The truth about me and Tania Carver . . .

Well, first off, I didn't think it would take this long between blogs. But there's a reason for that. My last entry appeared just after last year's Harrogate Festival. And a fine time was had by all. After that I intended to keep going but it didn't work out. There are a few reasons for that but the main one is the reason I started blogging again.

Because I became a woman.

I'll explain. Although I'm sure most people know the story by now as the secret's out. But just in case you don't, here goes. A couple of years ago I was having a coffee with my old editor (now on his way to total domination of the publishing world), chatting about this and that and he mentioned that he was lacking a certain kind of writer on his list.

'That kind of high concept female American thriller writer,' he said. 'Like Karin Slaughter or Tess Gerritson. Lots of violence, lots of action. But from a female perspective.'

'I can do that,' I said.

Of course he laughed. As did I. I wasn't sure if I was being serious.

So he challenged me. Go off and do it. So I did. At the time I was coming to the end of my contract with my then publisher. I wanted to take the Joe Donovan series somewhere else as the publishers I had weren't . . . well let's just say I wasn't happy with them and leave it at that. I knew there would be a gap if the series went elsewhere so, being a professional writer I'd have to do something else in the meantime. This sounded like a laugh.

So I sat down to do it. I had a story in mind (female serial killer targets pregnant women and cuts out their unborn children to claim as her own). Where did that appear from? Well, my wife, actually. Sometimes I get a glimpse of just how far removed writers are from normal people and coming up with this premise was one indication. She was reading the paper and came across that story. In America, of course. Now, most normal people would say something like, 'how hideous', or 'that's gross' or even be sick. But writers - or people who share their lives with writers - don't seem to do that. We have that little chip of ice in our hearts, as Graham Greene once said. And, by extension, our partners develop it too. So instead of being horrified at the article she said, 'Here, that's got legs.'. And it did.

Except I didn't. Not on my own. Since a lot of the story involved pregnancy and I've never been as pregnant as my wife has, I kept asking her questions about it. And she was happy to help. Then I bombarded her with more questions. And she very patiently helped. Then more. Until she became so involved that she was the co-writer of the novel.

Now the next thing was, we couldn't put it out under two names. That would look cumbersome. So, taking bestselling husband and wife writing duo Nikki French as an example, we decided on a pseudonym. Or rather the publishers did. They liked the name Tania Carver. We couldn't come up with any objection to that. So Tania Carver it was.

Then it started to get serious. The book, THE SURROGATE, came out September 2009. It was decided that the real names of Tania Carver would be kept secret. Now, anyone who knows me knows how bad I am at keeping secrets. Just buy me a drink (or several) and my tongue is immediately loosened. So it was hard. Really, really hard not to tell anyone. Or everyone, depending how much I'd had to drink. But I managed. Sort of. It was also really difficult going into bookshops and seeing the book there and not being able to directly relate to it. I even stood in WH Smiths one day (where it was book of the week) watching people buy it. I really wanted to walk up to them and say, 'I'm Tania Carver' but I knew that at best I'd not be believed and at worse, arrested.

So it was difficult. But I managed it. We just kept our heads down and worked on a sequel. In the meantime THE SURROGATE went on to be a huge bestseller in Europe. We told the Europeans that it was a husband and wife team but news didn't really filter back over here. And then THE SURROGATE was shortlisted for the Theakstons Award to be presented at this summer's Harrogate Festival.

Now. I have to say I helped. To go from longlist to shortlist it had to be voted for by the public. So we phoned and emailed everyone to ask them to vote for it. I even sent out messages through Facebook. Unfortunately because the name was still embargoed at this point, I had to say it was a friend of mine (which it was really - my wife) who had written it. But enough people voted for it and it was shortlisted. It didn't win (That was RJ Ellory) but Mark Lawson had a hell of a lot of fun with me at the award ceremony and Tania Carver's identity was publicly revealed.

So now it's great to be able to actually admit it. I've been on radio silence for over a year, not answering emails, not daring to speak in case I gave something away. I apologise to all of the people who sent me emails and didn't get a response. This was why. I couldn't say anything.

But now I can. Tania is out and proud. I'm even doing public events for the new novel - check the News page on my site for where and when. My wife will be joining me for some of them but she doesn't really like the public aspect of the job so they'll be rationed. On the other hand, I love being on stage and even more, talking about myself. So I have no such compunction.

The new novel, THE CREEPER, is out today. September 16th. I've heard that it's supposed to have gone in at No. 1 in the fiction chart at WH Smiths Travel (that's airports and train stations) but I'll believe it when I see it. Still, it's exciting. The third in the series, CAGE OF BONES is currently being written.

THE CREEPER actually came to me in a dream. My wife thought it was a very scary premise. So, naturally, instead of calling me a sick bastard (chip of ice and all that), we got to work.

So where's Martyn Waites in all this? Where's Joe Donovan? He will return. I haven't lined up a new publisher yet as being half of Tania Carver has taken up more time that I thought it would. But he'll be back. Donovan's story isn't finished yet. There's lots more to happen to him. You haven't heard the last of him. Or Martyn Waites. But for now, I'm half of Tania Carver. And I can't even say I'm the good looking half or the half that comes up with most of the good ideas. But we're having fun. And hopefully so are the readers.

THE CREEPER by Tania Carver out 16th September. Buy it here or here.