Contemporary Authors

• The Chalk Man ( novel) Crown Publishers (New York, NY), 2018

• Penguin Books - https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/c-j-tudor/131110/

  C. J. Tudor was born in Salisbury and grew up in Nottingham, where she still lives with her partner and young daughter. Her love of writing, especially the dark and macabre, started young. When her peers were reading Judy Blume, she was devouring Stephen King and James Herbert.

  Over the years she has had a variety of jobs, including trainee reporter, waitress, radio scriptwriter, shop assistant, voiceover artist, television presenter, copywriter and now author. The Chalk Man is her first novel.

The Chalk Man
Christine Tran
Booklist.
114.7 (Dec. 1, 2017): p31. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
The Chalk Man.
By C. J. Tudor.
Jan. 2018. 288p. Crown, $26 (9781524760984); e-book, $13.99 (9781524761004).
Childhood pals Eddie, Fat Gav, Mickey, Hoppo, and Nicky started the summer of 1986 gleefully covering their English village of Anderbury with chalk stick-figure codes. But their game turned dark when they found chalk figures pointing to the drowned body of Mickey's brother and, later, the body of a teenage girl. Police zeroed in on Mr. Halloran, a popular teacher whose scandalous relationship with the murdered girl was recently outed. Despite a lack of evidence, Halloran's guilt was cemented in the public eye after the teacher committed suicide. The town moved on, relieved. Now, more than 30 years later, Mickey returns to Anderbury, courting Eddie to collaborate on a documentary about the deadly summer. The day after their meeting, Eddie discovers chalk figures covering his hearth, and Mickey's body is found near the spot where his brother died. As police eye Eddie as the last person who saw Mickey alive, he learns that his lodger and only friend, Chloe, has been hiding devastating secrets. An absorbing debut with a well-crafted mystery and a solid dose of Stand by Me creepiness. --Christine Tran
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Tran, Christine. "The Chalk Man." Booklist, 1 Dec. 2017, p. 31. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A519036202/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=a636666d. Accessed 26 Feb. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A519036202
1 of 2 2/25/18, 11:29 PM
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The Chalk Man
Publishers Weekly.
264.40 (Oct. 2, 2017): p116. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Chalk Man
C.J. Tudor. Crown, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-1-52476098-4
In 1986, Eddie Adams, the narrator of British author Tudor's promising debut, and his four best mates, all early adolescents, become ensnared in a series of ghastly events in the picturesque English town of Anderbury, with the nightmarish inevitability of the Grimmest of tales. In the most shocking episode, a mysterious man leads them to the dismembered remains of a teenage girl in the woods. Not surprisingly, these traumas, which also include abuse, sadistic bullying, and a prank that turns deadly, cast a sizeable shadow over the friends' futures. In 2016, Mickey, one of Eddie's old friends, returns to town after more than 20 years away, planning to write a book about the girl's murder upon the occasion of the murder's 30th anniversary. Danger looms after Mickey announces that he knows who really killed the girl (the prime suspect killed himself before his likely arrest). Though Tudor makes a couple of rookie missteps, including excessive plot twists seemingly for the sake of surprise, her storytelling prowess is undeniable. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary (U.K.). (Jan.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Chalk Man." Publishers Weekly, 2 Oct. 2017, p. 116. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A509728416/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=9831d56f. Accessed 26 Feb. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A509728416
2 of 2 2/25/18, 11:29 PM

• Kirkus
  https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/cj-tudor/the-chalk-man/
  Word count: 291

  KIRKUS REVIEW

  Murder, mayhem, and chalk figures in a sleepy English village.

