Sunderland-based editor Abbie Rutherford publishes crime fiction anthology, Thirteen Deadly Intentions, under imprint Pilcrow Books to raise money for Invest in ME Research after suffering with ME/CFS herself.
A former social worker who had to give up her career following a diagnosis of ME has spent the last six years building a business as an editor and self-publishing consultant. Wanting to give something back to severe ME sufferers, Abbie had the idea to publish an anthology of crime fiction with all royalties being donated to Invest in ME Research. IiMER focus on facilitating and funding high-quality research and promoting better understanding of ME/CFS, which is sadly lacking. Run by volunteers and led by patients and parents of ME sufferers, all donations made to them directly supports biomedical research and advocacy.
The response from the writing community when Abbie put out the call for authors to submit their stories was staggering. Wanting to support all authors, whether published or not, the anthology has stories from Amazon bestsellers, authors with experience of ME, and local author Terri Keogh who has been published for the first time.
The anthology has something for every crime fiction fan β from Golden Age detective stories to startling psychological thrillers. It also has an article on writing authentic police procedural by former detective Stuart Gibbon, who is from the North East.
Publishing the anthology proved to be a challenge and Abbie said,
βGetting Thirteen Deadly Intentions out to the world has been a real labour of love as everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. But Iβm delighted that sales have been steady so far and we are raising money for a great cause.β
