Welcome my Friend AE Rawson to my blog with her debut novel. It’s a crime thriller with sexy threads running all the way through it!

I always knew my first novel would be crime fiction, but it turned into an erotic thriller entirely by accident.

I knew the bare bones of the revenge story when I wrote the prologue as the final assignment for my Open University degree.  But the story stalled until I was visited by a friend who saw my extravagantly illustrated book on shibori – at the time I was making a jacket with vintage Japanese fabric. Shibori is Japanese tie dying – don’t think of rainbow coloured tee shirts – think instead of complex patterns created by patiently tying grains of rice into kimono silk. Like this –

shibori

 

My friend hijacked my computer and introduced me to some shibari pictures. What a difference a vowel can make!

Immediately I saw that these complex patterns of ribbon or rope on the human form would delight a textile artist – and my narrator, and the story, came to life when I allowed her to escape from the bank she worked in and set up a studio in Brighton’s North Laines.

Here’s an excerpt from the early pages of the novel, with another of Kate’s erotically charged art works.

 

‘Kate, this is John Reed.’ Rowena introduced me to the man who had dumped her at her graduation ball.

‘Doctor John Reed,’ he said, holding out his hand. I stood up to shake it, and he confused me by taking my hand up to his lips, and flamboyantly kissing it. I wasn’t impressed.

‘The artist responsible for Starry Night. Has anyone told you the scandalous story?’ he said, showing that he knew who I was all along.

My face must have showed my confusion, and I saw Rowena blush.

‘Scandal? Do tell?’

‘Rowena?’ he commanded.

She obeyed.

‘One night at a private party, an intoxicated woman guest stripped off and wrapped herself in Starry Night. She grabbed it from the wall, spun round and round so that the fabric swaddled her tightly, her flesh showing through the lace, and the silver barbs biting into her skin.’

‘The mortification of the flesh,’ Reed said. ‘A modern, secular cilice. Do go on, Rowena.’

‘Her lover was angry because she hadn’t begged permission. He took the wrap from her, tugged hard so that she was reeled out of the cloth. The barbs tore her skin, leaving a beautiful pattern, red on white, blood on flesh. The hanging was removed, and had to be specially cleaned. That’s why there’s a sign by it now, requesting that it isn’t touched.

‘It’s only a story though,’ Rowena added.

‘Are you so sure?’ Reed asked.

‘The bouncer nearly threw me out for touching my wall hanging,’ I said. ‘I dread to think what the penalty would be for breaking those rules. No nudity, no blood play.’

Reed rose to my bait. ‘Do you always play by the rules? That’s no fun.’

I laughed at his predictability.

‘You could produce a line of barbed stoles for the kinky folk of Brighton,’ Reed continued. ‘Your work clearly has the power to stimulate an inherent masochism; those silver barbs are begging to be used on the flesh. Is this cruelty a theme that runs through all your work?’

‘It’s metaphor,’ I said. ‘Life is harsh enough without adding to the pain. My work echoes reality. There’s always pain and darkness.’

‘It’s more than metaphor,’ he contradicted me. ‘The pain and darkness is real, but there is a beauty in it too, and in creating it. You see that, don’t you?’

I laughed again. He might impress children like Rowena and her friends, but I was not one to be taken in by illusions and power games.

I really enjoyed writing A Savage Art, and I have started working on a sequel. I’m looking forward to finding out what Kate does next.

 

a-savage-art

The blurb

Kate Savage is an artist who creates dark fairy tales from textiles.
Devastated by the death of her assistant and unable to accept the official explanations, she begins to dig deeper and finds herself being seduced into an erotically charged and potentially dangerous world.
Kate becomes convinced that Dr John Reed, a charismatic alternative doctor, is implicated in the apparent suicide of her assistant and is determined to gather the proof that will confirm her suspicions – even if it means putting herself into harms way.

About A E Rawson

It’s been a long journey from the Brownie writer’s badge to first novel, but although Ann is a world class procrastinator, surprisingly often she gets there in the end, long after any reasonable person would have given up. Ann is not a reasonable person.  Oddly, the Brownie writer’s badge was earned by a story with fairy tale elements, and A Savage Art has them too…  The similarities end there!

 

Ann’s website is http://www.aerawson.com/ where she witters on about crime fiction, textile arts and general trivia

She tweets (infrequently) at https://twitter.com/AE_Rawson

And there’s a new Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/aerawson/