Too Sharp by Marianne Delacourt ** Blog Tour Author interview **

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.

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 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!