  In 1986, 12-year-old Eddie Adams enjoys spending time with his group of friends: Fat Gav, Metal Mickey, Hoppo, and the lone girl in the group, Nicky. He’s largely insulated from his mother’s work as an abortion provider and its accompanying risks, and it’s her income that keeps the household afloat, since his father’s freelance writing jobs are hit and miss. When Eddie finds the decapitated and dismembered body of a local girl in the woods, it stirs up terrible secrets and forbidden passions. In 2016, Eddie is a teacher who harbors a mild crush for his much younger boarder, Chloe, and isn’t eager to revisit the traumatic events of ’86. He still feels particularly bad about his part in the downfall of a teacher with albinism who was kind to him. When he’s contacted by Mickey Cooper, who claims he knows who really killed that girl, it opens old wounds, and a body count follows. Readers will undoubtedly be reminded of the kids of Stand by Me and even IT. The dynamics among the kids are similar, complete with Nicky’s flaming red hair, and Eddie’s first-person narration alternates between past and present, taking full advantage of chapter-ending cliffhangers. The chalk markings the group works out to communicate tap into kids’ universal love for secret code and, of course, getting one over on their parents. Things takes a creepy turn when the symbols are twisted to fit someone’s not-so-innocent agenda.

  A swift, cleverly plotted debut novel that ably captures the insular, slightly sinister feel of a small village. Children of the 1980s will enjoy the nostalgia.

• RTE
  https://www.rte.ie/culture/reviews/2018/0115/933439-reviewed-the-chalk-man-by-cj-tudor/
  Word count: 810

  Reviewed: The Chalk Man by CJ Tudor
  Updated / Tuesday, 16 Jan 2018 15:08
  CJ Tudor: gripping debut welcomed by its reviewer Grace Keane
  CJ Tudor: gripping debut welcomed by its reviewer Grace Keane
  By Grace Keane

  Freelance journalist & RTÉ Culture book critic
  Reviewer score
  Audience score

  1 Vote

  Publisher
  Penguin/Michael Joseph

  CJ Tudor bursts forth onto readers' 2018 must-read hit-list with her thrilling and suspense filled debut The Chalk Man, which will have readers glued to every word until the shocking and sinister finale.

  The year is 2016, and 42-year-old Ed is teaching in his hometown of Adenbury. Twenty years on, Ed believes that the events of both his (and the town's) past are over, but with the arrival of a mysterious letter containing only a piece of chalk and drawing of a stick man, it appears not to be so. Soon after receiving the eerie letter, Ed finds himself revisiting the macabre summer of 1986.

  Two decades previously: twelve year-old Ed is a typical young teenager, he has a close group of friends - Fat Gav, Hoppo, Metal Mickey and Nicky - with whom he spends most of his time hanging out and taking the mickey out of each other. Aside from an interest in collecting things, his mind is otherwise occupied with girls (the aforementioned Nicky in particular, not that he would ever admit it out loud) and avoiding the local town bullies. All of that changes suddenly, however, thanks to a terrifying accident at the local fair and his first encounter with Mr. Halloran, AKA The Chalk Man.

  Eddie and the gang head to the fairground, where Eddie is drawn to a beautiful young woman, thereafter known as 'Waltzer Girl', when the unimaginable happens. One of the waltzers detaches from the ride she is standing beside, flying across the grounds and gruesomely maiming her. Eddie is petrified to see limbs dangling and blood gushing, but with help and guidance from their new school teacher - an albino man called Mr. Halloran - the pair save her life and become intimately bonded.

  Thusly, this terrible accident - and the resulting chance encounter - sets in motion a series of dark events that will overshadow the town for many years to come. The thing with shadows, however, is that they conceal many things, and the residents of this town have a lot to hide. Everyone, it seems, has secrets.

  Although Mr. Halloran's pale appearance and chalk-white hair may at first be unnerving for young Eddie, his charming personality and caring nature soon win him over, even after some unsavoury discoveries. After all, it's Halloran who suggests the chalk game to Eddie, one which allows Eddie and his friends to leave secret messages for one another around the town by drawing chalk symbols and pictures. These drawings eventually lead Eddie and his friends to discover the body of a dismembered teenage girl.

  Tudor has created an exciting and thrilling tale, where creative plot twists and unexpected developments keep you guessing and second guessing, as to not only where the story is going, but what truly drives each character. How much can you take someone at face value? Who is innocent? Who is guilty? Should the past remain the past? The plot is always one step ahead, and that final piece of the puzzle evades your grasp until the moment when the author decides to bestow it upon you.

