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EXTRACTS FROM THE UNSEEN – 3

12 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by James Mckenna in crime thriller

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books, crime fiction, crime novel, crime thriller, enjoy reading, fast paced crime fiction, good read, James McKenna

To give you a taste of my book The Unseen here is another extract from Chapter 1. Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

Extract from CHAPTER ONE

Stella lay as left, conscious the blood from a split lip wet her chin, staring at the ceiling, her mind swirled in self-contempt, then loathing and hate for the animal now leaving the house. Tears mixed with the blood, tears driven by all-consuming rage. Wileman had been right. Hate came so easily, hate for the hand which fed her, for the one who had abused her, but mostly hate for herself.

Time passed, she had no idea how long, time meant nothing. Then a face appeared above her, a friendly, female face with motherly concern.

“I’m Diane Hopper,” the woman said. “You’re safe now. I’ve brought a doctor and one of our security personnel. We need to take some DNA swabs and your statement. Need to get that lip cleaned up. Rape is a serious crime. Caswell could spend his life in jail should a complaint be made.”

“You knew this would happen, what this guy would do?” Stella sat, lowering her legs and pulling at her skirt.

“We know nothing, only our orders. So let’s get started.” She beckoned the doctor.

Stella remained wrapped in self-loathing, complying with instructions, signing the sworn statement, allowing treatment to her lip. The clothes Diane Hopper produced from a case represented a full outfit with price tags Stella only dreamt of.

“Welcome, Stella, to the House of Wileman. I’m instructed to inform, you now have a new position, Head of UK Research and Development. Mr Wileman said by now you would understand the need for past events. He also said be careful. Richard Caswell is a very violent and dangerous man. Oh, and Stella, don’t report anything to the police. Starway’s security will handle this.”

When they had gone, Stella dressed, cold to the caress of the expensive lingerie, the silk blouse and business suit. All fitted perfectly, all had been planned. Staring into the mirror she examined her puffed lip, her bruised cheek and discoloured eye. Yes, she understood. She had been used. Wileman now had the threat of a rape charge over Caswell and her hatred of him. Hatred enough to kill. She shivered. If they were capable of doing this just to trap Caswell, what might they do to her if she failed them? Yes, she understood. With hatred came self-loathing and fear.

Frontcover of the unseen

For more information about all my books go to my author’s page on Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/q2ta3z6

Next time you switch on your computer are the unseen waiting to enter your mind, or are they already there?

05 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by James Mckenna in crime thriller

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books, crime novel, crime thriller, enjoy reading, fast paced crime fiction, good read, James McKenna

To give you a taste of my book The Unseen, here is an extract from the opening of Chapter 1.  Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

CHAPTER ONE

Stella had no defence against Caswell’s gaze on her body, nor his predatory thoughts which she sensed creeping through her clothes with invasive lust. Beneath her business smile came an uncharacteristic tremor of nerves. Familiar with appreciative glances, she occasionally encouraged them, but this guy made her feel like meat. This guy stirred fear.

“If you would follow me, Mr Caswell.” She indicated the stone steps and led him from the terrace of Casco Bay Villa towards a rocky headland on the Maine coast. Looking towards the sea and Atlantic swell, she heard his overbearing presence follow her.

“I expected this meeting to take place at Head Office in New York,” Caswell said.

“Head Office is wherever Mr Wileman resides,” she replied over her shoulder, conscious his eyes now devoured the minute quiver of flesh beneath her fitted skirt.

“Does he always have such good looking young women around him? You must be really useful to him, an old boy like that.”

Stella compressed her lips and continued in silence, trying to distract with thoughts of her boyfriend, of the progress on her thesis, trying to lighten her descent so her breasts did not shiver with each footfall on the hard steps.

“I mean, lot of the top guys I mix with got personal assistants resembling dragons beyond their sell-buy date. But you, you got something else, including one peach of an arse with legs stretching way up. I see you’ve no wedding ring. Fancy dinner tonight?”

Stella squared her jaw and wrinkled her nose. “Thank you but I have a previous engagement. And I am not Mr Wileman’s PA, I am researching for my PhD in computer technology.”

“Brains and beauty, now that I like. You ever need a job, come work for me. I got a special position in mind.”

