The Cambridge Fellows Mystery Series: An Interview with Author Charlie Cochrane

We’re so pleased to have author Charlie Cochrane with us today to celebrate the re-release of the Cambridge Fellows Mysteries series. Charlie’s put together an interview to give us a bit of background on the series, so enjoy. Welcome, Charlie!

The Interview

You must have been saddened at the demise of Samhain. How exciting is it to have the Cambridge Fellows book coming out again?

Excited is an understatement, I think. Not just for me, I hope – I’ve had lots of readers nagging me about when the first 8 books would be available. It’s such a pleasure that they’re rolling out from Endeavour – a British publisher, to boot! – over the winter.

Which ones are available?

Book 1, Lessons in Love, is now out in both e-book and paperback. Lessons in Desire is out in e-book, and book 3 is at cover art stage. (It’s very hard to keep up!)

Of course, books 9-12 have always been available through Riptide, and I have a self published novella in the series.

That all sounds exhausting!

Just a little.

With all those books, is it hard for you to develop/keep track of your characters?

In the first case, not usually. Only if I try to force a story to happen. If I can give my characters free rein, then it works well; they develop and their story develops around them.  The second is more of a challenge because there’s more to juggle. I have to be true to the external timeframe (they can’t use something which hasn’t been invented, for example) and to the internal one (people can’t know something they only find out in a later book). There’s also emotional development to consider. My two leads are not the same people post war as pre war.

What’s your writing routine.

It varies. I like to log on and check all my e-mails first before I get down to scribbling or else I can feel them nagging me. Then I just need to start to write. If I get blocked, I find writing anything – notes in a notepad, fanfic, drabbles, gobbledegook – gets the words flowing again, as though I need to connect brain and fingers again.

If you could change one thing about the way you write, what would it be?

I’d write more prolifically. I do about 500 words on a good day, when other writers do thousands. :( Still. I console myself with the thought that’s they’re usually 500 pretty useable words. Usually…

What is your favorite part of writing?

My favourite part is starting a new story. I’m character driven, so I start with a person and as I write I discover what he or she is like. The plot flows from that process, so it’s like reading a story as well as writing it. (I wonder if that makes any sense outside of my head?) If I can flip the question, my least favourite part is writing sex scenes, which I do sentence by sentence over several days. Unless I can find an amusing hook to put build them round, in which case they flow as well as the other stuff does. But that’s the exception rather than the norm.

Would you describe yourself as well organized?

Oh yes. It’s the only way I can keep all the balls I juggle in the air. Lists, calendars, diaries, labelling e-mails – everything to make life easier and not let anything slip through the cracks!

Book: Lessons in Desire (Book 2, Cambridge Fellows Mysteries)

“Lessons in Desire is the second book in the gripping Cambridge Fellows series by Charlie Cochrane. Set in Edwardian England, it explores engrossing mysteries and heartfelt gay romances, all set in the historical walls of Cambridge University.”

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About the Author

Because Charlie Cochrane couldn’t be trusted to do any of her jobs of choice—like managing a rugby team—she writes. Her mystery novels include the Edwardian era Cambridge Fellows series, and the contemporary Lindenshaw Mysteries. Multi-published, she has titles with Carina, Riptide, Lethe and Bold Strokes, among others.

A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, Mystery People and International Thriller Writers Inc, Charlie regularly appears at literary festivals and at reader and author conferences with The Deadly Dames.

Connect with Charlie: Website || Blog || Twitter: @charliecochrane || Facebook profile page || Goodreads