I am delighted that the dates for the next creative writing course at Kirkudbright Galleries have been announced.

Writing Course with Author John Dean - October 18-December 6

Kirkudbright Galleries, Kirkudbright, Dumfries and Galloway

The course will examine ways in which prose writers, be it those creating short stories or…

Bookings are starting to come from authors after Buittle Castle and best-selling novelist John Dean teamed up to run a workshop on how to write…

I often tell my creative writing students to listen to the characters they create, to be alive to what they are saying.

To illustrate the point, I refer to the story of a crime writer who I taught a few years ago and who created a brilliantly-drawn character. When she had finished reading out the chapter in which this new character featured, she revealed that it was only a minor character and that the girl would never appear again.

I argued that the character had so grabbed her…

I am currently working on the latest DCI Jack Harris novel and already, 11,000 words in, I am creating scenes full of raw emotion and human passions ranging from rage to grief.

Now, I have not experienced all the situations I depict but I’ve gone through a lot of scenarios that were similar. For me, the line between real life and fiction is an…

Delighted to announce that the DCI Blizzard mystery A Flicker in the Night (The Book Folks) is now out in paperback as well as e-book format

You can buy it at…