Books by Tottie Limejuice and L M Krier
Retired journalist, copywriter and copy editor Lesley Tither writes under various pen-names: Tottie Limejuice for travel memoirs and humour, L M Krier for crime fiction and L M Kay for children's fiction.
It's been a long time since I wrote anything on this blog! Not since I started the website tottielimejuice.com in fact. But I thought it was high time I brought you up to speed with all that's been happening to me in the couple of years or so since I last posted on here.
Travel memoirs by Tottie Limejuice
I think back then we were just at the point of the first book in what was always intended to be the Sell the Pig travel memoirs trilogy. Since then, due to my appalling maths, there are now five little pigs, in order: Sell the Pig, Is That Billinge Lump?, Mother Was It Worth It?, Biff the Useless Mention, and Angling Bumateurs.For French speakers, book one, Sell the Pig, is also now available in French, as Maman, Vends le Cochon.
Travel memoirs about France written by Lesley Tither writing as Tottie Limejuice
Crime fiction by L M Krier
Since the first days of Sell the Pig, I've reinvented myself as a crime thriller writer, L M Krier, author of the DI Ted Darling of British detective/police procedurals set in Stockport, Greater Manchester. There are currently seven books in the series. All the titles are from songs and are, in order: Baby's Got Blue Eyes, Two Little Boys, When I'm Old and Grey, Shut Up and Drive, Only the Lonely, Wild Thing, and Walk On By.
Book 8 in the DI Ted Darling series is scheduled for release in early September 2017, with another in the series planned for the New Year 2018.
Crime fiction, the DI Ted Darling series, written by Lesley Tither as L M Krier
Children's Fiction by L M Kay
I've also branched out into children's fiction with a crime twist. I actually wrote the basic idea for a story many years ago when I lived in Lincolnshire. The story is loosely based on the city of Lincoln. It's been sitting on a very old floppy disc for years, then I eventually dug it out and reworked it. Add in some utterly stunning illustrations by Andrew Campbell-Howes and so was born The Dog with the Golden Eyes. It's available for Kindle and in paperback and it's well worth the paperback price of £4.99 just to see those amazing pictures full size.
Children's fiction with a crime twist, illustrated by Andrew Campbell-Howes, written by Lesley Tither writing as L M Kay
Humour as Tottie Limejuice
For every book I produce, I work closely behind the scenes with a wonderful team of betareaders who go over everything I write to make sure it is up to standard. One of them, Kate Pill, in Australia, writes such hilarious side notes that I am often sitting crying laughing at my desk here in central France. The exchanges of humour between us get very silly and often lavatorial, but I thought it might be fun to collate them into a short book.
Almost every book emerging at the time seemed to start with 'The Girl' after the success of The Girl on the Train (not a favourite of mine). So just for fun I decided to call the little collection No Girl on this Train.
When I first wrote Sell the Pig, I belonged to an author site called Authonomy where I met a fellow author, Jill Pennington. I loved her book, The Diary of a Single Parent Abroad and we quickly became good friends and kindred spirits via internet.
Doris, as she is affectionately known, decided this wasn't enough and that we should meet up in the flesh. Not only that but we should write a joint book about our mad adventure. Which we duly did, under the title of Take Three Birds.
Planned future books
As mentioned earlier, Ted Darling hasn't finished with me yet. There will definitely be more in the series and Book 9 has already started insinuating its way into my brain.
In the face of a lot of pressure from readers, I have now started the dreaded prequel to the Sell the Pig series, even though I dislike the term. And because Doris and I had such fun producing Take Three Birds, I've decided to go and visit her in Italy, travelling by train all the way and writing a short and hopefully humorous piece about the great adventure.
Jill runs a glamping site (glamorous camping) in the Italian Apennines. Via her Facebook site I've been following the incredible saga of how she has constructed a Hobbit House from scratch so I've booked a dog sitter and reserved my train tickets and will be visiting in September. Of course, there will need to be a book about that adventure too.
All of which should keep me out of mischief during the cold winter months.