Stella took a turn in the downward path and allowed silence for an answer, her thoughts finding sanctuary amidst the gulls circling on outstretched wings. The sight calmed her annoyance but did little for her uncertainty as to why Wileman had summoned her, why her instructions included escorting Caswell from the villa. She assumed Wileman wanted to learn about her research. After all, he paid for it. The Wileman Foundation had lifted her from childhood poverty, had schooled her, put her through college and university and now paid a salary while she wrote her doctorate thesis. Wileman had opened all the doors, this had to be important, least for her. She didn’t know about the guy screwing her butt. She just wished he was someplace else.

The path turned to an outcrop of trees, then became lost as it wound down to the beach cove and summerhouse. Wileman sat on a bench overlooking a small cemetery with white picket railings. Sea air brushed his wrinkled face while his gaze remained on the distance, as if lost amidst the sounds of surf and gulls.

“Mr Wileman,” Stella called. “The British executive, Richard Caswell. You said to bring him.” She stopped by the bench and pushed strands of loose hair behind one ear. She sensed her face was glowing and her brow moist.

Oscar Wileman looked between them before offering his hand, only then did Caswell remove his eyes from her. Still flushed she gave full attention to her boss, fingers clasped sedately, hoping for something good. Wileman stayed silent for a moment then indicated she sit beside him. Expensive clothes draped his thin body, his spiky hair standing oblivious to the breeze as he examined Richard from behind rimless spectacles.

“Pretty girl, ain’t she?” he said, as if she was not there, his face without animation, his blue eyes bright and cutting.

“Exceptionally so,” Caswell smirked.

“Stella,” Wileman said her. “I’ve asked you here because your future work will have direct influence on Richard’s project.”

“As you wish, Mr Wileman.”

“Oh I do wish, Stella. You’re a bright young lady with a bright future. I have things planned for you.”

Stella felt relief and shuffled her feet. Maybe this was her big opening.

“She has a Masters in flash advertising on computer screens. It’s there for seconds, then gone, not dissimilar from what you do,” Wileman said. “Her brain and body are wasted here, but I like to have intelligent and pretty girls around me. It’s a privilege of wealth.”   Wileman turned back to the fenced graveyard. “I bury my animals in this plot. Dogs, cats, a bear, even a llama. Plus a few other creatures. This is my pets’ cemetery.”

“To have kept so many you must love animals, Mr Wileman,” Caswell said, Stella loathing the false smile on his round, chubby face.

“No. I amuse myself by training them. I do so by feeding their ambition and greed. In return they give me obedience. As Stella will give. Because of it she will do whatever it is you intend to ask of her.”

“Mr Wileman, please.” Stella sat up sharp, putting hand to bodice. “I will always follow your wishes, but I’m not sure I understand.”

“It’s simple, Stella. I need your total obedience no matter what I ask. And this assignment will be proof of that obedience. When I picked you and others from the gutter, when I educated you, I did so for a reason, for possession of your soul. And I if I say lie down and roll over, I expect just that. You got a problem, you can leave right now, leave my company and my payroll.”

Stella felt her mouth open as she twisted on the bench, felt her gaze drop, felt fear creep to every fibre of her body.

“I … I.” Her eyes closed and moments passed.

“Witness, Richard, the control of wealth. Witness and learn. If you want money, Richard, this is your opportunity, but first, like Stella, judge which is more important, morality or ambition.”

Stella stared between the two of them, hating both, hating her inability to leave, her weakness in not speaking out.

“My morality is yours, sir,” Caswell said, his eyes on her breasts.

“Good, because I’m talking about control of America, control of the financial world and all the power that acquires. America’s vast debt and the infighting of politicians over solving it puts this country and, indeed, mankind on the brink of collapse. If you cannot pay the army and the police, you cannot rely on them. The result, chaos, anarchy, a return to the primeval.”

“I’m with you, boss.” Caswell nodded his head and Stella watched his intrusive gaze give way to self-righteousness. “If you have ability to influence the politicians, you have ability to control the people.”

“And make a lot of money.”

“I assume you refer to my work on subliminal psychotic induction,” Caswell said.

Frontcover of the unseen

For more information about all my books go to my author’s page on Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/q2ta3z6

MEDITATIONS FROM A BAR STOOL 9

25 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by James Mckenna in Meditations

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books, childrens books, crime novel, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

Sex and the long road to understanding.
When I was 3 years old we lived in Kensington, Central London. My father was away fighting in the war, someone I had never met. Under the continuous bombing, occasionally my mother’s nerve broke, then we would visit my aunt in Harrow.

This I loved, for living next door were two little sisters, but big girls to me, may be 5 or 6 years old. They also had a tent in the garden and on summer days they asked if I could play with them.

