Anna Jones Buttimore

I've got a new book coming out shortly. It's called No Escape  and it's a romantic thriller about a newly widowed New York cop who tries to escape his grief by taking part in an exchange program and going to rural North Wales. There he meets a tough single mother who hates everyone and trusts no one, and finds himself charged with protecting her as she becomes embroiled in some nefarious activities through her drug-dealing brother. I started writing the book about fifteen years ago when I was working in an office next door to Bangor Police Station and met a couple of the drugs squad officers there. The book describes the local area in considerable detail and yesterday, mid-way through editing, I decided it would be fun to remind myself of the place I lived for so long via Google maps. You can imagine my disappointment as I discovered that the police station, bus station and Students' Union, which all feature heavily in the book, are no longer there. In fact, where the...

My next book, No Escape, is due to be published within the next couple of weeks, so I'm busy editing it at the moment with the help of my wonderful editor, Linda, at Walnut Springs Press. I started writing  No Escape  in 1993 or 1994, I think. I was working as an Estate Agent (realtor) next door to the police station in Bangor, North Wales. A couple of the drugs squad officers would occasionally drop in to look at the houses available and we - my colleagues Debbie and Karen and I - got to know them. I can't remember how it happened but Debbie came up with an idea for a book involving a Welsh woman and a New York cop on exchange to Bangor, and I started writing it. (You may be interested to know that I promised Debbie I'd pay off her mortgage with the royalties. Unfortunately with so many years elapsed from inspiration to publication I suspect her mortgage is long since paid. Sorry, Debbie!) In many ways editing is the most fun part of writing because the difficult par...

I've gone and done something reckless and foolhardy. I've signed up to NaNoWriMo for the first time. For those not in the know, that's National Novel Writing Month. It should probably be called IntNoWriMo because there is a group right here in Essex holding parties and write-ins in the local library. Last year I resisted joining because I thought it was an American thing, but it seems that across the world there are people who have committed to write a full 50,000 word novel in a month. Gulp. Now that I write it that seems like an awful lot. I should have signed up for Movember instead, it would probably be easier. It's not the most convenient month for me, you see, because I will have to spend the first few days of it editing my forthcoming novel, No Escape. And I'm trying to finish two cross-stitch baby samplers for a friend. And I have a job, two blogs and three children, and a weekend away booked, and...  well, it's going to be tough, but I am determin...