I’d like to welcome Joyce Woollcott to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

A few of your favorite things: An old cashmere sweater in a lovely shade of peachy orange. A pale grey linen dressing gown. A lovely red Ted Baker evening dress that’s a bit too small for me and too short but I love it anyway. (Never worn.)

Things you need to throw out: Most of my clothes. But, you know, you think… wait, I might wear that again.

Things you need for your writing sessions: Silence, warmth and coffee.

Things that hamper your writing: Music, TV or chat, being cold, uncomfortable chair…

Hardest thing about being a writer: Always having something to do.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Always having something to do.

Favorite foods: Rare roast beef, pasta, most seafood. Sticky toffee pudding, Banoffe Pie.

Things that make you want to gag: Beetroot, turnip, and… liver––obviously.

Favorite music or song: Van Morrison, Astral Weeks. I know it’s sixties, but it’s not the same…

Music that drives you crazy: Country music, and fifties, sixties and seventies commercial pop. (Sorry).

Something you’re really good at: Someone told me once that I have perfect pitch, a statement my husband vigorously disagrees with.

Something you’re really bad at: Singing, which is strange considering my last statement…

Last best thing you ate: Eggplant Parmesan.

Last thing you regret eating: Three mini KitKats from last Halloween. Yes, really.

The last thing you ordered online: A Belstaff Jacket for my husband.

The last thing you regret buying: One of those little square automatic floor washing robots––but not the Rhoomba, I love that.

Favorite books (or genre): I love mysteries, especially stories set in dark rainy places, or Nordic countries.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Not keen on romance, science fiction, fantasy, true crime, heart-wrenching drama.

People you’d like to invite to dinner: Kate Atkinson, David Hockney, Bill Nighy, Brendan Gleeson.

People you’d cancel dinner on: Bill Cosby, Jeremy Clarkson.

Favorite things to do: Sitting in a quiet, sunny garden with a nice glass of wine, reading a good mystery.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Root canal––obviously.

The coolest person you’ve ever met: Denise Mina, lovely, friendly and chatty, swore like a trooper. Oh, and Lee Child and Ian Rankin too. And Oprah Winfrey was really nice.

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Anderson Cooper wasn’t as tall as I had expected. He seemed very shy.

About Her Latest:

BLOOD RELATIONS

Retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan is found brutally murdered in his bed. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and his partner DS Billy Lamont are called to his desolate country home to investigate. In their inquiry, they discover a man whose career was overshadowed by violence and corruption. Is the killer someone from Mullan’s past, or his present? And who hated the man enough to kill him twice?

Belfast, Northern Ireland: early spring 2017. Retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan is found brutally murdered in his bed. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and his partner Detective Sergeant Billy Lamont are called to his desolate country home to investigate. In their inquiry, they discover a man whose career with the Police Service of Northern Ireland was overshadowed by violence and corruption. Is the killer someone from Mullan’s past, or his present? And who hated the man enough to kill him twice? Is it one of Patrick Mullan’s own family, all of them hiding a history of abuse and lies? Or a vengeful crime boss and his psychopathic new employee? Or could it be a recently released prisoner desperate to protect his family and flee the country? Ryan and Billy once again face a complex investigation with wit and intelligence, all set in Belfast and the richly atmospheric countryside around it.

About Joyce:

J. Woollcott is a Canadian writer born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers and BCAD, University of Ulster. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers and Crime Writers of Canada. In 2019 her first novel, A Nice Place to Die, won the Romance Writers of America Daphne du Maurier Award for Unpublished Mystery and Suspense. In 2021 she was short-listed in the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence. This year, A Nice Place to Die is a finalist in the Killer Nashville 2023 Silver Falchion Awards.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: https://www.jwoollcott.com

Twitter: @JoyceWoollcott

Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3CGIzi0

Book Link: https://tinyurl.com/mtzxx9dy