Finca el Quinto Writers’ Retreat
At Finca el Quinto, we offer the support of authors-in-residence who are available for consultations all year round. They are here to help in all matters authorial, whether it’s recommending agents, preparing a proposal, honing a screenplay, or a readers’ report, a detailed critique of your work. We also invite a number of successful authors to come and give talks and run workshops between May and September, on popular subjects such as crime fiction, romantic fiction and the literary novel.
There are also seminar facilities should you wish to bring your writing club or conduct your own workshops. Groups receive free use of a modern, well-appointed seminar room (for up to 30 persons).
The LadyKillers Workshop
Monday May 22 to Friday May 26 2006
Four leading internationally-published female crime writers are coming to Finca el Quinto for a week of workshops and discussions this May
Danutah Reah, Lesley Horton, Priscilla Masters and Zoë Sharp have published over twenty books between them and are renowned across the world for their murderous inventiveness. Now’s your chance to find out how they did it.
Their workshops will cover all aspects of writing, including writing from your own experience; forming characters; police procedures; creating atmosphere; commentary writing; text analysis and submitting a proposal to agents and publishers. Book now
Who are the LadyKillers?
Between them they’ve committed upwards of sixty murders - all purely in print of course. Their victims have been shot, stabbed, strangled, garrotted, hanged, bludgeoned, drowned - wet and dry - overdosed, disembowelled, had their heads smashed in, had their throats cut, been ‘disappeared’, been forced off the edges of cliffs, and been so badly burned that they can only be identified by their dental records. On the odd rare occasion, people have even died of natural causes, but they don’t wish to encourage that kind of thing.
Individually, the LadyKillers have also been the shady movers and shakers behind a string of lesser crimes that includes kidnapping, serious assault, arson, incest, rape, drug dealing, gunrunning, urban riots, teenage prostitution and blackmail. They’ve had a hand in genocide, had brushes with organised crime syndicates, and defied the security services across Europe and America.
Their varied styles and very different approaches to crime, its execution and resolution, combine to complement each other. If you’re into crime fiction, whether as a writer or reader, then the LadyKillers are sure to provide a fascinating, if blood-drenched (metaphorically speaking, of course) week.
Danuta Reah's work as a part-time university lecturer in English Language and Linguistics, and her research into the link between language disorders and criminal behaviour has given her an insight into the darker side of life. Danuta made her crime debut in 1999 with Only Darkness, the rights to which have recently been purchased by Escazel Films. She has written five books: Only Darkness, Silent Playgrounds, Night Angels and Bleak Water. Her fifth novel, The Forest of Souls (writing as Carla Banks) came out in March 2005. She has published text books in linguistics as well as crime fiction. She is a regular speaker at national and international conferences and literary festivals, and has appeared on radio and television.
Zoë Sharp decided to write a crime novel after being on the receiving end of death-threat letters through her work as a magazine columnist. The result, published in 2001, was Killer Instinct, the first of a series featuring her no-nonsense ex-army heroine, Charlie Fox. Zoe’s latest, Hard Knocks was published in the USA in 2005 to rave reviews, which included the publishers’ bible Publishers’ Weekly: “Sharp's aim is dead on in her stunning U.S. debut…this crisp, original thriller should win her plenty of American fans.”
Lesley Horton’s first novel, Snares of Guilt, was published in June 2002 after she took early retirement from teaching in order to fulfil her ambition to write crime fiction. Lesley utilised years of experience in a predominantly Muslim inner city comprehensive in Bradford, and earlier as the head of a unit for pregnant schoolgirls and schoolgirl mothers, to provide the plot for her first book. It also gave her the background for the second novel, On Dangerous Ground, published in 2003. Her third book, Devils in the Mirror, came out in September 2005 and she is now writing The Hollow Core, as well as working on a book on police procedure for writers.
Priscilla Masters is the author of ten crime novels, the first of which, Winding Up The Serpent in 1995, introduced Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy, a freewheeling cycling enthusiast based in the moorlands of Staffordshire. Priscilla has also written three medical thrillers. She is currently working on her eleventh novel, the first in a proposed new series set in Shrewsbury and featuring coroner Martha Gunn. Priscilla Masters’ work has been described as “more than a match for Rendall or Christie”
The LadyKillers Monday 22 to Friday 26 May 2006
Monday: Danutah Reah
Tuesday: Lesley Horton
Wednesday: Priscilla Masters
Thursday: Zoë Sharp
Friday: Social get-together with all of the LadyKillers.
How to book your place
The course costs 100 Euro (£70). To book, either email Kris and Nina at info@tenerifecountryescape.com or call/fax us on 0034 922 34 50 02.