At our March ’25 meeting we welcomed local crime writer Pauline Rowson.
Pauline Rowson has written 29 crime novels and two more are coming out this year. She first published in 2006. Her Inspector Andy Norton Solent murder series are set in the Portsmouth/IOW area. The Art Marvik (#1 Deadly Waves) novels feature a former Royal Marine, working as an undercover agent along the East Sussex coast using a motor cruiser. The Inspector Alan Ryga novels are set in the 1950’s and have varied settings such as Portland, Newhaven, Dungeness and Cornwall. This was a different era with no internet, mobile phones so research involved looking at Ordnance Survey maps and Railway/ Bus time tables to get the details right. She has also written a couple of stand alone thrillers.
Her ideas come from overheard conversations, newspapers, and current events. She is always looking for good places to put a body! Her novels are usually about 80,000 words and are full of twists and turns. She described how she makes Spidergrams to gather her ideas, noting questions of who, what, why, and when to be answered as the novel progresses. She also Storyboards the chapters which she builds on as she goes along, adding subplots. Character profiles are noted with each police officer having his regular team for each series. The dialogue is essential in bringing the characters to life.
She does not plot out the whole story in advance. After about two weeks she is ready to start working on the computer. She makes lists of what is going on with bullet points such as details of tide times, sunrise, sunset, and feels it is important to get the details correct. She notes hints, suspects and motivations of the characters. Using circles she notes questions to be answered, RH – red herrings, and C – Clues and has running lists of questions. Treasury tags are used to keep her paper notes in order. Her system has evolved over the years and she uses recycled paper.
Her research involves forensics, the internet, and her contacts in the Hampshire police. She was able to use an authentic forensic report on a severed hand, and an actual report on a drowned corpse. Her husband, a firefighter and sailor is also a useful source of information. She noted that she discovered teabags were not in use in 1950 but they were in the USA!
Getting the books published involves 2 line editors, 2 copy editors and 2 producers for each book . Mistakes are corrected in the process. Her first draft is usually ready in 2-3 months. She does a check using Search/Find to discover overuse or incorrect use of words or phrases. She does not write to contract. Joffe, her publisher bought the whole series and republished them. The Andy Norton series nearly made it to TV but this finally fell through the long and tedious process of commissioning editors and TV channels.
Throughout all she maintains her sense of humour and attention to detail. Several questions from members followed her talk.
Questions involved – how she maintains tension? By having a hook at the end of each chapter to keep the reader wanting to know more. Does she write in any other genre? She did try historical fiction at first, but soon dropped this idea in favour of writing crime fiction from a male protagonist point of view. Her novels are plot driven, active, action crime novels (Andy Horton) and police procedurals, written in two different styles.
Latterly ‘wokeness’ has been an issue to contend with affecting what the writer is allowed to say. She stressed the importance of getting out and about and listening to people on public transport and in A&E departments to gather ideas for authentic dialogue. Pre-internet days authors needed good secretaries and researchers. Questioned about her favourite authors she mentioned the Maigret novels, John Creasey, and Colin Dexter.
This was a most enjoyable account of her working methods, presented in a clear and humourous way without notes. Several members bought copies of titles from her display of paperback books at a bargain price!
Lois Coulthart