Amanda Cadabra and The Twilight Toxin (The Amanda Cadabra British Urban Fantasy Mysteries) by Holly Bell
About Amanda Cadabra and The Twilight Toxin
Paranormal Cozy Mystery
9th in Series
Setting - Cornwall, and an English Village
Publisher : Independently published
Publication date : April 29, 2026
Print length : 422 pages
Paperback ISBN-13 : 979-8252946870
ASIN : B0GZ3HJ99Z
Digital ASIN : B0GY11CBMZ
Someone is Watching
A body is discoveredin a troubling location, just as the killer had intended, the crime scene drawing covert witch Amanda and her irascible feline familiar back to the Cornish land of her birth. Inevitably, Detective Inspector Thomas Trelawney is drawn in to help her unravel this perplexing crime.
At the heart of this heinous murder lies an unknown weapon, a device possessing an extraordinary and lethal power. Worse still, the killer remains, somewhere close by ... waiting. Who can it be? Can a daring venture into the past, to reclaim a distant memory from the curious Lucy Penlowr, bring Amanda and the inspector any closer to the truth?
Trelawney, determined to solve the case by normal methods, finds every turn a blind alley until a perilous path leads to two fateful hours at a secret gathering. Now, Amanda's mounting temptation to embrace a dark revenge, and the ultimate test of her burgeoning magical skills, risk everything in a race for survival
Can Amanda and Trelawney unmask the killer and discover the true meaning of The Twilight Toxin?
A British urban fantasy with a side of cosy mystery, a dash of adventure, and a healthy helping of humour, The Twilight Toxin is the ninth standalone whodunnit in the Amanda Cadabra series.
About Holly Bell
Humorous and quintessentially English with excitement and magic.
Cat adorer and chocolate lover, British author Holly Bell’s life changed in a day. A best-selling author friend convinced Holly that she could write cozy mysteries, after many years' experience with non-fiction, photography and video making.
Holly devoured all of the Agatha Christie books long before she knew that Miss Marple was the godmother of the Cozy Mystery. Her love of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings meant that her first literary creation in this area would have to be a cosy paranormal. Over the series the books have grown to straddle urban fantasy mystery too.
Having derived immense delight from the adventure of writing Amanda Cadabra and The Hidey-Hole and its 8 sequels, and a prequel to date, Holly has more in the pipeline.
Her favourite feline is a black cat called Bobby. He is black. Like her favourite hat. Purely coincidental.
Holly loves to hear from readers. She always responds in person.
Interview:
1. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
At 19, when I co-authored a science fiction book. A friend of a friend who
worked for a publisher read it and was, probably rightly, not encouraging. Fiction
writing was consigned to a drawer for decades.
It was at university that I discovered a talent for research and academic
writing. But I knew I was not cut out for that world. However, later in a
career switch, I was trained in marketing, and felt the call of the commercial
writer for the first time. Then, much later decided I wanted to be a
non-fiction author. Three books later, I met a supernatural comedy author who
told me I could write cozy paranormal mystery. It was only when I actually
began to write the first book that I knew: I wanted to be a fiction writer.
2. How long does it take you to write a book?
I wrote the first draft of the first book in about three weeks. Later books in
a month. The editing passes take the total to three months. That is the average
time with no interruptions. With interruptions like health, work as an editor,
marketing projects, the longest is almost 4 years, as was the case between the
8th book in the series, Amanda Cadabra and The Nightstairs, and TheTwilight
Toxin, released a few weeks ago. And it also depends on how quickly the
entire book arrives in my head.
3. What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
I don’t have one. Chapters, dialogue, plot, subplots, anecdotes, and plot
solutions just turn up in my head. Often inconveniently, at 3 o’clock in the
morning, when characters start chatting to each other and I just have to get up
and write it down! Material can come to me in the shower, in bed, in the car.
If I’m driving, I have to pull over and use the voice recorder on my phone.
That’s for the creative part, perhaps what you’re referring to as ‘writing’.
But there’s more to it than that for me. Once the first draft is down, it has
to be tidied up. The words and ideas come to me so fast that I can’t type fast
enough to transfer it out through my fingers on the computer. So it’s a mass of
typos, and mostly unintelligible to anyone else! The cleanup is not first
draft, but is nonetheless, a crucial part of shaping the book.
Now, for that, I usually wake up at around 4 am and start work on it for
between 45 minutes and 4 hours. If the world is sufficiently quiet when I hit
the fatigue wall, I go back to sleep, if I can. Later, I get up officially as
it were, and do the next shift. That’s usually about it. Sometimes I get a
third wind late at night. I have to work around a chronic health issue, which
demands rather a lot of rest as its due, so it’s very much a case of go with
the flow.
4. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I remember seeing a thread on an author group on Facebook. Someone had asked a
question similar to yours about writing schedules. Did the authors in the group
set themselves a number of words per day, and how many? Did they set themselves
a certain amount of time?
The thread had 84 posts. Eighty-two of those contained testimony to just how
hard writers work, grinding out the words. I had to admit I was shocked, and
felt reluctant to say what I have been sharing with you here, in case there was
any hint of bragging in my response. Only one other author said the same thing:
it just comes, when it comes. There is no ‘blood, sweat and tears’ for us. It’s
easy, a fun, wild ride on a joyous creative flume. As only one other writer
said the same thing, I gather this would qualify as a quirk!
5. How do books get published?
In two ways. The ‘trad publishing’ route is the one that is universally
familiar: find an agent, who approaches publishers who take on writers and
responsibility for printing and distribution. It used to be the case that they
would also take care of marketing. That would be rare now, as writers
themselves are usually expected to contribute much more in that respect.
The difficulty in getting taken on by an agent, the low royalties and the
limitations of control over editing, cover design, and the length of time it
takes to get the book on the shelves, have led to the flourishing of the second
path.
Now, self-publishing has been around for hundreds of years. Popularly known as
the ‘vanity press.’ The author pays the printer directly, for a certain number
of copies and takes care of marketing and distribution. Generally speaking, the
writer has not recouped the cost, but nonetheless, has the satisfaction of
seeing their work in print without the middleman.
And then, KDP was born: Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon. This has arguably
been the greatest advance in publishing since the Gutenberg press. Just over 20
years ago, they offered a digital publication service to authors. Well, of
course, this could never have happened without the development and spread of
digital technology, with devices like tablets and mobile phones as well as home
computers becoming widespread, something unimaginable in the days of Agatha
Christie. It was and is a free service, with Amazon taking a relatively modest
cut at point of sale, and giving the writer a free shop window on the Amazon
website itself. 10 years ago, thanks to popular demand, they began offering a
print-on-demand paperback service, operating in the same way. Authors could now
hold a copy of their book in their hands. This was perhaps the greatest
emotional breakthrough. Suddenly, what came to be called ‘indies’, that is,
independent authors, could feel, for the first time, like they were ‘real
writers’.
To cut a long story short: you can try to get your manuscript published by a
publishing company like Penguin or a smaller organization or self-publish,
either through paying a printer or through Amazon KDP, Kobo, Draft2Digital or
one of the other services.
Some writers do both. This is called hybrid publishing. There is a great deal
of choice out there now. This is the golden age for writers.
6. Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?
As above, it just turns up. An idea occurs to me, and I start researching,
following my nose. When I find a nugget, then patter it down as fast as my
fingers will type or my pencil will write. I might find the peeping of a thread
that I feel is golden and pull it and pull it until it leads to another or is
worked in. It’s emotional. I feel a light of exhilaration come on inside me, in
my solar plexus, that jump-for-joy surge of delight, when I find that thing
that I know will work. That’s not very helpful, is it!
7. When did you write your first book and how old were you?
The first entire book was in 2012, considerably older than when I co-authored
the sci-fi novel at the age of 19!
8. What do you like to do when you're not writing?
Dancing when possible, playing an online game called World of Warcraft, and
watching films.
9. What does your family think of your writing?
I don’t have family, in the sense that you mean. But I do have friends who are
tremendously encouraging.
10. What was one of the
most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
That I could do it, and that I was good at it. You’ve asked for ‘one’. But I
would like to add the thing that really astonished me: how the response of
readers would make me feel. I remember the friend who’d persuaded me (over the
course of a year) to start fiction writing, telling me that I would be
surprised by just how deeply I would feel at the first email from a reader. And
I was. I still am. Every appreciative message I get from someone who enjoyed
the books, someone I have never met and may never meet, has the power to move
me to tears. The wave of love I feel from readers … nothing could really have
prepared me for that. After 8 years of writing, it still takes my breath away.
11. How many books have
you written? Which is your favorite?
Three non-fiction and 10 fiction. My favourite is the fourth in the Amanda
Cadabra series: The Rise of Sunken Madley. It has more action, higher
stakes, more mystery in a way, than the first three, but at the same time, is
more emotional and perhaps surprising regarding the villagers with whom Amanda
at least superficially, (she is of necessity, a covert witch after all), shares
her life. It is where, for the first time, Amanda finds her strength.
