Wishing on a Star

About Bill KitsonCaroline DunfordChristina JonesJane JacksonJane RisdonJane Wenham-JonesMarsali TaylorTricia Maw

Christina Jones has written all her life (as well as having millions of Proper Jobs including factory worker secretary nightclub dancer blood donor attendant barmaid waitress civil servant and fruit picker) and is the best-selling and award-winning author of 27 books. Christina first had a short story published when she was just 14 years old. She has written for teenage and women''''s magazines - fiction and non-fiction - for a number of years had her own humour column in The Oxford Times and has contributed to national newspapers. She is currently writing novel number 28 - Summer at Sandcastle Cottage. Bill Kitson was born and raised in Baildon West Yorkshire and educated at Ashville College Harrogate where he won the English prize cementing his love of reading and writing. On leaving school he worked in the family business a wool merchants'''' in Bradford until his father''''s death when he joined the finance industry. Now after taking early retirement he enjoys the challenge of writing both crime and general fiction. Caroline Dunford has previously worked as a psychotherapist a journalist and a non-fiction author. She has a deep love of story which she believes is at the heart of human nature. She first declared at five years old that she wanted to be a writer but was told there was little options of it being a full time job. Undeterred she started writing short stories plays and mini novels. She became known for writing plays at primary school including casting and directing the performances. She then grew up and went to university studied sensible subjects and decided she didn''''t like the ''''real world'''' one bit. She started out as a freelance journalist and writer sending off short stories to every magazine she could find and received rejection after rejection until she learnt to better her writing. As a journalist she was somewhat of a failure as she didn''''t like upsetting people and therefore never made it to tabloid press. She then studied a part time degree in psychology which she enjoyed more than her past studied subjects. Caroline then spent years working with other people helping them shape their personal life stories (she is a Freudian at heart) until she decided to take the plunge and write her own stories full time. She believes that writing fiction is now the only way she can stay sane. Euphemia Martins was partly inspired by the family legend of her great great grandmother who ran away from a very rich family and ended up working in service. Unlike Euphemia she found the life far too hard but was rescued by a tobacconist whom she married and with whom she had thirteen children. Murder casts a sharp light over those around it revealing characters and morality in unique sharpness. What forces one to take the life of another and how those around react reveals so much about human nature and the fragility of society. Caroline finds the period before WW1 when everyone was setting their playing pieces on the board for global conflict fascinating. She is also intrigued by the start of female emancipation and the class-system breakdown that was taking hold. Caroline loves puzzles and finds human beings the most exciting puzzles of all. But above all she believes life must be enjoyed with humour. We must all bring whatever light we can to the darkness. Marsali grew up near Edinburgh Scotland. Her summer family holidays were spent in a remote cottage in the West Highlands the region where her detective Gavin Macrae lives. Like her sailing heroine Cass she has always been used to boats and used her `gap year'''' earnings to buy her first sailing dinghy Lady Blue. She studied English at Dundee University did a year of teacher training and took up her first post teaching English and French to secondary children in Aith Shetland. Gradually her role expanded to doing drama too and both primary and secondary pupils have won prizes performing her plays at the local Drama Festival. Some of these plays were in Shetlandic the local dialect. Marsali teaches dinghy sailing at her local club and is a keen single-handed sailor in her Offshore 8 m yacht Karima S - the double of Cass''''s Khalida. A qualified STGA green badge tourist guide for Shetland she now spends a good deal of her summer sharing her home with visitors from overseas. She is particularly interested in women''''s history and has published Women''''s Suffrage in Shetland two years'''' worth of original research. She followed this with The Story of Busta House the romantic tale of the house which is the setting for part of Death on a Longship. Marsali also writes for the monthly magazine Shetland Life - a mixture of travel writing interviews investigative journalism and historical research. Jane Jackson is an award-winning historical author who writes historical romances set in Cornwall during the period between the Napoleonic Wars and the Edwardian era. Containing elements of adventure and intrigue they explore Cornish life at every level of society and are emotionally-gripping stories of courage ambition tragedy and the redeeming power of love. A professional writer for over thirty years and twice shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award Jane Jackson has had twenty-seven books published (sales of her 14 Harlequin titles topped ten million in 23 countries and 19 languages) She has also taught the Craft of Novel Writing at all levels from Writers'''' Summer Schools and Ad Ed to the MA in Professional Writing at University College Falmouth. Happily married she has lived most of her life in Cornwall the background and inspiration for her historical romances. Visit her at: Her website: http://www.janejackson.net/ Her Facebook: Jane Jackson Her Twitter: @JJacksonAuthor Jane Risdon has spent most of her life working in the International Music Business rubbing shoulders with the powerful and famous especially in Hollywood. Married to a musician and later working alongside him managing singers musicians songwriters and record producers she''''s also facilitated the placement of music on successful television series and movie soundtracks. Her experiences have provided her with a unique insight into the business and her writing often has a music related theme. With long-term friend award-winning best-selling author Christina Jones - one time fan-club secretary for Jane''''s husband''''s band - Jane has co-authored Only One Woman which is set in the UK music scene of 1968/69. Jane is working on a series of crime novels - Ms Birdsong Investigates - featuring former MI5 Officer Lavinia Birdsong - which she plans to complete in 2019. Her experience of working at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in her pre-music days has given her plenty of material for her crime/thrillers. Jane Wenham-Jones is the author of four novels - Raising the Roof Perfect Alibis One Glass Is Never Enough and Prime Time which have received wide acclaim. She also writes for women''''s magazines and the national press and has a humorous weekly column in her local newspaper. She has also written two writing guides Wannabe a Writer? and Wannabe a Writer We''''ve Heard Of? She lives with her husband and son in Broadstairs Kent. Find Jane at: Twitter: @JaneWenhamJones and @UWannabeawriter And her blogs: www.100waystofighttheflab.com janewenhamjones.wordpress.com