by Ed James
Cullen sucked in deep breaths, trying to stop the tears. "Don't be sorry." He leaned in, hugging her tight. "I thought I'd lost you."
She caressed the hair on the top of his head. "It'll take more than that to get me."
"Don't ever leave me," said Cullen.
"I won't."
He collapsed down on the chair beside the bed, all energy sapped from his body. He held her hand. "I think I wanted a child."
Sharon looked away. "Me too. When Chantal showed me the test kit that first time, I felt so angry. How could I have been so stupid? Now I've lost her, I just don't know what to think."
"What happened?" said Cullen.
"Stress," said Sharon. "The job. The drinking. They don't know but my body didn't take to the baby very well. I shouldn't have been pushing myself so hard."
"Hey, it's okay," said Cullen. "We've still got each other."
"I know," said Sharon.
"This has really scared the shit out of me. I thought I'd lost you." He staggered to his feet. "It's made me think about everything and put it all in context."
"Scott, don't you dare get down on one knee."
SCOTT CULLEN WILL RETURN IN
"WINDCHILL"
(Scott Cullen Mysteries Book 6)
Available for pre-order now
Book 7, "COWBOYS & INDIANS" will be out late 2014/early 2015
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Afterword
Thanks for buying and reading BOTTLENECK. I really hope you enjoyed it.
This was a tough one to research. As you'll have discovered, Police Scotland was formed during this time. I've just been on Radio Scotland talking about how difficult it was - I had to do a lot more research than usual, especially given how central it was to the plot. The information here is accurate - at the vantage point of a year after the implementation, I'd say the whole thing seems to have gone well, with some notable convictions under their belts.
The first novel I ever wrote was about music and a band called The Invisibles. It's been immense fun to reuse that world in a Cullen novel and reacquaint myself with the characters. I also butchered EVIL SCOTSMAN (for Matt MacLeod), a book I'd partly written a draft of and gave up after GHOST IN THE MACHINE started clicking into gear. I did this re-engineering not out of writer's block but to stop me picking up flawed books again - the word count in the bag is illusory and I've finally put them to rest. There's only one more left in my cupboard and I've got concrete plans for that.
So, what's next for Cullen? Well, the next book is WINDCHILL, out in October which will have two stories, showing what Christmas is like in the Cullen/McNeill household. It will be solely based in Edinburgh, trust me.
Swiftly following that, COWBOYS & INDIANS will be out soon after and is something I've wanted to write for a LONG time, believe me. Rest assured I plan to write loads more in the series - REARGUARD and WORLD'S END are also loosely outlined and book ten is starting to eat at my synapses.
If you're new to Cullen, I've just released a collection of the first four books for a bargain price and GHOST IN THE MACHINE is still free.
My main focus now will be on a new police procedural series - DS Vicky Dodds, set in Dundee. Watch out for book 1 in the DS Dodds Mysteries - tentatively titled BEASTS - sometime in the summer, and I hope to get another two novels in the series out this year.
I've given up on the vampire stuff until there's a critical mass of downloads of SHOT THROUGH THE HEART. As such, I'm currently tweaking CRASH INTO MY ARMS to become a hardcore police procedural, rather than a hardcore police procedural with vampires. That's the next project for me. Poor DI Simon Fenchurch.
One final note, if you could find time to leave a review (positive or negative) where you bought this, I'd really appreciate it - a critical mass of reviews is a huge benefit to indie authors like myself.
-- Ed James
East Lothian, March 2014
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OTHER BOOKS BY ED JAMES
THE SCOTT CULLEN SERIES
1GHOST IN THE MACHINE
2DEVIL IN THE DETAIL
3FIRE IN THE BLOOD
4DYED IN THE WOOL
5BOTTLENECK
6WINDCHILL (pre-order now)
Writing as Edwin James -
SHOT THROUGH THE HEART, a standalone supernatural thriller
About Ed James
Ed James lives in the East Lothian countryside with his girlfriend, six rescue moggies, two retired greyhounds and a flock of ex-battery chickens and rescue ducks. He works in IT, but doesn’t wear sandals or have a beard.
GHOST IN THE MACHINE, his first novel, has been downloaded over 210,000 times and has been followed by another four books in the SCOTT CULLEN series, the most recent of which - BOTTLENECK - was released on 17th March 2014.