Dark And Stormy Festival May 23

"Lots of aspiring writers forget you have to write. They talk a lot about writing and read a lot about writing, but don’t write. That whole process is scary – sitting down and filling a blank page.”

Having completed a couple of Open University creative writing courses, Brighton-based former theatre director and graphic designer Julia Crouch  was advised by her tutor to take part in NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month.

“I didn’t want to spend a year of my life realising I was rubbish and couldn’t get past chapter three,” laughs Crouch.

The international scheme started in the San Francisco Bay Area as a game between Chris Baty and 21 of his friends in 1999.

The aim was to pen the first draft of a novel throughout one month by breaking it down to 1,700 words a day.

In the following 15 years, the scheme has moved from July to November, and expanded to include more than 300,000 writers worldwide.

“For me it was a revelation,” says Crouch.

“It’s a bit like going for a run – you just go for it and don’t think about the length that you’re running.’ “You end up with something longer than [Ian McEwan’s Booker-shortlisted] On Chesil Beach and about the same length as [JD Salinger’s] The Catcher In The Rye.

“You give yourself permission to write rubbish but out of those swine come pearls. You have laid the foundations.”

For Crouch her second attempt at NaNoWriMon led to the creation of her debut published novel Cuckoo.

The finished novel was picked up by agent Simon Trewin, who got her a three-book deal with publisher Headline.

One step at a time It was Crouch’s first step into the world of crime-writing, soon followed by the critically acclaimed novels Every Vow You Break, Tarnished and The Long Fall, which is released next month.

And this weekend she is celebrating the genre as part of the team behind Dark And Stormy – a new crime festival incorporating literature and film, which launches tonight.

Crouch never intended to enter the crime genre – assuming with Cuckoo that she was penning a literary novel.

“You write the best novel you possibly can,” says Crouch.

“I thought I was the next Virginia Woolf. You have to build your confidence.

“My agent Simon called me for a meeting and said, ‘You know, what you have written here is a psychological thriller. You’ve written crime fiction.’”

She admits there was always a part of her which loved crime as a genre.

“If I went to a holiday cottage and there were Agatha Christies on the book shelf I would devour them,” she says.

“People look down their noses at them but I was always attracted to them as a reader.

“Crime writing is one of the most select forms of literature. You have to create a world very vividly, and write in a way that readers enjoy, so it’s not overly weird or colourful.

“You have to keep the reader guessing and turning the page.

“It comes from a world which is disordered and has to be put together. A crime novel can’t have loose ends, or an open ending. It has to be resolved in some way – otherwise it isn’t a satisfying read. The author will just get one-star reviews on Amazon and probably won’t get published.”

She sees the modern crime writing world as separated into three strands.

“There’s the cosy Miss Marple world, which I always find funny as it is still about people being murdered,” she says.

“Then there’s the police procedural, which Peter James does – his talk at Dark And Stormy has sold out completely.”

And then there is the psychological thriller, made popular by the likes of Sophie Hannah and SJ Watson which Crouch’s work falls into.

“Instead of whodunnits, they’re more like whydunnits,” says Crouch. “They’re about people lying to each other and doing terrible things in the name of love or friendship in a more domestic setting.

“Unlike the others, a psychological thriller starts off with an ordered world which becomes disordered, but people learn things by the end and go away with a greater knowledge of themselves or the world.”

She credits the success of Cuckoo with a certain amount of luck. “It was the same time that publishers were looking for psychological thrillers,” she says. “The kind of novel I write happened to be very fashionable.

“There are lots of really good writers who never get published because their books don’t fit or they don’t have the right publisher.

"I have been very, very lucky.”

She is now contracted to write a novel a year, and aims to write 2,000 words every day in the shed at the bottom of her garden.

She admits the pressure is off slightly at the moment as she has just sold the film rights to one of her books – although she is not allowed to say which one.

