Rowson, Pauline

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Rowson, Pauline

PERSONAL:

Married; husband's name Bob.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, c. 1998—.

WRITINGS:

"EASY STEP BY STEP GUIDES" SERIES

Easy Step by Step Guide to Telemarketing, Cold Calling, Appointment Making: How to Win More Business through the Phone, revised edition, Rowmark (Hayling Island, England), 1999.

Easy Step by Step Guide to Marketing, second revised edition, Rowmark (Hayling Island, England), 2000.

Easy Step by Step Guide to Successful Selling, Rowmark (Hayling Island, England), 2000.

Easy Step by Step Guide to Being Positive and Staying Positive (Even When the Going Gets Tough), Rowmark (Havant, England), 2002, revised edition, Rowmark (Hayling Island, England), 2007.

Easy Step by Step Guide to Fundraising for Your School: How to Raise Money for Your School, Rowmark (Hayling Island, England), 2005.

Easy Step by Step Guide to Communicating with More Confidence: How to Influence and Persuade People, Rowmark (Hayling Island, England), 2005, revised edition, 2007.

Easy Step by Step Guide to Publishing and Promoting Your Book, Rowmark (Hayling Island, England), 2006.

Are Your Customers Being Served? How to Boost Profits by Delivering Exceptional Customer Service, Rowmark (Hayling Island, England), 2007.

MYSTERY NOVELS

In Cold Daylight, Fathom (Hayling Island, England), 2006.

Tide of Death, Fathom (Hayling Island, England), 2006.

In for the Kill, Fathom (Hayling Island, England), 2007.

Deadly Waters, Severn House (Sutton, England), 2007.

The Suffocating Sea, Severn House (Sutton, England), 2008.

Also author of Web logs Marine Mysteries and In Cold Daylight.

SIDELIGHTS:

Pauline Rowson began her career writing self-help books for people interested in succeeding in business—especially marketing, fundraising, and publishing. Titles like Easy Step by Step Guide to Marketing, Easy Step by Step Guide to Being Positive and Staying Positive (Even When the Going Gets Tough), and Are Your Customers Being Served? How to Boost Profits by Delivering Exceptional Customer Service help individuals hone skills to make them competitive in today's business marketplace. More recently, however, Rowson started writing mystery novels, including In Cold Daylight, Tide of Death, In for the Kill, Deadly Waters, and The Suffocating Sea, which have all won the attention of reviewers both in England and in the United States.

In Cold Daylight, Rowson's first mystery novel, received a citation on the World Book Day Prize shortlist in 2007 and was celebrated by critics. The story follows marine artist Adam Greene, who is trying to overcome depression while trying to figure out whether the explosion that killed his best friend, firefighter Jack Bartholomew, was an accident or deliberate. "Adam's vulnerable but strong underneath," Rowson told an interviewer for the In Cold Daylight Web log. She added, "I think people can identify with his complex emotions. He is forced to take action, to investigate the death surrounding his best friend, which leads him into danger, love, and uncovering deceit. Adam is a metaphor for people who can't believe that the establishment would allow men to die because of hazards at work. It is only when society is forced to face up to the real facts, and question the official version, that society gains strength and the truth comes out, as seen in Adam's transformation." The novel, concluded a writer for the It's a Crime! (or a Mystery …) Web log, manages to "mix the worlds of fire fighting, chemistry and biotechnology, politics and the security services making a satisfying mystery tale."

Three of Rowson's novels share the same protagonist: District Inspector (DI) Andy Horton. Andy makes his first appearance in Tide of Death, and his adventures continue in Deadly Waters and The Suffocating Sea. In Tide of Death, Andy must pursue a serial killer while dealing with his own domestic problems. "Horton is a combination of many men," Rowson told an interviewer for the Rowmark Web site. "My husband, Bob, is an ex fire fighter, and some of Horton's qualities are based on the fire fighters that I know: fit, cool, resourceful, fearless even if they are afraid inside they don't show it. Think of fires, 9/11, tube disasters and train crashes. It's the firemen who go in when everyone else is running away. They don't think twice at risking their lives. Horton's like this, he goes charging in risking his life, often when he shouldn't or when procedure tells him differently."

Deadly Waters tells the story of Andy's investigation into the brutal murder of a local head teacher Jessica Langley. Adding to Andy's stress level, his old friend Superintendent Uckfield gives him only a week to solve the crime before it is turned over to the newly formed Major Crimes Team—a group that Andy had anticipated joining. Soon, Andy realizes that this murder and another murder he is working on may be related, and that Andy might be the killer's next target. Rowson, wrote a contributor to Kirkus Reviews, "adds an appealing, if not especially original, hero to the British procedural ranks."

In The Suffocating Sea, Andy is confronted with the murder of Tom Brundall, an industrial business person from the island of Guernsey. Andy also must face the question of his own past—his mother disappeared when he was ten years old. Tom recently visited Reverend Rowland Gilmore (now dead as well), who seemed to have clues to Andy's mother's disappearance. Andy "hopes that the case will tell him more about the fate of his mother," stated a Kirkus Reviews writer. It may, "if it doesn't kill him first."

Rowson told CA: "As a child I discovered the pleasure of reading through the novels of the great children's author Enid Blyton, whose adventures and mysteries inspired me. It was mainly because of her that I began to write, completing my first adventure novel at the tender age of eleven. Needless to say it wasn't very good.

"I love the Golden Age of crime novels. Authors like Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, Hilda Lawrence, Josephine Bell, Raymond Chandler, and many more all inspire me. I love a good mystery, a complicated plot, fascinating characters, and sharp, punchy dialogue.

"I do all of my plot workings and my character development in pencil on recycled paper held together by treasury tags. I usually work out the rough plot outline and develop some of the key characters first, then start writing the first draft even though at that stage I don't have all the answers. The characters do not come alive until I start putting some dialogue into their mouths and some action into their movements and then the plot begins to twist and turn. I try to get the first draft on to the computer as quickly as I can, but I do carry out some revisions as I go along. Then after the first draft is complete I will revise and revise until I am happy with it before sending it to my editor.

"The most surprising thing I have learned as a writer is how obsessive I have become about it.

"My favorite books change because as a writer I am always striving to improve on the last novel, and the more you develop as a writer the better you hopefully become so that the latest book usually ends up being your favorite.

"I hope my books will entertain and enthrall people. I want people to enjoy a thoroughly good read."