  The style of writing appropriately shifts between young Eddie's perspective and that of grown Ed, but not so much that the reader feels like they are reading about two completely different characters. Also, Tudor manages to instill an unnerving element that takes hold, and doesn't let go - the sense of unease and doubt planted in the reader's mind is the kind that lingers, making you look over your shoulder and tuck those bed-covers in just a little more tightly.

  At just over 300 pages, The Chalk Man could easy be consumed by in one sitting, and I myself was fairly reluctant to put the book down - I envisage readers suffering from a reading hangover, having spent all night demolishing it's pages. Although thoroughly enjoyable, the story did flounder a bit towards the end and it was a bit difficult to keep track of all the revelations (Tudor somewhat bombarded the reader with inter-connected shocks at one point) but nonetheless, she managed to grapple it back for the finale.

  The Chalk Man has been described as this year's Girl on a Train. Having been the focus of a nine-way publisher auction, it is no wonder that this book, due to be sold across 39 territories this January, is already in film talks with producers.

• Criminal Element
  https://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2018/01/review-the-chalk-man-by-c-j-tudor
  Word count: 913

  Fresh Meat
  Review: The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor
  Gabino Iglesias

  The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor is a riveting and relentlessly compelling psychological suspense debut that weaves a mystery about a childhood game gone dangerously awry and keeps readers guessing right up to the shocking ending.

  Author C. J. Tudor is a student of thrillers that boldly venture into the realm of horror fiction, and her writing reflects the fact that she’s learned all the important lessons. In The Chalk Man, her impressive debut, she plays around with a plethora of tropes and eventually delivers a finale that makes her first novel feel more like the work of a seasoned author than a first offering. Perhaps more impressive than her playfulness is the absolute dominion of every element in the last third of the novel, which is something few authors could have pulled off in a narrative that includes incursions into the world of dreams, a story that takes place in two different time periods, and plenty of mental illness.

  Back in 1986, Eddie Adams was a regular 12-year-old kid who enjoyed vacations, going to the park, collecting things, and spending as much time as possible with his friends, Hoppo, Metal Mickey, Fat Gave, and Nicky. They all lived in a small, unexciting English village, and any bit of excitement was welcome. Their lives were slowly changing with every step further into adolescence, but they were suddenly thrown into a world of chaos when they found a dismembered body in the woods by following chalk figures left on trees, which eerily resembled their own way of communicating with each other.

  Many bad things happened, and years went by, but the past refused to fade away. Eddie, now Ed, receives a letter containing a chalk man 30 years after the horrible events shook the town. The deaths started again, and Ed realizes that the past is playing a huge role in the present—and that understanding everything about what happened three decades ago is the only way to stop the bloodshed.

  The Chalk Man alternates between flashbacks and the present day. This technique is tricky, but Tudor manages to increase the suspense with each page and has a knack for finishing chapters with questions or revelations that force the reader to keep turning. Furthermore, there are two elements that make this an enjoyable read: a strong religious undertone and well-developed characters. The first comes in the form of small-town religious fanaticism that—while it does fall into some unremarkable territory and deals with a few tropes—remains interesting thanks to not only Eddie’s personal opinions but also those of his parents—both of which make the writing feel more like a discussion than a sermon:

  I wonder if saints have to live completely blameless lives or if you can live like a sinner then just perform a few miracles and be sainted anyway? That seems to be the way with religion. Murder, rape, kill and maim, but all will be forgiven as long as you repent. Never seemed fair to me. But then God, like life, is not fair.

  Switching between two different times opens the door to mistakes and loose ends, but Tudor works around these traps successfully and ultimately delivers a story that entertains as much as any thriller. The Chalk Man also dips into horror from time to time and contains a few creepy scenes. All of it is glued together by the author’s understanding of time and the way she moves not only the narrative forward but also the reader, placing them in a place, a time, and an atmosphere even when skipping forward:

  The leaves curled and crinkled and eventually lost their fragile grip on the trees. A feeling of withering and dying seemed to pervade everything. Nothing felt fresh or colorful or innocent any more. Like the whole had been temporarily suspended in its own dusty time capsule.

