A SUCCESSFUL tartan noir author has told of how she began to write while she was recovering from breast cancer after serving time in a Scottish jail. She thought that her future was over but, in fact, she managed to become a number one international bestselling author.
Val Penny, author of the popular Edinburgh Crime Mysteries, was diagnosed with the disease two years after her release from Cornton Vale where she was jailed for embezzlement and fraud.
The former lawyer told the Sunday National she ended up in prison after making “poor judgement calls” during her career.
Although she committed the crimes between 2001 and 2003 her case did not come to court until 2008 when she was given a three-year sentence.
Penny said waiting for the case to come to court was “extremely
difficult”, not only for her but for her family. She added that serving her sentence in jail was the hardest period of her life but she learned a great deal and reset her priorities. Attending Christian services was most important to her, she said.
It was during that period that she met her new husband and had to tell him she was facing a jail sentence – he not only stuck by her but also suggested she should start writing books when she was recovering from breast cancer surgery in 2012.
The first book, Hunter’s Chase which introduced the main character, Detective Inspector Hunter Wilson, took nearly three years to write as she was still undergoing gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy but when she finished it was accepted immediately for publication.
She has now written five in the series with the sixth due out at the end of next year. An audiobook of Hunter’s Chase is due out in spring as is the first in a new series based on lesbian cop Detective Sergeant Jane Renwick who lives with her wife in Edinburgh’s Bruntsfield.
Although Penny now lives in the south of Scotland, she decided to set the books in Edinburgh where she lived for many years.
She believes the setting is part of the appeal for her fans in the US, Australia, Canada and Germany as well as the UK.
“I think it is because so many people have visited Edinburgh and like to read books where they can picture where the stories are set,” she said.
Penny, who has Scottish and American heritage and worked as a solicitor in Scotland and as an advocate in the US, added that her knowledge of law helped inform her books but she had no idea when she started writing that they would become so successful.
“I thought it was just a hobby so I have been very lucky,” she said. “I have turned my life around and am now able to live a quiet life, writing and knitting for my granddaughter.”
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