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. ...