12. Do you have any
suggestions to help me become a better writer? If so, what are they?
The writing process, as is any creative process, is such a deeply personal,
individual thing, that it is impossible to be prescriptive for every person. I
would say this: humans are natural storytellers. It is perhaps our principal
means of transferring our knowledge and experience to one another. Trust that.
You may have to work at your craft, but you don’t have to work at being a
storyteller.
Imagine someone asks you, ‘What was your grandmother or your first pet like or
what was the strangest thing that ever happened to you?’ You wouldn’t have to
go away and compose an outline; the words would just flow out. You would find
yourself telling anecdotes, relating a history, the sad parts, the funny parts,
the fascinating,mysterious, or even shocking incidents. I believe you can write
like that. And if the penning or the typing of the words gets in your way, then
dictate it. Switch on a recorder, on your phone, for example, and just talk.
Just tell your story, either your own or the one you are imagining. Find
someone to write it for: yourself, someone you love, someone you want to
comfort, entertain, cheer up, or for the readers out there that you imagine.
13. Do you hear from
your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?
I do often hear from my wonderful readers. They say things like how much they
have enjoyed one or more of their books, how it made their day, and, this is
what really means the most, and that is when they write that they have been
going through a difficult time, but the distraction, the whodunnit puzzle, the
humour, the fantasy, the mystery, the suspense, the adventure, helped them
through it. When I read that, I feel fulfilled. It’s what I came here to do: to
make people feel better, even a little, through my creative writing. Every time
that happens, the world changes a little bit for the better. If you can do that
as a writer … well, that’s a cosmic shift, isn’t it?
14. Do you like to
create books for adults?
Do I have an age in mind when I write? I would say from 12. That is the age at
which I was reading the books that have influenced me, by writers like
Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie, Isaac Asimov, and John Wyndham.
But yes, if I understand what you mean by books for adults, I enjoy it
tremendously, the shared frames of reference that tend to come with age and
experience that may elude younger readers, the in-jokes, the things slipped
under the radar.
Years ago, I was taught a partner dance by a teacher who had a remarkable
ability to teach three levels simultaneously: beginner, intermediate and
advanced. I attended many classes and courses and never saw this skill
repeated, or with any level of success. I try to emulate that, not with regard
to reading skill, but by presenting a pick-and-mix, a buffet from which the
reader can choose.
Each book is a standalone mystery. But most readers enjoy reading the whole
series to enjoy the story arcs. The tale can be read as a simple whodunnit with
a sleuth who possesses hidden magical talents essential to the solving of the
crime, and most enjoy the humour.
Some also relish the romantic subplot which I only developed in response to
readers’ enthusiasm for one. Others like the darker undertones, the current of
threat, and there are readers who delight in mining the references to films,
songs, literature, in short, culture of past decades. I love it when a reader
writes to say they spotted one or more of them!
So do I like writing ‘adult fiction?’ I do. I pen it with positive glee!
Secreting hidden nuggets and underground rivers for those who wish to find,
see, or visit them. But the journey belongs to the reader and however they wish
to make it.
Then again, there are some highly clued-up children out there on whom little I
write would be lost. Truth to tell, I don’t really know what ‘adult’ means. I
think I would need you to define that one in order for me to be able to answer
you completely accurately.
15. What do you think
makes a good story?
For me, a beginning, middle and an end, told in any order. Something that has
its own internal logic, makes me care about at least one of the characters,
keeps my interest, has at least a modicum of humour and a satisfying ending.
16. As a child, what
did you want to do when you grew up?
The usual things. Be an astronaut, be a pilot, a doctor, be safe, be free.
17. What would you like
my readers to know?
That they matter. Every author’s page on somewhere like Facebook or website
they visit, every like or follow they click on, every book they download free
or buy, every review they post, every email they write, matters. Every
interaction they make with a writer or a book is like a ripple in the ether
that makes a difference to that writer’s world on some level. And finally this,
if you enjoy cozy paranormal mysteries, urban fantasy mysteries, whodunnits
with magic, humour and suspense, even a dark undercurrent and a thread of
danger but with a happy ending, I write for you.
Thank you for interviewing me, Deal Sharing Aunt. I’ve enjoyed answering your
thoughtful questions and having the opportunity to share some time with your
readers.
Have you signed up to be a Tour Host? Click Here to Find Details and Sign Up Today! Want to Book a Tour? Click Here
No comments:
Post a Comment