Fran Connor – Novelist (Guest Post)

I’m a British author living in South West France for the last twenty years among the vineyards, orchards and ancient hilltop villages. One can gain writing inspiration from these idyllic surroundings or simply sit in the garden and drink wine. Perfection is managing to do both!

When I came to France, I wasn’t a writer. Somehow, I managed to let myself get roped in to helping some friends set up a French/English theatre group. My intention was to be the guy at the door in a tux taking tickets. Instead I ended up writing dual language British style pantos. For those fortunate enough not to have been exposed to this strange British phenomenon, it is a comedy play where the principal boy is a female with a good pair of legs and the Dame is a man. The jokes are corny. The humour is slapstick and it is non-PC on steroids.

After writing several pantos and some audience participating murder mystery plays, I decided to branch out into writing novels. My first, Sophia and the Fisherman, is a Romance set in the South of France. I like to write stories set in places I have been. A visit to Cuba resulted in ‘Her Man in Havana’ and my homage to Graham Greene.

Perhaps I should stick to writing in one genre but my interests are wide so my work includes Contemporary Romance/Action Adventure/Historical Romance/Contemporary Thriller/Political Thriller. I don’t do erotic. That’s not for any prissy hang-ups on my part. When I’ve tried to write them, they are hilariously funny and not supposed to be!

My latest novel set in Boston, Georgia and Jamaica, ‘Passarinho and the Highlander’, I can not claim to have set where I have been. And as it unfolds in the 1730s, it is slightly before my time!

In addition to writing novels published in my name, I ghost-write for several publishers.