Sgt Graham Williams: The Detective Who Carries His Own Grief
Not every character in The Chatter’s Web is hiding a secret to protect themselves. Sgt Graham Williams is hiding one to protect the people he’s trying to help. The Detective Who Notices Too Much Graham is the detective who keeps circling back into Carol’s life, first as a routine follow-up after George’s death, and then, […]
When the Web Gets Tangled: How the Story Grew Beyond One Woman
The Chatter’s Web didn’t start out as an ensemble book. It started with Carol, alone in her kitchen, telling herself that her husband fell down the stairs. The Story Refused to Stay Small Somewhere around the third chapter, that changed. I introduced Evelyn, a widow in a neighbouring village who, unbeknownst to her, had been […]
Jean Daniels: The Chatter Who Listens… For a Price
Of all the characters in The Chatter’s Web, Jean was the hardest to keep honest on the page. She’s a Chatter, which in the world of the book means she’s hired, quite literally, to sit with lonely people and talk with them. Widows, the isolated, anyone who needs a friendly ear more than they need […]
Who Is Carol Mitchell? A Woman Given a Second Life
Carol Mitchell is the character I think about most, even now. When we meet her, her husband George has just died, falling down the stairs in what the inquest rules an accident. Carol tells herself the same thing, over and over. He fell. He fell. Whether she believes it herself is something I’ll leave you […]
Where The Chatter’s Web Began
I want to start with a question that has followed me for a long time. What happens when nobody is really listening to you anymore? That question is where The Chatter’s Web began. I’ve spent a good part of my life around community work, Rotary, Meals on Wheels, the sort of volunteering that puts you […]