For the first five years of my life I lived opposite my Nan and Granddad in Bethnal Green, East London. We – my mum, dad and sister - left to live on a council estate in Essex but they remained behind. So I would go back a lot. Back to Bethnal Green. Back to Roman Road and to Holman House.

That period of my life is seared into my memory. The feelings, the images, and the sounds are all stored deep in my brain. I had a great childhood on Harold Hill, but the times spent with my Nan were special. She created a world that I loved to be in. A world of impossible stories, of tales from the war years, of trips ‘up the other end’ (the west-end of London) of endless cups of tea, of cakes and sweets and good times.

My Nan’s world had that other precious quality that (I realise now) most adults don’t have in theirs.

Time.

And she’d spend it willingly with me. It wasn’t hard for her. She didn’t have to force it. It was what she loved to do.

I can’t remember how old I was when my Granddad died but she never recovered from that. Not fully. Our world was changed too. She tried to recreate it like it was but something was off. It was broken somehow.

When I got older I worked in the city of London. On the edge of the east-end. A few hundred yards from the old Spitalfields market where my Grandad worked for fifty years. By then the market had moved to Leyton and the site was abandoned. It had not yet become the new Covent Garden it is today, so it was grey and empty and cold. I would go there in my lunchtimes. Just to walk around, to look at buildings, to imagine what went on for all those years. Then I’d return to the office feeling deflated and empty. Like I’d lost something.

And I had. I’d lost a chunk of the past.

That’s why place is important to me. I was aware after finishing Kill&Cure and certain after writing Dead Innocent that the city/east-end setting was an attempt to recreate my Nan’s world. Visiting those streets in my head, remembering the bustle of it, the smells of it and the feel of it is a way of connecting with her.

I desperately want to find her again.

I hope I succeed.

I hope too that you take a chance on Dead Innocent. Kill&Cure became a ♯1 bestseller both here and in the USA. As a thank-you to the thousands of you who downloaded it, we’ve kept Dead Innocent to under a dollar. You can get it here:

Dead Innocent (Kindle USA)Dead Innocent (Kindle UK)

Kill&Cure (Kindle USA)Kill&Cure (Kindle UK) 

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading my novels. Let me know how you get on.

Sounds like the name of a good thriller doesn't it? Might use that one.

In fact it's what I've just had removed from my arm pits. I didn't need them removed by the way,  they weren't catching on clothing or bleeding when I washed 'mi pits or anything as worthy as that. Oh no. I did for vanity. Plain and simple. Didn't like the look of 'em when I lifted my arms, so I got the doc to lop the buggers off.

I've got a reputation to upkeep. Didn't you know?

What's this got to do with thrillers, I hear you ask. Well, what about the fact that we - authors - lop off stuff from our writing (during the edits) that we have previously clung on to. Will that do? Stuff we've held to our breasts and our arm pits through most of the re-writes. Stuff that we loved - the paragraph written so pleasingly, the scene so cool that it gave us a warm glow. Except it doesn't take the piece forward. It's just there for no other purpose than it is there.

It's a skin tag folks!

I write pacy thrillers. They move at a million miles an hour (did I say a million? Two million, I meant two million); they are F.A.S.T. So we can't have bits that are surplus to, can we?

 'Course not.

Now leave me alone while I change the dressing on my surgical wounds.

xx

Writing this novel was a dream and darn hard work. Or maybe a hard working dream. The urge to create somethng from nothing, to manifest (bit new age that I know) something in the physical realm from a thought or an idea, a nugget of something intangible from the spiritual realm is the biggest buzz you can have.

I'm serious.

I don't care if its a new thriller book, a business, a community, a science protocol...whatever gets you excited is what you must create NOW.

And that's the idea isn't it? To get excited.

If you're excited about an idea and you don't know what to do next. I don't care what it is. If I can help, I will.

Now enough preaching for today. I'm off to take some tablets.

xx

P.S,. Checkout my other bloggy-blog: www.stephendavison.wordpress.com

Who are you like?

That's what you get asked when people realise you've written a book.

'Er..not sure,' used to be my response but not now. Nah, not ever now because, be-cause people - all of us - need drawers to put things in or hooks to hang things on or, or... errrr... pigeon holes! that's it; pigeon holes to place things into. They want to position you. It settles them. So now I say stuff like, 'Oh, James Patterson,' or sometime if I'm feeling particularly bold: 'My books are like Dan Brown.' Then I nod decisively in case I seem less than convinced.

Who am I like? God knows. I wish I had the courage of the great Elvis P, who told a producer "I don't sound like nobody" when asked a similar question.

See ya anon.

P.S. Get the thriller novel Kill&Cure Freeeeeeeee! by going to www.stephendavisononline.com

What's the intention? This is the question. In a novel the intention for it - the novel - must be defined, specific, achievable and must never be diluted. I'm not talking about plots or characterisation or scenes or any of that stuff. I'm talking about the feel, the pace, the sense, the smell of it. That's the intention. Intention for any creation must be arrived at, stuck to and followed until it has been completed. Easier said than done.
Should it be free? Oh that's another question entirely. This idiot thinks that perhaps it should. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifYYoXYN0zs

The idea of giving away a free copy of one's book is not new. It just rarely happens to a book that has just been published in the conventual way. People are always searching for good thriller books to read its true, thing is they usually pay for it! Well things have changed- the internet has seen to that. The way we want to access stuff - information, entertainment, news - has changed. We can get news whenever we want and don't have to buy a paper to do so. We can listen to any tune we please and not have to pay or leave our homes to get it, we can virtually buy whatever we want at the click of a button.

None of this is new. It's just getting bigger.

So why not give away Kill&Cure? Why not indeed. It is fast, smart and it twists. If you enjoy books by James Patterson or John Grisham, you will love it. I promise.

Stephen

P.S. Go to www.stephendavisononline.com to start the download. Oh, and enjoy!

Having a chitty-chat with the publishers a few weeks ago and I had an idea about Kill&Cure.  

'An idea like what?' they asked.

'An idea like giving the book away free,' I replied.

'Are you mad?'

'Me? Nah....'

Here's the thinking. You don't know who I am, right?

Right.

So why would you buy Kill&Cure when you can just as easily buy an Alex Cross novel, or something by Brown or Grisham, right?

Now then, the clever bit: if you go to www.stephendavisononline.com and tell me who you are and where in the world you are from, then you can get it for free. Check out the YouTube vid too - it'll give you all the info.

You heard it here first.

Keep being asked about this review. It does appear on this website elsewhere but is obviously difficult for you to find! Here's the link:

http://kimbofo.typepad.com/readingmatters/2009/05/kill-cure-by-stephen-davison.html

Nice piece in the BG. Have a gander...