Every writer is obsessed with keeping their reader engaged, and rightly so. That’s what keeps them turning the page.

But what allows you to do that? Well, I think that good writing works because it triggers responses in its readers.

I think writing works best when readers say ‘I have been in that situation, ‘I know someone like that’, ‘what a terrible thing to be faced with, I remember when…’ etc etc.

If readers feel like that, it means that they are being drawn into the…

My lockdown is being spent at home with my family plus a cast of characters from the latest DCI John Blizzard crime novel that I am writing for those fine people at The Book Folks.

Indeed, the challenges of being restricted to a hillside in Scotland during these testing times have given me more opportunity to write.

What has emerged from…

Novelist John Dean is running an online mentoring and writing workshop programme for aspiring authors, ideal for people seeking something to do under current virus-related restrictions.

John, who is based in Dumfries and Galloway, has had nineteen crime novels published and is with London-based The Book Folks, said: “Writing can be a lonely enough pastime as it is, even without the current restrictions on people’s movements. With the new restrictions, digital learning will be even…

One of the key skills which the crime writer must master is the ability to be totally unreliable.

What do I mean by that? Surely, we’re all down-to-earth, honest folks? Of course, we are (!) but that does not mean that we do not dedicate every writing moment to trying to mislead our readers. Readers of crime novels expect nothing less, it’s part of the contract between us.

So how does the arrangement work? Well, at the heart of a good crime novel is secrecy, things that…

The box set featuring the first three DCI Jack Harris mysteries published by The Book Folks, is on sale.

DCI Jack Harris loves the peace and solitude of the rolling hills of the Pennines in the north of England so when criminals interrupt his quietude, he makes no qualms about catching them, even if his actions run the townsfolk and his fellow…

As you may know from some of my earlier blogs, I am one of the organisers of the first ever Kirkcudbright Book Week in the Dumfries and Galloway town (it finishes on Friday March 6).

The early events have been well attended and enthusiastically received and have reminded me how much people like to listen to the written word being read out loud.

Our programme (you can find it on…