A writing group of which I am a member is currently involved in an exercise in which we have been challenged to write pieces of humour and this turned my thoughts to its importance in fiction, including crime.

Humour is vital to creating good fiction. Even if you are not writing an out-and-out comic piece, it has a role to perform.

For…

I have written in my blogs before about the way that characters can assume a life of their own and that the author has to recognise those occasions when the story is writing itself through the organic evolution of its characters.

That has happened with the latest DCI Jack Harris novel which I am writing for my publisher The Book Folks. I found myself approaching the end of the first draft still unsure who the murderer was – indeed, I had changed my mind half a dozen times!

It’s…

A reminder that I have announced a series of weekend workshops to be held specifically for writing groups in 2022 at my home in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

The courses will be based on sense of place and be delivered at my 19^th Century hillside home between Castle Douglas and Kirkcudbright.

The workshop for groups of no…

My house, like all authors’ homes, I suspect, is full of scraps of paper that contain scribbled notes which I will add to whichever novel I am working on, the next time I fire up the laptop.

However, it’s usually not the big things that I scrawl notes about. No, it’s much more likely to be small details that add colour to the book.

The…