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Book club questions for THE TWELVE DAYS OF MURDER

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Thank you so much for choosing The Twelve Days of Murder for your book club, I hope it prompts some interesting chats! Here are a few questions to help get the discussion started…

1 – All the Masqueraders except Charley behave selfishly and obnoxiously, but do any of them have redeeming features? Or did you dislike all of them equally?

2 – Shona says “every Christmas story, from Krampus to Scrooge, is about the rewarding of the virtuous and the punishment of the sinner.” Do you agree?

3 – How do you feel about the way the characters helped each other out in the real world. Is it corruption or just friends giving each other a helping hand?

4 – Did you agree with all Charley’s choices in the book?

5 – How did the setting of Snellbronach house and the cold glen affect the atmosphere of the story?

6 – Charley spends a lot of time worrying about what other people think – unlike Dasha and Shona who don’t care. Does this give her an advantage when solving the mystery?

7 – Do you have any character you wish had survived?

8 – If you could play a Murder Masquerade evening anywhere, where would it be and what character would you like to play?

Thanks for reading The Twelve Days of Murder – I hope you enjoyed it!

Workshop: How to crack social media as a writer

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the festival logo featuring play on words in pink jangly letters, with a purple clouds around the Y

Are you a writer? Have you ever wondered if you’re doing social media ‘right?’ My talk at Artful Scribe’s Play on Words festival on October 26 could help you make sense of things. It’s not designed to force you into making lip-synching TikToks when you don’t want to. Instead it’ll help you figure out what you want to say, what platform you want to use to say it, and how to reach the widest possible audience.

This is my first time at Play on Words which takes place in New Milton, Hampshire. I love the informal sociable feel to the event. It’s for readers, writers and lovers of words, which is basically me in a nutshell. Tickets to my talk and others are available here. Alternatively, you can attend the whole day of talks and workshops for just over £25. Pay-what-you-can and pay-it-forward options are also available. If you are planning to come to mine, please do bring a notepad and pen, I’m having great fun figuring out exercises and learning quite a bit myself in the process.

If you’re based anywhere the New Forest I hope to see you there!

My next book MURDER AT THE CHRISTMAS EMPORIUM is out soon!

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An image of a book, Murder at the Christmas Emporium on a background of snowflakes with dripping blood at the bottom. The book has a gold cover and bauble-like design with a picture of a mock-tudor shop, holly leaves and blood spatter details

Yes, it’s the most murderous time of the year again! I have been hard at work on a new festive mystery. MURDER AT THE CHRISTMAS EMPORIUM will be released in hardback on 24th October, and somehow the artists at Zaffre managed to make it even more gold and shiny than THE TWELVE DAYS OF MURDER.

This is what it’s all about:

Christmas shopping can be murder.

It’s Christmas Eve at the Emporium, a bespoke gift shop hidden in the depths of London’s winding streets, where a select few shoppers are browsing its handcrafted delights.

But when they go to leave, they find the doors are locked and it isn’t long before they realise this is no innocent mix-up. The shoppers have been trapped here by someone who knows their darkest secrets, who will stop at nothing until they have all been unwrapped – and there is a gruesome gift waiting in Santa’s grotto . . .

Cover of Murder at the Christmas Emporium featuring the tropes in the book: locked in with a killer; seven perfect strangers... or are they? Creepy automaton; grumpy Christmas-phobic sleuth; One of us is lying... OK we're all lying.

For those that survive the night, it will be a Christmas to remember.

If you like your thrillers set in a creepy old shop full of unpleasant characters, dark secrets and tinsel, then this could be for you. Also hard relate if you’ve ever been Christmas shopping and felt murderous by the end…

Pre-order here

The Twelve Days of Murder gets a green makeover for paperback!

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12DOM is going green for Christmas 2024! I love my new cover, and it’s going to be every bit as shiny as the hardback version, just a bit more… portable and bendy. It’s out on the 12th September this year, and if you’re feeling organised, you can pre-order here. Pre-orders also mean a lot to authors, it means bookshops know there’s a buzz surrounding a new book, which makes them more likely to order copies and put them out on tables for other people to discover.

Thanks so much to everyone who has supported 12DOM so far – fingers crossed even more readers will discover my ghastly gang (and Charley) in 2024!

Hone your writing skills at the Bournemouth Writing Festival

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It’s so brilliant to have a whole festival dedicated to writing right on my doorstep and to be a part of the second-ever Bournemouth Writing festival! This year it runs from 26th-28th April.

