Writing is a highly technical business. Sense of place, characterisation, plot, grammar, pace, back story, spelling, these and many more considerations crowd in on an author’s mind with every word that they write.

And rightly so – the manuscript has to be the very best it can be. The writer seeking to be published needs to give themselves the…

Novelist John Dean has announced the 2021 dates for weekend writing workshops at his home between Castle Douglas and Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, subject to ongoing Covid restrictions.

John, author of 20 crime novels and currently published by London-based The Book Folks, is the creator of the popular DCI John Blizzard and…

The Crime Writers' Association has announced the longlists for this year's eagerly-awaited Dagger awards. Congratulations to all those selected.

You can find out more at

The CWA Dagger Awards 2021 - Longlists Announcement -…

The latest novel in the crime fiction series featuring Detective Chief Inspector John Blizzard is No Age To Die.…

Interested in crime fiction? Then check out the brilliant Martin Edwards talking about his craft in the latest instalment of the free Tall Tales Mysteries Mug Shots series of films, which I have helped to plan with Sara from Tall Tales Mysteries, at…

Plotting is one of the biggest challenges for a crime writer - any writer, in fact - and it can be a tortuous process, not least because it is subject to the Butterfly Effect.

The Butterfly Effect, which is part of Chaos Theory, states that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the world can cause a hurricane elsewhere.

But…

I have recently been advising several aspiring crime writers on how to improve their work and much of the discussion has centred on dialogue.

Dialogue is crucial to the success of a novel. Good dialogue lifts a story, bad dialogue wrecks it. However, it’s vital to remember that writing dialogue isn’t about replicating a real-life…