Widowland is published

It seems like forever, but at last my first pseudonymous novel, Widowland, is out in the world! In the time between completing it and publication, a pandemic has swept the world, and astonishingly (depressingly), some of the dystopian ideas that feature in my alternative Britain actually came to pass. The closing of borders, the ending of foreign holidays and the general atmosphere of fear and vigilance could all be seen to some degree in the UK of 2020/21. I decided to write this novel under a pen name because the alternative history genre is quite different from straight period fiction. In the Clara Vine series I am always careful to observe historical events and dates as accurately as possible, but in Widowland I took liberties to see how history might have turned out. For the pen name I chose my mother’s maiden name and my own initials reversed and I’m quite enjoying my alternative persona. I’ll keep writing the Clara Vine series under my own name, but I’ll be writing more thrillers under the name C.J.Carey too. I wonder which you’ll prefer?