  While this is an outstanding debut, it should be mentioned that there are a few instances in which the author writes herself into a corner or tries to do too much. These instances come back in the last 30 pages of the book and feel like a couple of small stumbles in what is otherwise a superbly constructed narrative. Some of these loose ends are dealt with satisfactorily, and the rest are pushed under the rug with a single line. This would be a more serious problem if the actual ending of the novel wasn’t so great. When all is said and done, Tudor offers readers a tense, fast-paced, creepy thriller that, even if it doesn’t get a perfect score, puts on a superb show and, most importantly, nails the landing.

  Check out an awesome Q&A with author C. J. Tudor!

  To learn more or order a copy, visit:

  Buy at Barnes and NobleBuy at Amazon

  Gabino Iglesias is a writer, journalist, and book reviewer living in Austin, TX. His reviews can be found in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Verbicide, Heavy Feather Review, Crimespree, HorrorTalk, The Brooklyn Rail, and other venues. Iglesias is PANK Magazine's book reviews editor, Entropy Magazine's film/television editor, and a columnist for LitReactor and Clash Media. His novels include Gutmouth, Hungry Darkness, and Zero Saints. Find him on Twitter @Gabino_Iglesias

• NY Daily News
  http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/entertainment/review-tudor-compelling-debut-chalk-man-article-1.3744851
  Word count: 441

  Review: C.J. Tudor makes compelling debut with 'Chalk Man'

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  The Associated Press
  The Associated Press
  THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
  Monday, January 8, 2018, 1:27 PM

  "The Chalk Man" (Crown) by C.J. Tudor

  Childhood affects development into adulthood, as C.J. Tudor fervently illustrates in her compelling debut, "The Chalk Man." The discovery more than 30 years earlier of a dismembered teenage girl continues to reverberate in the lives of five childhood friends, affecting the path each has chosen as an adult.

  On the surface, 12-year-old Eddie Adams, who serves as the narrator, and his friends, Gavin "Fat Gav," ''Metal" Mickey Cooper, David "Hoppo" Hopkins and Nicky Martin, the only girl, have an idyllic childhood roaming the small British village of Anderbury. It's 1986 and the worst they do is draw chalk men as secret signals to each outside their homes. But happiness, sadness, jealousies, guilt and abuse also punctuate their young lives, and those innocent chalk drawings take a sinister turn when Elisa Rendell's body is found in the woods outside of town. Another death puts a pall over the group, whose friendship would eventually "splinter and crack."

  In 2016, Eddie is now a teacher, living in his same childhood home. He still meets up with Gavin and Hoppo, who never outgrew his nickname, but the get-togethers are more about something to do than real friendship. Nicky hasn't been heard from since she moved away decades ago after her vicar-father was hospitalized. The now despised Mickey comes back for a visit and a proposal for Eddie. Mickey claims he knows who really killed Elisa, rather than the man who was blamed, and he wants Eddie's help in writing a book. Mickey's plan dredges up unpleasant memories and even nightmares for Eddie, and results in dire consequences.

  Tudor delivers an assured debut that alternates between 1986 and 2016 with unpredictable twists. "The Chalk Man" fits well with other stories about troubled childhoods such as Stephen King's novella "Stand by Me."

  Tudor never misses a beat in showing each character as both a child and an adult while also exploring the foreboding environs of a small town. As children, this band of friends thinks they are all knowing. That Eddie never mentions Gavin's last name adds to how children think. As adults, they realize just how little they knew about what really went on in their own homes as well as the often murky motives of grown-ups.

  Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

• Open Letters Monthly
  https://openlettersreview.com/open-letters-review/the-chalk-man-by-c-j-tudor
  Word count: 870

  The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor
  January 17, 2018 Steve Donoghue
  The Chalk Man
  by C. J. Tudor
  Crown, 2018
  The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor

  CJ. Tudor's debut thriller The Chalk Man arrives bearing not one, not two, but twenty-seven ecstatic blurbs from authors and booksellers and industry organs like Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, all praising the book as a cleverly-plotted magnificent masterpiece and the author as a brilliant and promising new voice, a revelation and a marvel.

