Carol Anne Davis

By Nicola Warwick

"But which area of the city did Douglas live in? What was his occupation? Was his family based in Edinburgh? What did he do for fun apart from keeping fish? In the course of the evening, the others had divulged such things, offered personal details. Douglas had not. Was he just a private person, or did he have something to hide? Simon felt inexplicably uneasy as he listened to the man."

--Shrouded

Carol Anne Davis was born in Dundee in 1961, a town originally famed for its "jute, jam and journalism." Described by her teachers as "The Master Storyteller," Carol has been writing short stories since the age of five or six. Carol's grasp of the English language as a child was so amazing that a postgraduate student made a study of her.

Carol has miscellaneously been Editorial Assistant for a woman's magazine, an office junior and a dental nurse, as well as a hairdresser (in the interests of economy she cut her own fringe) and a charity fundraiser--she shopped at Oxfam! She has also written teenage short fiction, a few dark short stories and health journalism.

A freelance writer, with a word processor-inspired Quasimodo hunch, Carol is a former Egyptian belly dancer, First Aider, Iyengar Yogi (can you say that?) and ex-Step Class fan. Now, in her spare time, she just lets it all hang out whilst she reads true crime books, dark novels and surfs the Net.

A chance question asked by her postgraduate tutor, "What would you do if you could do anything?" opened up the possibilities of writing for a living.

Carol's publications include Shrouded which is available in all good bookstores (e.g. Waterstone's--not that I'm biased, of course) and published by Do Not Press Paperback Originals (who described Shrouded as "that rare thing--a book which doesn't require a word of editing").

Three top reviewers nominated Shrouded as their debut of the year. Shrouded also received a Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger nomination

"The Ghosts of Bees" which won Carol first prize at the Sixth Library of Avalon Short Story Awards in January 1997, was included in Fresh Blood 2 ("the Cream of Britain's New Wave of Crime Writers") published by the Bloodlines imprint of Do Not Press in October 1997.

Apart from People's Friend, a possible early inspiration, Carol uses music to put her in the mood: Safe as Houses is a sociopathic novel inspired by Chris Isaacs' Wicked Game . . ." what a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you."

As a freelance Carol has sold short fiction, features, won literary competitions, written a book reviewing column, tutored in Advanced Writing and written modules for an accredited writing course. She was Sexuality Books Reviewer for Topical Books and is currently a columnist for New London Writers magazine focusing on modern writing

In the future look out for books published by "The Last Hope Publishing Company"--in her next incarnation Carol might come back as an intergalactic publisher.

[Davis Interview]

Nicola Warwick is the author of life's little luxuries. She lives in Manchester in the North West of the UK. Nicola's articles have been published in various writing, computing, and electronics magazines. Read more about her here.

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