I've joined the Crime Writers' Association!

I’m delighted to announce that I’ve been accepted into the Crime Writers’ Association. You can guess what its members do…

Ever since INCEPTIO, since Karen Brown was targeted, kidnapped and threatened, there has been crime running through the Roma Nova thrillers. Our heroine even served as a policewoman, or custos as they say in Roma Nova. CARINA was a crime investigation with a conspiracy element, PERFIDITAS brought us back Apollodorus, the so charming criminal and Carina’s friend. SUCCESSIO was a mixture of crime, conspiracy and thriller.

Winding back to the late 1960s, in AURELIA we find silver smuggling, murder, trials, financial crime and conspiracy. NEXUS sees our heroine on a murder hunt while INSURRECTIO and RETALIO are about political crime, revolution and retribution. But each of these is tightly entwined with a strong thriller element bound with ties of military and espionage action.

My other series, the Mélisende thrillers, starts with murder and evolves into Mel’s involvement with the enigmatic European Investigation and Regulation Service and a certain Metropolitan Police detective…

All in all, it’s criminal that I didn’t join before 😉

So, who and what is the CWA?

You might have heard of Martina Cole, Lindsey Davis, Mick Herron, Barry Forshaw, Leigh Russell, Ian Rankin and Simon Scarrow. I’m honoured to be in their august company along with many other excellent crime and thriller writers of all types (a fair number of whom I know already – delighted!).

The CWA was founded in 1953  by John Creasey  and has provided over sixty years of support, promotion, and celebration of this most durable, adaptable, and successful of genres.  The association runs the prestigious Dagger Awards, which celebrate the best in crime writing, the Crime Readers’ Association and National Crime Reading Month.

Some of the things the CWA offers include:

  • Meeting and networking with other crime writers – both at events and virtually via their members-only Facebook page. I know how valuable this is from memberships in the Alliance of Independent Authors, the Historical Novel Society, International Thriller Writers and other associations
  • The pleasure of attending an annual conference, exclusively for CWA crime writers. I do like a good conference!
  • Discounts and special offers
  • Meeting publicists, journalists, bloggers, editors and other associate members at  events
  • A wide range of contacts in libraries and festivals, to help organise and publicise our own author events. (Won’t it be lovely to get back to real events in 2022!)
  • A monthly magazine, Red Herrings, and regular enewsletters full of news, events, and opportunities for crime writers
  • Selling our books and engaging directly with thousands of crime writing fans through their Crime Readers’ Association (CRA). As well as the website, where we can post blogs and have our books – complete with Amazon and Hive links – and profile featured in Find An Author, they send a regular newsletter featuring members’ news, and a bimonthly ezine with details of members’ new books, to a database of over 11,000 – all of which helps members to reach new audiences.

I’m only starting to explore the sites, magazines and groups, but I’ve posted my details and books on the CRA site: https://thecra.co.uk/find-an-author/morton-alison/  and joined the Facebook group.

I’m going to love interacting with the criminal minds especially the historical ones and the spy writers.

 

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers –  INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO,  AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO  and RETALIO,  and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories.  Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. Double Pursuit, the sequel is out on 19 October 2021.

Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email newsletter. You’ll also be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

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