Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
I appear to be running a bit behind this week all the way round – it wasn’t until nearly a half hour *ahead!* of #SatBookChat where I was finally able to ‘announce’ our featured guest Angela Wren – of whom writes the dramatic crime series #JacquesForet whilst having a dual propensity for crafting stories of romance in a collaborative anthological series featuring Miss Moonshine! I found this duality of writing interest to be rather fascinating inasmuch as I was thankful that despite signal boosting the chat today rather late in the hour, we had a lovely turnout of guests who came to chat, share & celebrate Ms Wren’s writings!
My co-host Juli isn’t able to join us each weekend which is why this #SatBookChat was extra sweet as she was able to come through and pepper our discussion with solid questions & enquiries whilst helping to engage our visitors & regular chatters alike! I love when she can co-host with me as I feel it adds a lovely additional dimension to where the conversations can take us all.
You’ll be able to see which questions were pitched to Ms Wren and what our individual observations were as soon as you’ve had the chance to visit the “Moment’ where I’ve left the conversation in our ‘archives’. I’ve recently discovered this advantage to using Moments on Twitter as previously I had to regrettably lose our archives when Nurph & Storify were cancelled. It is my intention to bring back as many of the chats as I can locate and re-share them through Moments.
For now, all six of our conversations for Autumn 2019 are featured and are LIVE to be read, responded too and appreciated. I always encourage regular chatters & new chatters alike to take a moment to visit our archives as if you did participate in one of the chats, it is a lovely refresher whilst if you haven’t yet had the pleasure of chatting with us – you can gain a footing towards becoming introduced to how their hosted and how you can start to participate. The best advice I can share is remember to add our tag #SatBookChat to your tweets and just have fun!
Without further adieu,
I give you my first “#SatBookChat spotlight”
wherein you can learn a bit more about the author & her series;
as well as where to find the archived chat we shared!
A spate of abductions and subsequent deaths in nearby départements have Investigator, Jacques Forêt, perplexed. Returning from extended leave to the news of a local kidnapping, Jacques is on the case immediately. And this time it’s personal.
But the case isn’t Jacques’ only worry. He has become more and more concerned about Beth, but what can he do if she doesn’t let him help her?
The investigation into the murders takes him and his trusted assistant, Didier Duclos, to Marseille. Can Jacques find the kidnappers and release their captive before another body is added to the list of unexplained murders?
It’s a race against time.
Marseille is the fourth instalment in the bestselling Jacques Forêt Mystery series.
The Jacques Forêt Mysteries:
Messandrierre (book one)
Merle (book two)
Montbel (book three)
Marseille (book four)
→ As revealled in #SatBookChat,
there are a potential 8x Mysteries in this series!
As you know, #SatBookChat generally focuses more on Women’s Fiction & Romance novels – featuring strong women and their lives; as well as dipping into all the lovely sub-genres & niches of interest which run the gambit between these two concentrated focuses of our chats. However, sometimes I do blur the lines a bit – especially if I want to focus more on stories of Mystery, Suspense and/or Thriller – yet, what stood out to me with today’s featured guest is how Ms Wren has a duality of interest which straddles both the Mystery side of the ledger (even though she has a male lead character) and the lighter side of Romance with Miss Moonshine. To me, that was enough of a twist to discuss as not every writer is moving between genres and writing both with the same dedicated eye for detail and continuity.
Wren happily addressed questions being fielded to her about both series – wherein we learnt a great deal about not just what inspired her to begin writing the Jacques Forêt Mysteries but how she conceived of the title character! I especially had a good chuckle of that revelation because of the way she painted the scene in how it happened and what she did immediately after realising it!
She filled #SatBookChat with these lovely antidotes from her writerly life – sharing keen insight into the setting & atmosphere of her Mysteries whilst also fielding questions about her thoughts about the inclusivity of red herrings for example.
We had regular chatters and new chatters alike asking their Qs throughout the chat – where I believe everyone had a better understanding of this French based Mysteries series and were equally attracted to how it was being written. I must say though – the excitement was at a fever pitch when Ms Wren let it slip that this series is cross compared to both “Midsomer Murders” and “Chocolat” – to where I think there was a collective sigh of glee as clearly these were a shared favourite interest with nearly everyone in attendance!
Being that the Moonshine stories are collaboratively written, we also learnt how this project was put together and how they maintain the continuity. The very last revelation came towards the end of the #SatBookChat hour wherein we learnt Ms Wren is writing a few spookified stories and I for one will be keeping alert towards news of those!
If you’ve missed this exciting chat and convo, be sure to visit our Moments page and tuck into the archived transcript to see what was revealled and a bit more about this Mystery novelist! May the conversation inspire you to read the novels and find a new hero of crime fighting to champion!
About Angela Wren
Having followed a career in Project and Business Change Management, I now work as an Actor and Director at a local theatre. I’ve been writing, in a serious way, since 2010. My work in project management has always involved drafting, so writing, in its various forms, has been a significant feature throughout my adult life.
I particularly enjoy the challenge of plotting and planning different genres of work. My short stories vary between contemporary romance, memoir, mystery and historical. I also write comic flash-fiction and have drafted two one-act plays that have been recorded for local radio. The majority of my stories are set in France where I like to spend as much time as possible each year.
This Angela Wren Spotlight is connected with the chat I hosted via @satbookchat featuring this lovely author on 19th October, 2019. The press Materials are courtesy of:
Angela Wren
{SOURCES: Book cover for “Marseille” as well as the author biography and author photograph of Angela Wren were all provided by the author Angela Wren and are used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: #SatBookChat featured guest Angela Wren badge, #SatBookChat Archives are Live badge and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2019.
Leave a Reply