Mel says…I write gritty crime dramas and fiction with a punch – or grit-lit, as I call it. Since 2012, I have published eight novels, all of which have become bestsellers, each one climbing into the Kindle UK top 10, with several in the top 3. Named as one of my home town’s top 100 influential people 2016, I’m thrilled to have sold over half a million books.
Shortlisted for the prestigious CWA (Crime Writer’s Association) Dagger in Library Award 2014, my inspiration comes from authors such as Martina Cole, Lynda la Plante, Mandasue Heller and Elizabeth Haynes. I regularly appear at festivals, conferences and events across the country – my favourites being London Book Fair and Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival, Harrogate.
When I was young
When I started to take writing ‘seriously’
In December 2011, I self-published a crime thriller, TAUNTING THE DEAD.
In six weeks, it hit the Kindle UK top ten and was number one in police procedurals. I quickly followed this with three books in a series, THE ESTATE SERIES and by the end of 2012, I’d sold over 200,000 copies online. Attracting enquiries from a number of literary agents, I signed with Madeleine Milburn at the end of 2012 and have never looked back. I’ve since published four novels with Thomas & Mercer, making that first novel, TAUNTING THE DEAD into a series. FOLLOW THE LEADER was published in February 2015 and the third in the series, ONLY THE BRAVE shortly afterwards in May 2015. I also wrote a standalone psychological thriller, WATCHING OVER YOU, a number one best seller in UK, US, Germany and Australia. My latest novel, WRITTEN IN THE SCARS, book 4, The Estate Series is out now.
I also write contemporary fiction under the name of Marcie Steele
Stirred with Love and That’s What Friends Are For are out now.
So that’s me in a nutshell. Thanks for coming to my website. Don’t forget to sign up to my newsletter (or click on the image below to get a free ebook too) and follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
Tanya’s love for books has been a lifelong passion that she likes sharing with others. Reading is also the thing that relaxes her after a day of juggling the many responsibilities that come with being being wife to an amazing man, mother to four great kids spread around the world, business manager, and farm hand on their place in southwest Missouri; home to Akaushi cattle and a menagerie of pygmy goats, horses, chickens, dogs and cats.