Blackpool man's debut book The Cuckoo Howls is a real thriller
When Steve Lovatt used to tell pals he wanted to be a professional writer, they never took him seriously.
But Steve’s long cherished dream of getting a book published has come true – and he’s already started work on his second.
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Hide AdAnd 50-year-old Steve, of Cherry Tree Gardens, Marton, says: “I suppose the message is never give up on your dreams.
“When the publishing company told me they were going to publish my book I was elated, it was the best
feeling in the world.”
Steve took around nine months to complete The Cuckoo Howls, a crime mystery set in 1950s New York, a city he has never visited.
He had already discarded an earlier attempt at a novel but he says a strange twist of fate played a major role.
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Hide AdLondon-born Steve, a former kitchen porter who has lived in Blackpool for 12 years, said: “I had a nasty accident and I was laid up for months.
“My partner Jackie, who has been brilliant at encouraging me, told me this was my chance. She said I should just use that spare time and go for it, so I did.
“When I was very young I’d always written stories but the only encouragement I got was from my late dad, I was always told my writing was never any good.”
Writing under the pen name John Stevens, the book has been published by Austin Macauley.
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Hide AdThe novel’s central hero is Jasper Rainey, a policeman with a troubled past and a marriage he can’t save.
Rainey is able to snare a serial killer and is promoted to detective, and finds himself on a mysterious case involving a woman in purple and faceless man known only as Toledo.
But scorned by fellow officers and facing the open
hatred of his commissioner, he finds himself alone – buoyed only by an astonishing talent which helps his
crime solving.
The novel, which is available on Amazon and can be ordered from Waterstones, has attracted favourable reviews.
Steve added: “If you really want to write, don’t give up, just go for it.”