Crimes Against Fiction

A novel way of delivering a few writing pointers.....

Quickfire Questions with... Camilla Bolton - Darley Anderson Agency

Camilla Bolton joined Darley Anderson Agency in August 2007. She is an Associate Agent for Crime and Thriller fiction, having formerly been in newspaper journalism.


Which 3 authors, dead or alive, would you invite to dinner?
Stephen King, Roald Dahl and Maeve Binchy.

Email or phone?
Phone definitely as I’m not the best at spelling or grammar.

Cosy crime – passé or popular?
Good page-turning cosy crime will return, especially with authors like Alexander McCall Smith re-inventing it with a unique twist. So I’d say it’s zoomed past passé and is heading for popularity.

An author should always…Look at every word they write and make sure it’s 100% necessary. Excess words slow pace, stop stories and potentially bore readers.

Favourite desktop snack?
Coffee

Cliffhanger or reveal-all ending?
Reveal-all ending as I hate not knowing something.

You really must read…
Killing Floor by Lee Child.

Dan Brown is…
A great story teller and huge commercial success.

Daily Mail or The Times?
I’m very ashamed to confess that I rarely buy papers, I always intend to but never quite make it. Sadly I spend my time reading crime and thriller books.

Crime fiction is literary when…
It takes 5 pages to say what a commercial novel could manage in a paragraph. I know, it sounds a bit extreme, but literary crime fiction relies on words as well as plot and consequently the pace will be a lot slower.


Thanks, Camilla! And it's admirable that your only desktop snack is a cup of coffee!