My Dream Author Panel @sarah_hilary @peterjamesuk @helencadbury @sarahrward1

I'm sure that most of you will have come across Eventbrite if you've attended conferences or events over the past few years. Lots of the author events that I've been have used Eventbrite as a way for attendees to book tickets really easily.  If you are organising your own event, their Conference Management Page is a fabulous tool to create a custom, branded event page, register and track your attendees, and boost sales with their built-in social tools.

So, I thought I'd have a go at planning my 'Dream Author Panel'.  I hope you enjoy it, and wouldn't it be fabulous if it really happened?

Sarah Ward

I wanted to create a Crime Author Panel, talking to authors who have created a police series, and picked out four of my current favourite writers, and their fictional detectives. I decided that another crime author should be the Chair of the panel, I picked Sarah Ward, author of In Bitter Chill and A Deadly Thaw (Faber) as I've attended a few of her panels in the past, and she's great!

Sarah Hilary: creator of The Marnie Rome series, published by Headline. Someone Else's Skin won the 2015 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and was a Silver Falchion and Macavity Award finalist in the US. No Other Darkness was a Barry Award finalist. Tastes Like Fear is out now, and Quieter Than Killing is out on 9 March 2017

Top:  Peter James & Sarah Hilary     Bottom:  Helen Cadbury & Peter Robinson

Peter James: creator of the Inspector Roy Grace series, set in Brighton and published by Pan Macmillan. 11 consecutive Sunday Times No Ones, published in 37 languages, as well as being a New York Times bestseller. His DS Roy Grace crime novels have sold 18 million copies worldwide. Prior to becoming a full-time author, he was responsible for 25 movies. In 1994 Penguin published his novel, Host, on two floppy discs as the world’s first electronic novel. His novels have won numerous awards, most recently the coveted 2016 CWA Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence, and he was publicly voted by WHSmith readers The Best Crime Author Of All Time.

Peter Robinson: creator of the DCI Banks series, set in Yorkshire and published by Hodder. Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire, and now divides his time between Richmond and Canada. Peter has written twenty-two books in the bestselling DCI Banks series as well as two collections of short stories and three standalone novels, the most recent of which is Number One bestseller BEFORE THE POISON. The critically acclaimed crime novels have won numerous awards in Britain, the United States, Canada and Europe, and are published in translation all over the world. 

Helen Cadbury: creator of the Sean Denton series, set in Doncaster and published by Allison and Busby. Helen Cadbury is a British crime fiction author, poet and playwright, whose debut novel, To Catch a Rabbit, won the Northern Crime Award, was an Amazon Rising Star, and was chosen as one of the Yorkshire Post’s top novels, since the millennium, to reflect the region.

There's the line-up, now where should we hold this dream panel?  I'm going to drag the authors all the way over here to Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, because we have the perfect venue! The Old Nick in the town centre, as the name suggests, this building is the old police station. It's now the home of the Gainsborough Theatre Company, but it has kept much of the original features, with a courtroom and a cell ..... perfect!

And, so, to the questions to ask this fine collection of very talented authors ....  The panel discussions that I've enjoyed the most, have always been fairly organic. Beginning with a question and then rolling into a general conversation ... I love that, it's like a group of friends, sitting together and having a chat. Sarah Ward is especially good at chairing these sorts of discussions, but she still keeps the panelists in check!   Here's a few of things that I'd love to find out, and for these authors to chat about:

Do you ever regret starting a series?  Do you get fed up of your lead character, and ever feel like killing them off?

How many characters have you murdered over the course of your series?

Did you ever consider joining the police force yourself?

What scares you?

Has a book (written by someone else) ever given you nightmares?

Is writing crime fiction just a cover for your own psychopathic tendencies??? 

I really really want to know the answers to those questions .... especially the last one!

I hope you've enjoyed my Dream Author Panel - who would you choose?

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