Did I mention my debut novel is out now??

The Man In the Wall by KJ Lyttleton is here!

Greetings!

I thought I should start this one by just coming out and saying exactly what I wanted to at the beginning. Because, looking back at my past emails, it appears I haven't actually sent out a clear marketing email with a bald heading to let you know that The Man in the Wall is out now!

Ooh, doesn’t this look snazzy?!

My debut crime novel is the first book in the Aldhill Mystery series and comes to you under the pen name of KJ Lyttleton. It is available in digital or print format from Amazon.

If you have already read and enjoyed the first book, then firstly, thank you, and secondly, is there any chance you could leave me a review?

I'd love you forever.

Reviews make a huge difference to helping the book please the Algorithm Gods.

Here’s a recent review to inspire you:

5 Stars¹
An excellent read. Great story. Good sense of place and cast of characters. It also made me laugh out loud. I shall now order the next title in the series.

Look how short these ones are!

(Although charelie0 might be surprised to discover this isn’t planned as a trilogy. If they sell well, I’ll be attempting to write one every three months until I die.)

Get your free copy of book 2

On that note, just to forewarn you, I will shortly start the, “Book 2 is available for pre-order right now and is out in just over a month” marketing push.

If you want a free Advanced Reader/Review Copy of the second book, please fill in your info here. (But bear in mind it’s a review copy, so please only sign up if you have time to read it quite quickly and get a review written).

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Boy, people really liked last week’s newsletter

Judging by last week’s email open rate, you all really wanted to know what my favourite food is. I have to say, I was very surprised, but it turns out, people can’t get enough of a good Q&A. Thinking about it, I don't blame you at all. After all, many of us grew up on a diet rich in Smash Hits and Popworld – and who among us can resist the lure of the Q&A format?

Maybe I should just make every email a Q&A – or will that take the shine off? How about this: if you have anything pressing you need to know – perhaps my top five films I will ALWAYS watch if they’re on, or a list of my most petty grievances (although that one would go on forever) – please hit reply or drop a comment and let me know.

OK, So what’s next?

Those of you who joined this thrilling journey² at the start, will know that I am trying to earn money as a writer. This is a novel idea (no pun intended) for many writers, who are, these days, apparently expected to live on nothing but fresh air and the faint promise that one day the publisher might fork out for table space in Waterstones. The key to being a writer in the modern age is to consider being one of the following: 1. Famous or 2. Independently wealthy. Even better if you’re both.

So, yes, I want to make money. And that means being able to write a lot faster than I do currently. Because, to make it in indie crime fiction, you’ve got to get those books OUT. Every few months ideally. Now I can tell you right away that that just isn’t going to happen for me, but maybe if you’re interested I will tell you all the ways I’m trying to improve my writing speed.

In the meantime, I’m working on Book 3 and hoping I don’t lose the head start I gave myself by frittering the time away on self-doubt and dictation software research.

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Latest gigs

I went to a couple of gigs last week. First up was John Grant’s rescheduled show at the De La Warr³ and the next night I travelled with four teenagers to the mythical land of Brighton to see Destroy Boys alongside a few hundred angsty teens and their (mainly) dads.

My favourite act? Now, I do love John, and he sounded amazing, but he did an awful lot of piano songs with his back to the audience and I slightly dozed off at one point, which wasn’t his fault entirely because I was tired and I have form when it comes to falling asleep at seated gigs, but I’m going to have to vote for his support act, Big Special, as my favourite performance of the weekend. If you haven’t heard them, they sound like if Sleaford Mods, Yard Act and The Streets were smushed together with… yes really… Franz Ferdinand. They sounded like if the Peaky Blinders had a backing track and a PA.

This absolutely NOT SAFE FOR WORK track probably sums up their sound.

They were full of piss and vinegar and they gave it their all. I’d love to see them with a proper backing band, but to be honest, the drummer and singer brought as much energy as a lot of five-piece bands.

Anyway, that’s quite enough from me. Have a lovely weekend.

Till next time!

x

Katie Lee / KJ Lyttleton

PS. I recorded a voice version of this one, and I’ve been going back to record any that I missed doing at the time. I’ve also uploaded them to a podcast feed. For reasons the Substack Team have neglected to share, the episodes don’t appear in the Podcast tab on my newsletter, but you can listen to them on your preferred podcatcher here or via Spotify here.

1. Note optimal number of stars here. After all, someone has to counteract the inevitable one-star Haven't read it. It's for a friend reviews, along with the one-star The cover was damaged reviews, and my personal favourite: one star —absolutely loved it.

2. No travelling required.

3. Fun (?) fact: the De La Warr Pavillion is named after the same family that gave its name to the state of Delaware. Americans have always taken a pragmatic approach to spelling and so simply changed it to match the pronounciation. (This pragmatism is what drove Alex’s relatives in the US to change the spelling of their surname to Millway instead of Milway). In the UK, the land of bickering pedantry, we prefer to take the Shrewsbury approach and so locals can now simply disagree on how to pronounce it for all time. But whatever side you fall on, the correct answer is still Delaware.