PINTEREST
BLOGLOVIN
GOODREADS
Published by Zaffre
Ebook and Paperback : 16 November 2017
448 pages
I’m thrilled to be hosting today’s blog tour for The Perfect Victim on its publication day and delighted to welcome Corrie Jackson to the blog with a guest post, talking about her writing space.
Where I write
by Corrie Jackson
At a fashion magazine you learn to write anywhere, anyhow. On photo shoots and planes, in taxis and hotel rooms. With one eye on the computer, the other on the hot movie star kicking back on the editor’s sofa. You write while the sound system pumps out the latest chart-topper, and while your mad colleagues entertain the office with comedy-gold anecdotes. Life on a fashion magazine is loud, fast and colourful. A world where you’re one step away from an A-list impromptu visit (Kanye West’s fly-by still has the GLAMOUR staffers LOL-ing, but that’s another story…)
When I left my role as Assistant Editor at GLAMOUR to move to Los Angeles with my husband and son, I figured I was due some peace and quiet. I was embarking on a grown-up project: Writing. A. Book. So I carved out a space in our 1930s Santa Monica house; a sun-dappled room with floor-to-ceiling windows where I watched hummingbirds dart and dive against the Californian sky. The office was perfect.
Too perfect.
The silence was deafening. It was the first time I could hear myself think and the words wouldn’t come. Exchanging the buzz of a creative office to a solo project was far tougher than I imagined. For the first time, there was no collaboration, no one to bounce ideas off. Just me, in a room with a computer. I soon retreated to a noisy café on the corner where, surrounded by LA’s craziest characters, the words began to flow.
Then, midway through my first book, something happened. I found myself fully immersed in the world I’d created. Suddenly the buzz became distracting. I needed to turn off the voices around me so that I could hear the voices in my head. One day, I returned to my little office filled with sunlight and the scent of jasmine, and my brain had space to think.
Since then I’ve moved to the East Coast of America, to a ranch-style house just outside New York City. I’ve claimed a room for myself, with wraparound windows overlooking the woods. It’s a place where the hustle and bustle of two small kids and a dog can’t reach me. I’ve learnt to trust the silence. My desk is fairly uncluttered. A few personal photographs; beautiful stationery from my favourite Los Angeles store and a scented candle (you can take the girl out of magazines…) My shelf is littered with reference books as well my first-ever collection of Sherlock Holmes stories (I have several: my Arthur Conan Doyle obsession started young). Perched on my desk is a framed print, baring the words: It’s up to you. Which sums up the whole writing process, really. No one but me can create the next character, plot point or sentence. There are no colleagues, no brainstorms, no Hollywood hunks. Just me, in a room with a computer.
And there’s something quite beautiful about that.
| About the Book |
For fans of Nicci French and Sophie Hannah, Corrie Jackson’s explosive new thriller will leave you questioning how far you would go for friendship.
Charlie and Emily Swift are the Instagram-perfect couple: gorgeous, successful and in love. But then Charlie is named as the prime suspect in a gruesome murder and Emily’s world falls apart.
Desperate for answers, she turns to Charlie’s troubled best friend, London Herald journalist, Sophie Kent. Sophie knows police have the wrong man – she trusts Charlie with her life.
Then Charlie flees.
Sophie puts her reputation on the line to clear his name. But as she’s drawn deeper into Charlie and Emily’s unravelling marriage, she realises that there is nothing perfect about the Swifts.
As she begins to question Charlie’s innocence, something happens that blows the investigation – and their friendship – apart.
Now Sophie isn’t just fighting for justice, she’s fighting for her life.
| About the author |
Corrie Jackson has been a journalist for fifteen years and has worked at Harpers Bazaar, The Daily Mail, Grazia and Glamour. She has lived in London and Los Angeles, and now resides just outside New York with her husband and two children.
Author Links:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Amazon UK | Goodreads
