Chantelle Atkins
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I am a mother of four, and have been writing for as long as I can remember. As a child I wrote for the same reasons I always had my head in a book; to escape, to dream, to make believe. I enjoyed creating characters inside my head, people I could believe in and have fun with, and this is still the driving force behind my writing now. It is always the character that comes to me first, usually with a very unique voice and dilemma. The rest of the story will come gradually from that, but I will have had several conversations with this character in my head before I start to write about them! I think my work is character driven, and I try to keep my dialogue as real as possible, as reading unrealistic dialogue really makes me wince. I grew up on a council estate in a single parent family, and I think sometimes it is hard to come across fiction that isn't aimed at middle class lives, and middle class problems. I do like to read gritty, funny, dark stories myself, so I usually end up writing to please myself. What would I like to read? What sort of characters would I like to lead me astray? And then I start writing...
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The Mess of Me
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New adult/modern fiction
Lou Carling is 16 and obsessed with getting thinner. Joe is her best friend, and last night they found something they shouldn't have in Joe's older brothers wardrobe. Travis and Leon are shady figures, leading shadier lives, and during one summer Lou and Joe find themselves pulled into the drama, the confusion and the violence. Will Joe go to any lengths to impress his older brothers? Will Lou's obsession with losing weight spiral out of control? Is Marianne, her self-harming friend, really her friend, or an enemy in disguise? And will Lou and Joe ever be more than just best friends?
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The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
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Modern Fiction
Having moved towns to escape his mothers’ ex-boyfriend/stalker, Danny is consumed with anger, and he just wants to fight. It’s what he does best. He soon makes friends with the local misfits and troublemakers and finds himself embarking on a thrilling musical journey. We follow his exploits with school bullies, the girl from the nice end of town, and his attempts to scare boyfriends away from his beautiful single mother. However things become darker when she is swept off her feet by powerful local nightclub owner, Lee Howard. Danny finds he has met his match; Howard is a dangerous psychopath, who seems to be addicted to violence, and there are very few adults who will believe a word Danny says. The story is told from both points of view, Danny's and Howard's. Who is he, and what does he ultimately want from Danny? With his own personal soundtrack in his head, Danny explores the power of music, how it gives him hope, and becomes an obsession; "I was standing on the edge of a great swelling discovery; music. I felt like I was turning the pages of a good book faster and faster, but that I would never get to the end, I would never discover all of the music." A story about music, dreams, first love, the friends who would do anything to save you, and the choice between escaping, or fighting back… 
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This Is Nowhere
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Mystery, family drama
Jake Morgan has never been scared of dying. It's living he can't quite commit to. Homeless, jobless and aimless, he thinks he is happy. Then one night his estranged sister Gina calls him back to the home he ran away from as a teenager. Their father is suffering from dementia and she thinks it is about time Jake grew up. With nowhere else to go, and loan sharks on his back, Jake returns to the small village he grew up in. He goes back to help his father, but ends up being forced to face the question he ran from. What really happened to his mother who vanished in 1996? Jake decides it's time he had some answers, if only to stop himself constantly wondering what the point of his existence is. Will he be able to get Gina on side to uncover the truth? Will his confused father be able to help him work out what was wrong with his mother? And when he finds it, will Jake really be able to handle the truth? This Is Nowhere is a story about a family blown apart by untold truths. A mystery that must be solved in order for a fragile young man to find some meaning in life.
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This Is The Day
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Thriller, suspense, drama
At the age of sixteen, Danny was sent to prison for committing a violent and brutal crime. Eight years later he is released, determined to put his disturbing past behind him. He wants to lead a normal, decent life, with the friends who stuck by him and his teenage sweetheart Lucy. Life is complicated enough, and he soon realises the past has not finished with him yet. His loved ones have all been damaged in different ways by the crime he committed, a nosy reporter is desperate to hear the whole sordid story, and someone else does not think he has been punished enough. As a sinister hate campaign starts to target him and the people he loves, Danny is forced to face the reality of the decision he made eight years ago. Who is out to get him, and what do they want? This Is The Day is the sequel to The Boy With The Thorn In His Side.
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