This Writing Life

Writing stories might seem a remote, anonymous thing to do (who are the authors anyway? If not faceless contributors?) but you can get a feel for a person, tease snippets of their personality even, by reading stories penned in their own words.

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that as an author, I put a lot of myself into what I write. Some of those feelings, mistakes, reactions there in my books, would be mine. Exactly mine.

And so the idea of an alter ego has always appealed. There's something exciting and clandestine about putting some of my writing out there in the world under another name, even if that name has only been given a little tweak. 

It was no surprise when my editor suggested doing just this in advance of my new title's publication. 

Perfect Strangers is a departure from my previous books. It's a little darker, a little more suspenseful. A little less happy-ever-after. That's not to say I won't be writing under my own name again, without doubt, I will. But right now, this is where I am. These are the themes I'm writing about. And it's only fair, particularly to those who've enjoyed my previous books, that readers should get a heads-up that this new novel offers something a little different.

Why Erin?

Well, that comes down to just plain old preference. Initially, the shift was going to be to A.C. Knight, making use of my initials. But it was felt that might be more suited to slightly darker genres.  So for something softer, I rattled off a few names I'd had down on my girls' baby names list during all three pregnancies, because let's face it, after three boys I'm clearly not destined to ever have chance of using them.

We landed on Erin. Erin Knight. 

So if you don't thoroughly enjoy Perfect Strangers, read it cover to cover in one sitting and want to immediately dash out buying a copy for everyone you know and love... blame her! 

Blame Erin.