Drones, mysteries and author-read extracts : Jude Tresswell
Hello everyone at Love Bytes Reviews. It’s good to be publishing another County Durham Quad gay mystery and telling you about it. Fast, Free and Flying was recently released and there’s something really exciting me: there’s a video to go with an extract from the book.
The series is based in a part of North-East England called Weardale. It’s a hilly, remote part of County Durham. I’m not one for scenic description—I much prefer writing dialogue and narrative—but the setting is always in my head as I write. I’d intended to spend a week in Co. Durham last Spring, take some photos to place behind a spoken extract of the story and upload a file to my little YouTube channel. (I did something similar with my short story, Scar Ghyll Levels, a year or so ago.) Then, of course, Coronavirus hit and, I don’t know about where you live, but here in the UK everyone’s travel plans were scuppered—and have been thwarted ever since.
Drones feature heavily in the new story’s plot; there’s even one on the cover. So, what if, instead of photos, I could get hold of some drone footage? I searched the net and the result is six videos shot by a wonderful guy who lives in Weardale called Andy Ditchfield. The first video, scheduled for Jan 7th release, is the opening chapter of Fast, Free and Flying over Andy’s stunning footage. We’ve a video for each of the books in the series—mostly aerial footage, sometimes a road trip by car and, on one occasion, a road trip by bike. (That one’s to match the bike trip in the A Share in a Secret extract: Mike and Nick heading off down country lanes together.) Lengths range from six to eleven minutes.
It’s been quite hard to find extracts that are suitable. By comparison with a lot of the books that feature in Love Bytes Reviews, mine are very tame. (I know. It’s a shame.) Even so, it wasn’t always easy to find snippets that were both mild enough for YouTube and worked as standalones. I’ve opted for two first chapters, two action pieces and two talking pieces and, in each video’s description, said a little bit about the context as well as the location.
So, if you’d like to see a little bit of North-East England, or hear a bit of an author-read story, then here’s the link to the new book’s footage. I’m releasing the other videos weekly during January and February. I’d love to know what you think of this idea.
Thank you, Dani, for letting me chat to everyone – Jude
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/Lqlg4P5uvQc
Title: Fast, Free and Flying
Series: County Durham Quad, Book 6
Author: Jude Tresswell
Publishing Details: Self-published
Length : 63,000 words
Release Date: December 2020
Jacket Blurb
Drones lie at the heart of this mystery facing Mike, Ross, Raith and Phil, four men who live in North East England.
A spate of art-related burglaries and a series of horrific kidnaps have occurred. The freedom of the quad, and that of Nick, their special friend, is threatened by involvement in both cases. They’re the suspects of one and Mike is a victim of the other. The officer in charge is the quad’s old enemy, Detective Chief Inspector Fortune. Should the quad set aside their distrust and tell him what they know?
Meanwhile, Nick has issues of his own to consider. Compromises are needed, but how many?
This is the sixth tale in the County Durham Quad series. Background is included to aid new readers.
Jude lives in South East England but she misses the sights and sounds of her native north. She is long-married and ace, which she feels gives her some understanding of the relationship between Mike and Nick. She finds it hard to ‘see’ her characters, though, which is why the covers contain silhouettes. She listens to music, especially blues, and watches a lot of YouTube. Hence the new videos.