Lifted over the fence I was quickly led inside the tent and informed we would play a girls game called Doctors and Nurses. This involved them stripping off my clothes then examining me in close detail. They said this was essential to the game because I was a wounded soldier.

Naturally I believed them, mainly because for some reason I did not understand, I quite enjoyed it. Afterwards they would put me in a pair of their knickers and a dress. This, they told me, was because only wounded soldiers and nurses were allowed in the tent and everyone knew that nurses were girls.
kids in tent
They then introduced another game. This involved rolling round on top of each other amidst much laughter and screaming. They called this game Mummies and Daddies. But only girls could play, which is why I had to wear a dress. I was not to meet this game again till my late teens and a lesbian beauty. She seductively informed me that continuation of her games required I put on a dress. But this turned out very different from my adventures in the tent.

Time passed, my interests absorbed by football, cubs, marbles, cowboys, Indians and climbing trees. Then once again I found myself confronted by the siren. Tall, skinny and in a class above me, she would have been 12, I was 11.
“Show me yours and I’ll show you mine,” she said. “You first.”
This seemed reasonable, even though I had been taught that ladies always go first. I obliged. I remember her being unimpressed. That, she said, meant I could not see hers. I thought this most unfair. I had been tricked and not for the last time; but it became my first lesson of seeking the wondrous yet forbidden territory that girls hid beneath their clothes. My mind had been fired.

Some months later I tentatively crept a hand up the jumper of a girl who sat next to me in class. In result I touched something soft yet exciting. I also received a smack in the eye. But I had ventured into what promised to be paradise.

Next blog, journeys into the unknown.

Go to my website http://www.crimefiction-jamesmckenna.co.uk

MEDITATIONS FROM A BAR STOOL 4

08 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by James Mckenna in writing techniques

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books. crime thriller, crime novel, enjoy reading, James McKenna, scary, The Unseen.

Meet the strangers within you.

Strangers, how can that be?  You are who you are, there is only one you.  But not if you are a writer or actor.

Actors have to become the characters they portray, while writers the characters they invent and make vivid with words.  To be a good writer you must become the character you write about.  You must know how they behave, think, react, dress.  What makes them scared, brave, angry, sad?

Writing-writing

In my crime thriller novels, The Unseen, The Uncounted and The Unwanted, my protagonist, Sean Fagan, is a large, dependable policeman with a failed marriage, two teenaged daughters, a liking for Guinness, class music and Victoria Lawless, his girlfriend.

Fine, you say, easy character for a male writer to portray.  True, especially if I base his behaviour similar to some of my own.  But when I write from Victoria’s point of view, then I have to mentally change gender.

To truthfully portray her character so the reader believes in her, I must understand her passions, her motivations, her anger.  I must be inside her body to feel the joy of her love making, her sweat, her fear; what clothes she likes, her feelings towards others and the forces which drive her.  I must become Victoria Lawless, in mental vision and physical presence.  If I do not, the reader will see a shallow character, one they cannot believe in.  In which case I fail as a writer.

So, there are two strangers I have, but darker ones lurk in the deep recesses of a writer’s mentality.

In The Unseen I have a brutal psychopath named Zoby who butchers his victims and keeps body parts as trophies.  To portray him as a believable mad man I have to look inside his mind and understand why he commits the horrors he does.  What are his thoughts, his motivations, his pleasures?  I have to become Zoby in the same way I became Sean and Victoria.  That can be scary.  For Zoby and his actions are inventions of my mind.  This is what I mean when I say meet the strangers within you.  Read The Unseen and meet some of my strangers.  Read The Unseen http://tinyurl.com/c3yjc9l

Frontcover of the unseen

More about characters in my next set of meditations from a bar stool.  How to change gender, how to think like a killer.

Go to my website http://www.crimefiction-jamesmckenna.co.uk

Global Destruction

12 Monday May 2014

Posted by James Mckenna in suspense thriller

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books. crime thriller, crime novel, fast paced crime fiction, good read, James McKenna

Conspiracy, deceit, loyalty and love.  All battle under the threat of global destruction.

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My new novel Global Raider is out on 16 May. http://www.crimefiction-jamesmckenna.co.uk

 

Mindless growth

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by James Mckenna in Uncategorized

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A 250 year old tree in the path of HS2 must go.  Planner’s solution, take a cutting and grow a new tree.  Such is the brain of a bureaucrat.

