Each week, we invite our Crime Cymru authors to tell us a bit about themselves and their writing. This week, G B Williams explores the idea of the writer’s chair to introduce the bleak and beautiful setting of her exciting new crime thriller.

As a writer, I spend a lot of time sitting in my chair. Here is what it looks like:

I suspect this is fairly typical of a writer’s chair and workspace. Laptop and peripherals, noteboard and weird notes, more pens and paper than you can shake a stick at. On that board by the way are notes on four different books, ideas for three others, motivational posts and some flyers for places I wanted to visit this year but couldn’t for the obvious reasons.

But that’s not really the chair I came to talk about, in a way this one is:

This is Cader Idris, translate the Welsh and it’s really The Chair of Idris. This is part of the southern area of the Snowdonia National Park.  At first glance it can appear harsh and bleak, but it’s full of breath-taking beauty and wonderful views.

You might be wondering why I’m showing you these chairs, that is because I have another chair to share with you.  This one:

The Chair is my latest crime novel, to give you an indication of what it’s all about, here’s the description:

On a snowbound Cader Idris, death comes stalking.

Pen y Cwm: Cobb is running from his traumatic past. He hopes that burying himself in a small village on a Welsh mountainside will help, but Branwen Jones, local vet and member of the Mountain Rescue Team, will not let him.

Efficient and organised, Branwen firmly believes that getting Cobb actively involved in village life is the only way to help him recover. And it doesn’t hurt that Cobb is ruggedly good looking.

London: Jay Whitney is a grey-hat hacker, breaking into systems for the sheer fun of the challenge. Though if he happens to make some money out of it too, well, there are worse ways of making a living. But the day he hacks into Nemesis Records and finds himself with some very dodgy files, Jay learns that he has overreached himself.

With two hit-men on his heels, Jay flees to Wales, a decision that will have deadly consequences for Branwen, Cobb and the people of Pen y Cwm.

The Chair is the first time I’ve really brought together my knowledge of the South East of England, where I grew up, and my experience of Wales, where I’ve chosen to live for the last (more than I want to count) years.  The places are fictional because I don’t want to mislead anyone, or misrepresent the lovely reality of Wales.

We all make judgements about people based on what we see.  I suspect some were made about me when that photo of my workspace was viewed. What is seen is often not what is there, I mean really there, inside a person. Like a layer of snow on a mountain, we may look pristine, but it can kill. Like that mountain, the people who appear in this novel aren’t ones normality would usually expect to find together. Indeed Cobb is trying very hard to have nothing to do with anyone, though he’s not very good at that to be honest. Every character is keeping a secret, none of them want to be found out, this is really the tale of what happens when they are.

What I’ve tried to do with this story is show that there are stone cold dangers everywhere, but everywhere also has beauty and warmth, and a sense of family that has little to do with blood. It’s that inner heart that helps us all survive the harsher wider world. 

The events of this book take the characters by surprise, and I hope that it has enough twists to encourage a reader to sit a while in their own favourite chair to read.

The Chair releases on November 10^th from new welsh publisher Black Bee Books.

Read more about G B Williams

To discover more about G B Williams‘ books, follow the link here to her Amazon page