March 2021
This month’s spotlight is on C.J. Harter, author of the captivating Rowan’s Well and suspenseful Fitful Head. A local author, Harter has over fifteen years of experience in both writing and professional editing, and runs a successful proofreading and editing business alongside writing her own thrilling novels.
Harter specialises in psychological suspense, and her reviews certainly speak to her expertise in the genre. You don’t have to look far to find glowing testimonials from satisfied readers, and many of her past students and editing clients – like David Beckler, author of the Mason and Burgess crime series, and JF Burgess, author of the DI Tom Blake series – are already looking forward to working with her on future projects.
All authors, consciously or not, tend to draw from their own experiences in their work, and Harter has plenty of experience under her belt, but the one that fascinated me the most when researching her was her experience with human dissection at Sheffield University. Speaking of the experience and how it impacted her work, Harter said: “It’s hard to deny your own mortality when you spend many hours looking it in the face. The smell of the formaldehyde used to preserve the cadavers is hard to forget. But it was a great place to observe human behaviour: so many different reactions and ways of coping with a surreal situation.”
This ability to observe and consider human behaviour became invaluable as Harter started to find her writing process – asking “what if”. Through casually observing people around her, Harter soon finds herself “working out who will do what next, who will be the hero of the piece, and who the villain,” and from there a thrilling novel begins to emerge.
However, as I mentioned, Harter does more than write her own novels. When a writer friend encouraged her to go into proofreading and editing work, something she already enjoyed, Harter realised she could turn another hobby into a successful career. Just like with her novels, outstanding reviews for her editing services aren’t hard to find.
So, what’s coming next from C.J. Harter? Well, fans of her stirring crime novels will be happy to hear she is currently working on a Manchester-based crime series. While a step up from her solo novels, Harter says it’s “great fun” to work on a wider series, so it sounds like there are plenty more captivating stories in the works.
Links to all of Harter’s work, including the free short story The Haydock Haunting, can be found on her website: http://cjharterbooks.co.uk
The Local Spotlight is always looking for local people to highlight! Whether a small business, a local hero, or just someone trying to do good in our community – we want to hear about it! Please send your suggestions for future Spotlights to [email protected], and you might see them pop up in a future edition of Local Living.