Genre breakfast

I’m kicking off on Saturday morning at 9am by hosting a breakfast meetup for all writers of young adult and teen fiction. I had such a brilliant time last year and met a whole host of wonderful authors (see all the happy smiling faces above.) It’s at Picnic Park Deli, which is a lovely spot, and free to attend. If you fancy dropping in to talk all things YA, even if it’s just to obsess over our favourite YA authors, you can RSVP here.

Jump Around workshop

I’m also thrilled to be running a writing workshop focused on my favourite storytelling devices. Jump Around is for anyone who loves switching POV or hopping into different timelines in their stories, which is an excellent way of messing with your reader’s heads… but sometimes hard to do without making your own head spin. So please join me for a time-bending, narrative switching hour of fun on Sunday afternoon at 4.30-5.30pm at Pavilion Dance.

I was lucky enough to attend the festival last year and it was so much fun. Workshops, talks and other events are run on a pay-as-you-go basis, so there’s no big ticket fees and you can pick and choose what you’d like to do. You can find a full programme here.

Hope to see you there… I also hope the weather’s nice for the beach writing sessions!

THE TWELVE DAYS OF MURDER coming to a screen near you!

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Here’s an exciting announcement from my publisher, Zaffre!

cover of the twelve days of murder on a green background with the brock media logo

Zaffre, the flagship fiction imprint of Bonnier Books UK, today announces that Andreina Cordani’s first adult novel The Twelve Days of Murder has been optioned for TV by BBC-Studios-backed production company Brock Media. The deal was facilitated by Marc Simonsson of SoloSon Media.

Brock Media, who produced the screen adaptations of Emma Jane Unsworth’s Animals and Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun will work with Phoebe Eclair-Powell (Two Weeks To Live, The Road Trip) to adapt the novel for television.

To date, publishing rights have sold to the United States (Pegasus & Dreamscape), Italy (Newton Compton), Spain (Newton Compton) and are also under offer in Hungary.

The Twelve Days of Murder is a contemporary Christmas whodunnit centred around The Masquerade Murder Society which is filled with clever twists and turns to keep characters and viewers guessing.

Andreina Cordani said: ‘This has to be the best early Christmas present ever – I’m so thrilled that my ghastly set of characters could be coming to the TV screen. I hope it will make excellent dark and festive viewing.’

Sarah Brocklehurst, founder of Brock Media, said: “We are thrilled to be developing The Twelve Days of Murder for television. Andreina Cordani has written an incredibly entertaining and well-plotted murder mystery full of twists, suspense and glorious characters. It’s deliciously bingeable and will be perfect for mainstream festive season viewing.”

Stella Giatrakou, Adult Rights Director at Bonnier Books UK said: “We’re hugely excited to be selling rights to this festive locked-room murder mystery for the

millennial age! Nothing more exciting than secrets, backstabbing and a Christmassy background to hook readers – publishers abroad were dead keen to read…”

Kelly Smith, Senior Editor, Zaffre, said: ‘‘Andreina’s delightfully deadly festive tale will be perfect winter viewing. I cannot wait to see her murderous masquerade come to life!’

Fancy some festive Crime and Wine?

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Green graphic containing images of all four writers and their books saying that the event is on Thursday 9th November at 7.30pm.

I’m really looking forward to my evening chatting crime and sipping wine at Oxford Waterstones with fellow festive whodunnit authors SJI Holliday, author of The Party Season Alexandra Benedict author of The Christmas Jigsaw Murders and Janice Hallett, author of The Christmas Appeal. I’m a big fan of all three authors and can’t wait to hear their insights on all all things dark, stabby and festive. It’s also a lovely bookshop! If you’re in the Oxford area on 9th November do drop by. Tickets can be found here and cost £3-£5.

Bid for signed books to raise money for Children in Need

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image of andreina cordani, the covers of the girl who and dead lucky plus the BBC children in need pudsey bear logo.

I’m taking part in this year’s Children In Read charity auction, offering signed copies of The Girl Who… and Dead Lucky to the highest bidder. Every year, the auction raises thousands of pounds for Children in Need. Already got my two YA books? Of course you have! You can also bid on signed books from bestsellers including Milly Johnson, Paige Toon, Frances Quinn, Lisa Jewell and more! Follow this link to find out more…

IT’S PUBLICATION DAY!

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andreina cordani posing with a uk copy of the twelve days of murder

Let the merry murderous mayhem unleash! Writing this book nearly melted my brain and now at last I can share the brain-meltiness. If you like:

🔒Locked door mysteries
🌨️ snowy, remote locations
🎭Ghastly love-to-hate characters
🎅💀Grisly festive-themed deaths
🍬Quality Street

Then this is definitely the book for you! https://loom.ly/N-wWP0E