  No book can possibly live up to such praise, much less a debut novel, and The Chalk Man dramatically, immediately doesn't. The narrative is split between 1986 and 2016, with the earlier plot-line featuring a young teenager named Eddie and his wacky, foul-mouthed, pop culture-quoting, misfit buddies Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and – or no, that would be the wacky, foul-mouthed, pop culture-quoting misfit young teens in Stranger Things – here Eddie's wacky, foul-mouthed, pop culture-quoting misfit young teen friends are Fat Gav, Metal Mickey, Hoppo, and Nicky, who in 1986 devise a series of chalk figures that forms a secret code known only to them, a kind of cryptology for the private world of their lonely, geeky world. That world is violently interrupted by their albino teacher Mr. Halloran, the so-called “Pale Man” who goes on to haunt their childhoods.

  In the 2016 segments, an all-grown-up Eddie receives a letter in the mail containing a chalk man drawing, as do all of his all-grown-up friends. They naturally suspect each other of pulling off an elaborate prank, until the inevitable happens and people start dying, after which the tension between the two parallel plot lines increases, and Tudor does a capable job of releasing her 1986 clues with a timing that resonates in her 2016 chapters. This is a rudimentary, even skeletal thriller – no art, no eloquence, no finesse, no characters, no depth – but readers who are so enamored of the thriller genre itself that they're willing to invest even a skeletal story with lots of imaginative help it shouldn't require might find in these pages some faint echo of the End Times hosannas of praise it's somehow received before publication.

  Readers who expect more resolutely won't get it. At its best, Tudor's prose is baldly functional; at its worst – a worst that crops up often enough in this book to warrant some quiet time for its editor – it's stooped under leaden phrasings, boring cliches, and heaps of nonsense-writing. When Eddie reflects on the Pale Man, he thinks:

  Even as a kid I could tell that Mr. Halloran was really talented. There's something about pictures done by someone with talent. Anyone can copy something and make it look like the thing they're copying, but it takes something else to bring a scene, to bring people, to life.

  As mentioned: nonsense. There's something about pictures done by talented people that shows they're talented – well, yes, one would assume. And “anyone can copy something and make it look like the thing they're copying”? Can you? Can all of your friends? Again: nonsense. And the kind of nonsense that briefly takes the reader out of the story.

  That kind of nonsense recurs throughout the book. Another moment from grown-up Eddie:

  I plod upstairs, have a quick shower and then change into gray cords and a shirt I deem suitably casual. I drag a comb through my hair. My hair springs back even more roughly. As hair goes, mine has a stubborn resistance to all methods of styling, from the humble comb, to waxes and gels. I've shorn it almost to the bone and it has miraculously gained several unruly inches overnight. Still, at least I have hair. From the photos I've seen of Mickey, he hasn't been so fortunate.

  Even overlooking the clunky workshop-phrasings (plodding upstairs, dragging a comb), this throwaway paragraph is riddled with halting problems – not just the inanity of that “as hair goes” (as opposed to what? Shin bones?) but also the fact that humans can't grow several inches of head-hair overnight. It's the kind of amateurish overwriting that's predictable with debut authors – in this case, Tudor wants to stress the trivial fact that the character has thick hair, unruly hair and badly overdoes it – and it should have been tamped down and weeded out by Tudor's editorial team. There's no evidence that this happened, which is alarming. And far more alarming is that the good-natured but shoddy end result has been heaped with such superheated praise. A first-time author who makes these kinds of missteps all throughout her debut and receives nothing but praise for it is extremely likely to write a second book along the same lines as the first, and then maybe create a career along those lines. Here's hoping CJ Tudor is the introspective type.

  Steve Donoghue was a founding editor of Open Letters Monthly. His book criticism has appeared in the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, and the American Conservative. He writes regularly for the National, the Washington Post, the Vineyard Gazette, and the Christian Science Monitor. His website is http://www.stevedonoghue.com.

