Recently, I was bemoaning the struggle of finding the time and motivation to keep writing ‘Finding the Scream’ to my writer friend, Helen Blenkinsop (AKA AA Abbott).
She offered a piece of advice that really resonated:
"Imagine where Kat Orlov would hang out and write there."
Now, Kat spends a lot of time in Cyprus (she also has a base in London), and much as I’d like to jet off and tap away on my laptop beside the pool in a beautiful villa, that’s just not practical!
However, I can imagine the sort of place Kat might hang out I can get to.
But where could it be?
But where could it be?
We first meet Kat in Gabriel’s Game, Part 1: The White Queen.
As I was writing her, I knew she had to be my next heroine. I felt so drawn to her as a person, I wanted to write her books next.
Katarina Orlov (Kat) is a freelance seeker. A multilingual, bisexual, single parent - she has a wealth of contradictions that will be fun to explore.
At the end of the Sheridan and Blake Series, I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to Tom Sheridan and Sasha Blake, so Tom features in the next book, as do some bad guys that will be familiar to fans of the series.
However, it’s important to me that, despite the links to the last series of books, Kat’s books need to be distinctive in their own right.
However, it’s important to me that, despite the links to the last series of books, Kat’s books need to be distinctive in their own right.
In Gabriel’s Game, Part 2: The Black Knight, Dr Sasha Blake is on the verge of a breakdown.
A suffocating grief has hold of Sasha and she’s drinking herself to oblivion.
It’s an unlikely connection to Kat - a woman who has also been intimate with Tom Sheridan - that pulls Sasha from despair and helps her to move on positively.
Sasha explores undiscovered parts of her own sexuality with Kat, and it’s Kat’s fondness for Sasha that drives her to continue to help with the hunt for the Democritus Manuscript, despite her own reluctance.
A suffocating grief has hold of Sasha and she’s drinking herself to oblivion.
It’s an unlikely connection to Kat - a woman who has also been intimate with Tom Sheridan - that pulls Sasha from despair and helps her to move on positively.
Sasha explores undiscovered parts of her own sexuality with Kat, and it’s Kat’s fondness for Sasha that drives her to continue to help with the hunt for the Democritus Manuscript, despite her own reluctance.
Sasha lives in my hometown of Bristol.
She owns a modern boutique apartment overlooking the harbourside
(One of the great things about writing is you get to live out your own fantasy life through your characters!)
She owns a modern boutique apartment overlooking the harbourside
(One of the great things about writing is you get to live out your own fantasy life through your characters!)
Given the closeness between the two women, it’s conceivable that Kat may visit Sasha in Bristol.
So, if Kat were to come from London or Cyprus to visit Sasha, where would Sahsa take her for dinner, or a coffee, or a glass of wine, in Bristol?
I think it would be one of two places:
So, if Kat were to come from London or Cyprus to visit Sasha, where would Sahsa take her for dinner, or a coffee, or a glass of wine, in Bristol?
I think it would be one of two places:
Spoke and Stringer
Slick and modern, neither venue would be out of place in London.
The Brigstow, with its continental feel and waterfront location, on a sunny day it could be somewhere in the Mediterranean.
Both locations are also within a short stumbling distance of where Sasha’s apartment would be.
I have no doubt, that it Kat were to come to visit Sasha, they would share Sasha's bed!
Once Sasha had taken her to either place, if Kat were to find herself working on her laptop in a coffee shop in Bristol, she would go somewhere familiar.
So, now I have two possible locations to work on the book from.
#FindingTheScream
Now, I just have to make the time to do it!
#FindingTheScream
Now, I just have to make the time to do it!
