Gillian Hamer, a Mitsubishi dealership Manager, talks about her secret job writing Novels

gillian hamer

gillian hamer

A Mitsubishi dealership manager, Gillian Hamer, has quite a lot on her hands with a full time job running the Red Rose Mitsubishi dealership in Birmingham, UK.  That doesn’t mean that Gillian doesn’t enjoy her passion, writing, along with her day job as she just published her third novel “Complicit.”

Gillian Hamer’s latest book, Complicit, will be available via Amazon in paperback and e-book on June 1st, 2013.  Complicit tells the story of a modern day murder mystery running parallel with a 2,000-year-old tale about the Roman invasion of Anglesey.

Even with the task of running a dealership Gillian found time write two other crime novels, “The Charter” and “Closure“, which are both available in paperback and e-book formats.  All of Gillian’s books should be available in audiobooks later in the year.  Each of her books offers something different, such as a paranormal or historical element, giving readers a surprise each time.

“My main influence is my love of the crime genre. Although I’ve read widely, I have always chosen crime more than anything else, starting with Agatha Christie in my teens.” commented Hamer about her writing.  Another inspiration for Hamer is the location in which the stories takes place.  All of her crime novels are based around North Wales and the island of Anglesey where her family owns a cottage. “It’s a fascinating place, rich in history, archaeology, shipwrecks and legend” said Hamer.  It’s hard to not be inspired by such a brilliant landscape.  Hamer combines the beauty of the area and the darkness of murder which makes for a fascinating end result.

A few Mitsubishis have made appearances in Gillian Hamer’s books.  “We’ve had a murderer in a black Shogun with privacy glass and in Complicit we have a high-speed car chase with the police relying on a Mitsubishi Evolution! So, I hope I get a little credit from Lance and the guys at the Colt Car Company for doing my corporate bit too!”  This Mitsubishi dealership manager might be wise to ask for an endorsement deal in my opinion! 🙂

Currently Gillian’s literary agency is pitching another of her books ,”The Gold Detectives” to major publishing houses.

You might be wondering, How can Gillian write so many books with a full time job running a Mitsubishi dealership?  “I am a quick writer, I find, so it’s no hardship to cover 5000 words a day when I’m in the ‘zone’ if you like. I can lose hours when I’m writing and do find it really relaxing.” said Hamer about her writing.

In the 12 years Gillian has been writing she is always striving to improve her craft, recently completing a creative writing course and an Open University forensic science course.  The forensics course allowed her to learn more about the topics she writes about in her books to give them a more genuine feel.  In addition to her novels she also writes for the literary magazine Words with Jam and has been lucky enough to interview esteemed writers which include Michael Morpurgo, Ann Cleeves, Mark Billingham, Joanne Harris, Tess Gerritsen and many more.  She feels doing interviews with fellow writers allows her to learn something new and get a deeper understanding of the writing process.  Gillian emphasizes that writers are quite fascinating and each one has a different story to tell.

When asked about tips for aspiring novelists and writers she said, “I don’t have a lot of time to write and find I work better to a deadline. If I have a date to reach, I will work every spare hour – from 6am in the morning before work to midnight at night.”  Regarding dealing with her day job at the Mitsubishi dealership and her successful writing career, ‘There’s not really an overlap between my ‘real job’ and my writing. I rarely dedicate any of my time at the dealership to writing.”

 

Adam Yamada-Hanff
Adam has always loved cars and anything with wheels. When he is not writing about interesting stories you might find him jamming on his saxophone, watching movies, creating art, or playing with his two dogs.