• Shelf Awareness
  http://www.shelf-awareness.com/max-issue.html?issue=269#m572
  Word count: 2159

  Wednesday, November 8, 2017: Maximum Shelf: The Chalk Man
  Crown Publishing Group: The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

  Crown Publishing Group: The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

  Crown Publishing Group: The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

  Crown Publishing Group: The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
  The Chalk Man
  by C.J. Tudor

  C.J. Tudor wastes no time cutting to the creepiness in her captivating novel, The Chalk Man. The thriller opens with:

  "The girl's head rested on a small pile of orange and brown leaves."

  Not chilling enough? How about:

  "Someone approached. They knelt down beside the unseeing girl. Their hands gently caressed her hair and stroked her cold cheek, fingers trembling with anticipation. Then they lifted up her head, dusted off a few leaves that clung to the ragged edges of her neck, and placed it carefully in a bag."

  The prologue ends with "the girl in the woods was never put together again."

  Are you scared yet?

  The Chalk Man centers around Eddie and his group of friends, and alternates between two timelines--1986 and 2016. In the earlier time, Eddie is 12, on the cusp of puberty like his buddies, including the only girl in the group, Nicky, who makes Eddie feel "really hungry and... a bit sick" whenever he sees her. They spend their days biking around their English village, going to the fair and searching for adventure.

  After Fat Gav, one of the boys, receives a bucket of colored chalks for his birthday, the friends devise a secret mode of communication. Each of them is assigned a color, and they draw chalk men in one another's driveways to convey coded messages such as meet at the playground now.

  One day the gang gathers at the playground, each thinking one of the others summoned them with chalk instructions, but they all deny having done so. When they follow the chalk men pointing into the woods, they make a gruesome discovery: the dismembered body of a local girl. And it's not their sole encounter with death that summer.

  In 2016, Ed is a teacher living in his childhood home, which he inherited. He has a female tenant, Chloe, on whom he nurses a mild crush, but otherwise Ed is single and doesn't have much of a social life. He seems fairly resigned to his mundane existence--until he receives a letter from an unknown sender containing only a chalk figure. Also, his old friend Mickey is coming back to town and wants to meet with Ed. Mickey is interested in writing a book about the friends' past, claiming he knows who killed the girl in the woods.

  Soon Ed starts having nightmares, waking up to chalk men scribbled around his home, both outside and in. He realizes the dead won't stay buried unless he confronts them head-on.

  The Chalk Man is a remarkable achievement, made even more impressive by the fact it's a debut. Tudor is a master conjurer of thrills, crafting tight scenes that make the skin crawl in a fun way, without crossing into gory territory. It's like walking through a haunted house at a carnival--there's an unrelenting sense of unease and scary stuff happens, but you know you're in safe hands. Tudor's style is so cinematic, readers will not only vividly envision everything she's describing, they'll hear the ominous music on the soundtrack. And many chapters end on a note that makes it impossible to stop reading.

  Tudor also infuses her story with heart and the pang of lost love, making her novel even more satisfying. The author nails the male point of view, of both Eddie the boy and Ed the adult. Even without the chapter headings indicating 1986 or 2016, it's clear which voice is narrating--the boy going through life-changing events whose full impact he hasn't grasped, or the man still trying to move past those events 30 years later.

  One of the most memorable characters is Mr. Halloran, aka the Pale Man, a mysterious albino teacher at Eddie's school. His nature is gentle and he comes to the rescue of more than one kid who's hurt or bullied, but why does he seem so forlorn, and what was the nature of his relationship with the dead girl? Tudor keeps readers guessing, and when she finally reveals the truth, it's quietly devastating.

  It's not all chills and darkness, though. Tudor observes life with deadpan humor. In 2016, Ed's friend Mike "works for an advertising agency--the type that has unnecessary umlauts in its name and an aversion to capital letters." When Ed visits a nursing home and sees an old episode of Diagnosis Murder on the TV, he thinks, "[I]f you hadn't lost your mind before you came here, watching Dick Van Dyke and his family hamming it up every day would probably send you over the edge."