“Fay Weldon once said they pay you a lot of money to keep quiet when they buy your novel,” she says. “Coming from a theatre background I find the collaborative nature of the process quite exciting. I’ve always thought six, seven or eight brains are better than one, which is an odd thing for a novelist to say.”

She feels that her stories are often controlled by her characters.

“They will pull you in different directions – they take over,” she admits. “I don’t write everything down in advance – I might know where I want to end up, but even then I might end up in a different place.”

Cuckoo tells the story of Rose, who with her husband has spent the last two years doing up her dream house. The pair are settling in for a quiet evening only for an old school friend, Polly, to ring up from Greece.

“Her husband has been killed in a car crash, so Rose invites her to stay in their granny annexe,” says Crouch. “That’s the big mistake she makes and horrible things start happening to Rose’s life.”

She admits although the results of her second NaNoWriMon attempt eventually led to her being published she would never want to read that first attempt again.

“My first draft shouldn’t be seen by anyone else but me,” she says. “They should be encrypted on my computer.

“A lot of editors quake in their boots on December 1 as they get a lot of novels that shouldn’t be seen by anybody.

“Some people work very differently – I have friends who will revise what they have written the day before then move on to writing that day.

I need a rough sketch of the whole thing so I can start editing and picking it apart.”

Although Dark And Stormy hasn’t even started yet, Crouch is already looking to the future. She hopes the 2015 event will cover four days and expand to cover different aspects of the genre – even gaming.

“I have two sons who are 22 and 14, who spent a lot of time on XBoxes,” she says.

“It’s another way of young people consuming narrative, but in a more interactive way.

“Games like Grand Theft Auto have narrative elements although there is a lot of violence.

“I think it is cathartic – violence has always been in art since the ancient Greek tragedy of Medea.

“In future, I’m keen to incorporate all sorts of forms of expression of the crime genre – we’re looking at visual arts such as transgressive sculpture and we have been talking to Alabama 3 about putting together a day of Delta blues crime songs.”

The festival in full

A Myriad Of Crime Writers Spiegeltent, Steine Gardens, Friday, May 23, 6pm, £8

Authors Elizabeth Haynes, Lesley Thomson and Lisa Cutts all began their careers at Brighton-based independent publishers Myriad.

They will be in discussion with Myriad MD Candida Lacey and author Laura Lockington.

“Myriad accept unsolicited manuscripts from writers without an agent,” says Julia Crouch, one of the team behind Dark And Stormy. “They have launched a lot of writers’ careers – they run competitions with prizes of manuscript appraisals. All three of the writers got their first publishing deals with Myriad.”

Haynes’s debut novel Into The Darkest Corner won Amazon UK’s best book of 2011 and has been translated into 30 different languages.

Similar to Crouch’s story above, the first draft was penned as part of the NaNoWriMon scheme.

And Cutts has her own insight into crime and police procedure from her career as a serving police officer for Kent constabulary.

Layer Cake Tea Party Duke’s @ Komedia, Gardner Street, Brighton, Friday, May 23, 6.30pm, from £10 (film rated 15, 105 minutes)

Prior to his stint as the world’s most famous secret agent, Daniel Craig played a cocaine dealer seeking early retirement thrown into the middle of a complex series of double-crosses.

The screening of Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels producer Matthew Vaughn’s directorial debut is introduced by original novelist JJ Connelly and accompanied by tea and a cake made by Crouch herself.

Peter James Brighton Dome Studio Theatre, Friday, May 23, 8pm, call 01273 709709 for returns

In recent years, crime novelist Peter James has been responsible for maintaining Brighton’s criminal reputation with his series of Roy Grace novels.

As the detective celebrates his tenth anniversary, James talks to fellow novelist Peter Guttridge about his next book Want You Dead and his use of Brighton as a backdrop.

