Writing The Raven’s Mark

By Christie J. Newport

Before I started writing The Raven’s Mark I attended in person and online courses about police procedure, forensics, and crime scene investigation with people like ex detective Graham Bartlett, scientist Brian Price and working CSI Kate Bendelow. All three are published authors. I also read books on things such as interview techniques and the psychology of murderers. The purpose of doing all this was to give myself a base knowledge before writing from the point of view of a detective. I wanted my book to have a level of authenticity that was recognisable without compromising the story.

Initially, The Raven’s Mark had nothing to do with a raven whatsoever, the victim had been branded but the mark seared into her flesh wasn’t a raven. Nevertheless, I began telling Detective Beth Fellow’s story and everything else unfolded from there. I set the crime up then considered what logical steps an investigation would take. I thought about what decisions I would make, what boxes I’d need to tick, what avenues I’d need to explore. Considering that I wanted to be a detective when I was young and still find the role fascinating – it was an interesting experiment, and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

I wrote The Raven’s Mark without a plan as generally speaking I would consider myself a Pantser – as in I write by the seat of my pants. The last book I worked on was so complex with varying timelines I did do some planning and I owe Alexandra Sokoloff a thank you for showing me how. I also owe Diane Chamberlain for recommending Alex’s method to me. That’s the nature of writing – there are constantly ways to improve and people you can learn from.

The Raven’s Mark however came into being very organically. I somehow managed to write the entire first draft in just three weeks. I don’t think I am likely to ever repeat that timeline but wow, what a wonderful thing. Of course, then came the redrafts – for instance the introduction of the brand being that of a raven. My characters at some stage jump free of the computer and start telling me their story. Beth and her team did this very quickly. It’s important to me that all these characters have a full and interesting back story so I ‘interview my characters’ and I develop their story – their history. Even if it doesn’t make it onto the page in book one or book twenty-one, it’s there and it informs who they are at present and who they will become.

The raven came about because I wanted the brand to mean something more, I wanted to give the reader a challenge – clues to follow. We all like to play detective when we read a book or watch a TV show that’s centred around a mystery – well with The Raven’s Mark I have ensured the reader has a shot at figuring it out. At the same time, I don’t make it easy, but I do (hopefully) make it interesting and compelling.
Beth and her team are reflective of multicultural and diverse Britain. Beth is a lesbian, mixed race, northern, female detective – like me she is about as diverse as you can get. Then there is Millie, Amer, Antonio, Aaliyah who are all in one way or another diverse. Positive representation is vital to a thriving multi-cultural country. It’s so important to see yourself reflected in books, the media, television. I hope that The Raven’s Mark offers readers an opportunity to enter the world of these characters and be entertained, I also hope readers who wouldn’t necessarily see themselves in books enjoy the experience.

I set The Raven’s Mark in Preston, Lancashire because it’s where I was born and where I grew up. Not only is it a big help to write about a place you already know but it gave me the opportunity to place my home city into a novel. There are real places in the book but the police station where Beth works and the houses where terrible things occur are fictional. While the police building Beth works at comes from my imagination the setting certainly doesn’t. I have basically positioned the building in an area I know well.

For me a big part of the writing process is letting the scenes play out in my mind until I get that epiphany moment and it all falls magically into place. Quite often this happens when I am trying to sleep! Other times I will sit beside the ocean, just listening to the waves lapping against the shore, the seagulls calling – the general quietness and solitude it affords me allows my mind the space to be filled with Beth’s world. I also find driving a good distraction from everything else, which again allows me to enter Beth’s world more freely. Once these scenes become clear it’s about crafting the chapters so that they are written in a way that drives the story forward, develops the characters and has the reader dying to know what happens next.

I once heard Lisa Jewell say that she wants her readers to get to the end of a chapter and be eager to read the next, so much so their bedside lamp stays on well into the night. I took that advice on board and try to achieve the same thing.

Writing The Raven’s Mark has been fun and exciting – winning the inaugural Joffe Books Prize with Dorothy Koomson being one of the judges who voted for The Raven’s Mark – well that was a dream come true.

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THE RAVEN’S MARK

Meet Detective Beth Fellows in this brand-new mystery from Joffe Books Prize winner Christie J. Newport that will have you gripped from start to explosive finish.

A brutal murder.
A raven tattoo.
A twisted killer has returned.
And Detective Beth Fellows cannot fail again . . .

Detective Chief Inspector Beth Fellows is thrown into the biggest case of her career: the brutal murder of Rose Danes. She quickly realizes Rose’s murder is linked to a cold case she investigated two years previously. The victim, fourteen-year-old Celine Wilson, survived but now languishes in a coma.

Both girls were branded with the image of a raven.

The only lead is a vague description and a first name, Simon.

Beth’s convinced he’s the killer. Especially when she receives a mobile phone containing one sole contact, Simon — and a warning to tell no one.

Then a key witness is kidnapped and Beth finds herself in a race against time to stop the killer before he can kill again.

She’s breaking all the rules to play his game. But will it be enough?

Fans of Helen Fields, Nadine Matheson, Helen H. Durrant, Noelle Holten, Rachel MacLean, Caro Ramsay and Dorothy Koomson will devour this page-turning crime thriller.

BUY HERE

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing