Today I am very excited to have the opportunity to chat with a new author to JOFFE BOOKS PUBLISHING. Chris Clement-Green is the author of SHE WILL RESCUE YOU which is a brilliant read I couldnt put down.
Hello Chris, welcome to Joffe Books. Congratulations on a brilliant book I am sure it will do well.
Could you please tell us a little about yourself and your writing?
I’ve always enjoyed writing, I remember writing a long story about a white horse when I was eleven and calling it ‘my first book’, but after school life took over and the only writing I did was in the form of police reports!
I left the police in 2000 to pursue a new career as a competitive dressage rider, before changing tack once again and starting university as ‘a mature student’ where studied drama. It was at Lincoln University that I joined my first writing group and they encouraged me to enter my first writing competition – the 2007 NAWG prize. You can imagine my utter surprise when I won the short story/monologue class with ‘Pebbles’ – an internal monologue involving a woman committing suicide on a deserted beach. This win encouraged me to undertake the Open University Creative Writing and Advanced Creative Writing programmes, which was followed in 2013 by an MA at Bath Spa University.
I was the only student to undertake a life-writing manuscript on that course, completing a memoir about my first ten years in Thames Valley Police. At the launch of the MA Anthology in London, I was told by many publishers and agents that although they liked my writing, there was no market for non-celebrity memoirs. Fortunately Mirror Books did not agree and when I answered an open submission call by them in 2017, they signed up my MA manuscript ‘Into the Valley’ within 24hrs!
What is your work schedule like when you’re writing?
I have always been fortunate that during my MA year and while writing ‘She Will Rescue You’, my debut novel, I was free to write whenever I wanted to, with no other people or commitments to work around. During these times I used to write in bed from 7-10am before walking my dogs, and then return to writing at the kitchen table for as long as I wanted. When in the zone I can write for 6 hrs straight without even a cup of tea, but on other days I don’t even open my laptop, but spend the time walking and thinking. I’ve never suffered from writer’s block, but with the exception of completion entries I’ve never had to meet deadlines either!
What gave you the idea for She Will Rescue you?
The idea for ‘She Will Rescue You’ came from a police incident recorded in my memoir about catching two badger baiters red handed. They had made the mistake of parking their car on land belonging to royalty. When they returned to their vehicle with a live badger, armed protection officers were waiting for them. I remember thinking as I arrested these men that I would like to do more than arrest them, I would like to give them a piece of their own medicine, and Ellie was born right then and there. I also recreate this incident in the novel, where the baiters do indeed get far more than a court appearance.
Is animal rescue something that is very close to your heart?
I love animals more than most humans, always have and always will. I worked closely with RSPCA on one or two police cases, and they are the sole beneficiaries of my will.
What do you have planned next for your readers?
I am currently working on another fictionalisation of a real event recorded in ‘Into the Valley’, where a black youth saved my life during a race riot in Oxford. ‘Rage Hard’ is set in Thatcher’s Britain and looks at all the ‘isms’ at play in the police force at that time, creating a Romeo and Juliet scenario between a white WPC and a black youth with a criminal record. I suppose it’s another police procedural with another very unlikely partnership.
Thank you for talking with us today. Good luck with the new release and we look forward to more great books in the future.
SHE WILL RESCUE YOU by Chris Clement-Green
Available from AMAZON
TWO WOMEN ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE LAW WILL DO ALMOST ANYTHING FOR WHAT THEY CARE ABOUT
Dr Mia Langley is a criminal forensic psychologist working for the National Crime Agency. Elegant, intelligent, and ambitious but lonely. She works among society’s darkest minds in perpetrator profiling.
A man is murdered in a Norfolk turkey shed. Just another violent incident or something more?
Ellie Grant is a lonely young woman. She works for minimum wage at an animal shelter and nurses a simmering hatred for all those who abuse animals.
When she “finds” a winning lottery ticket, she face a terrible choice: use the money for what she believes in or give the ticket back to its rightful owner.
THE TWO WOMAN WILL BECOME LOCKED IN A BATTLE WHICH WILL TEST ALL THEIR BELIEFS. HOW FAR WILL EACH OF THEM GO?
And both women fall in love with the same man.
WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?
Discover a race-against-time thriller which will have you gripped from the first page to the last.
THE AUTHOR
Chris(tine) Clement-Green retired from Thames Valley Police after sixteen years as a uniform sergeant followed by five as a civilian investigator on serious and organised crime teams in Humberside and Wiltshire – which included working on several murder incident rooms and national drug operations. She is the author of the memoir, “Into the Valley.”
Link to my book review blog
Chris Clement-Green Author Bio
I retired from Thames Valley Police after sixteen years as a uniform sergeant followed by five as a civilian investigator on serious and organised crime teams in Humberside and Wiltshire – which included working on several murder incident rooms.
My serious writing started in 2007 when I entered the National Association of Writer’s Groups annual short story competition. It was my first competition so I was astonished to win with Pebbles. This win encouraged me to undertake the Open University Creative Writing and Advanced Creative Writing courses, which I completed with distinction. In 2013 I was accepted onto the prestigious Bath Spa University Creative Writing MA, where I completed a humorous but gritty life-writing manuscript Into the Valley which was subsequently published by Mirror Books in 2017.
I have had several articles and letters published in national UK magazines, most notably Writing Magazine, and in September 2016 I was published in The New Guard Volume V a literary journal based in New York. I have also been short listed in the Literature Works First Page Writing Prize and in several Writing Magazine competitions. In 2016 my fantasy short story, Layla, was published in Divinity Fantasia Magazine and I won the Oriel Davis Prose Competition with Cosmic Tiger and was also a finalist in the Women in Comedy Festival with my monologue Queenie. This year my article Food for Thought was runner up in the Scribble annual article completion, and I co-wrote a piece on the subject of Mentoring with James McCreet which was published on the 6th September 2018.
My recently completed debut novel She Will Rescue You is being published on the 30th May 2019 by Joffe Books and I am currently working on a new crime novel – Rage Hard which is another police procedural set in Oxford revolving around a white WPC and black criminal during the race riots of Thatcher’s Britain.
I also run tutored and untutored writing retreats from my home in mid Wales – thewelshwritingshed.co.uk
