“To the outside world, Dan Masters is a law abiding I.T. expert working for the Metropolitan Police in London.

But he is also a high ranking member of Cronus, a secret group of vigilantes who are growing exponentially and spreading terror across the country.

When Nick is persuaded, against his better judgement, to help Beth Masters keep a track of her husband’s whereabouts, he unwittingly stumbles into the Cronus network and compromises its security.

Soon he is fighting for his life in a new and frightening world where no one can be trusted. For who can he turn to for help when anyone could be a Cronus member with a powerful reason to want him dead?”

It’s Friday, which can mean only one thing. It’s #damppebblestakeover day and I am delighted to welcome Karla Forbes, author of the Nick Sullivan series, back to damppebbles today. I’m handing over the keys to Karla who last paid us a visit during my #R3COMM3ND3D2017 feature (click HERE to see which books Karla chose as her three recommended reads from 2017).

So without further ado, I’ll hand over to Karla…

Inspiration versus Desperation
Karla Forbes

I am currently writing my 14^th crime/thriller and although it should be getting easier, it isn’t. When I wrote my first book, I had a vague idea of a plot floating around in my head. It was based on a comment someone had made to me that, during the cold war, Soviet scientists had invented a nuclear bomb that could be carried in a suitcase. After extensively researching plutonium, dirty bombs, the cold war and many other subjects that had been strangely missing from my school curriculum, I sat down at my laptop and the words flowed from my fingertips to the keyboard. Several months and 106,000 words later, I had written my first book, named it ‘Fallout’ and, very naively, thought how easy this whole writing malarkey is. Wrong! Unless your name is Margaret Mitchell and you write a single best seller called Gone with the wind, you will be keen to start your second book. This time, the chances are that you have used up all your ideas on your first literary masterpiece and you will be forced to dig a little deeper to find your next plot.

The advice given to aspiring authors is to write what you know about but unless readers want to follow the scintillating drama of your protagonist going to work, standing in a queue at the supermarket checkout and slobbing in front of the television every night, you’re going to have to exercise your imagination and come up with something a little more exciting. By now, I had decided to write a series of thrillers based on the hero of ‘Fallout’, Nick Sullivan, who is a stubborn, self opinionated but thoroughly likeable character who I couldn’t bear to part from. This meant that I was spared the pain of thinking up a whole new protagonist and supporting characters but I needed a new plot. I cast around for ideas and in a moment of inspiration thought of my daughter. She has a PhD in artificial intelligence and was perfectly placed to give me the science behind a computer virus that couldn’t be stopped. Once again, I had set myself up for disappointment. Not only was she none too pleased to have to condense her entire life’s study into easy sentences that I could understand but I then had to incorporate it into an exciting thriller that wouldn’t bore the reader senseless.

I managed it in the end but you get the picture; constantly thinking up new plots is harder than actually writing the book. Since those early beginnings, I’ve written about, among other things, blowing up Grangemouth which the largest oil refinery in Europe, counterfeit drugs getting into the National Health Service, Ugandan terrorists stealing from charities to fund their activities, the illegal trade in endangered species, fracking in sleepy Sussex, a nationwide group of vigilantes wreaking havoc on the guilty and innocent alike, a Russian oligarch poisoning half of London in pursuit of money ( I wrote that one before the Novichok outrage) and I’m currently writing about an attack on the London Stock exchange which has the potential to wreck the economy even more effectively than the combined efforts of our bickering, political masters.

Each time I finish a book, I start searching around for the next plot but as I said in the opening paragraph, it doesn’t get any easier. I’ve heard it said that Barbara Cartland wrote several hundred novels but in reality, she wrote one novel and simply changed the names and locations. A clever woman Ms Cartland. Perhaps my next book will be a romance. In the meantime, back to destroying the economy by attacking the City of London…

Thanks so much, Karla. I would struggle to come up with one plot idea (don’t expect to read my first novel any time soon!), let alone 14 so I’m always amazed when authors can continue to come up with fresh and exciting stories, time and time again. I guess that’s why they’re the authors and I’m the reader, right? 😂

Cronus by Karla Forbes was published in the UK in May 2018 and is available in paperback and eBook formats (please note, some of the following links are affiliate links): | amazon.co.uk | amazon.com | Goodreads |

Karla Forbes first began writing books when she was twelve years old. Heavily influenced by Ian Fleming, she wrote about guns, fast cars and spies. Naturally, she knew nothing of her chosen subject and was forced to use her imagination to make it up as she went along. These books, half a dozen in total, ended up being thrown out with the rubbish. Several years later, she dabbled in a futuristic sitcom and a full length horror story. Although both of these efforts were also consigned to literary oblivion, at least no one could have accused her of being in a genre rut.

She began writing properly more than ten years ago and her first book, The Preacher was published on Amazon in July 2011. Fourteen books in total are available to download from the Amazon kindle book store. Other books will follow at regular intervals. She writes about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations and she aims for unusual but scarily believable plots with a surprising twist.

She lives in Sussex with her husband and bull mastiff and has discovered that the secret of keeping them both happy is regular meals, praise and affection.

Author Links: | Twitter | Website | Nick Sullivan thrillers on amazon.co.uk | Karla Forbes on Goodreads |