Stephanie Cage - Writer

This week I'm taking a break from blogging my novel to chat with friend and crime writer Angela Wren.  Angela, you’re a member of both the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Crime Writers’ Association, and your books have elements of both crime and romance to them. What drew you to these two very different genres, and how do you balance them in your stories? Accident times 2 drew me to these genres! Once I’d made up my mind that I could write a full novel it just so happened that my idea for that story was built around a romance. Being a member of the RNA gave me access to the New Writers’ Scheme and Le Cerisier – the name of that particular work – was submitted twice. My second story also involved a romance but intrigue too. That was submitted to the NWS twice and came back the second time with some comments about balancing the story across the two different genres. I started my third novel, Messandrierre, which I had always known was a dark tale, but I could no...

As Jason Jackson-Jones' daughter lies in the operating theatre after a car accident, possibly caused by his own firm's faulty parts, he's finally forced to admit how wrong things are going.  But has his honesty come too late to save his marriage? Jason stood watching as Terri’s hand, in apparent slow motion, came up towards his face. It seemed he would have had all the time in the world to move and block her, but starting a physical fight with his wife in the emergency room would be embarrassing, to say the least, and besides, he dimly felt at some level that the blow was deserved. Maybe if he stood there and took it, the blow might diffuse some of the anger and guilt that had been bubbling in him below the surface of his mind ever since this sorry business with the steel quality started. The slap stung more than he’d expected, and he reflexively brought his hand to his cheek and pressed it there as he watched Terri lower her hand and stare at him. She couldn’t ha...

In last week's instalment we followed Jason's daughter Jess to a theatre rehearsal in her friend Bethany's new car... and disaster struck.  This week it's back to Jason and Terri to see how they will cope with the news.  "I wonder if Jess will get the part she wants," Terri said. Jason jumped and looked up from the newspaper he'd been staring at for the past five minutes. "Hmm?" "I said, I wonder if Jess will get her part." "I expect so," Jason said, sounding faintly irritated, and went back to staring at the page. There was a long silence. Terri thought about putting the TV on, but wasn't in the mood for mindless noise. She picked up a magazine from the coffee table and leafed through it. She'd read it already, earlier that day, but there was some comfort in looking at the familiar pictures and the daft headlines that promised to solve all her problems in three, seven or ten easy steps. ...

After a week's intermission, The Crash is back.  This week, we leave Jason and Brad working on their improvements to the car part manufacturing process, and spend some time instead with Jason's teenaged daughter, Jess.   "Nice," Jess said, walking around Bethany's shiny, pink new car and taking in the alloy wheels, the body-coloured wing mirrors and bumper, the parking sensors and the complicated stereo. She was, after all, her father's daughter. Where most of her friends noticed only their colour, she knew cars. And this was one to envy. "Come on," Chloe said, tapping her fingers on her mock-Gucci handbag as she waited for her friend to finish admiring the vehicle, and get inside. "OK, OK," Jess agreed, taking a careful step inside. The car was a little too small for her to get into easily, and her new cream high heels made it awkward stepping over the sill, but once inside, she could stretch out comfortably. "Re...

This week in 'The Crash', Jason Jackson-Jones may not be showing signs of weakness, but he's certainly feeling them.  The allegations of a Sheffield journalist make him realise that a crash may be imminent... in every sense of the word! In the car driving home, Jason kept remembering the conversation with Peter.   Funny that, of all the things that had happened over the course of the day, including the triumphant reversal of Jepsons' intention to cancel their contract, and the apparent abdication of his receptionist, it was the brief and entirely predictable conversation with his old adversary that had snagged on the hook of his thoughts and refused to come unstuck.   As he sat at the traffic lights watching the queue of people waiting for the Hillsborough tram, he found Peter's words echoing in his mind.   "If you know something, you'd do better to come clean than cover it up." Well, Peter would say that.   He'd like nothing better t...