1) So, who are you & what have you written?
I’m JM Hewitt and Exclusion Zone is my third published novel but my debut crime fiction. I’m on twitter as @jmhewitt and my website is jmhewitt.co. Exclusion Zone can be found on Amazon, HERE.
2) Why do you write crime fiction?
I adore crime fiction as a reader, the twists, the turns, the red herrings and trying to work out who done it. It’s so popular and as a genre it can cover so much; police procedurals, mystery, psychological thrillers. I’m thrilled to be a part of it and I hope my work measures up to some of the greats out there!
3) What informs your crime writing?
I love using real life in all of my writing. We’re coming up to the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and as it is a subject that interests me greatly it made sense to set my crime fiction novel there, with the tagline being: With no law enforcement willing to go into the Exclusion Zone, a spate of murders are going almost unnoticed … In the sequel which I’m currently working on, it’s slightly more police procedural.
4) What’s your usual writing routine?
I work full time so it’s not easy to fit writing in, but you know, if you want to do something you make it work. I write longhand a lot in a notebook and then evenings and weekends I type it up. I grab any spare time to write, plane and train journeys are ideal!
5) Which crime book do you wish YOU’D written, and why?
It would have to be The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood. I credit that book for making me take the leap from contemporary fiction into crime. It’s a stunning novel and one that could so easily be true! There are so many fantastic crime books out there; right now I’m reading Tuesday Falling by S. Williams. My favourite read from last year was I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh. Anybody who has already read it will know what I mean when I say I gasped out loud at the twist. Brilliant!