Fate Revenge And Furies Brighton Dome Studio Theatre, New Road, Saturday, May 24, 3.30pm, £10

The creator of Ancient Roman detective Falco, Lindsey Davis, is in discussion with comedian and classicist Natalie Haynes Haynes’s debut crime novel The Amber Fury draws on her own knowledge of the Greek tragedies.

“Both went to the same school in Birmingham, but in different generations, and both their lives revolve around the classics,” says Crouch.

“It will make for an interesting event – they are talking amongst themselves and there’s no chairman.”

Sex, Lies And The Internet Spiegeltent, Steine Gardens, Brighton, Saturday, May 24, 6pm, £10

“I went to an event for new authors at Jubilee Library with Erin Kelly and SJ Watson,” recalls Crouch.

“We were all presented as the new Sophie Hannah.”

With her focus on technology Hannah has helped revitalise the psychological thriller.

She will be talking with Crouch about her new commission to write a Poirot for the 21st century, and the modern problems crime writers face.

“With current technology you can’t have somebody completely fall off the grid,” says Crouch. “You can’t just cut the phone lines at a country house any more. You have to find different ways – there are more phone reception black spots in crime novels than there are in the real world!”

Down Terrace Duke’s @ Komedia, Gardner Street, Brighton, Saturday, May 24, 6.30pm, from £10, (film rated 18, 89 minutes)

Critically acclaimed Brighton director Ben Wheatley made his feature debut with this claustrophobic tale of a gangster family looking for the police informant in their midst.

Wheatley has been invited to introduce the film, depending on commitments.

Tony Parsons Brighton Dome Studio Theatre, New Road, Saturday, May 24, 9pm, £10

Tony Parsons caused something of a stir in the world of crime fiction recently when he accused the genre of lacking “emotional power” during an interview with The Guardian.

Among those determined to change his mind were Stella Duffy, who started the Twitter hashtag #tonyparsonscouldread, providing the Man And Boy author with a reading list including Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Mark Billingham, Walter Mosley, PD James and Dorothy L Sayers.

His appearance at Dark And Stormy – and all the media furore – coincides with his first foray into the crime genre with his new novel The Murder Bag. It introduces new troubled detective DC Max Wolfe – “an insomniac dog-lover, boxer, orphan, single parent and every murderer’s worst nightmare.”

Crime fiction expert Barry Forshaw will no doubt introduce the Ukip supporter to more of the genre.

Brighton Rock Duke’s @ Komedia, Gardner Street, Brighton, Sunday, May 25, 2pm, from £10, (film rated PG, 92 minutes)

Forshaw returns to introduce a screening of this black and white classic, scripted by Graham Greene from his original novel. A young Richard Attenborough stars as teenage gangster Pinkie trying to tie up the loose ends after a vicious murder in John Boulting’s iconic depiction of Brighton between the wars.

Spies: Fact And Fiction Brighton Dome Concert Hall, Church Street, Sunday, May 25, 4pm, £10

BBC Radio 4 presenter James Naughtie finds out how true to life spy thrillers really are. Joining him in the discussion will be former MI5 director general Dame Stella Rimington, Liam Fox MP, author Tom Rob Smith and the Guardian’s foreign correspondent Luke Harding.

“I wish we had more than one hour,” admits Crouch. “It’s going to be an extraordinary mix of real life and fiction from people who really know about it.”

Murder On Sea Brighton Dome Studio Theatre, New Road, Sunday, May 25, 8pm, £10

Cheeky Guide creator and host of The Catalyst Club David Bramwell chats to four authors about why Brighton still provides a perfect backdrop for crime novels.

Joining him on the sofa are Brighton-born Colette McBeth (pictured inset above), former Brighton student Erin Kelly, Brighton-based Danny Miller and SJ Watson who set the final passages in his best-selling Before I Sleep in Brighton.

The show also features dark madrigals from Silver Swans featuring Jane Bom-Bane, Emma Kilbey and Eliza Skelton, and readings from Brighton crime novels by Kilbey and Julia Crouch’s husband Tim.