IMGP0632

Go to my author’s page on Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/c9ultl3

 

Global Raider

05 Monday May 2014

Posted by James Mckenna in suspense thriller

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books. crime thriller, crime novel, fight against terrorism, good read

Global raider Kindle TIFF FINAL 24 Feb 2014

Looking for a good read for your holiday?  My new book, Global Raider, will be on sale from 16th May.

James McKenna talks crime fiction and modern day slavery

17 Sunday Mar 2013

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books. crime thriller, crime novel, crime thrillers, enjoy reading, James McKenna

theuncounted15186194
It’s funny how there seems to be so much snobbery about crime fiction especially in the UK. I don’t know whether people think they are still like the Victorian ‘Penny Dreadfuls’ or crime fiction is only about someone bumping off Colonel Mustard in the Billiard Room with a dagger.

Let’s face it, if your only brush with crime fiction in the past has been Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple and ‘Rosemary and Thyme’ then maybe you might well have rather a warped perspective of the contemporary crime novel, but let me reassure you crime fiction is changing!

As a genre, crime fiction is actually enjoying a revival and book sales are up. You could name a whole raft of crime fiction writers who have added another layer; people such as Henning Mankell, Michael Connelly, Sophie Hannah (https://jameswmckenna.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/james-mckennas-crime-fiction-tip-this-week-is-the-carrier-by-sophie-hannah/) and of course, Ian Rankin. What really seems to have changed (and I did mention this is an earlier blog) is how the place and its impact on the narrative is so important. Added to this I really feel that contemporary crime writing is tackling some interesting contemporary issues that cross moral and philosophical boundaries.

I know when I write I want to explore contemporary issues like human trafficking or subliminal psychotic induction and it was interesting to watch the debate unfold on the media about contemporary slave trading when the new report came out last Monday (see last week’s blog https://jameswmckenna.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/james-mckenna-knows-the-uncounted-should-be-government-reading-stop-treating-people-as-potential-illegal-immigrants-they-are-victims-of-crime/). I actually wrote The Uncounted a couple of years back and people were dismissive about the notion of human trafficking, but now I am wondering whether I should actually settle down and write a sequel!

But I digress; books are now being written about the genre itself and I was please and amazed, if not a little envious, that you can now study crime fiction at university. This can only be a good thing as it will prompt everyone to view crime fiction novels in a much better light as having something valid to say in sociological contexts too. I will get back to my proofreading and re-drafting of my latest book and leave you with a couple of recommendations.

James McKenna’s interesting reads for this week are:

Alex Cross, Run by James Patterson
• This is a new thriller from the Alex Cross stable and has such pace and a wonderfully twisted killer or too.

The Striker Clive Cussler Justin Scott
• Love this as it is set at the very beginning of the twentieth century and Isaac Bell is a newbie in the detective stakes. His case is an interesting one as he looks for saboteurs in the local coal mines. It was something different and just a great read.

Calculated in Death J D Robb
• This is an excellent book in the long running series. A female body is found, anything of value removed and it could just be a botched mugging but the body yields up complicated secrets. The characters of Eve and Roarke are really developing. No wonder other people also rate it highly.

Ian Rankin’s Black and Blue A Reader’s Guide by Gill Plain
• This is a great guide to one of Rankin’s early books and also carried information about the author’s biography alongside interesting interviews too. It’s actually one of a series which aims to give any reader the opportunity to learn a little more about certain contemporary novel titles and I really liked this one.

Anyway if you have a moment please check out my modern day slavery video:

A New Crime Fiction Novel Came To Me In A Tweet This Morning. Do You Fancy Writing It?

13 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by James Mckenna in Uncategorized

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crime fiction, crime novel

IMGP1422
When I checked my twitter feed this morning I wasn’t sure whether I was reading the latest snippet of crime fiction or whether this was for real!
Not a scam: If you’ve committed a burglary in the #Leicester area within the last week – come to our #police station & claim a FREE iPad.
How brilliant I thought! Except someone beat me to it with this tweet:

@callis1987 .@CityCentreLPU 7Will the offer still be valid if I travel up to the Leicester area and commit a burglary next week?
The reply from the police was:
Maybe not, but we may have some of our boobie prizes left > Pot Noodle served in our 4 Star #LockMeIn accommodation!#FancyIt
In response I did have in mind a story about a criminal who sets up a fake twitter account and tweets the local police each time he does a burglary; the story would revolve around that plot device. I suppose it is a contemporary take on a criminal taunting the police with letters composed of typography cut from newspapers!
But this was an idle moment’s speculation and therefore I give my idea away free to the first person who claims it. If you manage to make something out of it I would love to publish on the blog! How is that for community policing then?
Still, after the excitement of this morning’s tweeting session it is serious stuff as I am immersed in my new novel The Unwanted. I am just at that stage where I am thinking, ‘Why did I start this?’ It’s a bit like decorating really; you have stripped out the room, all the wallpaper is off and it looks 100% worse than when you started and it’s all uphill from there!
In fact I find there is so much to work on regarding further developments in characterisation and narrative voice. I am a firm believer that narrative voice should remain neutral, unless of course it is directly connected to a specific character. This is more or less the norm in contemporary crime novels and yes, rules are there to be broken but authorial intrusion, in my book is only really successful in types of meta-fiction and that’s not my business!
I do know that breaking neutrality is what can really irritate the reader who feels constrained as if the author / narrator is trying to dictate a reaction or feeling and that can be most off putting. Yes, I do also think readers need an element of autonomy to enable them to make up their own opinions and responses. I guess it is probably the difference between effective and ineffective writing.
So, for me, effective crime writing should, and this is my opinion only, be economical in its use of narratives or extended dialogue to create scene and image. Sometimes my mind runs away with itself of course but today I am editing and resisting the temptation to do other things so I guess I had better finish now.

James McKenna Has Voices In His Head. What Goes Through A Crime Writer’s Mind As He Writes The Next Novel?

15 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by James Mckenna in writing techniques

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crime fiction, crime novel, fast paced crime fiction, James McKenna, use of dialogue, writing a narrative

IMGP1264

The evening sky from my window

I find myself inhabiting the characters in my new crime novel for most of the day. Even when I am doing something mundane like cleaning out the wine tanks after this year’s amazing wine harvest, I am pondering about my characters’ reactions as the plot unravels; it really is one of the things I enjoy so much about writing.

I do actually find it quite tiring as thoughts strike me at any time which means I have to scuttle off to the study and jot down ideas before they evaporate from whence they came. First thing in the morning when I become conscious is a particularly busy time for characterisation.

Characterisation after all, is such an integral part of writing a narrative, whatever genre you might be involved with. So many decisions have to be made so that a character appears to live and breathe on the page. Do I use description, action, speech, thought or an amalgam?

In fast-paced crime fiction there is little place for acres of description. I know Dickens made a career from it but I’m afraid that doesn’t suit me and I quite like the technique of implicit characterisation where my reader can work out what my character is all about through their thoughts and speech. Careful use of dialogue can indicate so much about character; after all, we all make judgments about people in reality by their choice of words and how they express themselves and I like to capture that in my work.

Occasionally I find it necessary to be a little more explicit and I have made use of a narrator at times. Information can be given of course through another character who offers an opinion; I quite like that idea and it can be achieved quite subtly. I also find it interesting seeing how my characters react to others in the book. This is especially satisfying when you are writing about the same character from one book to another. We all change, things happen in our lives that skew our approach, feelings and even health and I like pondering over such things as I go about my own day to day life.

I find I live and breathe every aspect of the characters I am penning and I do hope much of this thought process is finally evident when you read the book. I am keen to balance the predictable with the unpredictable. I want my readers to ask questions especially as I deal with hard-hitting themes which scrape the underbelly of the society in which we live.

My books are mainly driven by plot and character so I spend much time removing any flaws I see in both, which after all is what makes some of our greatest literary novels and heroes so timeless. Shakespeare of course has given us so many complex characters that even when their behaviour is totally unacceptable, like Macbeth or Lear, we are still drawn to them and even find excuses for their actions. As we are all flawed we understand how our own fears, ambitions or sense of inadequacy can make us do and say things we should not. A weakness is a key aspect of character and is what makes any reader identify with a creation and makes them feel a character’s humanity, or lack of, perhaps.

As I look out of my study window I am watching the mountain turn from red to copper as the sun sets. It is approaching the shortest day; the vineyard is bare and silent; the optimism and growth which happened through spring and summer has gone. The wine is safely made and is doing its thing. I have to admit to enjoying a glass or two of last year’s vintage in front of the roaring log fire of an evening and very nice it is too. However, I may well appear to be in the room but there is no saying where my head is and with which character I am conversing.

I’ll keep you posted regarding how the novel is progressing next time.

Recent Posts

  • EXTRACTS FROM THE UNSEEN – 6
  • EXTRACTS FROM THE UNSEEN – 5
  • EXTRACTS FROM THE UNSEEN – 4
  • EXTRACTS FROM THE UNSEEN – 3
  • EXTRACTS FROM THE UNSEEN – 2

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