Crime Investigator & Thriller Author S C Cunningham
Unfinished Business (Book II of The David Trilogy)
Creating Characters.
When building a character I draw from observations of people I know or have closely watched, it’s easier to write from truth. Luckily, I’ve worked in a few fascinating industries, where I’ve been able to study a wide range of characters.
British born of Irish parents I was plonked from the age of 8yrs into an Irish Catholic nuns boarding school. After a short spell of studying law (realizing there is too much injustice in our systems) I went on to work as a fashion model, married a rock musician and worked in the music to film industry. Got divorced and then as a single mum worked within sports celebrity management, football, horseracing, children’s charities, and more recently for the Police as a Crime Investigator – Intel Analyst, Major Crime Team, Wanted and Absconder Units.
Am a proud mum to a wonderful daughter (Contemporary Artist Scarlett Raven) and owned by three dogs.
For the past ten years I’ve been drawing on these experiences to write steamy Psychological Thrillers The David Trilogy and gritty Paranormal Thrillers The Fallen Angel Series. And I’ve learned to prefer dogs over humans… present company excepted. J
I tend to write what I know; the characters in both series of books are founded on real life experiences.
The David Trilogy characterisation was kick-started by an incident that happened to me in my twenties, when I was living in London. Frighteningly, I crossed paths with a prolific serial attacker who was targeting single girls living on their own in basement flats in Notting Hill and Olympia.
I got away unscathed (must have an Angel looking out for me) and helped Police with ID’ing the suspect. He was a nice looking, well dressed, calm, cold, cunning character. He didn’t say a word, he just watched, enjoying the fear he was instilling.
I remember looking into his face and wondering why? What awful thing had happened in his life to turn him from a sweet little boy into an evil adult? The seed for complex David Howard was sown.
Using a mix of my own experiences (nuns, boarding school, modelling, the press and celebrity management) I created his world of manipulation, shining a light on the carnage that the misuse of power, religion and passion causes.
The Fallen Angel Series character was also kick-started by a person I met as a child. At 4yrs old I was taken, I survived (that Angel again), another little girl was taken the following week, she didn’t. Coming from an Irish catholic family, I prayed each night to God asking him for a deal. That if I was a good girl, when I died, would he let me sit on a cloud, invisible, and help catch the baddies who slip through his fingers?
That incident and how a little girl reacted to it stayed with me. I’m not religious, but I do believe there’s something out there, an energy, maybe quantum physics we don’t understand yet. So I’ve turned the idea into a paranormal crime romance, with the lead character Amy Fox based on that little girl and her deal. And started to create her character.
We find career girl Amy aged 30yrs, with God and her deal long forgotten, mysteriously dying, under a London tube train. Awakening to find herself in an MI5’esque Unit that dishes out tough karma from the skies, wondering what the hell is going on?
Having formed her reason and background story, I had fun pushing her outside her comfort zone and adding further details that build up her personality. I gave her defects and flaws (stubborn, demanding, soft hearted), internal dialogue (muttering to herself, asking why, talking through insecurities and dilemmas), ambition and motivation (the end game, revenge), weaknesses (the handsome ex SAS Jack, impatience, temper, honesty, insecurity), relationships (Jack, parents, best friend Sally), and threw a third party love triangle into the mix (Jack and his evil ex, Mara). And before you know it… voila, I have a 3D character to work with.
I enjoy complex characters that slowly reveal themselves, are not who they seem and engage with the reader, pulling at heartstrings and worst fears. I try to create a person who the reader would either like to hang out with or see as their worst enemy. Someone they feel empathy for and understand their choices, right or wrong. Someone they champion and punch the air with a resounding “Yessss!”
Because I’m an old romantic who loves a bit of drama my books also have to have a few oh-so-sexy personalities with complicated love lives, evil exes, edge of seat fear, twists, turns, steamy romances and cheeky laugh out loud banter.
Working on a series allows you to build characters that hopefully people will fall in love with and get excited about. In The David Trilogy, David is a very bad person, but fans often write saying that they love him warts and all, and can’t wait to see what he does next. They understand and champion the boy, but fear the man he has become.
Like me, they are hooked on his charismatic charm. I loved this character so much I have dragged him kicking and screaming into The Fallen Angel Series.
Unfinished Business (Book II of The David Trilogy) is a sexy thriller, think Psycho meets 50 Shades. It can be a little naughty and may not be for everyone. But if you’re brave enough, grab a glass of vino, close the bedroom door and read alone. J
Thank you for joining us, keep safe.
Siobhan x
S C Cunningham
The David Trilogy – The Penance List, Unfinished Business, For My Sins (in progress).
The Fallen Angel Series – The Deal, Karma (in progress).
If you would like to find out more, would love to have you link up on social media.
Purchase Link UK
Purchase Link USA
https://www.amazon.com/Unfinished-Business-David-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B00B623ABC/
He loved being him… he got away with murder.
She loved being her… until she met him.
The steamy roller coaster ride of psychotic David’s obsession with his childhood sweetheart, a skilled mix of fuelled tension, dark humour and pulsating sex scenes.
With the help of her gutsy friends, fun-loving city girl Tara Warr is the only victim to survive David Howard’s death list. Whilst lounging in prison the hypnotic sexual tour de force enlists an eager recruit, seduces a prison warden and relocates to the sunnier climes of Mexico, a freedom short-lived when his charred remains are found in the fire of a plastic surgeon’s clinic. The police cease their search, finally Tara and her friends can relax, David is dead.
Laughter soon turns to fear when he communicates via Tara’s laptop that he is very much alive, knows their every move and is ready to finish what he started. He is among them, but who? He has a brand new face.
Tara has had enough, time to turn the tables and make him suffer. A woman unafraid of death is a dangerous thing. Has David finally met his match?
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About The Author
British Author S C Cunningham (The Penance List, Unfinished Business and The Deal) creates psychological and paranormal thrillers with a skilled mix of fueled tension, dark humor, and pulsating sex scenes. Her works offer a fresh level of sincerity and authority, rare in fiction.
Cunningham writes what she knows. Abducted as a child, she survived; and every night for months afterward, she prayed to God, asking for a deal. This personal journey sparked the fuse behind the intriguing and riveting fictional world she portrays in The Deal, the first in the Fallen Angel Series. Twenty years later she crossed paths with a violent serial attacker, thus sowing the seed for her thrillers The Penance List and Unfinished Business part of The David Trilogy. She is currently working on Book III For My Sins.
An ex-model, British born of Irish roots, she married a rock musician and has worked in the exciting worlds of rock music, film, sports celebrity management and as a Crime Investigator for the Police – Wanted & Absconder Unit, Intelligence Analyst, Major Crime Team, Investigations Hub.
Having worked in the music to film industry, she writes with film in mind. The Penance List has been adapted to film screenplay.
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USA Today and New York Times Bestselling author Erin McCarthy first published in 2002 and has since written over sixty novels and novellas in teen fiction, new adult romance, paranormal, and contemporary romance. Erin is a RITA finalist and an ALA Reluctant Young Reader award recipient, and is both traditionally and indie published. When she’s not writing she can be found sipping martinis in high heels or eating ice cream in fleece pajamas depending on the day, and herding her animals, kids, and amazing renovation-addicted husband.
