enjoy the rest of your time as Chindi Author of the Week. x

 

Review of Helen J. Christmas’ Beginnings

Book Review, Guest Post, , , , , , , , , , ,

Beginnings by Helen J. Christmas

The Blurb

Beginnings is a romantic thriller set in the criminal underworld of 1970s London. Eleanor Chapman is 16. She has no idea her father is employed in a world of organised crime until the day he is forced to go on the run, leaving her at the mercy of dangerous people.

Her life is spiralling out of control yet on the night she plans to escape, she stumbles across a mysterious prisoner. His name is Jake, a rock musician from Holland and he has a contract on his life.

Their daring escape across London eventually draws them into a place of hiding before Jake’s chilling story begins to unfold. He was the one vital witness to a sinister scene leading up to the death of a British MP and now those responsible want him silenced. As two young people, thrown together by fate they develop intense feelings for each other. It does not take long for Eleanor to realise that she will do anything possible to keep Jake alive.

Their tender love bond keeps you turning the pages as they live on a knife edge, desperate to escape London. Will they outrun the deadly enemies who stalk them? Or are the people at the top more powerful than they think?

Beginnings: Book 1 of the series “Same Face Different Place” a romantic British thriller through the decades.

Genre: Thriller / Romantic Thriller / YA

Publisher: Chichester Publishing

My review:

As you may have noticed, I generally read contemporary romances and romantic comedies so this romantic thriller was a departure from the norm for me and I have to say I really enjoyed it. The story was edgy, at times shocking, gave an intriguing insight into the criminal underworld of London in the 1970s and yet remained a romantic tale of two people desperate to survive their circumstances and be together.

All characters are portrayed well giving clear mental images of what each is like as the story unfolds like a film displayed before you; I willed Eleanor and Jake, the main characters, to find their escape and I recoiled from the particularly nasty villain Theakston (who by the end of the book becomes more complex than he first appears). And I liked the fact that amongst all the drama Eleanor finds support from characters whose warmth and kindness are evident.

The end of the book, for me, felt like a pause in the action, there is a shift in direction, mood and atmosphere, opposed to closure, which left me temporarily content with where the main characters were at, but wanting to know more. This must surely be the mark of a good opening novel to a series. I look forward to reading Visions, the next story in the Same Face Different Place series!

YA guest review by Amelia Thomas:

Beginnings was full of action and insight into a world I previously knew little about. I was interested to learn more about the gangs and violence in London during the 1970s – it was intriguing and at times horrifying. Theakston, the criminal, was a well written nasty character, with horrible ideas about how to hurt or murder people.

I was interested to see how, like today, newspapers could report incidents one way while the “reality” was more dramatic and far reaching. I liked Eleanor and Jake, the main characters. Eleanor, particularly, was strong and determined, I hope she continues to be as the series continues.

Click to buy the book.

About the author:

Helen J. Christmas lives on the south coast of England with her husband. She has a passion for gripping stories with strong characters. With a love of writing since childhood, she started her own series of books ‘Same Face Different Place’. Her first book ‘Beginnings’ is set in the 1970s: a London thriller entwined with romantic suspense. Helen finished her 2nd book, ‘Visions,’ in 2013: a 1980s psychological thriller set in the counties of London and Kent. Her 3rd book, ‘Pleasures’ was published in 2015 and new for 2017 comes the final instalment ‘Retribution’ in 2 parts.

Writing is something she juggles around her family and social life as well as running a web design company, she and her husband set up from home.

Discover more about Helen J. Christmas and the Same Face Different Place Series here: website | blog | Facebook | Twitter

Helen J. Christmas is also a member of the Chindi Authors group known for celebrating and helping independent authors.

Thank you for the great read Helen!

My reviews are added to Amazon UK and Goodreads x