I am delighted to welcome Marianne Delacourt to Books, Life and Everything today to celebrate the release of her third book in the Tara Sharp series: Too Sharp, today, March 28th,
under Twelfth Planet Press crime imprint Deadlines. Marianne has agreed to answer some of my questions but first, a little about Too Sharp.
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Tara Sharp’s new case brings her to Brisbane, where she is placed
in charge of Slim Sledge, a high-maintenance rock star. Tara’s a sucker
for a backstage pass, and it’ll provide some much-needed distance
between herself and her mother’s not-so-subtle hints about getting a
“real” job, not to mention crime lord Johnny Viaspa, the only man on the
planet who wants her dead.
.
She expected the music industry to be cut-throat, but Tara soon
uncovers more problems than just Slim Sledge’s demands and his rabid
fans. Everywhere she turns, the grudges run deeper and the danger ramps
up.
Has Tara finally pushed her luck too far?
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Welcome to Books, Life and Everything and thank
you for visiting my blog today.
Thanks so much for inviting me! Delighted to be
here 😊
Would you like to start by telling us a little about yourself and how you started as
a writer?
I started trying to write stories really young,
like eight or nine... (you can imagine what they were like!) but never really
wrote consistently and with purpose until I was about thirty. Then I threw
myself into it completely and about seven years later, my first novel was published.
I grew up with a big library of books and consider myself fortunate to have had
that environment.
I believe you also publish
under the name, Marianne de Pierres. Could you tell us how you came to
have these two literary identities and why?
My first seven novels were science fiction and I had established a
readership for them under the name Marianne de Pierres. But when I started
writing funny crime novels, the tone and content was so different from
everything I’d done before. I really felt like I had to signal that this was
different kind of writing by inventing a pseudonym. There have been advantages
and disadvantages to doing that, but ultimately, I still believe it was the
right decision.
Which is your preferred
genre- to read and write?
It changes all the time, but I’ve been reading crime fiction mostly
the last few years. I love Tana French and the Tartan Noir writers, and I’m
always up for a Michael Connelly novel.
To write though… well I’m always attracted to speculative fiction. I
love to twist things and mix genres. Even my crime has a faint speculative
element.
Do you put elements of
people you know into any of your characters?
Absolutely! The main character in my very first novel was based
loosely on a girlfriend. But then the character also had a little bit of me in
her, so… you can never really say it’s just about one person.
Too
Sharp is the third in the Tara Sharp series. Can you
tell us a little about the book and how did you go about planning the story?
Tara heads to another city to take a job “minding”
a touring rapper for a music promoter. Her idea is to avoid some of the heat on
her at home. Unfortunately, some of it follows her.
I knew I wanted to set a Tara story in Brisbane
where I currently live, and I was keen to explore what is left of the live
music scene in Fortitude Valley. The two ideas kind of coincided and I spent
time with a local musician who told me a lot about the history and current
climate of music in Brisbane. I also spent a lot of time walking around The
Valley, daydreaming and imagining scenes.
Tara Sharp has the gift of
being able to read ‘auras’. Did you do any research into this side of life?
I spent a lot of time talking to people and researching the notion
of reading auras. That also included a reading a bunch of information about
paralanguage, which I found so interesting. It’s amazing how so much of how we
interact in the world, and even the decisions that we make, are in reaction to
other people’s micro-expressions and movements.
My main character has the ability to read auras but she is also
super sensitive to paralanguage.
If Too
Sharp was to be made into a film, who would you like to play Tara?
I think JLAW would be perfect if the movie was made
right now! But I do love the idea of little known actors.
Can you
give any hints about any upcoming books you have planned?
Book Four is already written. Tara makes some
dubious acquaintances and deals in Book Three (Too Sharp) and then has
to bear the consequences of her decisions in Book Four (Sharp Edge). She
gets mixed up with a biker and criminal gang’s turf war. On the bright side,
her love life is blossoming!
Thanks so much for answering my questions. A fourth book about Tara Sharp sounds intriguing!
About the Author
MARIANNE DELACOURT is
the alter ego of award-winning, internationally-published Science
Fiction writer Marianne de Pierres. Renowned for dark satire in her
Science Fiction, Marianne offers lighter, funnier writing under her
Delacourt penname. As Delacourt, Marianne is also the author of Young
Adult fiction series Night Creatures (Burn Bright, Angel Arias and Shine Light).
She is a co-founder of the Vision Writers Group and ROR - wRiters on
the Rise, a critiquing group for professional writers. Marianne lives in
Brisbane with her husband and two galahs.
You can connect with Marianne on tarasharp.com.au | mariannedepierres.com | or on Twitter | or on Facebook.
For details on where to get a copy, click here!
In addition...
The
third novel in Marianne Delacourt’s series of paranormal crime novels
about unorthodox PI Tara Sharp, ‘Too Sharp’, launched this week. The
novel is available from all online retailers, including Twelfth Planet Press and Amazon. Readers new to Delacourt’s Tara Sharp series can spark their addiction with ‘Sharp Shooter’, the ebook of which is available for free for a limited time to celebrate the launch.
Thanks to Miriam Rune and the publishers at Twelfth Planet Press (crime imprint Deadlines) for a place on the tour.
Follow the rest of the tour!
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