  Tudor won't send readers over the edge, though. She'll have them exactly where she wants them--on a creepy adventure that's enthralling until the final word. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis
  Crown, $27, hardcover, 288p., 9781524760984

  Crown Publishing Group: The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
  C.J. Tudor: 'It's All About the Characters'
  photo: Bill Waters

  Before becoming a full-time novelist, C.J. Tudor worked in a variety of jobs, including copywriting, television presenting and dog walking. Tudor lives with her partner and daughter in Nottingham, England.The Chalk Man, coming from Crown on January 9, 2018, is her debut thriller.

  This novel was inspired by chalk figures you drew with your daughter in the driveway that later scared you in the dark. What else scares you?

  Zombies, heights, flying, rollercoasters, dolls, make-up, high heels, semicolons. It's a long list!

  Also, I have a young daughter, so I spend a lot of my time being terrified about things that could happen to her. From natural disasters to eating unsliced grapes. That's what it's like when you have a child. Your world is constantly fluctuating between absolute wonder and crippling terror.

  If someone says "What's the worst that could happen?" I can usually tell them, in graphic detail!

  The group of friends in the book and their adventures are loosely based on you and your pals when you were preteens. What was your coolest discovery on one of your explorations in the woods?

  I still meet up with my friends from school. I've known most of them since we were seven! Last week we were talking about this and my friend Kirsty reminded me about the old "air-raid shelter" we found. I'm sure it wasn't really an air-raid shelter. But to us, at the time, it looked like one. It was a long, corrugated hut at the bottom of this huge, overgrown garden that backed onto the playground. We'd climb through the fence and sneak inside.

  It was full of junk and old newspapers dating back to the 1950s, and in one corner there was an old Silver Cross pram, with what looked like bullet holes in the side. I can still picture it vividly. So creepy. I have no idea why I haven't put it in a book yet!

  Why did you choose to write from the male point of view? The voices of your protagonist Ed as a boy and a man are both very convincing.

  Thank you. It just felt very natural. Without wanting to sound pretentious, sometimes it doesn't feel like you are creating characters. It feels like you are discovering them. I heard Eddie's voice, and that was it.

  Also, I'm a bit of a tomboy. The writers I idolized growing up were male, such as Stephen King. I actually find writing from a man's POV easier. I was once told that a female narrator I wrote was too dark and sardonic. Because obviously, women can't be bleak and funny, right? Argh!

  Was there any pressure to use only your initials, to keep your gender ambiguous?

  Not at all. It was my call. My first name is Caroline but everyone calls me Caz. Caroline felt a bit flowery and Caz didn't sound very author-ish! So, I plumped for initials. There was no intention to be deliberately ambiguous. No one suggested that I should do it. It just felt right.

  You left school early, but the protagonist in Chalk Man and your next novel are both teachers. Why is that?

  Yep, I left school at 16 against all my teachers' wishes. I was getting good grades but I didn't have a particularly great time in my last year of school. I wasn't bullied as such, but I'd had enough of the pressure, the cliques, the small cruelties. No one I know had a good time at school. I'd be deeply suspicious of anyone who did! We expect kids to endure things in school you would never put up with as an adult. Children can be amazing but also incredibly cruel.

  Kids are still finding their moral compass at that age, dealing with these hideous hormones and insecurities, and we put them in an environment that brings out the worst in them. I think that's why I chose teachers as my narrators. I wanted to explore that world from a child's perspective and an adult's.

  Also, I find our expectations of people in certain professions interesting. Lawyers, doctors, police officers are somehow permitted to be conflicted, to drink, to have a dark side. Teachers, not so much. I wanted to turn that on its head.

  You've said that everything you know about writing, you learned from reading. Whose books did you study? Did you consciously analyze them or did you learn by osmosis?

  I never learnt anything from studying a book, apart from how to memorize long passages of text and spew them out for exams! Everything I learnt about writing and creativity, I learnt from reading for pleasure, from Enid Blyton to Agatha Christie to Stephen King. That's where my real education took place.

