Children In Chains

Detective Inspector Paolo Sterling is determined to shut down the syndicate flooding Bradchester’s streets with young prostitutes.

When a child is murdered, Paolo becomes aware of a sinister network of abusers spread across Europe, and spanning all levels of society. But Joey, the shadowy leader of the gang, always seems to be one step ahead in the chase.

Has Paolo come up against a criminal he cannot defeat?

Author Q&A

I am on the blog tour for the third book in the series, so I was excited to get to know the author prior to reading the next book.

Q1: What inspired you to write Children in Chains?

Children in Chains deals with one of the worst crimes I can think of – trafficking children. I had to carry out a lot of upsetting research to make sure my facts were correct, but the more I delved, the more determined I was to bring to bring this hideous slavery to light. The reviews so far say I’ve dealt with the difficult topic with sensitivity. I hope that’s the case.

Q2: Who would you want to play the main characters in your book if your novel was optioned for tv / film?

Ewan McGregor

Q3: How many rejections did you get before you got a publishing deal?

Oh wow! For my crime novels, very few. I was lucky and my series arrived in the right place at the right time. However, outside of the D.I. Sterling novels, I’ve had so many rejections I lost count years ago.

Q4: How did you deal with them when you started out?

I made voodoo dolls of the editors and stuck pins in them. Not really!

If the rejection came with some advice, I generally took it and tried to improve my work. If it was a generic rejection, I swore, stamped my feet, threw a hissy fit and then got back to writing again.

Q5: Which authors inspired you to write?

For a crime writer, this might surprise you, but my first ever writing inspiration came from reading Georgette Heyer as a teenager. She had the most amazing touch with characters, settings, dialogue and plots – in fact everything that is essential if we want to captivate our readers.

Q6: What are your writing routines?

I am involved in so many writing activities via my ‘day job’ that I have to fit in my own writing as and when I can. I try to write between 1,000 and 3,000 words a day, but don’t always achieve that. However, I won’t go to bed unless I’ve written at least 500

Q7: If you could go back to when you first started writing what one piece advice would you give yourself

Give myself easier writing targets. Getting down 500 words a day is much easier than trying to cram 3,000 words into a time slot that isn’t really long enough.

Q8: What would you say to someone who wants to write?

Advice #1: Do it! Open a page on a computer, buy a notebook, scribble on your study walls, but get those words down – and don’t listen to anyone who tells you to stop.

Advice #2: Buy a copy of Stephen King’s On Writing and follow his advice about not showing your early drafts to anyone.

Q9: What would you be doing if you weren’t writing?

I cannot imagine a time when I wouldn’t be writing. Even when I’m on holiday and nowhere near my laptop, I’m still writing in my head, making up dialogue and planning new plots.

If I really had to find something else to do, I’d open a small restaurant as I love cooking.

Q10: Tell me something about yourself your readers might not know?

I am a grandmother and seriously hope my grandsons never read my books. It’s bad enough that I have shocked (and horrified – Mum writes about stuff like this?) my children, without doing the same to the next generation.

Thank you Lorraine, I can’t wait for the third book in the series to appear in my inbox

When not working on her D.I. Sterling Series, Lorraine Mace is engaged in many writing-related activities. She is a columnist for both Writing Magazine and Writers’ Forum and is head judge for Writers’ Forum monthly fiction competitions. A tutor for Writers Bureau, she also runs her own private critique and author mentoring service. She is co-author, with Maureen Vincent-Northam, of THE WRITER’S ABC CHECKLIST (Accent Press). Other books include children’s novel VLAD THE INHALER – HERO IN THE MAKING, and NOTES FROM THE MARGIN, a compilation of her Writing Magazine humour column.

Lorraine Mace @Lomace