Julia Stone, winner of the BPA First Novel Award 2018, has released her second psychological suspense novel with Orion Dash. The Accident, which won the competition under the title My Poor Deluded Girl, is available now from Amazon, Bookshop.org and more.
‘I was completely gripped by Jules’ voice, and her opening scene was so vivid, I can’t stop thinking about it. She presented one of those real moments in fiction where a reader can put themselves right in the protagonist’s shoes: what would happen if they were in an accident like this? How would the trauma of the impact affect them?’
– Madeleine Milburn.
Thrown together by fate. Entwined by lies…
The police ruled it as misadventure. A young woman falling from a bridge onto Janice Thomason’s car was not an act of suicide or murder, it’s just an accident. But for Janice, it feels like fate has thrown them together.
As a genealogist, Janice is used to tracking down clues – is even a little obsessive, one might say… The police know so little about the Jane Doe that fell on her car that she decides to start her own investigation into the victim and the people she knew. Surely someone must be to blame?
Sometimes the only way to uncover the truth is to lie… and for Janice, living a lie comes all too easily.
(L–R: Literary agent Madeleine Milburn, BPA First Novel Award winner Julia Stone, runner-up Mandy Robotham, author and judge Fiona Mitchell)
Between writing sessions, Julia continues to work as a psychotherapist and coach and offers a specialised service to writers and creatives:
‘Having gone through the ups and downs of the journey to publication, I know first-hand what it’s like for the self-doubt to creep in. It’s almost a given that at some point we lose faith in our story, misplace our mojo, or question what we were thinking when we started out on this path! As a psychotherapist and coach I’ve called on the tools and techniques of my profession many times over the past few years and have also offered professional support to many other writers, including novelists, poets and memoirists. If you’d like to work on your own emotional challenges or any limiting beliefs that are getting in the way of your writing ambitions, more information can be found at www.julialampshire.com.’
Julia is on Twitter as @JulesTake3, and you can also keep up to date by following @MMLitAgency and @books_dash.