  That's not to say that learning about literature and writing isn't a wonderful thing. It is. My English teacher, Mr. Webster, really inspired and encouraged me. But I also believe you don't need a degree or an M.A. to be a writer.

  Read lots. Write lots, as Mr. King says.

  When you started writing, did anything about the process surprise you?

  When I started, I had no idea how to structure or pace a 90,000-word novel. So I just kept at it until, hopefully, I got it right. I'm still learning. Writing is not something you can ever be done with: That's it. Got it now. You can always get better. Generally, I think writing is 10% inspiration and the rest is practice, perseverance and pints of coffee (or wine!).

  Your agent says you're a brand. How would describe your brand?

  Disturbingly cheery. My writing does all the dark, scary stuff for me. I'm a bit of a rock chick. I collect anything with a skull on it. I love weird. But I'm also a mum who sings Disney songs with her little girl.

  My writing is the same, I suppose. My books are dark but with a heart. Bad stuff isn't scary unless you care about the people it's happening to. That's so important. For me, a book is all about the characters. They own the story. And my stories just happen to be as creepy as hell!

  What are you looking forward to most on publication day?

  Drinking champagne for breakfast! And seeing my book on the shelves, out in the world, for the very first time. I've been writing for over 10 years. I've had many rejections, a lot of "close but no cigars" and I'd pretty much accepted I might never get that break. I wrote The Chalk Man while I was working as a dog walker and looking after my little girl. I had no expectations when I submitted it, apart from rejection. When it went to auction in the U.K. and then sold in 38 territories worldwide, it really was a dream come true. It's changed my life.

  When people ask me how long it took to write The Chalk Man, I usually say: "Around nine months, plus 10 years of preparation!"

  So, I shall be milking every moment. Oh, and tweeting lots of embarrassing pictures of myself grinning alongside my book in bookshops. They'll probably have to get security to escort me out of Waterstones! --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis

• Shots- Crime and Thriller eZine
  http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/feature_view.aspx?FEATURE_ID=379
  Word count: 408

  C.J. TUDOR: The Chalk Man Launch

  Written by Ali Karim

  I had been struggling with large reading commitments, when a proof copy of THE CHALK MAN arrived in the mail. I put it to one side [leaving it for later] due to lack of time.

  The hype surrounding it – the fierce bidding war from various publishing houses, international rights, allusions to Stephen King and James Herbert, and a Crime / Horror Debut novel plucked from ‘the slush pile’, breathless ‘blurbs’ from other writers – well – the hype had the opposite effect.

  Despite being an enthusiast of Horror Fiction and The Weird the hype put me off the book.

  How wrong could I have been?

  Massively so.

  I soon discovered when I finally cracked the spine of this remarkable novel that it is extraordinary. I also received word from several of my US reviewing colleagues who were equally impressed including Larry Gandle the Assistant Editor of Deadly Pleasures Magazine [a literary critic renowned for his no-nonsense approach, and a reader who is hard to impress].

  Apart from being an elegant narrative split between the 1980s and current day, it also is written with an assured voice, which contains insight, and makes one reflect upon reality, as this paragraph below illustrates.

  Rather than tell you too much, why not watch the short promotional film from Penguin Randomhouse

  So it was a delight to find myself invited to the launch party organised by Gaby Young of Penguin RandomHouse in Islington, North London. I bumped into celebrated writer and critic Barry Forshaw, Shots Ayo Onatade, former Chair of The Crime Writers Association writer / critic Natasha Cooper, Jon Coates from The Express among an eclectic array of guests.

  So as the canapés and wine flowed, the advance word about this debut was very exciting, so we chatted to the author, the editorial and marketing team from Michael Joseph imprint at Penguin RandomHouse, and soon it was time to hear more, so we present a short clip [recorded in gonzo-style] from the party.

  And we present a few photographs from the launch party.

  What makes this debut so intriguing is best explained by the author in this clip

  We would urge you to seek out The Chalk Man, before he knocks on your door.